Susan:

You don't have to be in the Amazon to lose it in a swamp.

Many years ago I was pheasant hunting with my Britiany spaniel (Toby.) at an abandon Air Force base in Wisconsin that had some swamp land on it.

Toby went into the swamp with all the tall grass and rushes before I could stop him, and promptly lost his bearings. After trying to call him out, I went into the swamp area myself. I was younger and dumber with no compass, did not take any bearings as I went in worried about my dog. I heard him tramping through the brush with some occasional whining as I called out to him. One time he cut directly in front of me about ten feet away and despite my loud frantic yells, he just kept going without even seeing me. We finally crossed pathes and I grabbed him by the collar and suddenly realized I had no idea how to get out.

I tried to follow the path of deflected and crushed grasses, but some of them were made by Toby in his madness, and some were made by me trying to find him. I started going into softer deeper water and had to keep turning around to stay in shallower water which was not consistent as I went from shallow to deeper to shallow until finally I went to shallower and shallower water and finally out of the tall grass on the side opposite where I had gone in. We circumvented the swamp to get back to the car, where I finally let go of his collar after tying him to the car with a leash which I should have had with me.

We rested, and both drank some water while I cleaned burrs out of his coat and looked at that beautiful swamp where I could have been lost permanently.

As much as I love dogs in general and the ones I have had in particular, I will never again go into an unknown area without a plan, a refrence point, and a compass.

Bountyhunter