The Blanket That Saved A Dog

About 10 days into our trip,  while we were camping at the Glastonbury festival, we bought this smiley face fleece blanket:

It was very cold and rainy in Glastonbury so we bought it to have something extra to put on the tent floor.  It served its purpose and I came very close to leaving it behind in Glastonbury....we try to keep our packs as light as possible.  But instead I rolled it up and cinched it to the bottom of my backpack. I've nearly tossed it out about a dozen times since but for some reason I've always ended up clipping it back on my pack.  

Fast forward two months, we are in northern Spain, lost trying to find our hostel in Sopelana, on the coast.  The GPS in the car was also apparently lost because that British(yes we've got one that speaks English) woman's voice kept repeating "leave the roundabout at the second exit, prepare to make a u turn, leave the roundabout at the second exit, prepare to make a u turn..." We were all a little cranky, even the GPS woman seemed a bit testy. So we pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex to call the hostel and get directions.  As I was making the call, Lane said "Look at that dog!"  I looked up to see a big furry dog hanging over the side of the second story balcony with two paws on the rail and one on the clothes line. 

 There was no way he could hang on much longer and the fall would kill him or certainly severely injure him if he survived.  Apparently the owner was not home and the poor dog had somehow climbed onto the rail.    We jumped out of the car and ran over to him.  Lane shouted for someone and a couple of neighbors came out but no one who had access to the apartment. We were  standing there trying to figure out how to catch the poor thing when Lane said, "we need a blanket or something to catch him in."  Then it hit me.... THE SMILEY FACE BLANKET!!!  I yelled to the kids to bring it out of the car.  With only seconds to spare, Lane and I opened it up and held it out as tight as we could hoping it would be enough to break his fall...he came tumbling down full speed right into the blanket....it worked!!  Other than panting heavily he was completely unscathed.

Of course, in the rush we didn't think about taking pictures.  But we did go back by the apartment later that evening.  We met the owner.  He was extremely grateful and the dog was fine!   Needless to say we will never get rid of the blanket now!