CRICKET, THE DOG WHO DIED OF TRUST
by James Strauss
Kristie Noem does not live in Wisconsin. In fact, she doesn’t live anywhere near this state. She lives in a state of mentally troubled, morally broken, and mean-spirited existence. The geographic state is South Dakota and the person named her happens to be the governor of that state as well as a contender for being selected by Donald Trump as his choice for the vice presidency if he’s elected.
Last week the governor published her book, a book in which she went into a great deal about putting the dog down by blowing out its brains in a gravel pit on her property. She also dragged one of the family goats into the same ‘charnel house’ environment to blow its brains out. The offense Cricket had committed which required execution? Not hunting well. After only fourteen months on the planet Cricket loved to play and hunting didn’t seem to fit the personality she was given at birth. This happy-go-lucky dog followed that woman into the pit and then sat before her as she held the gun to her head and blew out her brain.
When I was five years old, living on South Manitou Island out in Lake Michigan, the Coast Guard, which my dad worked for, closed up operations and everyone had to leave. Our family was to be flown out aboard a small pontoon plane and the pilot said our family dog, Bobo, was too heavy to take along and the dog would have to be left on its own. That dog was the caretaker of three small kids, me being one of them. My dad, indicating that Bobo would suffer if left to try to make it on his own during the coming winter, took Bobo into the forest and shot him to death, just like Kristie.
Even though the loss of so many Marines that I had under command in the Vietnam War (I was a Marine Corps Company Commander in combat), I will carry the sound of that gunshot to my own death. Bobo was family. You don’t kill family. Ever. You don’t even allow family members to be killed unless you are five years old. My father paid a price in our family for the remaining years of his life. His continued explanation that he had done Bobo a favor never flew, never got off the ground. In 2018 I traveled back to South Manitou Island, hiring a private boat. The foundation ruins of our home were still there, all turned to barely recognizable rubble, but I wasn’t there to see that. I went into the forest to be where Bobo spent his last moments of life, fully trusting he was with and protected by the family. I walked around and verbally apologized for my dad’s conduct that day so long ago.
Kriste went back to the house and told her kids what she had done. According to reports, the children did not react, If this contemptible woman ever reads this article, which I certainly doubt. In that case, she may realize that the shots she fired in that nearby gravel pit are burned forever into her children’s minds and their carrying of those sounds will be those of comforting or acceptable behavior toward their mother.
Kristie Noem is not the governor of Wisconsin, thank God. If she was, Wisconsin residents, being members of a state populated by a very warm loving population of dog-loving human beings, would already have risen up and discharged that woman from office, and quite possibly already have shamed her out of the state. Her book was withdrawn, the one she wrote about how the killings of the animals should give everyone the idea that she was a person who could make the tough decisions and then carry those decisions out into action.
I learned up close and very personally in that Asian war that shooting at people is easy, while getting shot at is terrifying at the very core of my being. I learned that shooting people is relatively easy but getting shot by other people is even worse than the terror of being shot at by somebody intending to kill you.
Both Cricket and Bobo were spared that kind of terror. Both of these loyal, loving, and kind animals went to their deaths humanely, in that what killed them wasn’t the bullets. The bullets just finished the job. Both dogs died of misplaced trust. The American public, in general, should not make the mistake those loving animals made. Kristie Noem should not be shot, not like she shot those two animals. No, she should be shunned as an example of how humanity has moved down from the trees, across the savannahs, and into a social order called civilization which refuses to accept such awful and even terrifying conduct not just on the part of its leaders but from the rest of the population itself.
Yes, your account of the administration of morphine overdoses in Thirty Days was horrifying. You are the only writer I know of who can bring the realities of war to me in this fashion.
Jim Gorman
Navy, Vietnam
Thanks a lot for that short but very deep and meaningful compliment. It has been sometimes emotionally difficult to describe
some of the experiences, like in this last chapter of TCL. So much of police or military service can be demeaning and
depressive. Thanks for the great comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was working a job site on a busy road & saw a 6 month old black lab run across the street to a supermarkets dumpster every time someone dumped trash in it. She was after food. She would then return to the same porch. Fearing she would get hit by a car we put her in our work van. Took her out to Macdonalds for a happy meal. When the owners of the house came home they stated they didn’t want the dog so she came home w/me.
She had several incidents of biting someone with No warning but no serious injuries. My wife was with a friend 70 miles away when her friends car broke down. They used my wife’s AAA card to get it towed back to our house. The tow truck driver saw my 72 nova I had up on blocks & asked if he could look @ it.
It was near the run I had the dog on& he asked if she bites. I said yes. I hung on to her until I thought he was out of reach & let go. But She managed to nip him on his but & ripped his pants w/her claws. He laughed about it & said they were new jeans. I gave him 20$ & he said he had to go change his pants & would come back to tow the car to a garage, never came back. 2 weeks later I get a letter from his lawyer saying we were being sued. It killed me but w/her history of biting I had to put her down. My 2 sons were wishing all kinds of bad things on the guy. 2 months later his tow truck broke down on a busy highway & another truck came out to assist him. Some drunk came along & plowed into them killing both guys. Karma? Couple months after that the insurance company sent me a letter saying my insurance was canceled due to a threat of law suit! I called the adjuster & told him I put the dog down & the victim was dead what more could they want. Eventually they reinstated my insurance.
Now that’s any odyssey of a story for certain. I want to thank you for speniding the time and putting your
life experience and heart on the one with it here. I don’t get many such meaningful experience written on this
site and totally respect the one’s I dod get, like your own. Thanks so much.
Semper fi,
Jim
friends just adopted a beautiful Great Pyrenness dog. They brought him to a trivia night at my favorite watering hole..(dogs are welcome)…Within 2 seconds he decided this was his second home.. He walked around introducing himself to all and garnering tons of back scratches,etc.. Some person or family had decided he was not for them.. They did the right thing.. It was easy to do the right thing.. … If Noem couldn’t figure out the right thing to do with her dog, what else is she doing wrong?…..She is a poor excude for a human being…..
Some people have beliefs about animals that are not at all valid. They get a pet and then find out that animals do indeed think,
and they also express emotion when not well cared for or about. The animals are generally not intelligent enough to realize that
the human ‘companion’ or owner is making life or death decisions about them and hence make expressive mistakes. People in general
are great to other animals, although we are still stuck in the rut of eating so many of them! The governor’s decision was. bad one
but the celebration of it is what’s killing her as a politician and also revealing way too much about her mental state.
Thanks for the great reply to my article.
Semper fi,
Jim
I have hunted in South Dakota for years. I own two professionally trained bird dogs. The State nor the people have anything to do with what this despicable individual did to a young dog. The dog she killed, a German Wired Hair pointer, is a nuclear power plant energizer bunny personality. These dogs can easily do 20 miles a day without issues. It is a challenge to raise and train pointing dogs. Some are easier than others. As the trainer I used, Calvin Blackburn, 40 plus years of training dogs of all breeds, said of hunting dogs. “ The biggest problem with bird dogs is the OWNER”. How a dog is handled, conditioned, and trained is the issue. Some owners fail to realize that not only does the dog need to be trained but so does the owner. I lost all respect for Governor Noem.
So far, most people I have run across or have run across me and my writing, are in agreement with you Wase. Thanks for putting your own experience and opinion up
here for all to read.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was horrified when I read that she killed that dog. There are rescue groups, even in South Dakota, that would have gladly taken the dog to worked with it and find it a new home. I work with several English setter rescue groups that would have taken that dog in an instant. Her actions show exactly what kind of a person she is. She has shown us that she has no soul.
Thank you for that response Mike. It’s not that she had no soul, I believe, it’s that she has a very torturned soul and the people we ought to really
be concerned for are her children, growing up with a mom in her state. I doubt she will get therapy but she sure needs it. I doubt she will lose
her job or the revolt to cause that would be well underway and it does not appear to be. The national news isn’t even bothering with the story, only
intereste in the Gaza conflict issue in all of its rather idiotic itereations.
Semper fi,
Jim
I read about that wretched woman this morning and it confirmed what I thought of her. When I was 17 I backed my car over the family cat. It was horrible and obvious that she wouldn’t survive. My Dad ordered me to get my shot gun and finish her off. Hardest shot I ever took even though I knew it was necessary. Ironically her name was Cricket. All I can say about Noem is Karma is a bitch,just like her! Semper Fi and well done Jim
Jack, I’m not sure that I didn’t go over the edge a bit on this one. Some readers think I did because of politics. I didn’t.
I hate that kind of needless violation of trusting animals. Even my dad had a better excuse, although it never flew with us kids.
We started to age and realized that there were many ways the dog could have been taken from the island and probably plenty of
sailors departing to take him. In Thirty Days I cover just how hard it was, and remains, to have had to administer overdoses
of morphine to those Marines dying in our arms who had no chance for survival even though their minds and bodies fought on.
That is one of the most rotten assignments one can be given in life. Noem’s voluntary killing of the dog, followed by an almost
addictive need to continue that by killing the goat, is indicative of mental illness. She needs help and to be out of decision-making
of any kind for the state. If South Dakota does not remove her than dog loving forces across the country should begin charging that
state a price. A big one. Thanks for you comment about this. It was not political. I would go after any sitting president who
pulled that kind of thing. Any.
Semepr fi, my friend,
Jim