Slowly the young soldier woke up and became aware of his surroundings. His leg hurt and he was in bed. First he noticed a plasma tube connected to his left arm near the elbow. Strangely, he felt something cold and metallic on his other wrist – it was handcuffs. Oh shit, he thought. He looked around the room. There were a couple beds but they were empty. He was alone. He tried to remember what happened, but he just couldn't. He did remember that he was in a unit and wondered where the others were – Sarge, Doc and Tully.

There was a small table near his bed with his glasses, hat, dog tags, watch and a small cup of water. He reached for the water and took a sip. It tasted like nice fresh water – not cold, but not hot. He also decided to take a look at his hurting leg. He moved the covers over and saw a large bandage going from his groin to his ankle. When he tried to move his leg, the pain became excruciating. Note to self: don't move the leg. He decided to put on his glasses and watch. Then he started looking around the room.

After what had seemed like hours, but his watch told him that it had only been half an hour, he became bored. He wished for his comic books and gum. The urge to chew was getting very strong and there was nothing but his bedsheet. There was nothing to do but watch the clock tick. "Bored!" he said.

A few minutes later the screen opened and a nurse came in. "Guten Tag," she said. "Hello," Hitch replied. She was the typical German – blonde and blue-eyed – and very cute. In spite of the language barrier, Hitch was a lady's man and she was definitely a lady. So Hitch gave her one of his award-winning-heart-melting-look-at-me-I'm-great-guy-smiles. With his eyes alone, he said to her, "Don't you want to sit with me a while. I'm nice – I don't bite." She smiled back but then she took his temperature, blood pressure and pulse. Then she took the clipboard that was hanging on the end of his bed and wrote something on it. "Tschüss," she said and left. He guessed that meant, "bye." She smiled at me, he thought, that's a start.

The next to enter was a German doctor with Captain Dietrich in tow. "Private Hitchcock, this is Dr Adler, he is the surgeon who operated on you. He would like to check your wound."

"Okay, Sir," Hitch replied. The doctor said something in German and Captain Dietrich stated that the Doctor noticed that he had drunk the entire glass of water.

"Do you think you can eat something?" asked the Captain.

"Yes, sir, I could eat." Once again, Dr Adler and the captain converse in German.

"Dr Adler says that he will have some broth and bread sent to you soon." Next the doctor takes a pair of scissors and cuts off the bandage. There is a long scar going from Hitch's hip to his knee. Hitch imagines that there must be at least 100 stitches. The doctor pokes him along the stitches and says something in German. Next, he moves to Hitch's foot and pokes on the bottom of his big toe. More German followed by the Captain saying, "Can you feel this?"

"Yes" The doctor apparently understands the word yes and says "gut."

The doctor takes out the plasma tube, puts a bandage on Hitch's elbow, wraps a new bandage on the leg. At this, the doctor leaves to check on his other patients but Captain Dietrich remains. "Captain, is my jeep here?" asks the young private.

Captain Dietrich looks suspicious and asks "Why?"

"Well, sir, I am bored and I was wondering if I could have some things from my jeep."

"That depends. What do you want?"

"Just my gum and my comic books. Captain Boggs doesn't like it if I ask for time off to catch up on my reading."

"Alright, I'll send a man to get your comic books. But you don't need any of that nasty gum substance."

"But I do need it. I'm a rat after all."

"I know you are a rat. What does that have to do with gum?"

"Rats need to chew." Captain Dietrich rolls his eyes and realizes that he might as well let the young rat have his gum. A bored rat can cause trouble. "Very well, you can have your gum."

"And I also need my homework from my correspondence course and a pencil."

"You are taking a correspondence class, Private?"

"Yes, sir, Engineering Fundamentals."

"Anything else?" The Captain seems a mixture of annoyed and amused. On the one hand, he doesn't like essentially taking orders from an American Private. On the other hand the homework and comics should keep the Private occupied, the less trouble the better. The private is being polite, respectful and bold.

"Now that is out of the way, I want to know where the rest of your unit would go to hide. They weren't able to get you out from under your Jeep, so they ran when we arrived. Where would they go to regroup?"

"I'm not going to answer that sir. I will only tell you my name, rank and serial number."

"No thank you, Private, I already know those." A soldier comes in with a tray containing a bowl of broth and a piece of bread. He puts the tray on the Private's bed. After he leaves, Captain Dietrich leaves too. Hitch carefully slurps the hot soup and dips the bread in. After his lunch, he felt stronger and got bored again. It was a good thing that another soldier came in with a pile of stuff – gum, comic books and homework.

Hitch happily opens up his comic book and starts reading. As he reads, he feels something jump up into his bed. It is a small dog who looks like a red Corgi but her ears are down. The dog is cute and sits down by Hitch's side. I guess I have someone to keep me company, he thought. As he reads his comics, he mindlessly pets the dog.

Captain Dietrich stops in and looks at the dog. "Where did the dog come from?"

"I don't know, sir. She just climbed up into bed with me."

"You can't keep the dog." When the Captain tries to pick up the dog, she bares her teeth and growls at him. Hitch just shakes his head and tries to warn the Captain off. Not to be deterred, the captain reaches for the dog again and gets bit.

"Sir, I think she doesn't want to leave." The Captain shakes his head and leaves. Hitch goes back to his reading. He reads all 12 of his comics and then decides to take a nap. When he wakes up, the dog is sleeping next to him and a chicken is sitting next to his head. OK, I've got more company he thinks to himself.

At about 1800, the nurse comes in. She takes one look at the animals and leaves without saying a word. Five minutes later, Captain Dietrich is back with a bandage on his hand. He says, "Nurse Becker said that you have a dog and a chicken in here. This is a field hospital, they really don't want you to have animals in here. They are not sanitary. Please give me the chicken." The dog growls again and bares her teeth again. She takes a quick snap at the Captain. This time the Captain moves quickly and avoids a bite.

"I'm sorry, sir, I think the chicken is gonna have to stay. I'm getting hungry, do you think the Doctor would be ok with me having some dinner?" Captain Dietrich turns and leaves without saying a word. In about 10 minutes, a soldier comes with a tray with another helping of bread and broth. Hitch eats his dinner and starts working on the homework.

It gets dark and Hitch nods off. The next morning, Hitch awakes to see that not only does he have a dog and chicken with him, but now there is also a black cat in bed with him. The cat is a little strange – her tail is very short. I wonder what happened to her tail, thinks Hitch. The cat looks at him and he thinks he can hear a voice in his head. It's almost as if she is saying something to him. "Sylvie?" he says. The cat nods and meows. "Very nice to meet you Sylvie. My name is Mark but everyone calls me Hitch."

"Meow." Sylvie then starts licking her paws. Just then, Hitch wonders what the dog's name is and in his mind he hears Kelly.

"Are you Kelly?" The dog looks at him with big puppy eyes and shakes her head as if to say no. "Not Kelly? Oh, Khali! That's your name. Are you hungry Khali? I know I am. Maybe they will bring us some food. Watchha think, Kelly, Should we both look at them with big puppy dog eyes and see if they give us food?" The chicken then starts bucking and flapping her wings.

"What, are you hungry too? So what's your name? Isabella?" Isabella, nods her head and clucks. The cluck sounds like a "yes."

"I'll see if I can get us some food." Hitch calls out for the nurse a couple times.

The cute nurse from yesterday comes in. "Wie bitte?" Hitch points to his mouth to indicate that he is hungry. He also points to the animals mouths too. The nurse looks a little confused, but then she seems to understand. She walks over to the curtain, pokes her head out and says something in German.

She returns to Hitch and like yesterday, she takes his temperature, blood pressure and pulse again. Again, she writes some notes on the clipboard. Hitch tries again with his smile. This time, she smiles back and holds his hand briefly. Making progress, he thinks. I got a smile and she held my hand.

A soldier comes in carrying a tray. This time there was oatmeal, toast, a cup of tea, 2 tins of some kind of mystery meat and a bread roll. The nurse accompanies the soldier. She has a pad of paper and points to the mystery meat. On the paper, she draws a cat and a dog and points again to the meat. "The meat is for Khali and Sylvie, got it." Hitch nods.

Next, she points to the oatmeal, toast and tea. She draws a stick figure on the paper. "I get the oatmeal, toast and tea, ok" Hitch nods again. Last, she points at the roll and the chicken. She breaks off small pieces of the roll and gives one to the chicken.

"OK, Sylvie, Khali and Isabelle, we've got breakfast." Hitch opens the tins of meat and puts one in front of the dog and the other in front of the cat. He breaks off more pieces of bread and puts them near the chicken. Having fed the animals, he then eats his breakfast and drinks the tea.

About an hour later, Captain Dietrich comes in and looks at the private with the three animals. The dog growls a warning which the captain knows to take seriously. He had better not mess with the dog, cat or chicken. "Private Hitchcock, there was the strangest thing as I entered the medical tent just now. I saw a donkey nosing at the flaps. I think it was trying to get in."

The cat then blinks her eyes at Hitch. Hitch pets the cat and says, "Sylvie says that the donkey's name is Susan and she definitely wants to come in too. Captain, is it just me, or is this a little strange?"

"This is definitely strange." The captain warily eyes the dog who is still growling at him.

"I mean, I smiled at the nurse and I was trying to get her to sit with me. But instead I got four female animals. I must be losing my touch." Hitch shakes his head and then blows a big bubble.