My Manifesto: The Incoherent Ramblings of a Madman

My friend Michelle's Journal - she's currently in Iraq... http://www.livejournal.com/users/gerring_magpie/:

it's actually really nice being here, because we're so far out that nobody bothers us. actually, we're so far out that we can see the lights from explosions in the cities on the horizon, but don't hear anything. we're surrounded by what's left of the iraqi wilderness (saddam had a lot of land from baghdad on south drained to keep the vegetation from growing and providing concealment for would-be assasins. a large portion of iraq used to be marshlands). so far I have seen (and heard) jackals, hyenas (saddam distributed them, along with other non-native animals to various areas throughout central iraq to provide him and his buddies game for hunting), bats, camel spiders, a weird fishing bird that looks and flies like a giant humming bird, an eel, some kind of carrion eating birds, numerous bats, a wild guinea pig (it ran across the road like a rabbit does back home), a viper, scorpions, these weird pink wasps they've got here, ants with longer than normal legs that run with their "rear end" pointed up (like a bad scorpion imitation) and appear to bounce as they move, ants that only come out at night, little water snakes, a freshwater (or whatever you want to call this stuff) crab, wild dogs, geckos (the house is crawling with them), and among other things, a carp almost as big as me that sea world would pay good money for (it just kinda slithered through the reeds in water I would have thought too shallow for a fish half it's size, slid up sideways real fast, and grabbed some amphibious (looked it anyway) animal I've never seen or heard of before, and dissapeared as quick as it came, leaving me standing there staring with my mouth hanging open. I have not seen a single camel, unless you count out the window while flying in to kuwait.

we've got a dog here named stains that was raised by the guys who were here before us. she is built like a wild dog, has orange eyes & the face shape, floppy ears, and coat coloration of a domestic dog, but has the black mask, ear tips, and blackened muzzle of the wild dogs. she's as gentle as any family dog, will let you do anything to her, we even bathe her all the time. she's so spoiled that if you give her scraps, you have to feed them to her by hand, she won't eat them off the ground, and she begs to come in so she can sleep in the ac. she follows me around a lot & if I sit on the floor, she'll put her head on my lap & go to sleep. she'll also do anything for even the smallest bite of beef jerky, especially if it's peppered. when she's not at the house, she runs with the wild dogs. if any jackals or other wild dogs try to come near the hooch (oh yah - hooch = barracks, house, tent, cave, whatever is home at the moment), her wild dog side comes out & she chases them away, fighting with them if she has to, to make sure that they don't come anywhere near. she'd make a really good pet, but unfortunately, has to stay here, as there's no vet to treat her and quarantine her for approval to go to the states, or I'd probably take her back myself. hopefully, somebody moves in soon after we leave.


oh yah
and here's the thing that's been bugging me for a few hours... I had to kill a little haji mouse tonight :(
they're all cute & tiny with a really really long tail & little buggy eyes.
I had to stomp on it :(
when it squealed real loud, I picked my foot up though & it took off . .. my 1sg ended up finishing it ...
I just couldn't kill something so cute that squealed like that ... :(
I think I'm going to get some live traps, to catch them alive, and find some chloroform or something so that I can make them pass out & then euthanise them in a more humane manner.
is it a bad thing that I don't have issues with shooting somebody, but I can't stomp on a little mouse???
argh