Once Again...

This time with feeling.

Last shift, after the combat test, I got to bed about 10:30 or so. I shoulda known we were going to be in for a strange night. About 9pm we had a PT with a nice laceration show up on the front ramp of the fire station. They were new to the area and not used to living in a place with 911 coverage, so they were hoping that some of the volunteer firefighters would be at the station and able to help. Whoops. No volunteers here haha. Luckily us paid guys were able to get them sorted out.

Anyhow, after getting to bed at a decent hour, we got up about 3:45 to go rescue a dog. A well loved (read: fat) beagle had managed to get herself stuck in a fence. The owner said that she was old and scared of storms, and had likely panicked. The odd part was that she was trying to get <>into<> the yard, as opposed to getting out. Whatever, no big deal. She had too much belly, and not enough noggin, much like a certain beagle that is near and dear to my own heart. If you picture a fork, imagine something being stuck between the tines right in the curve. She had gotten her shoulders past the bars, but was now well and truly hung.

If you've ever heard a beagle start caterwalling, you know what we were up against. Luckily she quit as long as someone was there with her. We tried to dig her out, but that didn't work, there was a strategically placed tree root blocking our efforts. You'd think that if she could get in there, she could get out, but I think that she had turned herself sideways to get in, and then wedged further trying to move. The poor lady that owned her was in her nightgown, and said that she had let the dog out to potty. Did I mention that we had one heck of a thunderstorm going on?

To make a long story short, we were unsuccessful in prying the bars apart, we couldn't dig her out, and we could not cut the bars that were holding her because her little beagle body was wrapped around them, so the only option was to use the hydraulic cutters (like you'd use on a car wreck) to remove a section of the fence. It took longer to set up than to cut, and we soon had a wiggly, licky beagle giving us grateful slobbery kisses before running over to her owner.

It's things like this that make it all worthwhile haha.

On another note, I'll be doing something at the end of the month that I thought I'd throw out and see if anyone here was interested. It's short notice and would be a bit of travelling, but if I don't ask you'll never know. I am going to something up in Clarksville, TN (where I went to college). It's an archery competition, but they have a special group that you can participate in. They provide you with a chunk of wood, all the tools and instruction that you need, and help you make a bow. Then on the last day you get to participate in a special shoot just for the people that made their own bows. I believe it starts on a Thursday and runs through Sunday. It's at the end of this month and first of May. I'm really looking forward to it.

See ya later.