Animals

Today is my 121st straight day of work without a day off. I work 12 hour days every day except for Sunday and then it is just 8 hours. All enlisted Marines and contractors get a day off every week. I forgot what it was like to work this many days in a row. While I was in college I would often times have 2 or 3 jobs while going to school but even then I was able to line up a weekend every now and then that I could take off. I am pretty sure that is why I got sick. My body just wanted to rest. Not that I did rest as a result but the thought of resting was nice enough.

We have animals all over this base. Most are transported here after they snuck into some of the containers that were shipped over. Most of the cats here are fed by someone and a few even have collars on them now. It doesn’t mean that I am going to be taking them in but it is nice to see that all humanity isn’t lost out here.
One of the IED sniffing docs came into my office the other day. Her name was Rita and she had a hurt paw so she was on light duty. Rita is a German Shepherd mix and she is kind of small for a German Shepherd. IED sniffing dogs are always one rank above their handler and will get promoted as they do. For example, Rita was a Corporal because her handler was a Lance Corporal. These dogs are awarded medals and are treated as Marines. If the handler mistreats the IED dog, then they get NJPed (Non-Judicial Punishment…typically involves loss of rank and pay with extra duties) and can even be court marshaled depending on the offense.

If Rita to were walk by you, you would just see a dog. She walked around the office and loved the attention. Rita stopped so anyone who wanted to pet her could. She had the roughest dog hair/fur coat that I had ever touched. You could tell that she had spent a lot of time outside under the hot sun. When she came next to my area, she licked a few drops of water that had fallen from my bottle of water. So we got a Styrofoam bowl and filled it up. Then we filled it again and again and again. We filled it until three bottles of water were gone. Typically you would have water everywhere but not with Rita. Rita made sure that that bowl was almost as dry after she was done with it as when she started. She was a happy dog after that and she left with her handler to go back to her area with the other IED dogs.

Eric and I have noticed as of late that there seem to be a family of pigeons that are living at Leatherneck. Now I have no idea if they were here before we got here but it would be poetic if our gift to the Afghani’s were pigeons. It’s almost as bad as the Indians giving the early settlers tobacco.

There is a phrase that the Marines love to say and it drives me crazy. Kill bodies. This phrase is used to show affirmation, gratitude and understanding. Occasionally they just say the word, “kill.” Regardless of what they say, it absolutely drives me up a wall. From my view is says a lot about someone who would ever want to brag about that or get excited at the prospect. Most of the times when I hear one of the Marines say it, I remind them that they work in supply and I have more time experienced outside the wire here than they have. They don’t like that very much.