Craig Grossi and his canine Fred, at home in Midcoast Maine in 2021. Fred died Nov. 22 after a battle with most cancers, on the age of 14. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Craig Grossi is just not positive what his life will likely be like with out his canine, Fred, however he is aware of he can by no means cease speaking about him.
“I owe that to everyone who has come to rely on Fred as a beacon of hope and possibility,” Grossi, 40, stated from his Midcoast home close to Damariscotta on Wednesday. “I’ll continue to speak at events and schools or wherever people want to hear a real-life story about a dog that taught a Marine to live again.”
Fred died of most cancers at his and Grossi’s home on Nov. 22. He was 14. During his life, he survived war-torn Afghanistan then helped Grossi take care of post-traumatic stress dysfunction, a battlefield head damage and alcohol abuse. Grossi credit Fred with “saving” him by getting him to confide in others and ask for assist.
Fred additionally was the topic of two books by Grossi, “Craig & Fred,” revealed in 2017, and “Second Chances” in 2021. The books acquired nationwide consideration and made the pair in-demand audio system at colleges, libraries, prisons and lots of different locations. Fred turned a social media star, with 94,000 followers on his Instagram account, fredtheafghan.
Craig Grossi reveals off his Fred shirt whereas at his home in Midcoast Maine on Wednesday. Fred died of most cancers Nov. 22. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Since Fred’s dying, Grossi has been heartened by the outpouring of assist and sympathy from individuals everywhere in the nation, on Instagram and Facebook, who wrote about how Fred had impressed or helped them in a roundabout way.
“You made the world a brighter place with the thousands of paw prints you left on so many of our hearts,” one commenter wrote on the Fred The Afghan Facebook page. “In this sometimes dark world, you were a shining star for those of us who were able to read about your amazing journey. Thanks to the incredible human that saved you.”
Grossi was planning to write down a 3rd ebook tentatively titled “Expedition Fred,” a few journey they took to Alaska in September and October. That third ebook will now be extra about Fred’s life, with the Alaska journey part of it, and doubtless may have a unique title.
Grossi stated he seemingly will plan some type of occasion in Fred’s reminiscence within the spring. Not solely did hundreds of individuals know Fred from social media posts, however many additionally acquired to fulfill him in person, since he and Grossi have been consistently being invited to talk everywhere in the nation.
“He was such a lovely creature, watching the kids with him was always so beautiful,” stated Jacqui Davison, a farmer from Hillsboro, Wisconsin, who organized a townwide studying of “Craig & Fred” after which invited the pair to talk at a neighborhood college. “The kids thought Craig was cool, but Fred was like a movie star. He’d find a kid to sit next to and that kid would be floating on air the rest of the day.”
While Grossi is aware of now that Fred’s story can encourage and assist individuals, he didn’t wish to inform it, at first.
Fred, whom ex-Marine Craig Grossi credit with serving to him discover pleasure in life once more, at his Maine home in 2021. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Grossi stumbled upon Fred in an Afghanistan fight zone in 2010, simply after Grossi and his fellow Marines had held off a a lot bigger Taliban drive for every week. Grossi sensed one thing particular within the canine, a “stubborn positivity” within the face of fixed gunfire and bloodshed.
While different wild dogs within the space snarled and growled on the troopers, Fred wagged his tail and accepted treats of beef jerky and fortunately approached the Marines. When one other soldier took a bullet to the helmet, sustaining a traumatic mind damage, Fred got here to his bedside each hour or so for a snuggle.
When it was time to depart Afghanistan, Grossi couldn’t bear to depart Fred, so he smuggled him aboard a navy flight and took him in. He moved to Washington, D.C., the place he’s from initially, and labored for the federal Defense Intelligence Agency.
Grossi struggled with the transition and spent an excessive amount of time in bars. He didn’t speak to anybody about what he was going via or search assist. But he’d take Fred to canine parks the place different canine homeowners would at all times ask concerning the perky, pleasant canine. His seems to be are distinctive – a face type of like a Lab, quick legs like a Corgi – so that they’d at all times ask: “What breed is he?”
Grossi didn’t wish to relive his experiences in Afghanistan, the place he noticed pals die. So he’d make up a breed, like “Pocket Wolf,” to keep away from telling Fred’s actual story and relive the trauma of fight. (Grossi had Fred’s DNA examined years later and discovered he’s a West Asian Village Dog.)
People continued to ask about Fred. One day on the canine park, Grossi lastly determined to speak about how Fred got here into his life and what he had meant.
Craig Grossi at his Midcoast home Wednesday. He says he’ll seemingly plan a memorial for Fred within the spring. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
“Something in me just said, ‘Tell the story.’ So I told the story, and people I met encouraged me to tell it to others,” stated Grossi. “We’d be at the park, Fred chasing squirrels, and people would be waiting for me to tell Fred’s story. The more I told it, the more connected I felt, the more confident I began to feel. ”
It was whereas telling the story of Fred at a dinner in Boston that he met his spouse, Nora Parkington.
One of the numerous locations the place Fred and Grossi shared their story over the years was on the Maine State Prison in Warren, the place they made common visits with inmates, together with veterans, who educated service dogs. Grossi additionally led a writing group on the jail, with Fred by his facet. Both inmates and guards have been impressed by their story, stated Randall Liberty, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, who helped organize Grossi and Fred’s jail visits.
“I think the powerful relationship between Fred and Craig and their backstory – Craig saving Fred and then Fred saving Craig – is something that speaks to a lot of people,” stated Liberty. “It shows how people can heal together by talking about the past.”
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