What would you do for your dog?

For the past two weeks, the most heart-breaking real-life drama has been playing out an hour west of here. In the evening of Friday, June 13th, under a full moon, two healthy young firefighters and a dog set out on a planned four day hike into the Los Padres National Forest. The terrain in that area is eons old ocean floor and consists of the most challenging rocky formations, mingled with brush and trees and streams. The friends stopped hiking that first night and were resting and planning the next day’s trek, when the dog suddenly bolted and ran off into the darkness. The hiker who owned the dog ran to retrieve him, barefoot and wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. There followed the most intense ground and air search So Cal forces could muster. After ten days, the dog was found, dehydrated and exhausted but alive. Yesterday, a helicopter crew with just the right amount of daylight and the perfect angle, spotted something that turned out to be the remains of the missing firefighter. He had climbed the back of a rocky cliff and fallen 1200 ft to his death. Searchers had previously assumed nobody could scale those sharp rocks in bare feet. All of which makes me wonder what I might do to save my dog from any kind of danger. Did this man hear his dog crying in the distance? What would any of us do? I think I understand.

Missing Firefighter Found