The Good, the Sad, and the Unfair!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Vern’s birthday was January 10, 2014.  He turned four. That is some of the good news.  The bad news, which ended with good news, happened the day before his birthday.  On that day, like we always do, the dogs and I went walking. I opted to take them to the campground to walk and then I did something I never do.  Usually, we go home after our walk, but I decided to take them across the street to the pier where we park our boat in the warmer weather.  It is an E shaped pier and the only way off is across a little metal bridge and normally, I block access to the bridge after they cross it and let them off leash.  They can run all over the pier with wild abandon and it makes me smile to see Fudge take off down the pier with her graceful, reindeer like prance, a moment after she realizes she is off leash and free as a bird. 

Vern lops along behind her and they like to stop and taunt each other, play bow, and mix it up a little.

Yesterday, I took them to the farthest place on the pier before letting them loose and then watched them go.  Both dogs came back when called and Vern reached me first.  I was snapping shots of Fudge with Vern beside me and in the blink of an eye, Vern stepped off the pier and onto the partially iced over lake.  Never has Vern jumped off of the pier into the water. Both of my dogs wade into the water, but are not dock divers and neither will jump into the water from our boat. This was so completely unexpected and I could see it happening as if in slow motion, but I couldn’t stop him and before I knew it Vern was standing on a block of ice within feet of icy water where the lake had not frozen over. All 100 pounds of him!

At this spot, but taken a few days later!

I reacted badly. I didn’t think to yell anything sane, but the panic in my voice reached him somehow as I yelled, “oh my God, Vern, oh no,” because he froze.  The other good news was Fudge kind of froze, too.  She stayed put and did not decide to use Vern’s predicament and my rescue attempt as a diversionary tactic to make her way around me and off of the pier.   With more strength than I knew I had, I pulled Vern up onto the pier. I acted on sheer instinct, and it was only after the fact that I felt the whole weight of “what could have happened?” Vern is a big boy. He stepped down onto the ice and luckily the ice held.  A few feet away it was icy water and the water below him was very deep.  We were a long way from shore and I could never have lifted a soaking wet Vern onto the pier if he had gone into the water.  The water was far too cold for Vern to make it all the way to shore. It was far too cold for a human to jump in and help and really could have been the difference between life or death for me if I had tried. Nobody else was around to hear any cries for help. The “what ifs” could keep me up for days if I let them, but like John said he is safe and everything turned out ok in the end.  Fudge knew it was serious and was wonderful in this tough situation and once Vern was safe, I held them close and told them how much I loved them.

 

Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye.  We have done this “pier thing” lots of times and never had any kind of problem.  By now most of you have read about Max, the dog in the DRC that was tragically killed by a hunter’s stray bullet.  We live in a heavily wooded area and hunting is huge in Pennsylvania. The schools in our area close down for the first day of hunting season.  They hunt in the field right next door to our house.  It is not unusual to hear the booms of rifles all around us.  My neighbor called me this year after setting up a camera in the woods to keep track of the deer and upon review of the first pictures spotted Laurie, Fudge, and Vern walking in the field.  He asked his wife to call me and let me know it was not safe to walk there during the hunting season.  I was under the stupid assumption that no one could be dumb enough to mistake one large woman and two dogs on a leash for deer, but I was wrong. I am a city girl learning it happens all the time. Max probably played outside in that same yard lots of times with no problems and again the “what ifs” are probably haunting his remarkable foster family.  I have no answers for why Vern was safe on the ice and Max was unsafe in his own yard and I can’t help but be thankful for the one and saddened by the other.  The fate of dogs always rest on humans making the right or wrong choices and decisions and sometimes, just dumb luck is involved. 

 

I loved that show Touched by an Angel and I always loved the way it depicted God’s loving hand and his angels guiding the dead towards the light and heaven beyond. I am going to believe that Max was guided along his way that day and left this world knowing what it was like to be loved and cared for by his foster family and is now in a better place. We have all made choices in our lives that we wished we had not and we’ve all done something careless that we wished we could take back.  I don’t know what happened that day with that hunter or what he thought he was doing and I can only hope it was a mindless accident, but stories like this always make me think about timing and fate.  If only that hunter had opted to stay home that day.  If only Max had been standing one foot to the left.  And then we have Vern’s story.  Thank God I was standing right there.  Thank God the ice held.  All these thoughts could make a person go crazy and I have no answers why one story had a happy ending and one story didn’t.  It just happened that way.  As my kids used to tell me all the time, “It’s not fair!” when they felt I had doled out the wrong punishment to the wrong kid.  This time I have no smart, motherly reply back.  It really isn’t fair.  Sometimes, the world makes no sense to me.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Thanks, that's good to know.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

F, I don't think you can get notified of all blogs, but you can get notified when a particular member posts a blog, or a photo, or whatever. If you click "View Blog" up top right under Laurie's name, it will take you to a listing of all of her blogs. At the very bottom, you can click "Follow", and you will then be notified of any new blog posts she makes. You can do the same with a particular person's photos, discussions, etc. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Karen, if you know of a way to get notified of blogs let me know please. I have never figured out how to do that, but it has only been 5+ years.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I don't know how I almost missed this! I get notifications of all of your blogs, but somehow not this one. 

I am so glad Vern's dock diving incident had a happy ending. Unlike many others here, I knew it was going to turn out all right before i even got to the end of the story. My grandmother had a saying "The angels watch over children and idiots", and I think that must include "simple dogs", too.:)

No, life is not fair, and the world makes less sense to me every day. People like you who write blogs like this help to make up for some of that.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Laurie, You have no idea how relieved I am that everyone is safe and that you didn't make me wait till the end of the blog to find out. I don't think I could stand it if anything happened to that big lug.  The fact that you were able to hoist Vern to safety  really makes you his guardian angel, so I guess Vern was touched by an angel this time. God gave you those nice long arms for a reason. Plus, despite your panic you did exactly what needed to be done and Fudge picked the right time to listen to her Mama. Good girls, both of you. Don't beat yourself up with what if's, we've all had our fair share of them in our lifetimes. Happy belated birthday Big guy, we wish you many, many more. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

On a happier note:  Happy Birthday , big guy, from your buddies on shore!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

How scary!  I am so thankful you are writing about a happy ending for you and Vern. What was he thinking jumping off that pier????   Thank you for sharing, Laurie, and reminding us that we while we make choices (some we regret, some we don't), luck or happenstance is so much a part of the outcome.  Thank goodness this turned out well.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Oh my....  

Although, dont feel bad about this Laurie.  We had the same problem over and over with Spud in November? December.   I was screaming.  He just ran around on the ice and thought it the very best game... jumping and deer hoping with excitement.

It was this photo here that did me in...

I vowed to stay away.

I really should blog about my 911 call last week about a dog, a young woman, and the amazing ignorance!  

Glad your safe. I suppose you and I need to stay away from the frozen water  :(  

Sad because it is one of my favorite places to play with my dog

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Nicky, No, I did not lie down. I just bent over and pulled on his collar and he helped and between the two of us, up he came. The ice was solid and did not give way. I don't even like to really think too deeply about it. It happened so fast. I had an angel on my shoulder that day!

Dee, OMD...a mudslide. How scary and I bet it was a long night for you. Thank you!

Ricki, Fudge takes that as high praise indeed coming from Tara :)  Thank you!

Allyson, Thank you!!

Lonnie, Thank you!!

Carol, Thank you!! We do worry about these Doodles, don't we??

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

My goodness what a terrible scary thing to happen. Did you lie down and reach over the dock to lift him out? I'm just going through it all in my mind. That ice must have been very thick to have held Vern's weight. I just can't imagine what you were going through. Certainly adrenalin worked it's magic and gave you the strength you needed to save his life.  Trying to make sense of things like this near miss or Max's tragic  death is pretty useless, it never yields any answers.