FINDING THE LOST, Jeanne Tody Beroza [reading tree txt] 📗

and watching him as they continue to warm him up. Once he’s stable he’ll be transferred up to Rapid Regional for ongoing care.”


CHAPTER SEVEN:

Two weeks later deputies Davis and Moore walked into the December monthly search and rescue staff meeting. “I’m sure you all know Davie Freeman is back home with his family,” Jim said as he debriefed twenty-two SAR volunteers. “He didn’t lose any digits though they’re still monitoring the little fingers on both hands. The many layers of clothing helped keep him alive and it was lucky he was lying with his hands tucked in against his body.

Mr. Freeman was charged with the reckless discharge of a firearm, and the incident will show on his record but he’s been released on time served since he has a clean record and the State’s Attorney thought the extenuating circumstances merited leniency. It’s also not illegal in this county to shoot at a loose dog, even if that dog was searching for his son.”

“We all feel for the family,” he continued. “They’re going through a rough patch right now. Due to spending his time either in the hospital with his son or in lockup, Mr. Freeman hasn’t had time to hunt and he also lost his part-time job.”

“That’s tough,” someone said. Others around the table murmured in agreement. Jana shook her head in sympathy. Can’t win for losing, she thought.

“You might have heard of our ‘road-kill program’ where the county picks up freshly dead, vehicle-killed-deer, has them butchered and then delivered to needy families in the area. We had an accident last week involving a large cow elk. We’re going to deliver that meat to the Freeman family along with the other fixings for Thanksgiving Dinner. Plus, we’ve taken up a collection at the Sheriff’s Department for some new and better outdoor clothing for the family. Custer Ambulance contributed. I thought you guys might want to pass the hat, too.”

“I’ll help deliver everything if that’s okay,” Jana spoke up. “I’d like to take Tahoe out, too. Its not often he gets to see victims he’s helped find after they’ve recovered. I think he’d like that.”

“Yeah, me too,” Mike said, “you know I think that little kid might like to meet Tahoe. It’s not every day you have a big, warm wolf-dog save your life you know.”

“He’s not a wolf,” Jana groused good-naturedly, insulted as always when someone called Tahoe a wolf dog, “He’s a registered Alaskan Malamute, a show champion, a sled dog and my good hiking companion; he’s not a wolf.” The team laughed. It was always easy to get Jana’s goat, just insult her dog.

“Hey, they’ve got a foot of snow out there in Custer Highlands,” someone else said. “We can fire up the Snow Cat and get in some driving practice. Its big enough to carry the loot, several of us, and Tahoe.”



<f<font;30pt>FALLEN<</font>


MISSING, PRESUMED LOST

-- Two teenage boys from the local high school. Believed to be snowboarding in the Cedar Ridge Area.


Team Lady was searching the snow covered, icy trail closing in one of the areas the boys’ parents said they often frequented. The team’s namesake, little golden haired, part retriever Lady was working the wind coming up over the cliff’s edge. As she sniffed around and through granite spires, checked crevices and raised her nose to catch wind currents, Emily followed close behind her watching for any change in her posture, any clue that she might have found the boys’ scent.

Normally Lady would work the wind or follow a trail right to the missing person then return to ‘tell’ Emily she had ‘found em’. Em would say ‘show me’ and Lady would race back to the victim with Em right behind her. Today the ground was too treacherous for the dog to be racing anywhere plus the possibility was great the boys had gone over the edge of the cliff. Em didn’t want Lady sliding into the abyss of the canyon below in her enthusiasm to find them
.
The third member of the team, Matthew was working as the flanker in charge of radio communications with the search coordinator. He used a map, compass and a GPS or Global Positioning System unit to record their progress and mark Lady’s ‘finds’ where she indicated she had sign of the boys’ passage. He carried the pack with their rescue gear and medical supplies freeing Em up to move quickly behind the search dog. Matt and Emily had been working together as a canine search and rescue team for a little over a year.

Em, long legged and slim with raven hair and sky blue eyes, had picked the little golden pup out of many in line to be euthanized that weekend at the local dog pound. She had promised herself a pup since early summer but hadn’t found time to make the trip. She hated going to the pound anyway. Even if she took one little dog home with her, there would be so many left behind.

She had seen the little look-alike to her namesake, the star of the Walt Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp, and had fallen in love. Then, as the pup grew into a juvenile Em discovered she had a talent for sniffing out people in hiding, anytime, anywhere. Em read some books about canine search and rescue, joined an international SAR dog group, and took Lady to training seminars. By the time she was one year old she was an internationally certified, area search, air scent dog.

Emily and Matt were already fellow search and rescue team members when Em started training Lady. Every good canine team contains a dog handler, a trained search dog and a team flanker. Matt had been interested in the tough, raven haired beauty for awhile so when she started bringing the twenty pound mutt to meetings with her, he decided one way to get on her good side was to volunteer to be her flanker.

The following year involved lots of training, many searches, some finds and a growing relationship between Matt and Em. He loved Emily. She told him daily that she loved him too, right after she hugged and expressed her undying affection to her dog. That was all right. He had no problem coming in second to the pooch; particularly not to one who was a search and rescue whiz kid, finding every lost person she had been sent out to locate.

They had been a team for a year. He planned to celebrate their anniversary as a SAR-Dog team by asking Em to marry him. He had reservations Saturday night for dinner at her favorite restaurant. Today he walked behind Emily and Lady up the slippery trail, following the dog’s progress, recording where they had searched and what they had found or not found, and communicating with base on a regular basis. Other foot (not canine) teams were searching neighboring parts of this treacherous but popular area of steep slopes and dangerous cliffs.

The ragged, rocky terrain prevented ongoing radio communications so leaving Em and Lady while they were taking a water break; he crawled up a slick spire to get a minimal signal for their mandatory two-hour radio check. “Team Lady to Base,” he said into the radio. “Nothing yet. We don’t have any signal here unless I climb rocks and they’re covered in ice and a little slippery. Our GPS position is,” and he gave them the latitude and longitudinal readings for their current location.

Returning to his team, he was crossing a smooth, downward sloping, ice-covered granite slab when he heard Em shout. Looking up, he saw Lady’s nose raise and turn into a gust at the cliff’s edge. Spurting out of Em’s hands, she scrabbled her way across the ice, claws digging for what purchase she could find as she jumped and barked-out her glee at finding scent.

“Lady, no, stop,” Em shouted and with arms outstretched slid on the slick ice after the dog. Five feet from Em when Lady disappeared over the edge clawing desperately for purchase, he threw himself onto the ice trying to reach far enough to grab some part of her and stop her slide. He almost had her foot when she went over, screaming “Lady, God Lady, no.” He went after them; weight and momentum carrying him even farther down the slope.

Time stopped. For all of them, time stopped as each slammed into rocks and ice, crumpled where they fell and slipped into unconsciousness.

Damn, Matthew thought as he dragged himself up the steep incline handhold by handhold. If this had happened ten minutes earlier, we’d have missed our radio check and a team would be on its way to find us. Damn, I can’t hear Emily or Lady. I don’t know if Emily’s okay.

Matthew knew what his fellow searchers would see when they found him. He felt for them. It was gonna be a bad deal seeing the ragged blood trail he created as he dragged his damaged body up to Emily. The tourniquet he’d dug out of his med pack and applied above his fractured femur had slowed down the spurting blood but he had continued to bleed in a steady flow. Matthew could feel himself going, getting cold and weak. His heart was racing, limbs were leaden; god all he wanted to do was curl up and die. Soon enough for that, had to get to Emily first.

He’d been airborne when he passed them lying crumpled on a ledge. Trying to halt his downward momentum he’d grabbed at rocks and scraggly trees once he’d hit the slope and started sliding. Then he’d slammed into that damn rock wall and, snap, he felt his leg twist, his bones break. Crap! If he’d stayed in one place he might have lasted till searchers could find him. Nah, it’d be hours before Base even knew they were in trouble. He would have bled out by then for sure. Now in just a few more feet he’d reach the ledge and Emily.

Em lay on her back holding the limp little body to her chest. “Lady, my little Lady,” she cried, tears rolling over her numb cheeks to freeze in her hairline. Her baby; her Lady. Why had she ever asked the little dog to risk her life trying to save others? Why had she put both their lives on the line? Now Lady had lost hers and Em thought she might soon follow.

She couldn’t move. Her legs and feet were numb. And, she was so cold. She wasn’t dressed warm enough to lie still in below zero temperatures, exposed as she was to the wind and cold ground. She wore ski pants and a ski jacket, clothes for easy movement in cold weather. She could barely feel her fingers. She hoped her arms would freeze in place so she wouldn’t let go of Lady when she passed out again.

Lady’s head lolled to one side. Luckily she wouldn’t have felt her neck break, would never have suffered. Em had not been as fortunate. She’d hit huge rocks on the way down, first cracking her head open and then slamming into a jagged spire with her back. Her head was bleeding. She had one hell of a headache. She could not feel nor use her legs. Like Matthew she was a trained emergency medical technician. She knew the signs of spinal trauma. She was lucky to still have the use of her arms or she couldn’t have pulled the little dog over to lie on top of her. She couldn’t get to Matthew