Jeremy Gordon doesn’t own an average dog.

Alice, his 2-year-old Kuchi dog, a desert breed from Afghanistan, is an aggressive guard dog and cuddly member of his family all in one.

“At my household I don’t have to worry about protection,” Gordon said. “But she’s sweet with the family and that’s what I love about her.”

Gordon, a veteran and member of the Gazette’s audience team, helped rescued Alice and four other dogs from Afghanistan.

Nearly 2 years ago, American soldiers came across children in the the city of Jalalabad preparing to stone a litter of puppies because the dogs are considered a nuisance in the region, Gordon said. But the soldiers got the children to trade the dogs for chocolates and Rip It energy drinks.

For three months, the soldiers hid the dogs in a bunker below an ammunition system.

“The soldiers would take them out to play,” Gordon said. “They would even play fetch with sticks.”

But a war zone is no place for a dog.

The soldiers coordinated with Gordon, who lived in the U.S., and an organization called Nowzad, which rescues animals from Afghanistan, to bring the dogs home. Together they raised enough money to fly the dogs overseas.

But the journey wasn’t easy.

“When we saw the shape they were in it was heartbreaking,” Gordon said.

The dogs were skinny and mangey after a connecting flight was delayed by two days.

Gordon inherited Alice from one of the soldiers. After many visits to the veterinarian, she was nursed back to health.

“To see her finally be able to get up and zoom around — it was amazing,” Gordon said.