QueenScoopalot
05-11-2004, 04:28 PM
Soldier brings Iraq dog home
By Kay Luna
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LOW MOOR, Iowa — Sheeba stands with her furry little head peeking over the side of the pickup truck, eager for a friendly hand to pet her. But it’s hard for this 6-month-old puppy from Iraq to remember she doesn’t have to fight for survival anymore.
.
She tries to bury her dog treats in grass clippings outside her new home in Low Moor and growls sometimes at her new roommate, a 7-year-old German shepherd dog named Jake, if he gets too close to her food.
.
“In Iraq, she ate roots, grass, rats, even rocks to make her stomach feel full,” Misti McDermott of Low Moor said.
.
McDermott’s husband, Army National Guard Sgt. Tom McDermott, and a volunteer dog rescuer in California gave Sheeba a new home.
McDermott, one of the soldiers in Clinton’s 234th Signal Battalion, Company B, who came home Saturday after more than a year of active duty in Iraq.
.
That’s where he found Sheeba, one of many stray dogs roaming the desert near the soldiers’ camp. Misti McDermott said Iraqis don’t take in dogs as pets, so dogs run free. There are so many dogs that the military was commanded to shoot them to get rid of the nuisance, she said.
.
Tom McDermott told he was working tower guard duty in Iraq one day and saw another soldier shoot a crippled dog and leave it to die. One of McDermott’s friends shot the dog again to put it out of its misery.
.
Soon after, a stray puppy starting coming around McDermott as he worked. It acted hungry, so he fed it the unit’s MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat. The puppy was friendly and gentle, and McDermott let it start sleeping on his cot at night. He called the puppy Sheeba, and it became McDermott’s mission to keep her alive.
.
One day, a group of Marines seized the dog and planned to kill her, and McDermott begged an officer to let her go.
.
As the unit’s mobilization in Iraq neared its end, McDermott worked to find a way to get her home.
.
At home with their 1-year-old son, Sean, Misti McDermott remembered hearing about a woman named Marcy Christmas in Santa Barbara, Calif., who made national news a year ago by helping soldiers ship stray Iraqi dogs to the United States.
.
“They find these dogs because dogs are running all over Iraq,” Christmas said of the soldiers who call her. “When they e-mail me or call me in the middle of the night, the sound in their voice is the same. They’re desperate. They have an animal they’ve had over a year, and why shouldn’t they bring their dogs home?”
.
A reception for Sheeba is expected to be held later this month at the Clinton Humane Society, in hopes of encouraging others to adopt pets.
.
“By doing this, it’s given this year away from his family more meaning. It’s a positive thing he can come away with,” McDermott said.
.
Kay Luna can be contacted at
.
(563) 243-5039 or [email protected].
By Kay Luna
.
LOW MOOR, Iowa — Sheeba stands with her furry little head peeking over the side of the pickup truck, eager for a friendly hand to pet her. But it’s hard for this 6-month-old puppy from Iraq to remember she doesn’t have to fight for survival anymore.
.
She tries to bury her dog treats in grass clippings outside her new home in Low Moor and growls sometimes at her new roommate, a 7-year-old German shepherd dog named Jake, if he gets too close to her food.
.
“In Iraq, she ate roots, grass, rats, even rocks to make her stomach feel full,” Misti McDermott of Low Moor said.
.
McDermott’s husband, Army National Guard Sgt. Tom McDermott, and a volunteer dog rescuer in California gave Sheeba a new home.
McDermott, one of the soldiers in Clinton’s 234th Signal Battalion, Company B, who came home Saturday after more than a year of active duty in Iraq.
.
That’s where he found Sheeba, one of many stray dogs roaming the desert near the soldiers’ camp. Misti McDermott said Iraqis don’t take in dogs as pets, so dogs run free. There are so many dogs that the military was commanded to shoot them to get rid of the nuisance, she said.
.
Tom McDermott told he was working tower guard duty in Iraq one day and saw another soldier shoot a crippled dog and leave it to die. One of McDermott’s friends shot the dog again to put it out of its misery.
.
Soon after, a stray puppy starting coming around McDermott as he worked. It acted hungry, so he fed it the unit’s MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat. The puppy was friendly and gentle, and McDermott let it start sleeping on his cot at night. He called the puppy Sheeba, and it became McDermott’s mission to keep her alive.
.
One day, a group of Marines seized the dog and planned to kill her, and McDermott begged an officer to let her go.
.
As the unit’s mobilization in Iraq neared its end, McDermott worked to find a way to get her home.
.
At home with their 1-year-old son, Sean, Misti McDermott remembered hearing about a woman named Marcy Christmas in Santa Barbara, Calif., who made national news a year ago by helping soldiers ship stray Iraqi dogs to the United States.
.
“They find these dogs because dogs are running all over Iraq,” Christmas said of the soldiers who call her. “When they e-mail me or call me in the middle of the night, the sound in their voice is the same. They’re desperate. They have an animal they’ve had over a year, and why shouldn’t they bring their dogs home?”
.
A reception for Sheeba is expected to be held later this month at the Clinton Humane Society, in hopes of encouraging others to adopt pets.
.
“By doing this, it’s given this year away from his family more meaning. It’s a positive thing he can come away with,” McDermott said.
.
Kay Luna can be contacted at
.
(563) 243-5039 or [email protected].