Something wakes Brian in the middle of the night, and although all is quiet at first, he trusts his instincts and stays awake. He hears a dog’s soft whine, but can’t imagine that a dog would be here in the woods. He eventually sees a four-legged shape on the shoreline and concludes that it must be a dog. He paddles cautiously towards the bank and stops to study the dog through his monocular. He can see that the dog is badly injured, with a wound that stretches from her shoulder down the length of her torso. As he paddles ashore to help the dog, Brian wonders how the dog could have received such an injury.

As Brian approaches the dog, she wags her tail and shows signs of friendliness. Upon closer study, Brian sees that the wound is about a foot and a half long and some of the dog’s muscle is exposed. He builds a fire and decides to use fishing line and a needle to sew the wound closed. He speaks to the dog calmly and washes the injury with lake water as he prepares to give the dog stitches. He isn’t sure how the dog will respond to the pain of the needle and works cautiously to make sure she will not bite or attack him.