We have begun our summer 2020 adventures and when we say they’re off to an eventful start, we are NOT kidding! Everything started off great, we loaded the boat, Foxi got a new life jacket and we were excited to catch some fish!

After the short drive to Anderson Ranch, Idaho, we all began to relax as we breathed in the fresh mountain air. The lake was calm and crystal clear, practically begging us to jump in. Foxi ran along the beach barking at the waves as they came up to the shore. Matt’s dad loaded the boat in and we went on a mission to find a campsite. We found the most beautiful spot on the beach with nothing but trees as the background, set everything up and then went out to find our dinner!

We got to a spot on the lake that we felt had a lot of opportunity for some big bass and Matt and I grabbed our fly fishing gear and got onto the shore. Matt’s dad and Foxi stayed on the boat to fish around the banks. Everything was going well until I started to hear in the distance a faint cry. At first, I thought maybe we caught our first fish for dinner, and then I realized he was saying, “HELP! HELP! HELP!”. I grabbed Matt’s pole and told him to run thinking something had happened to his dad.

When I finally made my way around the corner all I saw was Matt in the water holding onto the side of the boat begging and pleading for Foxi to hang on, while his dad was holding a sopping wet, nearly lifeless Foxi. I ran over and grabbed her and we set her on the beach, I began doing the only thing I could think to do, perform CPR. Matt and I went back and forth giving compressions and breathing into her tiny little body praying that she would come back to us. Her tongue was blue and we were starting to worry we wouldn’t be able to save her.

After a few more breathes her tongue started to move and she began to blink her eyes again. Slowly she started to move her body and within about ten minutes she was wanting to chase rocks into the water just as she had before.

The rest of the night was full of unspoken emotion around what had happened and the thought of Foxi potentially not being with us any longer. She got a lot of table scraps and a lot of snuggles. We took her to the vet and she had some bruised ribs, swollen lungs, and the start of pneumonia from the water that got into her body. She is on medication and is making a fast recovery. As you all know, she’s not just any dog, she’s Monkey!

(We did finally catch fish for dinner after that, God must have decided to cut us a break)