Wearing a maroon beret and sunglasses, Sapper likes to hang his head out the window of his best friend’s ride as it cruises around Fort Liberty and Fayetteville.
At times, Sapper’s been stopped by military police, but he’s also shaken hands with Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, and often has his photo shared on military social media accounts.
Sapper is a 6-year-old Alaskan husky and service dog who belongs to Fayetteville veteran Mike D’Arcy.
D’Arcy has owned Sapper for about six years and is hesitant to describe his ever-present sidekick as just a dog.
“He’s never been treated like a dog,” D’Arcy said. “He’s always been like a person. He’s got his own canopy bed, his own seatbelts, chairs. We go to a restaurant, and he’s got his own area. He don’t know nothing about being a dog.”
Huskies
D’Arcy served with the 37th Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division in the mid-90s at then-Fort Bragg. An airborne operation left him with leg and head injuries that caused him to medically retire after a few years of service.
Afterward, he owned a military surplus boot shop and shoe repair store outside the Yadkin gate for a few years.
Growing up with a family in public service — his father was in law enforcement, his mother was a nurse and two brothers served in the military — D’Arcy said, German shepherd police dogs were always around.
He said that shortly after he was assigned to Fort Bragg, he met Fairmont resident Betty Barney, whose husband had been in the military.
Barney, D’Arcy said, raises Huskies for her close friends and family members, and he purchased Ranger, a Siberian husky, from Barney more than 12 years ago.
Not long after getting Ranger, D’Arcy brought home another husky, Nikita.
Ranger and Nikita were inseparable and had two litters of puppies, one of which D’Arcy also kept and named Chinook.
“So that’s kind of how I started with the huskies,” he said. “(Barney) had puppies running around everywhere, and when you see them that little, they’re like stuffed animals.”
After living for more than 12 years, D’Arcy said, Ranger died from cancer.
Nikita and Chinook have also died since then.
D’Arcy was crushed.
"This is my family. It’s just me and my dogs,” he said.
D’Arcy said Barney reached out, but he told her he was not ready for another dog.
“She said, 'I know, but in a few months I’ve got babies coming. Why don’t you just come hang out with the puppies and play with them?'” he said.
Sapper
About five months after Ranger’s death, D’Arcy said he and a friend went to visit Barney.
He said the first few moments were heartbreaking because he saw puppies who looked like Ranger.
“All of them started pulling at shoestrings and jumping on you and all that,” D’Arcy said. “Then all of a sudden they all just went away and one laid down and stayed on my foot and fell asleep.”
The puppy, D’Arcy said, started to suckle his neck.
“He picked me out, and it’s the same exact thing as what Ranger did,” D’Arcy said. “So (Barney) started crying. My friend was crying, and I was just about to lose it because you can’t make it up. It was meant to be.”
D’Arcy said that while Barney offered to give him the puppy at no charge, it took him about an hour to say OK.
“She gifted him, and he ended up being the best thing for me,” he said.
Like Ranger and Chinook, Sapper also earned a name that is a nod to the military.
As a puppy, D’Arcy said, Sapper injured himself running into a trailer hitch on his truck and the front bumper while “zooming” around.
“Then he gets up and shakes and goes again,” D’Arcy said. “So, he’s crazy and the name Sapper fits him perfect. A sapper is a demo person, and they’ve got to be crazy to mess with demolition.”
While Sapper sometimes has the hyper, playful energy typical of huskies, D’Arcy said he is calm, never barks, rarely howls and is gentle with children, the elderly and those in strollers or wheelchairs.
“He knows and senses if something is wrong; he’ll come up and try to put his foot on your arm or lick you or kiss you,” D’Arcy said.
D’Arcy said he was at Lowe’s about two years ago with Sapper watching “his 6," or back, a few feet away, as he's been trained to do.
When D'Arcy looked up, he said, he noticed a woman in her 80s crying.
“She was looking at Sapper and said, ‘I’m having a bad time in my life right now. I have Stage 4 breast cancer and I’m probably not going to make it, and your dog just made my whole month,'" D"Arcy said.
"There’s just something about him. I don’t know if it’s the hat, the glasses, the personality, the way he looks.”
Glasses and beret
D’Arcy said that Sapper has clear blue eyes similar to marble that are sensitive, and a few years ago he put his sunglasses on Sapper, who walked around with them on for about 30 minutes.
A month later, he put a baseball cap on him to see if Sapper would also tolerate wearing it.
“Because I’m a veteran, and he goes to post to do all this stuff, I was like, he needs a beret,” D’Arcy said. “Nobody’s dog has a beret. So I took one of my old ones from the '90s and made the holes and cut it up and put it on him to wear.”
D’Arcy is often asked if Sapper likes wearing the glasses and beret, and he’ll tell them that if he doesn’t want them on, Sapper will use his paw to push them off.
The look, D’Arcy said, often draws attention, especially if Sapper is spotted riding shotgun in D'Arcy's Jeep with his paws on a side perch, while he leans and peers out from the sunglasses.
The Jeep is outfitted with a QR code that people can scan to follow Sapper on Instagram.
Service dog
D’Arcy said sometimes he’ll rush into stores where he knows employees like to keep an eye on Sapper at the front door, and Sapper has his own fan and water to keep cool.
Wherever D’Arcy goes, Sapper goes.
Sapper volunteers as “Husky Claus” to pose for photos at Christmas for D'Arcy's friend Renee McMillian’s pet nonprofit outreach and rescue, Kind2Kritters.
He rides with D’Arcy in Fayetteville and Hope Mills parades and enjoys going to the park, police department, fire department, hospitals, Fort Liberty, Paradise Acres RV Park and Restaurant and Mission Barbecue. The pair often attend on-post ceremonies and other events.
D’Arcy said, there are times when Sapper accompanies him wearing his service vest.
Sapper is trained as a service dog, and has his own ID card when he goes on post, D’Arcy said.
He said that while Sapper loves people, if he is wearing his vest, he is working.
“It’s like a switch in his brain clicks, because when he doesn’t have that vest on, he just relaxes and runs around and gets him zooms,” D’Arcy said.
He said that regardless of whether Sapper is wearing the vest, people should ask for permission to pet him so that he can advise that their hand needs to face palm up and open so that the approach doesn't come across as aggressive.
Sapper also knows how to shake hands, and will use his right or left paw depending on which hand the person offers him, D'Arcy said.
"Part of his job and demeanor is being so good to people,” D'Arcy said.
D’Arcy said that about eight months ago, his “Army mom,” who unofficially adopted him when he was in the Army and became like family, died.
“She said she did not like animals — Mrs. Carmen — but he really liked her, and I have got more pictures of this dog and her, kissing at her, looking at her, smiling at her, sitting next to her,” D’Arcy said.
D’Arcy said that Sapper seems to know that she is no longer around because when they visit her gravesite, he sniffs at the spot and puts his head down.
“His spirit, there’s just something in this dog that makes him be what he is,” D’Arcy said.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
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