Radley's brush with the afterlife.

Friday, we went camping with some friends up in Stanley. Saturday afternoon we went mountain biking with said friends on a pretty easy trail. Since it was supposed to be an easy trail we took Radley with us because we always take him to do stuff like that with us. We're always taking him trail running or biking with us and when we play ball with him it's for sometimes more than an hour and sometimes in the direct sun. But Saturday was not a good day for the pup. When we got about a mile into the ten-mile trail, Radley went kaput. We had stopped for a drink so I poured him a drink too. But he was all off balance and his eyes weren't focusing on anything - not even me and Kelly, who were talking to him and telling him to drink water. I told Kelly we needed to get him out of there so Kelly left his bike, picked up Radley, and started running down the mountain. Through our own fear and the help of a friend we were able to get Radley to the bottom of the hill and into the airconditioned car in about ten minutes and both my bike and Kelly's bike into the back of another friend's pickup. Through a scary course of events that included more help from the awesome lady at the emergency clinic in Stanley, my nursing skills and Kelly's mad driving skills, we got Raddogg to a vet who said that he had recovered just fine. The vet said that Radley had heat exhaustion - borderline heat stroke - and that it sounded like he had had a seizure when we were carrying him down the hill. But he promised us that everything with Radley was back to normal and that he was again a healthy functioning dog. After we left the vet's office, Kelly and I realized just how scared we had been because we felt the release of the stress. Radley slept the hour-long drive back to the camp site and Kelly and I breathed for the first time since Rad fell. He's precious, our boy.