PHOENIX — Know a service member worried about their pet during deployment? The Arizona Humane Society’s Project Active Duty can help.

Created after 9/11 to support military personnel, this program provides free foster care for pets while their owners serve — no matter how long the deployment lasts.

One of the many servicemembers who got peace of mind through the program was U.S. Army Sergeant Joanabel Montes, who was recently reunited with her 3-year-old Alaskan Husky, Sabo, after more than two years apart. She left him with the program in July 2023.

“I was sad,” Montes recalled. “I was worried, ‘He’s not going to remember me being gone for so long.’ … To see my baby just shy and scared … He was hiding under the chair.”

Through Project Active Duty, Sabo was placed in three different fo

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