The life, death, and death of Charles the Hamster

Sometimes, you see a bit of news that brings back a long forgotten memory. Here's one - and I'm certain this hunter never went through Marine Corps rifle training.

Wildlife officials said the feathered Lazarus had been shot by a hunter and put into his refrigerator for two days. That's when the hunter's wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head, giving her a scare.

The man's wife "was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her," said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital. "She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there."

The hospital's staff had the daughter take the 1-pound female ring-neck to Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it has been treated since Tuesday for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it has about a 75 percent chance of survival, but probably will not ever be well enough to be released back into the wild.

He said the duck, which has a low metabolism, could have survived in a big enough refrigerator, especially if the door was opened and closed several times.

And here's the memory that should have stayed repressed.

From the time he was a small boy, my son had lobbied for a dog. We'd tried birds and fish, but his response was always along the lines of "Fish are fun, but you can't take them out and play with them." I knew he yearned for a puppy but I wasn't ready to add that much responsibility to our lives. So, I agreed to a step up - this time to a warm-blooded pet (no snakes for this mom). Before I could change my mind, he suggested a haircut, knowing that a pet store was conveniently located right next door. We put our names on the list and wandered over. The back wall contained a number of cages with animals I'd heard of but never paid much attention to before. Mice, rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs . . . which to choose?

I immediately ruled out mice and rats. The guinea pigs were interesting but my son was drawn to the Teddy Bear Hamsters. These little guys were lively and seemed to have a bit of personality. After talking with the sales clerk, I gave my permission for our first pet mammal. Shane picked out a cute little guy with brown and white fur and immediately named him Charles. A real bargain at $4.95

The sales clerk assured us that the hamster would be happy in the ten-gallon aquarium we had recently emptied but suggested a few essential accessories. By the time the cart was full, our bargain pet was rapidly climbing the economic scale, but no matter. He was small and my son was ecstatic. He rode home in a cardboard box on my son's lap - until he showed his proclivity for escape by chewing through the bottom. We coaxed him out from under the car seat and rushed home to set up the aquarium. That evening we sat in rapt attention as Charles explored his new home for possible escape routes. Certainly better than TV.

The next morning, we realized that we should have weighted the screen cover. Charles had gone over the wall. Shane found him hiding in a corner of my closet and replaced him in his cage. We watched him immediately climb his water bottle and try for escape number two. Obviously this was a strong willed animal.

The next week, while shopping at Wal-Mart, we discovered hamster modular living units. Did our hamster need a second story for his new home? Proportionately, this rodent had far more square footage than we did in our home. No matter, we selected a modular unit designed to stand alone or fit on top of an aquarium, complete with a second exercise wheel, sky spinner, and hideaway cube. A tube extended through the floor into the aquarium below . . . kind of like an inside out fireman's pole. We added an accessory pack of modular tubes and a Hamster Ball for safe excursions out. By this time, I'd spent more making our hamster's home habitable than our own, at least in the recent past. Our ungrateful hamster didn't seem to care. His mission in life was to escape and he did. Frequently. It is somewhat humbling to be outsmarted by a hamster. Over the three years of his life, he never stopped trying to escape although eventually, once free, he would walk down the hall instead of running. This made it considerably easier to capture him.

From our book on hamster care, we knew that the normal life span of a hamster is about three years. Charles spent most of his first 2.5 years climbing up and down between his first floor apartment and the aquarium basement, endlessly looking for a way out. During the Christmas holidays one year, we were careful to leave plenty of food and water for him, but were gone more than we were home . . . and so our furnace was turned way down. One day I noticed that he had not changed position for at least two days. Finding him stiff and cold, I gently tried to prepare my son for his first real loss. We'd flushed a few goldfish, but Charles was a living, breathing mammal who had cuddled in his hand. After a few tears, we prepared a small cardboard box with a Kleenex lining. Since the ground outside was frozen, I placed the box in my refrigerator to await a proper burial on his grandfather's farm.

Two days later, my son opened the refrigerator door, slammed it shut and yelled at me, "Whiskers! I see whiskers!!" I opened the door, moved the orange juice, and there sat Charles, perched on top of my leftover Christmas ham and looking very pleased with himself. He had ignored the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and stuff we normally fed him. Instead, he had nibbled on the butter, chocolate chip cookie dough, and had eaten quite a bit of the ham. Shane marveled, "He came back! And he came back as a carnivore!"

We learned that hamsters hibernate in low temperatures. And, we made really, really sure he was dead before we removed him from his cage the next time he died.

Posted by Deb at 11:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 20, 2007

Consider all that

James Lileks on the chasm between theory and substance:

Last week a letter in the paper ran off the usual list of oppressions and deletions of basic liberties, including "the coffins we are not allowed to see." It reminded me of a conversation I had in Arizona with a Marine, whose family was also staying at my in-laws' house. (Their daughter played with Gnat, and was one of the Ghosts of Christmas in the play.) He had just returned from accompanying the body of a Marine back to his home town for a memorial. Lance Cpl. Nick Palmer, 19, was killed by a sniper in Fallujah. The vehicle had stopped to defuse an IED, which had been placed to fix the Humvee in place. Flypaper. Lance Cpl. Palmer was manning a gun on the back of the Humvee when he was hit. The shot came from an industrial building a good distance away; whoever killed him had particular skill. It could have been one of those ordinary Iraqis so enraged by the occupation they quit their jobs as an insurance actuary or auto mechanic and went to sniper school, perhaps. Or maybe it was a Ba'athist "Minuteman." Or an imported Iranian merc. You have to admit it's possible. The networks may not have shown footage of the coffin as it arrived, but it certainly had the opportunity to show the funeral and the ceremony that preceded it. The Marine, who was Lance Cpl. Palmer's commanding officer, described the event; they arrived at night. Both sides of the street were filled with townspeople, gathered to greet the soldier. Every light in every window was on; every pole had a flag. The church pews had no empty seats. "Amazing Grace" was played and the Purple Heart presented. Everyone was allowed to see the coffin, and reflect on what it stood for. The local TV station's website has a video interview with the parents, which manages to work in Vietnam in the first six seconds. If the TV station filmed the homecoming, it doesn't appear to be on the site. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't have shown the homecoming, unless they regarded the interview with the grieving parents as the full measure they were required to give. The Commanding Officer who appears on the phone call is the Marine who told me the story. It's a very short part of the television story, but it was an intensely private moment and we need see no more. You might not get a sense of the CO's emotions from the voice on the other end. Trust me: it's a wound, and it's deep. He didn't just make a phone cal;; he left his family at Christmas time to accompany the body and speak at the service - then drove a rental through a storm to get to the airport to rejoin his family for the few days he had left stateside. So the next time someone talks about the coffins we're not allowed to see, consider all that.

It's a cheap political point for the letter-writer. It's intensely personal for the Marines who served with LCpl Palmer and they'll never forget him. As noted above, LtCol Sinclair spoke at the funeral of the Marine who he took to Iraq - and escorted back to his home town:

I wonder what the writer of that letter has done for his country, other than criticize it. Here's what LCpl Palmer did:

"Nick died as he lived, doing his duty," Sinclair said. "We, his Marine family, were so blessed to have him for a little while."

Palmer enlisted in the Marines despite the likelihood that he would be sent to Iraq and the concerns of his parents, Rachele and Brad Palmer, but he was adamant about serving his country. "Even at a time of conflict, at a time when the media raises its doubts and politicians take stances and others hold up signs in protest, Nick ... raised his hand and joined the Marine Corps," said friend Perry Carlile.

Condolences to his grieving family. You raised a hero.

Posted by Deb at 10:28 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 12, 2007

"The last best hope for success"

Will the troop surge work? I think it will. Looking at it from a logistical point of view, there are currently about 13,000 troops in Baghdad, a crime-ridden war zone. Baghdad has an area of about 254 square miles and approximately 5,800,000 residents. Compare that to New York City with 303 square miles and 8,104,000 residents. NYC also has a police force of 37,000 for a city that is not at war with anyone. Sending in 17,000 more troops to Baghdad and dividing them between the 9 boroughs will provide - finally - enough manpower to clean out some of the deeply rooted insurgency and provide security for the civilian residents who want the same things that you and I do - to live, work, play, and worship in peace and security.

And, I have good reason to think that it will work. In August 2004, my son who served with 1/7 Marines left for his second deployment to Iraq - this time to the Syrian border town of Husaybah. The town was a hellhole - deeply rooted insurgency and the 200 Marines of Baker Company held it for 7 months. They saw action every time they went out, but with limited troop strength, they were unable to make much headway. Even so, they gradually gained the trust and cooperation of the townspeople.

When 1/7 returned home, they left the city in the hands of an entire battalion. Additional Army forces were brought in and in November 2005, Operation Steel Curtain cleaned the town. For 17 days, US and Iraqi troops worked side by side, house by house, systematically cleaning out the cities of Husaybah, Karabilah and Ubaydi. they selaed the border to prevent al Queda reinforcements from filtering across. And, it worked.

1/7 Baker Company returned to Husaybah in February 2006. My son reported that it was a different place. Kids played on the streets. Women could walk to the market without fear. And, our Marines continued to work hand in hand with Iraqi soldiers to maintain security and tranquility. It wasn't a perfect place to live. But it was a major turnaround.

Unfortunately, examples like that one are routinely ignored by politicians and media bent on grim predictions of failure. Cassandra has multiple examples of this over at Villainous Company today:

After the President's historic speech Wednesday night, the media rushed to demonstrate they would pay any price and bear any burden to assure the defeat of his proposal. Those who expected some attempt at balance or open mindedness were sadly mistaken. CBS's Dick Meyer spent six or seven paragraphs ramming home the point: the President is completely alone. Newsweek's Howard Fineman couldn't quite manage to control his contempt, "George W. Bush spoke with all the confidence of a perp in a police lineup." Sheryl Stolberg seized the opportunity to remind readers the President was sElected, not elected before making a series of misleading statements.

Selective memory. It's easy when you have nothing more to lose than an election. President Bush reminded us of that yesterday when he spoke to soldiers at Fort Benning:

On September the 11th, our nation saw firsthand the destructive vision of a new kind of enemy, and once again the men and women of Fort Benning answered the call to protect our country from that enemy. You know, I knew that right after the attacks, the American psyche being what it is, people would tend to forget the grave threat posed by these people. I knew that. As a matter of fact, I was hoping that would happen so that life would go on. But the fortunate thing for this country is that those who wear the uniform have never forgotten the threat. You understand the stakes.

High stakes indeed. But I've heard overwhelming support for the troop surge from both the troops and their families - those who have a huge personal interest. Here's a letter to Nancy Pelosi from USMCR Captain Michael Hendrickson who is preparing for upcoming deployment, and has more at stake in this fight than any of us here at home:

Dear Madame Speaker, On September 11, 2001 I was deployed in Australia with the 15th MEU. Five months later I left Afghanistan and returned to the states. During that time I was overwhelmed by and immensely proud of our country’s willingness to put aside partisan differences and prosecute the global war against terrorism. Today, I am preparing for a second combat deployment, this time to Iraq, and I am dismayed and saddened by the actions of my countrymen. I am deeply concerned about the President's new plan for Iraq. I am concerned that it has no hope of success. My concerns are not founded in the abilities of our nation's military or the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces. I am concerned that your party and the American citizens that follow your leadership will fail once again to put partisanship aside and fully support victory in Iraq. I am afraid that the blood of my brother and sister marines will be on your hands because of your unwillingness to do everything in your power to ensure that we are victorious in Iraq. The plan outlined by the President last night was the last best hope for success. As was the initial foray into Iraq, it carries with it enormous risk and like all audacious plans in war, relies on more than a little luck. Unfortunately, the "incalculable" effect of our national will has not been and will not be brought to bear against our enemies in Iraq because your party has sought to undermine the military effort and the national will ever since we crossed the line of departure into Iraq five years ago. It is painfully obvious that the political defeat of President Bush is synonymous with America's defeat in Iraq. Mrs. Pelosi, I respectfully request that you stand in the House, with your comrades in the Senate, and give the President and my marines the support we need to make a legitimate stab at final victory in Iraq. The President has provided you with a time table and a benchmark to measure success. If there is no significant progress by November of this year and we have not achieved the metrics outlined last night, relentless criticism is warranted and should reach a crescendo unmatched in the Iraq debate. Until then, I still believe, as almost all of my comrades in arms do, that we can and will be victorious in Iraq. Please do not undermine our efforts. Please support our mission. Help us to be victorious. Semper Fidelis. Respectfully Submitted, Michael J. Hendrickson Captain 0302/USMCR

Unfortunately, the viewpoints of those who have the most to lose are of little interest to those who have staked their political careers on losing in Iraq. Captain Hendrickson deserves the unconditional support of Pelosi, Kennedy, and all other nay-sayers in Congress who are betting on failure, and drawing up non-binding resolutions of troop non-support.

Success happened in Fallujah. It happened in Husaybah. It can happen in Baghdad too. And I'm betting on success in Baghdad rather than settling for failure.

Posted by Deb at 05:40 PM | Comments (264) | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

Yard Guards

Last Friday night, I had a rare opportunity to curl up by myself, with my dog, and watch TV with the remote in MY hand. Instead of shoot-em-up crime shows, I watched an English nanny try to set straight a family of six spirited preschool children. And once again, I'm thankful I had only one child. Six of my son and I'd be writing this from an institution. Next on the roster was Trading Spouses which I'd heard about but never watched. The premise of the show is that two opposite families trade moms for a week. And, I don't think they could have chosen more opposite families unless they'd searched on both Mars and Venus. One family hailed from the hills of North Carolina - the wife makes puppets and the husband is a very French baker. They have two free-spirited children, a stinky dog, and far-left political views. Their cabin matches the dog - dirt everywhere. Both spouses from the other family are retired Marines and the family identity is rooted firmly in the USMC values. They have one well behaved daughter and their house is spotless . . . and a shrine to the Corps with memorabilia in each room The puppeteer is learning to shoot and the Marine is plotting how to get that dog in a bathtub. I can't wait until this Friday's conclusion.

That's not what I started to write about.

The Marine family yard is guarded by one of the most attractive lawn ornaments I've seen (apart from a real live Marine).

Eric Tischler, a former Marine (Weapons Co. Dragons platoon. 3rd Batt. 8th Marines Camp Geiger, 1983-1987), makes handcrafted Marine Corps Lawn/Home ornaments in full dress blues. They stand about 2 feet tall, are hand painted and come in all enlisted ranks from Private to Sergeant Majors. Here's more, from the Pennsylvania Centre-Daily:

A mix of tiny, uniformed men, cleverly named "Yard Guards," stand at attention in Eric Tischler's yard.

These wooden, painted lawn ornaments -- representative of the Marine Corps, in which Tischler once served -- are now his full-time job. The State College resident sells them to everyone from Marine Corps moms and families to former Marines.

"You don't have to remind a Marine of who he is," he said. "We're just crazy about this stuff."

In the future, Tischler hopes to expand to include all branches of the armed services.

He made several dozen yard guards, but it wasn't until one sold on eBay just six hours after it was posted that he realized there was a market for the ornaments.

"I was in the basement going nuts trying to make as many as I could," he said.

These days, Sky Top Machine custom cuts the guards out and Skills of Central Pennsylvania does most of the painting, save for a handful Tischler does at home.

Part of the proceeds, he says, will go to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Yard Guards this fall will make their debut in Sgt. Grit's Marine Specialties, a catalog containing a mix of goods from T-shirts to luggage with Marine Corps logos, Tischler said.

For more information visit www.yardguards.org.

If you're looking for a gift for a Marine family - or just want to make sure your lawn is well-guarded - put one of these at attention.

Posted by Deb at 08:31 AM | Comments (162) | TrackBack