F is also for...Fall!
Yeah, that fall too (which I miss terribly living in a place with no seasons besides rainy or more rainy) but actually the fall I mean has nothing to do with the changing colors of leaves or a new crispness in the air. The fall I'm talking about has something to do with a very lucky dog and a little hike we took yesterday.
Sean blogged a little about our hike yesterday and hinted at something more that had happened. So, I guess it's my turn to tell you all about it.
Imagine, if you will, an idyllic setting. Waterfall. Mist. Chirping birds. Green rain forest all around. Butterflies dancing in the sun's rays. And a poor mischievous German Shepherd falling, falling, falling, falling.
I heard Sean shout at Maya to stay put. As I came around the corner, I saw Sean peering off a ledge into a great abyss telling our dog to stay. Apparently, Maya had misjudged a ledge and slipped right off a 10-foot cliff to the rushing river below! Luckily, she had landed on a little sliver of ground that, under normal circumstances would have been covered with water, except that it hadn't rained in a while and the river was low.
Immediately, we were looking around trying to figure out how to get the poor dog back up but it was quickly becoming apparent that Maya was in a bit of a pickle. Between the rushing river,mud, rocks, cliffs, and dense rain forest, we had no real way to get to her. If she jumped in the river to swim, she'd surely be swept away. If she went any other direction it was a steep, vertical climb on crumbly, slick mud.
The hero in our story swept his backpack (which also contained a baby) off of his back and began formulating his rescue plan. It's a good thing he'd been watching Bear Gryllis on Man vs. Wild or we might not have made it. (My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek, in case you can't sense the sarcasm here.) Anyway, Sean left me on a rocky incline with a little girl crying for her lost puppy and a baby just on the verge of tipping out of her backpack while he rushed into the rain forest looking for a way to get to our poor shivering dog.
Somehow, our hero found his way down to Maya's sliver of mud and rock- though he later confessed he was a bit afraid as he made the precarious trek. (I wasn't feeling too good myself after he gave me the car keys "just in case" and then disappeared into the wild green yonder.) After reaching Maya, Sean jury-rigged a harness out of her leash. It's a good thing this hero had brought along his pretty sidekick or this story wouldn't have had a very happy ending. I mean, I sacrificed my nice clean jeans just to sit down in the mud to hoist Maya up.
Okay, so it wasn't so smooth as that. I sort of jerked on one end while Sean pushed on the other. And then the poor dog got caught on the ledge. She was yelping and biting at my hands, hanging there as I grabbed handfuls of fur trying to get a better grip. I'm pretty sure I was hollering, or at least grunting. Sean was no help at all. (Well maybe he couldn't reach to push anymore - what kind of superhero is that?) Just when I thought it was over and hopeless, I gave one last tug and suddenly Maya was in my lap - shivering and forever terrified of the river, but none the worse for wear.
Sean found his way back up again before I even had Maya's makeshift harness off. Apparently there had been a way over and around the rocks in the river all along - his x-ray vision must have been clouded by all the adrenaline. Anyway, the dog was rescued. Brooklyn had her best friend back. And Sean and I had a good laugh...when it was all over.
Sean blogged a little about our hike yesterday and hinted at something more that had happened. So, I guess it's my turn to tell you all about it.
Imagine, if you will, an idyllic setting. Waterfall. Mist. Chirping birds. Green rain forest all around. Butterflies dancing in the sun's rays. And a poor mischievous German Shepherd falling, falling, falling, falling.
I heard Sean shout at Maya to stay put. As I came around the corner, I saw Sean peering off a ledge into a great abyss telling our dog to stay. Apparently, Maya had misjudged a ledge and slipped right off a 10-foot cliff to the rushing river below! Luckily, she had landed on a little sliver of ground that, under normal circumstances would have been covered with water, except that it hadn't rained in a while and the river was low.
Immediately, we were looking around trying to figure out how to get the poor dog back up but it was quickly becoming apparent that Maya was in a bit of a pickle. Between the rushing river,mud, rocks, cliffs, and dense rain forest, we had no real way to get to her. If she jumped in the river to swim, she'd surely be swept away. If she went any other direction it was a steep, vertical climb on crumbly, slick mud.
The hero in our story swept his backpack (which also contained a baby) off of his back and began formulating his rescue plan. It's a good thing he'd been watching Bear Gryllis on Man vs. Wild or we might not have made it. (My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek, in case you can't sense the sarcasm here.) Anyway, Sean left me on a rocky incline with a little girl crying for her lost puppy and a baby just on the verge of tipping out of her backpack while he rushed into the rain forest looking for a way to get to our poor shivering dog.
Somehow, our hero found his way down to Maya's sliver of mud and rock- though he later confessed he was a bit afraid as he made the precarious trek. (I wasn't feeling too good myself after he gave me the car keys "just in case" and then disappeared into the wild green yonder.) After reaching Maya, Sean jury-rigged a harness out of her leash. It's a good thing this hero had brought along his pretty sidekick or this story wouldn't have had a very happy ending. I mean, I sacrificed my nice clean jeans just to sit down in the mud to hoist Maya up.
Okay, so it wasn't so smooth as that. I sort of jerked on one end while Sean pushed on the other. And then the poor dog got caught on the ledge. She was yelping and biting at my hands, hanging there as I grabbed handfuls of fur trying to get a better grip. I'm pretty sure I was hollering, or at least grunting. Sean was no help at all. (Well maybe he couldn't reach to push anymore - what kind of superhero is that?) Just when I thought it was over and hopeless, I gave one last tug and suddenly Maya was in my lap - shivering and forever terrified of the river, but none the worse for wear.
Sean found his way back up again before I even had Maya's makeshift harness off. Apparently there had been a way over and around the rocks in the river all along - his x-ray vision must have been clouded by all the adrenaline. Anyway, the dog was rescued. Brooklyn had her best friend back. And Sean and I had a good laugh...when it was all over.
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