On the dogs’ behalf

A few everyday real Texans I am honored to know or be aquainted with:  

A heavy set Army Vet who thought nothing of jumping into a flash flooded rushing creek to successfully rescue a child that was being swept away on the Texas Gulf Coast

A friend who woke up in the middle of the night to smoke filled choking darkness; all awhile in his boxers, he ingeniously extinguished a raging kitchen fire that was rapidly engulfing his home 

A nurse who received  the professional Nursing Daisy Leadership Award who could simultaneously run a code on two patients while performing CPR on them for 20 minutes. 

Speaking of Texas Nurses, of an earlier generation, a Texas Army Nurse who was deployed to Vietnam. She was later to be a consultant of one who was there and lived it kind on the 90’s hit TV drama China Beach. 

And foremost on the list for myself personally is a beautiful 37 year old? (She has been telling me that she is 37 for the last four years…) Redheaded woman - who outran and otherwise left me behind climbing barbed wire fences and running across cactus covered unfamiliar turf located on a nearby ranch property  -   while rushing to help me rescue my beloved dogs; Honey Bun a  Blackmouth Cur and Courage my German Shepard (each dog weighing around 100 lbs). They had gone missing about two hours earlier.  

I’d been suspicious that they were in trouble but had know idea where they had gone. I searched my ranch for about an hour with no luck finding them. I had called my friend who lives some distance from me for her help with the search. 

When she arrived we began to hear the faint barking of dogs in distress not on my ranch but on a neighboring one. It was a hot February day but the rain water which filled the waist high, 100 year old, cement, large livestock cistern they had jumped into to cool off, was still winter cold. Its floor and sides were covered with years of accumulated green slime, slippery moss from which the dogs could gain no claw hold by which to escape from it. 

They only had minutes to go before succumbing to hypothermia and slowly drowning. We arrived just as their near cowboy death was approaching. They could move no longer and their bodies were submerged; their snouts and nostrils barely broke the surface of the water. They were two 100 lbs soaking wet Dogs who could not help us help them be extracted. Rescuing them was very emotionally intense short period of time. It was a  two person dirty job of strength and effort to get them out safely. The Dogs recovered in few days and have never even thought about going back there again since. 

On the dogs’ behalf and as well myself, we will always be especially grateful to our best Texas Friend who came through for us when things went all pear shaped. You go girl.