Smoker

Smoker

By Mark Mc Quown

Smoker was a Labrador Retriever who had spent many winters in the cabin that Smoker could see in front him but could not get to it. He smelled the smoke coming from the chimney, he smelled the fire inside and the food cooking, but he was stuck.  

The day was clear with no snow in the air and this was helpful as Smoker watched the Fire Truck pull up to the cabin and the firemen racing out from all sides. There was no fire, they came for the dog.

Smoker had jumped out the front door this morning, as soon as it was opened, so he could do his business and come back into the house, but it didn’t turn out that way. When he was finished and already trotting through the snow to come home – out of the corner of his eye he spied a white rabbit and instantly his legs took off without him ever telling them to run. Smoker ran and ran, crisscrossing the white flat ground in front of the pond. The rabbit must have known, as it raced closer to the ice, that the dog would fall through but the rabbit would just scurry across, sliding this way and that, but eventually reaching some mound or hole where the animal disappeared.

The dog could see nothing else but the rabbit until he heard a crack and was suddenly face down in the icy water of the pond. He instantly swam up and jumped but could only get his front paws on the slippery ice. Smoker was in a pickle as the people came running out of the cabin yelling for the dog but could only get so close. They would then turn around yelling and run back toward the warm and cozy cabin.

Smoker waited for a moment to gather his senses and then tried pushing off in the cold water, but his paws would only reach so far and then he would slide back. 

 He kept at it because he could feel the cold working its way up his leg and making it harder to jump while swimming. He turned in the little ice hole he had broken through and tried another side where he gained a little more ground and got more of his body up on the ice but still he was stuck.

The people in the house were now back out with a long rope which they began throwing and tossing but kept missing the dog. Finally, the rope landed near Smoker, and everyone started yelling for the dog to bite onto the rope. Smoker was not thinking about biting it as he groped for it with his paws. He thought he could just hold onto it by pressing it between his paws, but nothing happened. They slowly pulled the rope out of his paws as the dog made another few attempts to get out of the water and onto solid land.

The rope came back out again but this time it had knots tied into it. Again, and again they would throw the rope and finally, it landed right on his paws. Again, Smoker pressed the rope between his paws and again they pulled.  This time one of his paws caught one of the knots and his wet body started to move up onto the ice. His back legs kicked uncontrollably when the knot broke loose from his paws and he fell back into the water and sank below the surface.

The people on the hard ice were screaming and yelling when suddenly Smoker’s head popped up out of the ice hole and he lunged back up to the ice where his paws held him half in and half out of the water. Cheers came from the crowd, but Smoker only knew he was cold, and that time was running out for him to get warm. Smoker panted on the cold ice, and he had visions of himself, wrapped up in warm blankets in front of the fire while he chewed on his favorite jerky strip.

More neighbors arrived with more people making suggestions until the group was large enough to try and make a human chain.  

Smoker made a few more tries for land but he was too cold now to really move his back legs effectively. The people making the chain soon found out that they could not be standing but had to lie down on the ice to get more distance with fewer bodies. They linked hands and feet, all holding onto the rope as a safety line and slowly the human snake started out toward the stranded animal as the owners yelled out words of encouragement for the dog.

One of the children who owned the dog became hysterical as the human chain could not get out far enough because the people were not dressed to lie down on the cold ice. When they started to move back away from the dog, the young girl had to be taken into the cabin to stop her hysteria. About that same time the Fire Truck arrived, and the men all were instantly out on the ice trying to find the best way to get the dog safe in time.

Smoker was tired, and the cold was reaching far inside now making the dog care less about trying to get out of the cold. The firemen tried a few human chain attempts while one of their crew put on a cold-water wetsuit. The owners still yelled encouragement to their dog as the firemen in the wetsuit, laid down on the ice, holding the knotted rope and started to worm his way out toward the freezing animal.

The dog started to slip now because he didn’t have any strength left to dig his paws into the ice. Slowly his body dipped deeper and deeper into the water as the man worked faster and faster to worm his way along the ice. He was three feet from Smoker when the dogs head finally came off the ice and dropped down into the hole.

The fireman scrambled as fast as he could until his head and upper body was over the hole. He stuck his whole upper body into the hole and with a huge surge of energy pulled the dog up out of the water and onto the ice.

He pulled a towel out of a plastic bag tied to his waist and wiped the ice and water off Smoker's head. The animal was still breathing and looking at the man in some confusion.

“All right got him. Pull.” The man wrapped the towel around Smoker and then wrapped his body around the dog as he held the knotted rope and everyone on dry land pulled. The fireman held Smoker close to him as they slid the thirty or forty odd feet to safety where many people picked up the dog and wrapped the animal in warm towels right out of the dryer.

There was great shouting and screaming for joy as Smoker was carried into the house to warm up and the firemen helped their partner back into the warm truck where he too was wrapped in warm towels. In a few minutes’ time, the area was cleaned up and the majority of the people were on their way home. The Fire Truck pulled out onto the road and blew its horn as it made its way back to town.

The rabbit sat outside its burrow and watched the people carry the dog, wrapped in blankets, to a car and the car then drove off. The Rabbit never found out that Smoker lived from that experience, to enjoy a long life as a dog and the rabbit knew that part only too well. As for the pond and the icy winters, Smoker never chased animals in the Winter, ever again, but he did sit occasionally on the side of the pond and remembered the struggle in the water and the man, who reached down into the hole and pulled him up onto the land.

“Smoker, it’s time for dinner, come on dog, it’s cold out here.” Smoker took off and ran the short distance to the girl who petted him and then raced him into the cabin for another night of warmth on his bed, right in front of the fireplace. The rabbit ducked down its hole and burrowed into the fur and leaves for another cold but safe night – dreaming of the dog.