SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - A soldier from Seaford is on a special mission overseas, one aside from his military assignment. Staff Sergeant Daniel Brissey is raising money to bring home a three-month-old orange kitten named Sully. It will cost $3,000 to bring her to the United States.
Sergeant Brissey made an unexpected friend in Sully on his fourth deployment to Afghanistan. WRDE video chatted with him in Kabul through WhatsApp to talk about the day he found Sully in a little nook on base.
"She was sitting there sunning herself," Brissey recalls. "I picked her up, held her for a while and petted her."
The soldier and Sully became instant best friends. Brissey says he would visit her on his lunch breaks and that she's made the deployment go by easier. He says he's been in Afghanistan since March.
Brissey and Sully can continue their friendship in the United States with the help of Nowzad, a group that helps soldiers rescue animals they meet overseas.
"She got her vaccinations and preventative medicines," says Brissey. "She'll get spayed there as well and they'll fly her back to the U.S."
This desire to bring a furry friend home isn't as uncommon as one might think. From Federalsburg Maryland Debbie Grant has been rescuing cats from Kuwait for 7 years through her nonprofit Kitty Love Kuwait."
Grant rescued 19 cats in November. She says there aren't as many airlines serving Afghanistan, which is why the cats she rescues have cheaper trips home than Sully will. She says it costs about $400 plus the vetting. "I know the export ticket only costs $25, the vetting maybe $100," she says.
Just over a year ago Grant helped a Battalion in Kuwait rescue Private Freckles through organization BFG.
"They're not allowed to have animals on base," says Grant. "She was a big secret."
Grant says BFG took care of the vetting and flew Private Freckles to the U.S. "I flew her to Houston to one of the soldiers parents," she says.
Brissey and Sully are awaiting that same reunion. "I'm allergic to cats, but she was so darn cute," he says. "I couldn't help myself."
Brissey says he reached his fundraising goal almost overnight thanks to social media and the news. He expects to come home mid-January and says Sully will already be waiting with his family in Seaford.
