The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

88 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Dave Dunford spent 29 years in the Foreign Service with assignments in Quito, Helsinki, Cairo, Riyadh, and Muscat (as ambassador). He is the author of From Sadat to Saddam: The Decline of American Diplomacy in the Middle East (2019). He and his wife, Sandy, and their yellow Lab, Buster, split their time between Tucson, Arizona, and Durango, Colorado. I ’ve found being part of a Foreign Service family makes us at times strangers in a strange land. Dogs, for many of us, are integral members of the family. I believe that overcoming the challenges of shipping them to and from exotic places and finding reliable veterinarians were things I signed up for when I joined. I hope that governments and airlines will allow pets to continue to enrich the lives of those who choose a Foreign Service career. Here are a few who enriched mine. Pichi We got our golden retriever puppy, Pichi, from a breeder in Virginia where we were living during my time in the A-100 course and Spanish language training. We knew when we got him that we were assigned to Quito. He was named after the mountain overlooking the capital city. We left for Ecuador on December 31, 1966, and arrived 10 days later. Thanks to the shipping lobby’s clout, my wife, Sandy, and I sailed on Grace Line’s Santa Magdalena . Pichi traveled in a small com- partment on the top deck. After nearly two years hiking in the Andes, Pichi flew back with us toWashington where I was trans- ferred for Finnish language training at the Foreign Service Institute. Soon, he would be a trilingual dog, responding to com- mands in English, Spanish—and Finnish. Dogging It in the Foreign Service BY DAVE DUNFORD For my next assignment, in Finland, Pichi arrived in Helsinki by air but only after running amok at JFK for several hours and missing his scheduled flight. The Finnish vet at the airport kindly waived the quarantine requirement and paroled him to our custody. Pichi adapted to apartment living in the Helsinki suburb of Tapiola and the arrival of two rugrats named Greg and Tina. Sadly, his heart stopped on a Finnish veterinarian’s table during a routine procedure. Doc and Jack Back in the U.S., another golden retriever puppy came into our lives. As our time in Washington, D.C., extended to nine years, Doc was getting comfortable in his golden years when two cataclys- mic events occurred: A yellow Labrador retriever pup named Jack arrived, and we all moved to Cairo. Doc was good natured, lovable, and reasonably well behaved. Jack was far more intense, passionate about food and frisbees. Neighborhood kids would gather to watch him inhale his dinner. One day he got into a major cache of freeze-dried food bought for a backpacking trip. He then drank water and swelled up like the rat Templeton from Charlotte’s Web . Jack advanced to the Virginia state finals in a dog frisbee event, and all agreed that he was national championship material if only his thrower (me) had been more competent. The move to Egypt marked the end of Jack’s promising frisbee career. The dogs were on our flight to Cairo, in the cargo hold. When Doc and Jack led us out of airport security, the packed crowd parted as I imagined the Red Sea did for Moses. The dogs lived comfortably in Ma’adi, a southern suburb of Cairo, thanks to a generous yard, a household staff, and a gardener. Finding a vet in Cairo was always a challenge. After three years in Egypt, I flew back to JFK with Doc and Jack in the hold. Sandy and the kids, who preceded me, met me as I retrieved my luggage and waited for the dogs. Eventually cages came up on an elevator. A customs official yelled, “Don’t come near us. Take the dogs and go.” Doc, now 12, had not COURTESYOFDAVEDUNFORD Pichi on Pichincha above Quito. REFLECTIONS