669: Scrambling to Get Off the Ice
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Mike was out with his dog. It was a January night. He was on the CNO canal in Washington, D.C., which I've been there. It's like you're in the city, but it feels like you're in the woods. On one side of you is the Potomac River. On the other side, there's this pretty old canal, which was frozen over that night. He gets around three miles out in his jog and stops a stretch. His dog, Luli, is off-weesh. - And so I remember throwing a stick down near the water, just seeing if she'd go after it. And I started stretching and I'm getting my calves and I'm looking toward the Potomac. So I'm not really paying attention to her. I turned around, couldn't have been more than 30, 40 seconds, and she's in the middle of the canal, probably 30, 35 feet out there. - She's standing on the ice, you mean? - She's standing on the ice and she's sniffing around and I go, "Luli, Luli, get back here." And she puts her head up and it couldn't have been more than three seconds later. I just heard this spoosh and she goes through. And I'm freaking out and I also, okay. Okay, she'll get out of this. She's a dog that can contort out of anything. And she started trying to get her paws up on the ice and they just kept slipping off. And she was trying kicking his like crazy from behind and a good minute goes by. Now I'm sort of trying to coax her out gently, like, "Luli, come on, come on baby, come on girl, come on." And a minute goes by and I'm starting to think, "Okay, this is not good." And then two minutes go by and she's starting to whimper. These little (humming) and I'm going, "Oh man." And I'm looking around, there's nobody around, it's pitch dark. I only remember even two people on the trail running that I even saw. Okay, today's show is about how do you choose what to do? How do you decide your move in a daunting situation where stakes are high? You're like, "Mike, he's got no rope. His dog is too far out to use a branch or something. There's no time to get help."
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