This morning, I headed up a steep trail with Henry, enjoying the challenge and the beauty of the mountains, especially with the wildflowers still in their full glory. Near the top, I met two women sitting on the trail. I asked if everything was okay and one answered that she was just waiting. I assumed she meant resting. Turns out I was wrong.
A few minutes later a red helicopter started circling. I assumed it was doing routine fire patrol. I was wrong again.
It began flying lower and lower in tight circles. Eventually the door opened and someone rappelled out the side. Other rescue workers suddenly materialized out of nowhere.
I found out from one of the women whom I’d met coming up that the other woman had broken her leg and called for help. She added that the injured woman was 58 so her bones were pretty brittle. I didn’t share my age!
Henry and I were standing on an overlook with a few other people while all of the chaos was going on. We were afraid to move and get in the way. After quite some time, it seemed that everything was under control. I believe they brought an ambulance up dirt Mulholland, a drivable area, to transport the woman down.
But let me tell you, the wind from a hovering helicopter is like a tornado. We were getting pelted by pebbles and my sunglasses blew off my face and into the canyon below.
ELBEE Good thing she buys cheap ones because she always loses them.
On the bright side it was great training for Henry. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to desensitize him to loud noises.
Our other adventure this week was much lower key. We were walking on dirt Mulholland when a woman called out, “Aren’t you part of the PAC program?” Surprised, I told her that I was.
ELBEE She never would have recognized her if she’d been alone.
It turned out she was an ICU nurse at UCLA who loved the People Animal Connection. She knew Stanley and Gus plus thought she had met Charley years ago. She asked me about Henry who was being so sweet with her.
As soon as I told her that he was an eleven month old puppy in training, she couldn’t wait to call her friend, a PICU nurse at the hospital. While they were talking she decided to FaceTime so that her friend could see him too.
After she finished the call and was getting ready to leave, she took a moment to tell me how much it meant to the staff to have the dogs back in the hospital. She said they were truly helping everyone cope with the ongoing stress of COVID.
It was such a random but heartwarming encounter. The dogs continue to bring so much unexpected light into my life.
