Something moved beneath his coat and I quickly realized it was a trembling Boo.
“She’s right here, baby, and I’m not mad at her. I’m just so happy you’re okay. Let’s go back to the cabin where there’s a fire. Come on, we need to get you two warm,” I mumbled while I quickly transferred the dog to the inside of my own clothes and reached for my pack to get an emergency thermal blanket to wrap around him. I forced him to take a few sips of the warm water in the bottle I’d stashed inside my clothes, and then I knelt down in the thick snow to strap on the extra pair of snowshoes. I decided to talk to him about everything I was doing, to help keep him alert.
“Thank god you were smart enough to put your boots on,” I told him. “So smart, Oz. These are going to strap right on over your boots and help you walk back without sinking into the deep snow, okay? Stay with me, baby.”
“Jake?”
I looked up to see confusion in his eyes.
“What is it, babe?”
“Where’s Boo? I lost her. I thought I found her but she’s not with me.”
I blinked at him for a beat.
“I have her, sweetheart. She’s okay. You’re both going to be okay, I promise. Come on, we need to get you back home in front of the fire. Here, hold my hand and walk with me. It’ll take you a minute to get used to these big awkward steps, but I know you can do it.”
The walk back seemed to take us fifty times longer than the search for him had. He had such a hard time in the snowshoes, I had to match his steps and walk next to him with an arm around his waist. I didn’t bother picking up the markers I’d dropped and just thanked my training for making the return even easier than it would have been had I needed to pull out the GPS. I kept a babbling narrative going the entire time and stopped periodically to check him and have him answer questions.
By the time we got to Oz’s cabin, I was pouring sweat inside my clothes. I spared half a thought for the damp, shivering dog under my shirt. After an hour of the cold air stinging my skin, I was an uncomfortable mix of hot and cold. I couldn’t even imagine how Oz felt.
I pulled Boo out and gently set her on a pillow right in front of the fire while I stoked it up as quickly as I could and turned to undress Oz. He stared at me with a look of pure exhaustion; I knew he probably only wanted to lie down and sleep for days. His body would have been spending every ounce of energy on keeping him warm.
“I’m not cold,” he said calmly as I peeled the emergency blanket from his grip and began removing his hat, gloves and parka. “I’m fine.”
“Oz, you’re definitely not fine. You’re hypothermic and probably half-numb. That’s why you think you’re fine. We’re going to warm you up slowly, but I need to get you out of these wet clothes first and check you for frostbite. Can you sit right here on the sofa while I get your boots off?”
I ran for a stack of dry towels and placed them, along with two blankets, on the hearth by the fire while I pulled off Oz’s boots and thick socks.
“Where’s Boo?” he asked again. He’d asked me several times on our trek back, and it was scaring me. My medical training tried to reassure me the confusion was standard, but it was still nerve-racking to see it happen.
I pointed to the spot by the fire. “She’s right there. As soon as we get you dried off and warm, I’m going to make sure she’s dry and warm too. But since she was already against my skin the whole way back, she’s in better shape than you are right now.”
“Wish I was against your skin,” he muttered toward the fire. “’S not fair.”
I couldn’t hide the bubble of a laugh that came out. Hearing him pout was a reassuring indicator his brain was processing properly.
“If you want to be against my skin, then that’s what we’re going to do. As soon as I get some warm liquid in you, we’ll get into bed,” I promised as I pulled off his shirt and replaced it with a warm towel around his bare shoulders. “Lay back.”
“Get some warm liquid in me and get me into bed. Sounds wrong way around,” he said drowsily as I laid him down on the sofa and covered him with a warm blanket.
I grabbed an oral thermometer from my medical bag and shoved it in his mouth before working off his pants and adding more fire-warmed towels and blankets to his body.