‘I fell in love with him’

(CNN) – Just in time for the holidays, a U.S. Army specialist has been united with his four-legged best friend.

Paws of War is an organization that works to bring together members of the military with animals they helped rescue while deployed overseas.

The process is complex and often involves months of paperwork and planning to secure safe transportation for the animals.

With the life of the animal often at risk, Paws of War said it is worth the effort to reunite them with the veterans regardless.

Specialist Landon Gnade with the U.S. Army said he last saw the dog he rescued, named Lepo, in October while he was deployed. He said he is very excited to see Lepo again.

“I thought I was gonna have to say goodbye to him in Kosovo,” he said.

Gary Baumann, who works with Paws of War, said Gnade had reached out to the organization to see what they could do to reunite him with Lepo.

Gnade said he first met Lepo while at a Kosovo camp he was stationed in. People from a nearby village would bring sick dogs to the camp for help. Gnade said Lepo came in with a litter of puppies one day, looking like “tiny furballs.”

“It is the most adorable puppy I’ve ever seen in my life. And my XO, she was asking for volunteers to come help with the dogs, and I came up there and that’s when the connection started,” Gnade said.

Gnade said Lepo stood out from the rest of the litter because he would often be minding his own business while his siblings would be jumping around and clawing for attention.

“He just likes to relax. He’s just a chill dude,” Gnade said.

Gnade said it appeared like no one noticed Lepo because of this and he decided to go over the puppy and start petting and loving on him.

“You just eventually just build a little bit of connection,” he said. “And then with time … I fell in love with him. He remembers some of the things that I taught him like with the lying and the sitting.”

Gnade said being stationed without friends and family around leaves you with few people to build very strong bonds with. But despite connecting with the people around him, there was nothing at all like building that bond with a dog.

Gnade said he believed he would be leaving Lepo behind for other service members until he was told that bringing him home would be possible.

“He’s been all over the world. He’s been to New York. He’s been obviously to the Balkans, you know. Now he’s here,” Gnade said. “He has a bunch of farm land. We got some horses, we’ve got some goats and he has like three siblings he’s going to get to meet and he gets to spend those days at home.”

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