I watched Animal Planet last night as I always do. It is always interesting to watch "I shouldn't be alive" because it shows what an extraordinary lifesavers animals can be, especially dogs. This lady--I forget her name--was training for a marathon in a canyon, but a wrong step caused her to fall 20 feet above and damage her pelvis. Her dog, Taz--funny how I remember the dog's name and not hers--a 3-year-old reddish-brown mutt with a long jaw and a broad chest, located her at the bottom and she immediately felt relief at the sight of her companion.
He had curled next to her that first night in the hidden canyon, after the accident. He had put his snout on her belly, and licked her face as she stared up at more shooting stars than she had ever dreamed. And that first morning--could it have been just the day before?--when it was so cold she had to crack the ice on top of the miraculous puddle, he had played with a stick, run in little circles, and barked with what she thought was happiness, and he was such a good dog then. He made her think that maybe things weren’t so bad. It was a beautiful morning, but her discomfort worsened as she felt a lump on the front of her belly and realized that she was bleeding inside; she was bleeding to death.
All she had was the puddle, and her dog. And then she didn’t have the dog, because when she was screaming, when it took her two hours to reach behind her head to fill a water bottle from the puddle, the dog ran away. She couldn’t stop screaming. She screamed because she hurt, and because she needed help, and because she was afraid that help might not come in time. The dog came back, but he wouldn’t lie down next to her that second night. It was just last night, but it seemed so long ago. There were no shooting stars the second night. The second night, she saw things in the sky that made no sense, and heard a strange voice from the dark, and it made no sense, either. She was hallucinating from the large amount of blood she was losing.
The third day, the dog was gone. Then he was back. Then he was gone again. Even though she was well known for enduring things others could not, for persevering through heat and cold and all manner of punishing climate and topography--even though she was one of the most accomplished endurance runners in the world--she still had her limits. On the third day, in the hidden canyon, her body broken, she discovered them.
And then the dog was back, and now he was coming closer, and now he was lapping at the puddle, her only water source, and she couldn’t help it, she yelled at him. It was the only water she could reach. Couldn’t he find another puddle? Bad dog!
No one knew where she was. It would be dark again, and cold. No one could hear her scream. No one was coming. Today, her third day on the rock by the puddle, she allowed herself to see the truth.
If you stopped to think about the things that could kill you, you could drive yourself crazy.
“Taz,” she said, “you know, maybe you could go and get some help for me.”
He looked at her and tilted his head, first to the left, then to the right. She knew it was ridiculous, but it looked like he understood.
The dog had been disappearing and now she could face death alone. As the search and rescue had located the woman's truck, they investigated the area for any sign of her body. But the canyon was too big and they might be too late. HAVE NO FEAR! Taz came running around the team, trying to get their attention. Once he received it, he started running back to the same direction he arrived.
Of course, you know where this is going. Taz was saved his master's life. Hooray for dogs!!
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