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The scared little dog who needed rescue in 2004 actually came to our door and rescued us. It began to seem obvious that the dog in need of rescue, in fact, rescued us.

Sage, the War on Terror and Coming Home



Sage, the War on Terror and Coming Home
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS USA: I read with heavy heart, at Canada Free Press, stories by Doug Hagmann about “The passing of an icon,” the death of his dog King. As I read it in September, parts of it rang true in my life as well, very similar I thought at the time, and now, unfortunately, even more so. Like King, Sage came into our lives in 2004, abandoned in our yard, also as Hagmann writes about his King, Sage, too, was accepted into our home, “...as a small puppy who was underweight and malnourished, who was deliberately and unceremoniously abandoned by someone’s unconscionably inhumane decision and selfish actions.”
As Hagmann describes about King, the same applied to our Sage, “Ultimately, it was their loss, for King proved to be the most valued friend and protector our family could ever have.” Sage came into our lives one day in 2004, as the nation had been at war since 9/11/01. Our older son was about to graduate from high school in a few months and was already signed up in the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program as soon as he turned 17. He would soon be leaving for Marine Recruit Training. During that spring break in 2004, my two sons thought it would be a good idea to rescue a dog at one of several local animal shelters, and as they were out of school, we went to a few to look around. We had not made a decision, never knowing that before long the decision would be made for us. One day we looked out our patio door and two small pointed ears stuck up, and we thought a cat had wandered on our small porch. My older son, who was leaving soon enough for Recruit Training, opened the door and went out and found a small, starving, scared little brindle colored dog. We had never seen such a dog with pointed ears and stripes. All I could think of was a “dingo” but knew those were from Australia, and not in Kansas. I then thought of a “cattle dog” for some reason, but before I could even look anything up, my older son had to coax the dog to him, which took a great amount of time, and she would not even come to us. With much patience, the dog, shaking like a leaf, allowed him to come near, and he sat with her for hours, feeding her and calming her outside on the porch. A high school aged neighbor girl asked me about the dog, and I told her we found her in our yard. She said she saw the dog around, and tried to get it to come to her and it would not come, just retreating to our small porch. She had never seen it before, and neither had we. We also had never seen a dog like this. Not only had we not seen a brindle dog such as this, which we later, as best as we could tell, is a brindle basenji, or basenji mix with its pointed ears and curled tail, and unique striped pattern, but we had never seen such a malnourished, but more than that, such a scared little dog.

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After much coaxing, talking, petting, and patience, my then 18-year-old son was able to pick the small dog up to bring her inside. Still shaking with fright, she went into hiding behind the coach, and under the bed. He then went and bought food, dog bowls, a collar, leash, dog bed and treats for the scared animal and continued working to gain her confidence throughout the day. We had never seen dogs like this in the neighborhood, and, checked around, asked if anyone lost a dog, posted a sign, and did what we could to locate where this scared, lost puppy came from. My younger son and I had to leave for the weekend, and were not sure if the dog would be there when we returned. When we got back, not only was she there, she had a name, and the scared, malnourished, and apparently abused little brindle puppy with the big pointed ears and striped coat became, 'Sage,' a name my older son chose, a close second, his other choice of “Ginger”. We took her to the vet , and the scared puppy was determined to be about 14-16 weeks old , still with her baby teeth. The dog was checked for a microchip, and there was none. The vet said something along the lines that he would check, but with how she was shaking, especially when he approached, with the exception of my son, she appeared to be especially afraid of men. The vet seemed to believe the dog had been abused, and while physically showing no trauma such as broken bones, she was extremely scared, and to this day, if you happen to swing a fly swatter or such movement, she will quietly scamper off to the other room out of the way. She was very thin and weighed about 14 pounds. The vet did not think in her condition we would have anyone coming to claim her, and he was right, we did not. We got her all of her shots, registered her, listing her name as 'Sage' My son set to work with her over the next few weeks, and finally got her to come out from under the bed and from behind the couch. She gained weight, and friends and family would make comments like, “She sure picked the right house!” Then, as the War on Terror continued on, my son graduated from high school and left for Marine Recruit Training, and my husband, my younger son, and I were left with Sage. She became part of the family as my older son completed Marine Recruit Training and earned the Eagle, Globe and Anchor and title of United States Marine. Then there was more training, and a two year deployment to Okinawa, Japan. The War on Terror continued, and in 2006, my younger son graduated from high school and also left for Marine Recruit Training, where he also earned the EGA and title of Marine. Then, for him too, there was more training and two years away in Okinawa, Japan. So, it was just me, my husband and Sage at home as the War on Terror continued on. Then came the Iraq surge, a time when the then Marine Commandant General James Conway ordered, “Every Marine into the fight,” and this included Marine Food Service Specialists such as my older son, the one who nursed Sage back to health, who served in a provisional infantry battalion, and was sent to Iraq’s Anbar province, on the Syrian border, and also toward the end of the deployment, which ran from around August 2007 until April 2008, to Al Asad Airbase. I mention these now, because, these names and places are in the news now, in 2014, as ISIS is reported to be now in Anbar Province, and Al Asad Airbase was handed over to the Iraqis. These Marines, at great cost, secured Anbar Province in 2007-2008’s surge. These were dark days for Marine parents such as myself, as Western Iraq’s Anbar Province was some of the most dangerous territory, and my son was not sent there as a cook, but as a machine gunner, on patrols outside the wire daily in a Humvee turret. The area was secured to the Syrian border, so secure that Air Force One could land there at Al Asad Airbase. Mercifully, my son returned home and after four years was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and served two years in the Army Reserve while attending college. But, as his Iraq deployment wore on, day after day, Sage was there when we got home from work, a reminder of what was good in the world, of how she gained weight, and had a happy life in our family, while making life bearable for us as Marine parents with our older son in a war zone. As he transitioned to college, the War on Terror continued, and another surge was called for, this time by a different president, and in a different country, this time Afghanistan. Again, the Marine Corps called upon the Food Service Specialists, not to cook in Afghanistan, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, they had contractors do this, but he too was on convoys and patrols, as a machine gunner, this time not in a Humvee turret, but a gunner in the turret of the larger, more blast resistant, mine resistant v-shaped hulled vehicle called MRAP’s. He had just been sent to Camp Lejeune, N.C. after two years in Okinawa, Japan and had only been at Camp Lejeune a few months when deployed to Afghanistan for for the surge. Arriving at the beginning of the surge, before there even was a Camp Leatherneck, but only the British Camp Bastion, the Marines my son was with from Camp Lejeune’s Combat Logistics Regiment 2 (CLR 2) arrived in the Lashkar Gah area of Helmand Province and stayed from about March 2009 until April 2010, earning the Presidential Unit Citation. Before they left Afghanistan, Camp Leatherneck had been built, a mega base, and again, I mention this because these two camps are in the news again, Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion, as in recent months, both bases have been turned over to the Afghans. All Marines have now left Afghanistan it is reported, with the exception of Marine Security Guards at the US Embassy, and they are no longer at Camp Leatherneck. The British are also reported to have left Camp Bastion. But, for this harrowing deployment for the Afghanistan surge from 2009-2010, which caused many a Marine parent to worry, including us, there was Sage, there when we got home from work, there for us during the darkest hours of the Iraq and Afghanistan surges ranging from 2007-2008, and 2009-2010. When my younger son re-enlisted in the Marine Corps while in Afghanistan, his next four years were spent training, and guarding US Embassies abroad as a Marine Security Guard. During this time, my older son was in college, and it was the time of the Benghazi attack that killed the first US Ambassador in many years, and a time when US Embassies were under increased security. But, through it all we had the love and comfort of Sage, the brindle basenji. Over the deployments, Sage became an invaluable part of our family, a source of comfort, strength, and love. Which leads me to today and I think back to Doug Hagmann’s recent stories at Canada Free Press, about the death of his dog, King. Now at age 10, Sage had developed a lump by her left front leg. We watched it, under the veterinarians care, and somehow fittingly, she had surgery to have it removed on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2014. She is recovering, has some of her brindle striped fur shaved on her side, and had a bandage at first, removed by the vet after a few days, and now the stitches can be seen and will be removed in a few days. The lump was sent for pathology. The vet called today, and the news was not good. Sage has cancer. It is a rare form of lymphoma. If it has not spread, and was contained in this lymph node, it can be considered cured by its removal. But, this is not a given. As it was described to me, it can spread, and may have already done so. There are dog MRI’s, surgery to remove her spleen, chemotherapy and other options possibly available. Somehow fitting, too, both my sons are now safely home. My youngest son completed eight years of honorable Marine duty just a few months ago. It is the first time we have all been home in Kansas for Thanksgiving for many years. Now, as Sage has seen them safely home, and helped us so much through the last ten years of war, she may be "going home." So, just as they are coming home, she may be leaving us. We don’t know what the future holds for Sage as she now faces battle in her life, a war with cancer. She’s comfortable now, up, walking, eating and drinking, having me take her for post surgery walks, perking up her ears when I say “walk”, wagging her tail, and seemingly back to normal, albeit missing a patch of fur on the side, shaved for surgery, and has the stitches on her side. We hope and pray they “got it all” but we just don’t know. We pray for Sage's dark hours as she led us through our dark hours as military parents with sons at war. The scared little dog who needed rescue in 2004 actually came to our door and rescued us. It began to seem obvious that the dog in need of rescue, in fact, rescued us.


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Marijane Green -- Bio and Archives

Marijane Green is a Military Mom and journalism graduate from Wichita State University


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