I realize I haven’t posted anything about my fieldwork on the YK Delta yet, but I have a tale to tell about my time back in Fairbanks. I’ve been finishing up the summer by working on the Riverboat Discovery again. Having familiar faces to work with has been nice, but fieldwork definitely has helped me become worse at making small talk. When I was in the field, I was either spending my day with one other person or completely on my own. I’m just not someone who needs to talk all the time, so being surrounded by people has been a little overwhelming.
Charter trips are generally much nicer because there are a lot fewer people riding on the smaller DII. Deckhands often get to eat some of the catered food and can even put a tip jar out! My favorite part is probably doing “bow watches” where one deckhand sits on the bow and just makes sure nobody’s being reckless on the stairs or climbing over chains. When it’s chilly out, we more or less sip hot chocolate and enjoy the scenery.
A few weeks ago I worked a pretty low key wedding reception charter where I sadly didn’t get any delicious cake but otherwise had an enjoyable evening. Around 22:30 I was about 3 minutes from home on my bike ride when I saw a dog in the road. Obviously it didn’t belong there, but I thought to myself, “What can I do? I’m only on a bike.” I proceeded to bike past the dog before thinking, “What are you doing?! You should at least try to do something! Someone’s probably worried about their dog right now, and you – a dog fanatic – are going to do nothing?” With my conscience picking up the slack, I turned around, biked back toward the dog, and got off my bike to see if it would come over to me.
It had gotten distracted by something tasty in the grass and seemed intimidated by my bike, so I laid my bike down and called the dog over. I saw it had a collar, and that’s when my next mental questioning started. Instead of thinking “Oh good, it probably lives around here and just walked through an open gate,” I found myself wondering and even slightly hoping this dog had been missing for weeks and that there was some $500 reward.
Hold the phone.
You’re supposed to do good things like check on loose dogs out of the goodness of your heart, not with any thought of money! When I realized I was a horrible person, I decided I’d “do my darndest” to get that dog home.
With some sweet talk I got the dog to walk over to me. After it sniffed me over, the dog realized its new best friend just wanted to give it some loving and check the collar. As I turned the collar I found the dog’s name (Bob), a phone number, and an address for my own street! I even thought it could be the house across from where I stay. I called the phone number and reached a machine, but as I was leaving a message, a police car stopped in the road in front of me to see if everything was okay.
It probably did look like a slightly odd sight: a biker (still wearing a helmet) sitting on the sidewalk with a dog, bike lying on the grass.
The cop got a call for a traffic violation while we were talking, so she had to go, but since I had Bob’s address, she provided me with a tether to walk him home. The yellow lab mix was very sweet, and we had a lovely conversation as I walked both my bike and the dog the short distance home. I will admit I hoped I wouldn’t be able to get ahold of the owners that night so that instead of returning Bob, I could have a buddy for the night. You can’t blame me for that one!
As I leaned my bike against the fence at my place, a slow moving pickup truck approached from the end of the street, and I figured correctly that it was the owners out searching for their dog. With apparent relief on their faces and phrases of gratefulness, the owners reclaimed Bob. Bob had been missing for less than an hour, but he had been greatly missed because he’s the man’s service dog! Since Bob doesn’t get out much, the owners said he doesn’t have the street smarts to be out on his own. They were very happy a dog lover – and neighbor! – had happened to find their pupper.
Funny thing about their service dog is that I’m familiar with the organization it was trained through: Canine Companions for Independence. My mom organized a “Dog Camp” for me and a friend when we were in middle school, and we visited the CCI regional training center in Ohio. I still haven’t ruled out pursuing work training service dogs, but that idea has been on the back burner for a bit. [Side note, Life is Good by Trixie Koontz (former CCI service dog) is my favorite book. Dean Koontz may have helped her with the writing a bit, but she was a brilliant dog!]
I wasn’t expecting any sort of thank you, but they were kind enough to buy me an almond cake from a local bakery. I’m just glad nothing happened to their service dog and that I got a few minutes of puppy time with Bob.
Honestly, if more people would just slow down, stop thinking about themselves, and try to help whenever possible, this country would be more respectable. It’s not worth hurrying through life and keeping so busy that we can’t stop to make a difference for the sake of helping someone else. I’m glad I noticed my ridiculous thoughts that night and turned around to help a dog (and man) in need.
