The tiny pup who changed my life
When ex-bomb disposal expert SEAN LAIDLAW came across a dog in Syria, he had no idea that rescuing her would save him too
AS SEAN Laidlaw picked his way through the rubble in a warstruck town in Syria, the eerie silence was broken by a highpitched whimper. Thinking it was a child buried by a bomb blast, he and his colleagues rushed to help.
But as they lifted a huge concrete plinth up, a furry face peeped out among the devastation – that of a newborn puppy.
“In a place of such destruction, to see something so cute…I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says Sean, 31, a former bomb disposal expert who now works as a fitness coach.
Although they didn’t know it yet, he and the puppy would become the best of friends.
Sean joined the Army at the age of 18, after struggling with low self-esteem. “I was a chubby kid from a council estate in Dagenham with no plans for the future,” he says.
After leaving sixth form he visited the Army recruiting office and was advised to apply for a role as a communications specialist.
“I went into basic training and it was the first time in my life I’d ever been good at anything,” says Sean, who lives in Hornchurch, Essex.
“I came top of my class in basic training and again in engineering.”
Soon, Sean’s aptitude was noticed by his senior officers, and he was recruited to the bomb disposal team.
He specialised in finding explosives for his comrades to diffuse.
After 18 months of training, he was deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan, as part of a seven-man disposal team.
“For our first job, we were flown out to a place and told: ‘There are bombs on this road, we just don’t know where.’
“We were very aware that every step we took could be our last.”
DESPITE the immense danger, Sean enjoyed his job, and was eventually deployed to work with the Special Forces.
But the things he witnessed began to take their toll.
“I’d seen friends get killed. Seeing dead children and decapitated bodies was common.”
In 2014 Sean left the Army after an 11-month tour of Afghanistan.
Back home he set up a fitness business but found civilian life challenging.
“I was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although I didn’t realise it.
“I couldn’t go out in large groups of people. I’d stay in my bedroom and turn my phone off.
“I became very angry.” Fitness became an unhealthy obsession. “I spent every waking moment training,” he says. “I was into taking steroids and other
drugs, but that made my mental health 10 times worse.”
Finally, a friend convinced him to open up.
“As soon as I started talking about what had happened, the floodgates opened.
“I ended up seeing a therapist and managed to talk about things I’d not spoken to anyone about before.”
In November 2017, Sean applied to work in Syria as a bomb disposal expert on a humanitarian contract.
“I ran off to Syria, which sounds weird but the last time I remember being good at something was when I was in the military.”
Sean worked with a team to find and diffuse Isis bombs.
It was there, while working one day, that they heard a puppy cry.
“When we cleared the rubble, we saw a little furry face.
“Her mum and the other puppies had been crushed when the building fell.”
Scared, the puppy bolted. The team looked but couldn’t find her anywhere. So the following day, they came back with bacon smuggled from breakfast.
They spotted the puppy again, in a nest by some railings.
Worried it would bite, Sean put on gloves and lowered the bacon using a pair of tongs.
The dog gobbled it up hungrily. Sean fell in love.
“We had been going into buildings and finding dead bodies. It wears you down,” says Sean.
“So it was amazing to see a little innocent face in a place of such terror.”
Sean scooped up the pup and brought it back to camp.
“We called it Barry – the first name that popped into my head,” he laughs.
“Initially we thought Barry was a boy, but when we got her back to camp and showered her, we realised there was something missing, so we changed her name to Barrie.”
Everyone was delighted to play with Barrie.
“Everyone was in the office fussing over her.
“Even the chefs made special food for her,” he says.
“The quartermaster wasn’t happy because dogs are not allowed in the camp, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.”
TWO months later Sean returned to the UK for a two-week break, leaving Barrie with his colleagues.
There he received the news that he would not be going back.
“The situation destabilised and because I was on a humanitarian contract, they weren’t prepared to send me back there when it was so dangerous.”
Sean was devastated and wondered what would become of Barrie. So he contacted War Paws – a UK charity dedicated to helping suffering animals in Iraq.
Together they hatched a plan to smuggle Barrie across the border to Iraq, before transporting her to Jordan.After living in kennels in Jordan for four months, she was taken to France, where Sean picked her up and took her home to live with him in Essex.
“She was so frightened she didn’t even notice me at first.
“It wasn’t until she realised it was me that she rolled onto her belly.”With Barrie home,
the hard work was far from over.
“She was an animal, not a pet, so we’ve had to train her,” he says.
But looking after Barrie helped Sean recover from PTSD.
“When I have a bad day, I can’t just sit in my room because Barrie needs to be walked.
“She gets me out of the house and out of my head,” he says.
Thanks to Barrie, Sean started spending time with his friend Anetta, 30, an accountant, whose family had dogs and who helped him train Barrie.
The pair fell in love and, in June this year, they got engaged. Now Sean couldn’t be happier. “It’s all thanks to Barrie,” he says. “Barrie can be so naughty but we love her.
“She jumps on the bed and stares at me nose to nose until I get up.” But Sean doesn’t mind a bit.
“I saved Barrie from Syria, but she’s saved me too,” he says.