Barbara Lakeberg holds Lucy’s passport, which allowed the dog to enter the United States.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

SCITUATE, R.I. — A Rhode Island woman who rescued an injured puppy she found on a street in Iraq is trying to find a permanent home for the dog in the United States.

Barbara Lakeberg saw the puppy in the middle of the road 2½ years ago while driving from Sheikhan to her office in Erbil, Iraq, where she worked as the general director of a non-governmental Iraqi-Kurdish organization that promotes human-rights education and protection.

The puppy was dragging its hind legs. When she stopped to look at the pup she found its legs so damaged that it needed veterinary care. Finding one was no small task in a country where the majority of the people are Muslim and dogs are considered unclean by many, so they aren’t often kept as pets. After a long search, she found a veterinarian who fixed the dog’s broken leg and treated her for other illnesses.

Lakeberg named the dog Lucy and kept it. She and a family cared for Lucy at the family’s home, but neighbors taunted the dog and its barking irritated people, she said. She could not find a home where Lucy could be at peace.

Now, more than two years later, Lakeberg must find Lucy, who might be pregnant, a new home. Lakeberg returned with Lucy to the United States on Sunday. They were staying with her sister in Scituate, but Lakeberg must return to Iraq Thursday to close her office, and she can’t take the dog with her because she doesn’t know when she will return to the United States. She is marrying an Iraqi man who is now a refugee in another country.

She asked that anyone who is interested in giving the dog a home to e-mail her at blakeberg@gmail.com .

(An earlier version of this story reported that Lakeburg would leave the Lucy temporarily with two sisters who run a pet adoption program in Scituate. She has changed her mind and won't do that.)

tpina@projo.com