She Made Deployment Less Lonely. He Made Sure She Came Home.

When Jeremy Ferris returned from missions at Tower 22 in Jordan, there was often someone waiting for him.

Sadie was young, stray and living around the U.S. military outpost where Ferris, a Connecticut Army National Guard specialist, was deployed. She had no reason to know when he would come back, but Ferris told WTNH that she began showing up to greet him anyway. He shared food and water with her, and the two spent time sitting together near the barracks.

Only days earlier, they had been complete strangers. Ferris had encountered Sadie almost by accident after arriving at the outpost, literally stumbling over her in the dark. By the following morning, he was seeing her again. Soon, seeing her stopped feeling unusual.

What mattered was not really how they met. It was that she kept coming back.

Deployment had taken Ferris thousands of miles from home and into an environment he described as stressful and isolating. Sadie could not change any of that, but the routine they developed offered something much simpler.

Ferris would leave. Eventually, he would return. And there she was.

He told The News-Times that sitting with Sadie could give him “five seconds of relief.” It is a small amount of time, but perhaps that is exactly why the detail lands. Their relationship grew out of repetition: shared food, brief greetings and the comfort of finding the same familiar dog at the end of another day.

A few days after meeting Sadie, Ferris sent a photograph of her to his wife, Heather, back home in Connecticut. Before long, the conversation had moved beyond the dog he was feeding overseas. The Ferrises started wondering whether Sadie could become their dog.

Bringing her home, however, was going to be far more complicated than deciding they wanted to.

Transporting a stray dog from Jordan to the United States meant veterinary requirements, paperwork, international travel and help from people who knew how to navigate the process.

The Ferrises connected with Paws of War, a U.S. nonprofit whose work includes helping service members bring home animals they have befriended while deployed, and with Tabanni, an animal rescue organization based in Jordan. Ferris told The News-Times that Paws of War helped cover costs and coordinate veterinary care, travel arrangements and other logistics involved in preparing Sadie for the journey.

By February, Ferris had handed Sadie over so that work could move forward. The dog who had become part of the rhythm of his deployment was suddenly no longer outside the barracks.

From then on, he followed her progress from a distance. Photographs and videos replaced the daily encounters they had grown used to, while the long process of getting Sadie ready for the United States continued.

The formal transport process took roughly four months, according to Ferris. Their separation lasted longer.

Ferris returned to Connecticut on August 19. Sadie was still making her way home.

When she finally arrived in Newtown on September 3, it had been about seven months since Ferris had handed her over in Jordan and last seen her in person.

This time, Ferris was the one waiting.

Sadie had traveled from Jordan into an entirely unfamiliar environment, and Ferris said she seemed overwhelmed when she first arrived at the family's Newtown home. But during those first moments together, she approached him and greeted him with a kiss.

For months at Tower 22, Sadie had been the familiar face he could look for when he came back. Bringing her to Connecticut gave Ferris the opportunity to reverse that relationship. As he put it, it was his chance to “return the favor.”

Home also came with another introduction. The Ferrises already had Sonny, a husky–cattle dog mix, and Sadie began the gradual work of figuring out both a new canine housemate and an entirely new kind of life.

Tower 22 was surrounded by rock and dirt. Back in Connecticut, Ferris had a backyard with grass.

While he was still deployed, he had imagined Sadie there. It was not the international flight or even the reunion itself that occupied that particular picture in his head. He wanted to see the stray dog from the outpost outside at home, walking and lying on grass.

Within hours of arriving in Newtown, she was doing exactly that.

After everything required to get Sadie there — months apart, veterinary preparations, international transport and help across two countries — the scene at the end was almost comically ordinary. She now had a backyard, another dog in the house, regular meals and people expecting to see her again the next morning.

By the end of her first day in Connecticut, Sadie was stretched out on the grass Ferris had spent months imagining for her.

After everything it took to get her there, home looked wonderfully uneventful.