Jade Rangel, left, and her daughter, Iliana, with Cyrus, the 9-year-old, extremely affectionate Rottweiler they’ve been caring for over the past few weeks. The Rangels rescued Cyrus from a bad situation but promise to give him back to his owners when they return from deployment and the States. (Nancy Montgomery / S&S)

Cyrus just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong?

But the Rottweiler, whose head is the size of a watermelon, had fallen on hard, loveless times.

One owner deployed to Afghanistan; the other flew home to the U.S. Cyrus was sent to a kennel where fleas and ticks tormented him, and then to the house of a friend where Cyrus clashed with the resident canine.

Then Jade Rangel got a phone call. Would she take in Cyrus?

Rangel said yes.

And for the past few weeks, the 9-year-old dog has been living with Rangel and her toddler daughter, Iliana, in their quarters in Patrick Henry Village.

He sleeps on a mattress in the hall, has all three Iams gravy offerings, and, when a visitor calls, throws himself at her feet, demanding to be petted incessantly. “My daughter’s claiming him as hers now,” Jade Rangel said. “She’s fallen in love with the dog … He just loves attention.”

Rangel is one of a small group of helpful people throughout U.S. Army Europe who have volunteered to temporarily house animals whose American owners are deployed, or on TDY.

Called “Pet Haven,” the referral service began some 18 months ago. People hope it will provide at least some help with what’s been a continual problem.

“With the deployments and the (drawdown) we were getting so many questions: ‘What should I do with my cat or dog?’” said Linda Alvarado at Army Community Services in Kaiserslautern.

“The next thing we knew, they were advertising to sell or give their dog away because we really didn’t have any alternatives. I saw it as a need in the community.”

Alvarado came up with the idea, and she, along with some vet clinics, holds the list of names and phone numbers of the pet-sitting volunteers.

She stresses that the responsibility for a pet’s welfare is with its owner — the volunteers aren’t vetted to weed out possible Cruella de Villes.

“We don’t want to assume any responsibility for the pets,” Alvarado said. “This is just a referral service.”

Alvarado doesn’t know how many people have used the service, or how it’s worked out for pet owners or volunteers.

But some volunteers, despite their best intentions, have never been able to provide the service they signed up to perform — possibly because few people know about it.

Kimberly Mullenex, an AAFES optician, has frequently pet-sat for people she knows. But when she got a call through Pet Haven, it did not work out. “I think her dog was bred with Cujo,” Mullenex said. “I couldn’t take the risk.”

“I’ve never pet-sat, and I’ve only been contacted once,” said Kristen James, who lives near Otterberg. The one call she did get ended soon after the caller learned that James had her own dog “and the person said, ‘Oh, my dog hates other dogs,’” James said.

She hopes for another opportunity. “The thought of someone having to give up their pet because the military sends them off would be devastating,” she said. “I also see people abandon their pets, and it’s heartbreaking.”

In fact, Americans tend to have a bad reputation regarding animal abandonment. “They do,” said Ann Oelenheinz at the Heidelberg Tierheim. “In former times, there have been many abandoned animals.”

German pet shelters do not euthanize animals brought there, unlike pet shelters in the U.S., and some commanders have urged soldiers who can’t or won’t keep their animals to take them to the shelters.

But that isn’t always the best answer, either. The manager of the Kitzingen Tierheim said in July that Americans’ dogs were becoming a problem and the shelter was full.

Pet Haven has worked out beautifully for some, including Kylene Pizarro, at Landstuhl. She took in a airman’s golden lab for six months when he went to Iraq and his wife went to the U.S. “Then when they went to the States for three weeks, I took her again.”

Pizarro said she joined the list of pet-sitters because she thought it would be a good way for her four children to be around animals without having to commit to owning one.

“Plus when we started it, my husband was deployed. So it gave me some companionship. She kept the house calm, surprisingly.”

But when the dog’s owners came back and took the dog away, it was tough. “We cried so hard,” Pizarro said.

For more information, call Pet Haven at DSN 489-8357 or 0631-536-8357.