One of my favorite shots of all time is not because it’s a great shot, but because of the circumstances that enabled me to get it.

I was working on a short film for the UWOL Challenge. UWOL, or Under Water Over Land film challenge, is a nature and wildlife competition for filmmakers across the globe. Filmmakers are given a topic and have three weeks to complete a three minute film based on that topic.

The topic this round was wildlife. Since we were in the middle of a 500 year flood. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a lot of wildlife as some of the prime wildlife habitat was already under water. I also wanted to minimize any disturbance that I might create since this was a time of extreme stress for the animals displaced by the flood.

Every night on the news, they would talk about how many homes had been flooded, how many people had been displaced. But no one was really talking about what effect the flood had on the wildlife.

The wastewater treatment plant was flooded and out of commission which meant twenty-five million gallons of raw sewage was being dumped into the Cedar River every single day.

So, I decided my film would be about how this epic flood was effecting wildlife and their habitat.

On the first day I was able to get out and shoot, I was up and out the door before 5AM to try and get some footage for my entry.

I headed out to some of the worse spots along the Sac & Fox trail but it was so mucky and some roads were still closed so I couldn’t get any good shots.

So, I went to the Rosedale area of the trail as it was a bit farther from the worst spots right by the river.
It was still pretty bad. The trail was covered in muck and large sections were washed away. But, I was able to follow the trail a ways and found some good shots.

I was filming some cool water ripples ( which didn’t make it into the film ) and I heard some splashing and whimpering upstream.
Two dogs were trying to cross the stream. But, the water was deep and fast so they would go back and you could see them struggle as they sunk in the muck and the mud. They would keep trying to cross and then move a bit downstream to try again. But, they couldn’t make it across. After each failed attempt, they would whimper and try to find another place to cross the stream.
They had collars on so I knew they belonged to someone.

I hopped in my car and ran to the store to get a big box of milk bones. I figure it would hold them over till I could get some help. I had no idea how long they had been out there or what their situation was.
When I got back, they were no where to be found. I was able to toss most of the box of bones across the creek in hopes they might come back.

I hung around and filmed some more and hoped they would come back but no sign of them.

As I was packing up my gear and headed back to the car, who comes walking down the road on my side of the creek? Yep, the two dogs. They must have made it to the bridge that crosses the creek and crossed over. They were headed down the road when I saw them. Now I was worried that they might get hit by a car as they were walking right down the middle of the road.

I called to them and they turned around and came over to me. I had a few bones left and they wolfed them down. They were obviously hungry.

I was able to make out the phone number on their collars and called it. The owner was an hour away from where I was with the dogs.
He said they let the dogs out several days ago to do their business and they never returned. There was a storm that night and he thought maybe they had been spooked and became disoriented or maybe they had chased a skunk and had simply lost their way.

So, I loaded up the dogs in my car, offered to drive them home but he said he would come and get them.
The dogs were exhausted. They were asleep in the car in less than a minute. Every now and then, one would lift his head to check things out but then would fall back asleep.
So, we all hung out till the owner came and picked them up. They were sure happy to see him and he likewise.

He said he had had one of the dogs “Hot Rod”, for almost thirteen years and she had arthritis and couldn’t get around very well. Struggling in the mud had exhausted her.

The other dog “Stubby”, was a rescue dog that they had only had for a year or two. She had spent her entire life locked up in a small cage on a damp concrete floor. He said that they were inseparable. Where one went, the other would always follow.

I said goodbye to “Hot Rod” and “Stubby” and started to pack up my gear and was getting ready to head out when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. A doe and her fawn had made their way down to the stream to drink. They were in shadows except for one spot of morning light that lit them up. It was almost as if I was being rewarded for taking the time to help out a couple of lost dogs.

If I hadn’t hung around to hold onto the dogs for an hour, I would have missed the opportunity to get this shot.

The doe and her fawn put a “face” to the wildlife that were displaced by the 500 year flood.

Kind of nice when karma works for you.