How to talk about yesterday? It was great for most of the day, absolutely miserable and emotional for two hours (was it really that short?) and ended on a high.
Mike and I felt a little uncomfortable dropping Iris off at a stranger’s house for the day but we wanted to go into the park and we didn’t think she’d be happy in the cage all day at the kennel. At the day care, she had a ton of people, kids and other small dogs to entertain her.
We took a shuttle bus into Eilson Visitors’ Center in the park. The shuttle ride was about 4 hours and we saw some amazing scenery, as well as caribou and a grizzly from a distance. It rained the previous evening and a dusting of snow covered the mountain tops, adding to the majestic views. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place as beautiful. The road is intentionally unpaved and skinny to minimalize the intrusion into the wilderness. Having two buses pass each other on a cliff with no guard rails was a little hairy. Mindful of the time we wanted to pick up Iris, we hiked the first part of Thorough Ridge, which was a steep ascent to the ridge top. The hike was tough but we were rewarded with spectacular views and a herd of caribou hanging out on the ridge not too far from us.
We were a little tired and hungry on the shuttle ride back. There was no food in the park. We had packed a lunch, but it had been a long day and a long time since lunch. Still, we felt great just being in the park. We also got a great view of a mother grizzly and her two cubs. The cubs were wrestling, and it was adorable.
As soon as we got back into cell service, we saw we had two calls from the dog day care. Mike called them and everything went very, very bad. Iris had bolted through the fence around noon, and they had been looking for her all day. The day care house is on Stampede Road, on the edge of Denali park. Iris had been in the Alaskan wilderness for the last seven hours. I can’t describe how we felt driving the 20+ minutes to their house. We did realize that Mike had lost his wallet and phone on the hike, which we couldn’t care less about at that moment except that Iris’ collar had only Mike’s phone number on it. Luckily, Verizon was willing to immediately transfer all his calls to my phone.
The day care people had done a lot to try to find her. After they showed us where they had last seen her, Mike and I split up and started calling for her. Mike took a swampy trail in the woods where she was last seen, and I went along the roads where there were houses with other dogs. The trail that Mike followed was only used in the winter and, in summer, it was a swampy mosquito-ridden mess. Rob offered Mike a pistol for protection, which Mike politely declined thinking he would be shouting for Iris anyway and would warn off any predators.
The woods just sucked up any sound. We couldn’t even hear each other calling for Iris. We met again after 50 minutes without any luck. That was disheartening because we both imagined the other returning with Iris in their arms. Mike decided to walk a branch off the same trail, which went over a steep rise and met with a road that a neighbor suggested we check. I got the truck to drive to the road to walk it.
Mike ran down the trail, desperately calling for Iris, with swamp water squishing out of his shoes. Once the trail met with the road, he picked a direction to walk, always calling for her. Then, he saw a brown animal come around a corner a ways away. He couldn’t identify it as Iris immediately and was initially afraid to hope. Iris had heard her dad and ran right to him. She did slow down and tuck her tail just before reaching him. At least she had some remorse. After about 8.5 hours in the woods, she was thirsty and hungry and had only two superficial injuries, one on each front paw.
There were some silver-linings in our evening. We were touched by how kind the people in Alaska are. Many people stopped their cars or left their houses and came out to the road to ask how they could help and what Iris looked like. Also, after going to dinner, it was quite late and we saw our first Alaskan sunset. Finally, just as we were about to fall asleep, Mike had a thought. He located his wallet and phone in a special compartment in his camera bag, where he apparently put it without thinking about it. Everything ended well.