I once had a kitty named Noonish!

Ok, there's been an update on exactly what happened last week. I guess it was actually a VBIED that blew up nearby. It was really loud all the same.
It can, on occasion, be kind of placid here. Each morning I take the long walk down the Class VII (major end-items) lane and take a look at any inventory discrepancies from the night before or see what is or is not in the yard. If you stop and listen, you can here the honking of horns and the hustle and bustle of Baghdad. It's really not that much different than any other city, except that every once in a while it gets punctuated by a mortar being fired.
I was out there the other morning, about five days ago, checking on a vehicle that needs to leave the yard, when I heard a dull thump and a very nasally whistle. Several moments later there was a boom and a puff of black smoke over on antenna hill, which is in Camp Liberty. Almost instantly after the first was fired, a second thump and zhweeeee! and of course, the boom at Liberty. Next thing you know, a gun fight breaks out over at ECP 4.
It was kind of neat.
Anyway, in other news, it's been getting warmer, which usualy means the insurgents get a bit bolder. Night time is a good time for them to attack, and they've been trying to get their jollies off occasionally lately. We don't get a lot of hits at all, but Liberty and Victory get hit relatively often. Of course, with the "surge," everyone is targeting the smaller patrol bases that aren't necessarily as well fortified as the FOBs are. That's where the messes up in Diyala province and around Baquba is occurring.
There's always a little bit of good no matter what, though, since about a week ago we found these little guys:

i promise they're not dead

We haven't named them yet, but I'm thinking of naming one Dusty, since it's so dusty here. They're both males. Unfortunately, the white one got bit in the chest the other day by a much larger cat, but I've been treating the wounds to try and prevent an abcess and he's looking good.

this one got hurt, but he's getting better

They came in on a crate from somewhere, and we think they either got abandoned or separated from their mother. Since we're technically not allowed to have pets or mascots, we keep them hidden near the rear guard shack.

pfc proctor manning the rear gate, i told him i'd give louisville a "shout-out"

When they get older, they'll have free run of the area and will probably hunt the mice and rats in the yard. They're going to become our natural pest control, and it's my personal mission to make sure they escape euthanasia. They've come a long way since they got here. When we found them they were mangy and had really matted fur, and were, frankly, kind of sickly. A bit of milk and lots of water and canned poultry has solved that. Now I'm treating the white one's wounds with a daily hydrogen peroxide wash and some triple antibiotic ointment. I don't have anything for the cat internally, since the only antibiotics I have are 500mg amoxicillin, which would do so much damage to the felines internal flora that it would more likely make it much, much more sick than any better. Good wound treatment and ensuring proper eating and hydration is usually the best medicine.

this one might be dusty

Thus, if anyone has any suggestions for their names, I will gladly take them. Like I said, I think I'm going to try and name one Dusty (on Kristen's suggestion). But, I'll take anything that you have to offer!
I guess we had Earth Day the other day. Of course, the Army doesn't really care too much to try and improve the environment. We are still using giant diesel generators for all of our power needs here, and there is absolutely no decent infrastructure set up. I kind of understand it here, since this probably isn't going to be a permanent installation, but I certainly hope that up in Balad at Camp Anaconda, which is possibly slated to be permanent, they have some better things set up in terms of power geration. You could most certainly make good use of both solar and wind power here, and to some degree, hydroelectric. I'm not sure exactly how the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates are, but there seems to be enough water to push a few turbines. Anything must be better than constatly burning diesel and JP-8, not to mention the prohibitive cost of all this fuel. Someone's pockets have to be lined, I guess.

Oh well, happy *belated* Earth Day, everyone, and just be sure to remember that we don't have anywhere else to live.

UPDATE:
4-26-07 Well, I guess they found the kittens today. I'm not sure when they took them, but my supervisor said that they did. Hopefully they either get them good homes, which is unlikely, or they quickly and painlessly euthanize them. This is stupid.