Rescued By Nova

Chapter 10

The next several weeks were much of the same. My days were spent with Nova, Greg, and Jake, and the dinner with Diana in the evening. Home cooked meals were amazing. Greg and Diana had a guest cabin on the property and invited me to stay there instead of the trailer. With winter coming in would be much safer when the temperatures were below freezing with a few feet of snow on the ground. When I mentioned finding a place to rent, they offered up the cabin and I could not have been more grateful. The proceeds of the sale of my house were substantial but if I didn’t get a job, they couldn’t sustain me for too much longer if I was having to pay a huge rent payment as well.

Colorado was becoming more like home. Phone calls to my parents, my sisters, and my brother were easier for me to make. Telling them about training and how fast Nova was picking up on everything we were teaching her. Telling stories about Greg and Diana. We would laugh and I would joke that I was never coming home. When hanging up the phone I would wonder if that was a joke or if I was serious that I may never come home. I felt more at peace in the last several weeks here than in I had in a long time.

I moved into the cabin and in was beautiful. It was designed as a vacation cabin. I was one bedroom, one bathroom. It had central heat and air and an updated beautiful kitchen. It still had the original fireplace you could build a fire in if you wanted to or if you lost power. It had a generator if needed. It was amazing. The bedroom had a king bed that looked like the most comfortable bed I had ever seen. I’m not sure I would ever want to get out of that bed. s*x with Joey on that bed would be freaking amazing. Where did that come from? I hadn’t thought about that man much at all in the last few weeks. That is what I get for taking a day off to move. Time off is not good. Not good at all.

That afternoon I got a call from Greg. A 14 year old boy was hiking with friends and got separated from the group. Greg and Jake got the call to find him, and he was asking me to go with him. “I’ll be there in 5” I said. I hung up the phone, changed clothes as fast as I could, told Nova she couldn’t go this time, grabbed my go bag that Greg packed for me, and ran out for the cabin as fast as humanly possible. I was at Greg’s front door in 4 minutes. He was chuckling at the excitement obvious on my face. I hate that someone is lost, but to be involved in a real SAR mission was awesome.

It took 40 minutes to arrive at the command center near where the boy was last seen. They told us they pulled all searchers and volunteers from the area so Jake could work. They spend about 5 minutes giving us any necessary information about the boy we learned was named Nathan, and then we went to work. Greg knelt down and talked to Jake, a conversation only the two of them were privy to. Then Jake took off like a rocket. He ran back and forth across the area trying to catch a sent. We ran like that for about 10 minutes, suddenly Jakes body language changed, and you could tell the exact moment he could Nathan sent, he changed direction and took off. We ran following the general direction Jake took off in for another 5 minutes until Jake started barking. He found his target. He found Nathan. Jake would continue to bark until we reached him, and he received his reward for a job well done. A few minutes later we reached Jake and Nathan. Greg praised Jake and threw him a tennis ball. Jake chased it and was happy as could be. Nathan had fallen down a small drop off. It was only about 6 feet down, but he was injured. Greg radioed back to command with our coordinates that Nathan had been located, and medics were needed. We were the first responders until medics and the other first responders arrived. I climbed down the small drop off to better access Nathan until they could get there.

Part of my training with Greg the last several weeks had been taking courses in first aid and wilderness first response. Part of being a handler with a SAR dog is accessing the situation and administering first aid until help arrives.

Nathan’s pulse was strong and steady. His leg is broken, and he has a small laceration on his head. Otherwise, there were no obvious injuries. I relayed that back to Greg, and he radioed back to command. I stayed with Nathan and reassured him that help was on the way and would be here soon. I gave him some water from my pack and part of a power bar. He said he stepped away from his group to go to the bathroom and didn’t see the ledge until it was too late. When he fell, he hit his head and lost consciousness for a brief time. When he came to, he was unable to move with his injured leg so he was just stuck waiting until help would come.

After help arrive and medics got to Nathan I climbed back up to Greg. Medics got a temporary splint on Nathan’s leg. Placed a neck brace on him just to be on the safe side and strapped him in to a carrying basket. As a group, we lifted Nathan back up onto solid ground. We helped carry Nathan back to the command center and the waiting ambulance. Nathan’s parents were waiting for him there as well. His mom hugged us both in appreciation. I was fighting to keep back tears. It was a good day.

It was nearly midnight when we arrived back home. Greg bid me goodnight and disappeared into his house. I was riding on a high. I greeted Nova with so much enthusiasm it confused her. I wanted to call someone and tell them about today. Anyone! Honestly, I wanted to call Joey, I wanted to tell him about today. And then I wanted to end the day wrapped up in his arms in between the sheets. NOOOO! WHY???

It might have been midnight but I needed to run. So, I called Nova and we went for a run. The area around the cabin and house was safe enough for a 5 mile run without ever leaving the property so that's what we did. Then I came home and fell into fitful sleep filled with dreams full of Joey. Waking up hot and bothered, frustrated and in need of another shower. Just when I think I am getting out of my head he starts creeping back in. I growled and screamed into the pillow.