One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan »

PEN FARTHING, born in England, is a retired Royal Marine and a twenty-year veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his wife, Lisa, share their home in Scotland with four dogs. They also manage the Nowzad Dogs charity, which was set up to help relieve the suffering of animals in war-torn Afghanistan.

The remarkable true story of one man’s fight to save the stray dogs of Afghanistan in the spirit of From Baghdad, With Love

In the remote outpost of Now Zad, Afghanistan, Pen Farthing and his troop of young Royal Marines survive frequent engagements with the Taliban and forge links with the local community. Appalled by the horrors of local dog fighting, Pen has no choice but to intervene. Then one of the dogs he frees finds his way into the Marine compound—and into Pen’s heart. Soon other strays are drawn into the sanctuary provided by the makeshift pound, including one young mother who crawls under the compound fence carrying her newborn pups to safety. As his tour of duty draws to an end, Pen cannot leave the dogs of Now Zad to their fates. He begins hatching plans to help them escape to a better life.

One Dog at a Time is the gripping account of one man’s courage and humanity, and his fight to make a difference in the most hostile and dangerous environments, one dog at a time.

Publishers Weekly

Farthing, a British Royal Marine, describes his struggles to save stray dogs languishing and dying in the streets of wartorn Afghanistan. Already burdened with the responsibility of overseeing and protecting his 20-man crew of Marines, Farthing becomes consumed with the suffering of the strays and risks his own life to rescue them--he fights with police and risks walking into a Taliban trap to save a dog with a wire noose around its neck, knowing that without his intervention, the dog will starve to death or strangle itself. Soon he finds himself developing plans to save strays from dogfighting, a centuries-old local tradition that usually requires the removal of ears and tails without anesthetic, and adopts a former fighting dog he names Nowzad. Today, Nowzad happily resides in the Farthing household as his owners continue their quest to save thousands of suffering strays. Farthing's remarkable story will inspire, shock, and move readers, introducing them, perhaps for the first time, to war's most voiceless and unintentional victims. (Aug.)