Marguerite (Peggy) Diana Frances Knight Smith

Marguerite (Peggy) Diana Frances Knight later Smith (1920 – 2004) code name Nicole, was born in France to an English father and Polish mother. She was working in England during the war when she came to the attention of the SOE.

The SOE rushed Peggy through her training and was sent to France as a courier, despite trainers not feeling that she was ready. In the months after D-Day, she carried messages across enemy and Allied lines and participated in an attack on a military convoy.

According to an interview, Peggy and her radio operator were met by a team of resistance fighters who shook them down and refused to take them to a safe place for several hours. The incompetence continued as the maquisards shot three colleagues as traitors and attempted to assassinate another colleague.

Peggy, the circuit leader, and about thirty maquisards were betrayed. They were able to fight free of the Nazi forces and Peggy returned to England. In December 1944, she married Sub-Lieutenant Eric Smith of the Royal Navy and had two sons.

An article in 1947 about Peggy was entitled “Train-wrecker, Spy and Nazi-killer” with the first paragraph reading, "You would not expect that the prim little woman who comes out of the newly built house… wheeling her 16-month-old and four-month-old in a second-hand pram...with shopping basket on the handrail, is our trusted and well-beloved Marguerite Diana Frances Smith' who once blazed away with a Sten gun at Germans hunting her down as a secret agent in France."

Marta Haviva Reik

Marta Haviva Reik (1914-1944) code names Ada Robinson and Martha Martinovich was one of a handful of Jewish people specifically recruited to work in Eastern Europe. Haviva was born in Slovakia but as a young woman she emigrated to Mandatory Palestine where she enlisted in the Haganah underground military organization as part of their elite strike force.

The SOE recruited Haviva and after training, she was to coordinate with the Slovakian uprising against Nazi occupiers. On the night of her departure, the British refused to allow her to go as there was a standing order prohibiting female soldiers from crossing Nazi lines and the SOE feared she would be shot as a spy. She was then inserted into Slovakia as part of Operation Leadburn and surprised her colleagues by meeting them in Banská Bystrica.

Reik organized Jewish resistance fighters and set up escape routes for Jews and Allied airmen, organized a soup kitchen and a refugee community center, and set up camps for escaped Russian POWs.

Nazi soldiers were detailed to put down Jewish resistance and marched on Banská Bystrica. Haviva, the other SOE agents and forty Jewish people attempted to escape but were captured. Haviva was murdered in the infamous Kremnička massacre. Seven hundred forty partisans, Romani, and Jews were herded into anti-tank trenches and shot.

Haviva and another SOE agent were exhumed and buried in Prague, and then moved to Mount Herzl in Israel. A number of streets, buildings, water structures, and a flower are named for her.

 

Ginette Marie Hélène Jullian

 Ginette Marie Hélène Jullian (1917- 1962), code name Adele was born in France, lived in Algeria as a child, and was living in France when the war broke out. She attempted to join the Air Transport Auxiliary but ended up in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. She was trained as a wireless operator. 

When she and her partner were dropped into France on June 7, 1944, they found the circuits in chaos, and her wireless radio was taken by the surviving resistance fighters. They eventually were able to organize local fighters and resupplied them with weapons and other equipment. 

When their region was liberated by the US Army, Ginette went with them as a wireless operator. She was with the Army when Dijon was liberated.

Her partner described her as very brave, and Maurice Buckmaster described her as exceptionally courageous. Ginette married and died in a scuba accident in 1962.

Mary Katherine Herbert

Mary Katherine Herbert (1903 –1983), code name Claudine was the daughter of Brigadier General Edmund Herbert and typical of the British women recruited into the SOE. Mary had a university degree and spoke six languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. She worked at the British Embassy in Warsaw at the beginning of the war but then served as a translator and later joined the WAAFs. She was the first WAAF to volunteer for service with the SOE.

Mary was in the second group of SOE women to go through training.  She was taken by submarine and then by small boat to Cannes. She traveled to Bordeaux where she met her circuit leader, Claude de Baissac. Here she worked as a courier – once even having a solicitous Nazi officer carry her bag containing a wireless radio for her. She also had a relationship with the circuit leader and was pregnant by him when the circuit collapsed. Her lover and his sister, SOE agent Lise de Baissac, were evacuated to Britain via airplane, leaving Mary in France.

Mary’s daughter Claudine was born in December 1943 and Mary moved them into an apartment that had been rented by Lise de Baissac. Two months later, the Gestapo arrested her, believing she was Lise. Eventually, Claudine was placed in an orphanage. Mary maintained her cover and was later released. After much effort, she located her daughter and convinced the nuns to release her. Mary and Claudine then moved into a new home. In September or October 1944, the de Baissac siblings tracked down Mary and brought the pair back to Britain. Eventually, de Baissac and Mary married but never lived together.

They were later divorced, and Mary lived in Britain until her death in 1983. 

Swimming with Sharks

 We left behind a brutal winter for our family Christmas present – diving in the Cayman Islands. Our teenagers had just become certified open-water divers and were ready to try out waters well above the freezing blue hole at Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

We slipped into the warm Caribbean waters and submerged to the reef below us. At first, m
y dive buddy, Madora, clung to my hand but eventually gained confidence and moved away to explore on their own. I was in my preferred place at the back of the line of divers when something fouled my fin. Odd, I thought, I was well away from the reef and had passed nothing that could have caught my fin. It snagged again and I looked over at my dive buddy. All I could see were saucer-shaped eyes behind their mask. Heart pounding, I rolled over to see what was causing the big eyes.

Just at that moment, a six-foot-long nurse shark swam up beside me. He had fouled my fin. His big eye examined me closely as he swam just off my shoulder. I could see the lens adjusting as we made eye contact. His scales shone gold, green, and grey in the sunny water, each one sparkling as the light played over him. He swam past and went to investigate the other divers. I looked at my dive buddy, both of us stunned by what had just happened.

I looked forward to watch the shark, only to see him swimming toward me, faster than I would like but with no threat in his body. At the last moment, he dove slightly and passed under me, his dorsal fin scraping down my torso and leg. He turned around and swam back beside me, looking at me with that big eye. I am quite certain there was a glint of laughter somewhere in that fishy brain. This time, I was able to examine him closely. Somewhere in his life, he had been snagged on a fishhook and had a large scar on the edge of his mouth. I wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch him, to feel the glistening scales, and the muscles under them. But I also knew better. He swam off and we continued our dive.

On the surface, we motored over to our new dive site, the dive master explaining that they carried spear guns to hunt invasive lionfish, and the sharks and other reef predators knew that sticking with dive groups meant they might get a tasty and free meal. He also told us about swimming along with his hands clasped and dangling below him when one of the sharks had swum into his arms. As we waited for our surface time to be over, we told the teens that their first dive had been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Once again, we jumped into the water and descended on the next reef. Within seconds, a new nurse shark joined us, this one not curious about us but far more interested in the dive master and his spear gun. In a flash of grey and green, another shark shot over the edge of the reef. It was my scarred friend from the first reef. He and the other shark swam next to each other in an obvious sharky greeting and turned together to swim down the reef, sticking their snouts into holes and then swimming away in disappointment. It was so like hiking with two dogs that I laughed – not an easy feat in a mask and mouthpiece. Sadly, we found no lionfish on that day.

For the rest of our dive, the two sharks accompanied us, bringing an element of absolute magic to an already memorable experience. Two once-in-a-lifetime dives in the same day are now duly recorded in our dive logs as “Swam with sharks. Cool.”

Dog training: Kenneling Your Dog

In Naughty Dogs, I discuss many philosophies behind dog training and training methods. One topic I did not cover was kennel or crate training. There are two basic schools of thought surrounding crate training. One is that it is a useful tool, the other is that it is cruel. So which school is correct? Depending on how the crate is used, it falls into both camps. I will lay out the different arguments and you, the dog’s person, can make an informed decision about what is best for your dog.

Reasons to Kennel

My dad had always had ranch dogs and kenneling was not a huge part of dog training for these hardworking ranch hands. When I got my first dog, I had no intention of using a kennel. My dog Dax soon taught me the importance of having a kennel and changed my opinion about using one. Here is what I have learned from owning opinionated dogs.

Kennels should be your dog’s safe place

Our dogs use their kennels as a place to go when things get too hectic, or they want a quiet napping place. Because they are within earshot, they still have the option of joining us. Our female pit, Tira, uses her kennel a lot as a safe place. Her puppyhood was spent in a very chaotic environment, and she loves the quiet and security of her kennel.

Our dogs’ kennels are placed in a room on the same floor where we spend most of our time and are within earshot of the kitchen and the bedroom. They are comfortably padded with easily washable blankets. The kennels are covered with an old sleeping bag to keep the heat in and provide privacy. We leave the doors open and the dogs can go in and out as they like during the day.

Diesel, our male pit, is not fond of kenneling – I think he was left for long periods in a kennel as a puppy – and he wants to be with us. He will occasionally kennel voluntarily, but he prefers napping on our recliners.

Our children were taught from a very early age that the kennel was the dog’s, and they were not to bother the dog when it was in the kennel. The two dogs we had while the kids were little knew they could easily get away when they felt overwhelmed.

My sister’s rescue dog, Bear, kennels well, except that somewhere in his life, someone tortured him while he was in a kennel. As a result, he will enter the kennel and turn around to snarl and snap. Closing the kennel door without losing a finger can be an exciting proposition. Bear does not view his kennel as a safe place, but as a place where he must be aggressive to stay safe. If the dog is kenneled, the dog must be kept safe!

2.   Kennels keep your dog safe while you are gone

A kennel is a safe place for your dog when you are gone. However, your dog should not be kenneled for exceedingly long periods of time (eight to ten hours a day). This is when kenneling crosses the line into abuse.

Dogs get into mischief when they are not supervised, like getting into places they should not. Electric cords seem to be very appealing to young dogs, with sometimes devastating injuries. Garbage can surfing can be a sign of boredom or separation anxiety. Putting your dog in a kennel when you leave can keep your home and dog safe. 

Dogs, even the best of freinds, get into fights. Squabbles can quickly deteriorate into full-blown fights. Leaving two dogs alone and unkenneled can be a good way to come home to a dead or badly injured dog.

One of my friends came home to a horrible scene after leaving his dog to play with the neighbor’s dog. One dog got his jaw trapped in his buddy’s collar. In trying to get free, he strangled the other dog. The scene was a very awful experience for everyone.

The issue with long kenneling is that dogs need to be able to move around, eat and drink, and burn off a little energy. Trapping them in a kennel for long periods is not fair to the dog. Holding urine for that long can lead to health issues. If you want to develop a neurotic dog, one of the quickest ways is to kennel them for hours at a time.

3.  Kennels can be a good place for training or a time out

Kennels can be used as a training tool. People use them with good effect to work on house training since dogs do not like to soil their living spaces. We use the kennel as a time-out when the dogs get too excited when guests are over, or when Diesel decides to be a jerk. A short time (ten minutes tops) allows the dogs to get over the excitement of company or gives Tira a break from Diesel’s relentless attitude.

4.  Kenneling at night can keep dogs out of mischief

Kenneling at night is similar to using the kennel while you are gone. Leaving a kenneled dog alone for hours is hard on a pack animal. In addition, if your dog needs to go out, they should be able to let you know.

Because of Diesel and Tira’s puppyhoods, neither are reliably housetrained at night. We kennel them within earshot of the bedroom, and they let us know if they need to go outside. We rarely secure the bottom of the kennel doors and both dogs know how to worm their way out. They choose not to.

5.  Kenneling while traveling keeps your dog safe

Securing your dog in an anchored kennel in the car while traveling can keep everyone safe. First, your dog is comfortable in his kennel, and it offers security. Next, the dog will not become a missile in the event of a car accident.

I-80, one of the busiest interstates in the US, runs through our town and, thanks to winter driving conditions, has a lot of accidents. We routinely see posts about dogs who were ejected during accidents and then ran away. Sadly, these dogs are rarely recovered alive. First responders routinely take pets of accident victims to the local animal shelter to keep them safe until their family can retrieve them. Having an upset dog in a kennel makes it easier for first responders to transport them without incident.

We recently realized we needed to have our dogs restrained while they were traveling (Tira took exception to a dog in a car we were passing and began rocketing around the car interior). As we do not have room for two large kennels in our car, we got a harness seat belt system for our dogs. They adjusted immediately. If we could fit the kennels in the car, I would have no issue with kenneling them while we are driving.

6.Kenneling in a hotel is a good idea

Kenneling your dog when you are in a hotel can help the dog be less bark-y and keeps it from rushing the door. If housekeeping opens the door, the dog could escape or frighten an unsuspecting person with unpleasant consequences – like being evicted from the hotel. In addition, the hotel room probably has a lot of interesting smells and keeping them confined except for walks, helps to limit the damage your dog might do.

7.  Kenneling is a good skill to have in an emergency

Finally, in the rare chance that you need to evacuate due to a natural disaster, having a kennel for your dog increases the odds you can keep it at the human shelter. Your dog in its familiar kennel will be far safer at an animal holding site.

Summary

Like all training tools, kenneling can be both good and bad. Using a kennel to represent safety to your dog can help it be more comfortable or better behaved. Using a kennel to warehouse your dog for long periods of time is cruel. If you are not certain how best to use a kennel, talk with your vet or get a recommendation for a good dog trainer.

Mouse: 1 Three Humans and Two Pit Bulls: 0

Two things to know  - first it is fall in Wyoming which means the mice are looking for winter digs. Second, I loathe mice. It has to do with a dozen white lab mice, the movie Old Yeller, and a nine-year-old who had just read about Louis Pasteur. On with the story…

It was 10:30 p.m. I am spending some nice quiet time in the “reading room” when I hear an old noise. Assuming it is the dishwasher on the other side of the wall, I ignore it. Just then a tiny brown mouse raced past my feet. I let loose with an oath that would not be out of place in a Marine Corps barracks. The mouse skids behind the sink.

Thirty seconds later, it blasts out from under the sink, drifting the turns like it is auditioning for Fast and Furious, and vanishes into the linen closet. Since I can now escape in safety, I open the bathroom door. On the other side are my husband and Diesel, the dog of very little brains. Both are staring at me in consternation.

I decide to open the linen closet. This frightens the mouse into action, and it screams past husband and dog. One leaps into the air with a startled shriek. The other looks at me in consternation with tongue lolling out of mouth.

The mouse is now behind the dog kennels and oldest child appears from the basement to get into the fun. We release Tira, the Kali Durga of rodents, and she immediately focuses in on a bookshelf. Child picks up a heavy planter, overhanging with vines, so we can move the bookshelf
. Husband arms himself with a broom. I slide the kennels away from the wall and Tira …misses the mouse. It darts out past husband who immediately starts swinging with the broom. Child is between him and the mouse but well within range of the broom. Child waltzes out of the way, snapping the trailing vines off of the mother plant.

Tira dodges the broom, following the mouse who has far better traction on the wood floor than she does. Diesel follows the commotion, trying to decide if he should bite someone on general principles or just have fun with his humans and this weird game. Mouse escapes somewhere in the kitchen.

Thirty minutes later, we have repaired all the chaos to the house furniture, placed the vines into water, and made plans for future battle with our unwanted guests. As for the mouse, I rather suspect it broke into the liquor cabinet and is now passed out with its nasty mousie friends under the dishwasher.