Wet Dog rescue

Night before last, I took our oldest dog Rex on a car camping trip. He's 16 and his rear end doesn't work like it used to, so any more than a mile of hiking is out of the question. Got there, set up tent, got a nice camp fire going. He wandered about camp, sniffing and digging and snorting. Cooked dinner, Chicken Alfredo, which I shared with him. Had the place all to ourselves, it being the middle of the week and winter.

Next to the campsite was Lion Creek, swollen with snowmelt from the nearby TopaTopa mountains. At sunset, temp. was about 40F.

A couple hours after sunset, Rex starts getting antsy. I figure maybe he has to do his doggy duty and I let him out of the tent. For some reason, he makes a beeline for the river. I called to him and he ignored me, so I got up and went after him. I think he's going senile - or deaf. He doesn't stop at the edge of the creek and keeps wading out into the current.

Now he's out there and having a hard time with the current. He can't get his rear end to work and gets caught in the rocks. So I wade out into the creek and have to pick him up and carry him back to shore. (He's a Bernese Mountain dog, no mean feat.) Brrrr!

I'm not sure he even noticed the cold. He has a fur coat on him that he can go swimming and his undercoat will stay dry. I am not so lucky. Fortunately, I have dry sets of clothes in the trunk so I got changed and then I toweled him off. He's still soaking wet. He's not going into the tent but I don't have the heart to lock him alone in the car all night.

At this point, I am done for the trip. I pulled the stakes and rolled the tent, bag, and ground pad into a big burrito. I shoved it into the passenger seat and him into the back seat and drove home. He slept the entire way.

We still love him. His future on camping trips, however, is dubious.

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Wet Dog rescue