CAMP CHESTY, Iraq - With all the dogs running around Iraq, Marine Maj. Sherri Annan said, it was only a matter of time before she took one in.
Maj. Annan, 33, of Midland, Texas, found a stray puppy wandering around an oasis near the camp in central Iraq, separated from his mother.
She took him back to her tent and named the thick-furred, sheepdog-shepherd mix Chesty after the camp, which is named for Korean War hero Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller.
She feeds the dog pieces of meat from the food packages that Marines live off in the field, and she cut off the bottom of a water bottle for him to use as a bowl.
Maj. Annan said he sleeps under her cot, and she sleeps with her arm dangling so she can touch him; otherwise, he will bark.
Maj. Annan is the commander of the Lubbock, Texas-based Direct Support Company B- 6th Motor Transport Battalion, a Marine reserve unit. In Texas, she works at an animal shelter, the Midland Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She keeps four cats in her apartment and said her friends and relatives wouldn't be surprised to know she has a pet in the field.
"I love animals," she said. 'I think if I went home without one, they'd probably wonder."
The Iraqi countryside is full of dogs. Shepherds and farmers use them as work animals, and there are plenty running stray.
Iraq doesn't have animal control or spaying and neutering programs. Older Iraqi dogs are usually skittish around people, but puppies seem to get along with the Americans just fine.
As the pace of work slows down for Marines running supplies to the front lines, several of them are taking on pets to break up the daily doldrums.
Marines sitting under a camouflage net with a puppy frolicking on the ground or with a bird sitting in a cage have become a regular sight at camps and supply stations. When Marines from Combat Service Support Company 111 set up camp in an abandoned warehouse and office complex in eastern Baghdad last week, Pfc. Aaron Edwards, 20, of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Lance Cpl. Bryan Tecklenburg, 22, of Fishkill, N.Y., were keeping a pair of parakeets in a cardboard box with a piece of mosquito net over it.
When the company had been out in the suburbs before moving into the city, the two explored an empty house, finding clothes and blankets strewn everywhere and no furniture.
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Pfc. Aaron Edwards of Chattanooga, Tenn., left; and Lance Cpl. Bryan Tecklenburg, of Fishkill, N.Y., right; show off the parakeets they found in an abandoned house outside Baghdad. Pfc. Edwards is holding 'Petey,' and Lance Cpl. Tecklenburg is holding 'Tweety.'
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Pfc. Edwards and Lance Cpl. Tecklenburg found a cage holding 10 parakeets. They took two and left the door open so the other eight could fly away. They also found a puppy in a fence outside the house, but it wouldn't let them near it.
The birds, named Petey and Tweety, ride on convoys in the cab of their truck. The Marines feed them crackers from their military meal packages.
"It kind of breaks up the time here, gives us something to do and makes the place feel homey," Lance Cpl. Tecklenburg said.
When he is sent home, he will either let the birds go or give them away to some Iraqis or Kuwaitis. Maj. Annan said she's willing to spend thousands of dollars to take Chesty home. She already has her father looking into ways to fly him back to Texas by airline.
He probably will have to be quarantined, she said. She plans to have a veterinarian at Camp Doha in Kuwait give him shots. He had fleas when she found him.
She gave him a bath, which he hated, she said. Marines in Maj. Annan's company seem to love playing with Chesty, picking him up and petting him, calling him and watching him roll around in the dirt as they relax in the shade.
He has prompted some of them to break out pictures of their own dogs and pass them around, Maj. Annan said.
"It keeps them busy, keeps them motivated, keeps their morale up," she said. "American military have a habit of picking up pets wherever they go."
