Hypothetically...

A CAT. So let's say, hypothetically, that you had a pet... maybe a cat. A dear, dear sweet cat that was your companion and friend. And one day your cat became quite sick. So sick that you knew instinctively it was dying. So of course you began contacting local vets to find care for your cat. And you learned that the necessary treatment would cost about a thousand dollars up front; a thousand dollars that you simply didn't have. But then you found one vet, one vet out of many, that would treat your cat first, and then work out a payment later... but you would need to get your cat to their clinic.

A ROAD. And let's say that this clinic was 150 miles away. Did I mention you were in Alaska? So yes, vets aren't exactly a-dime-a-dozen and in this case, the particular vet was a few towns away. So you carefully gathered up your cat in a warm blanket and began to drive and drive, hoping you would make it in time.

AN AVALANCHE. And let's say after 100 miles, you came to a massive avalanche blocking the road. Yes, an avalanche. You're in Alaska, remember, and it's winter, and it happens to be unseasonably warm and so there are avalanches. Not just whimpy, fluffy, powdery, avalanches. Big, wet, chunky, mountain-sized avalanches.

What would you do? Stop, defeated, and begin the drive home, knowing your cat would die? Or forge ahead, over chunks of snow and ice, and hope that somehow you could make it to the other side and get help?

Last weekend, this very same dilemma faced a woman living outside of Valdez,  for reals. Now some of you may remember that Team Leslie has ventured to Valdez before - two times, actually - and Ice Cream Newton has driven along the famed Richardson Highway through the spectacular Keystone Canyon complete with towering waterfalls and glacier-topped mountains, a highway providing the only road access to this Alaskan port city. For a week now this Highway has been closed, 42 miles of it, due to enormous slides that have not only covered the road with snow hundreds of feet deep, they have dammed nearby rivers causing lake-sized flooding along even more of the route.

From http://www.alaskadispatch.com

So what did the woman do, when she reached the first avalanche blocking her path? Unbelievably, she went for it. Put the cat in a backpack and went for it.

Have any of you ever tried to hike 42 miles? Needless to say (I hope), the preparations are significant. Food, water, layers, shelter... But attempting to hike 42 miles, in Alaska, in the winter, over avalanche debris, with only a small backpack, carrying a dying cat?!?! Yikes.

There were people who tried to turn her back. Department of Transportation folks working on the damaged road, blasting some of the debris, tried multiple times to send her home explaining that the road was closed and extremely dangerous. In the end, after making it 5 miles, she was transported to Valdez via a DOT helicopter, arrested, and thrown in jail. The cat? Picked up by the vet, treated, and saved. (Animals lovers, you can exhale.)

I find the commentary about this fascinating:

"God bless that woman! Anyone who loves animals would have done the same thing."

"That lady is psycho! She could have killed herself and the folks out there trying to work on the road! She should have to pay for that heli ride."

"What's wrong with those other vets? They should have offered to treat her cat!"

"People shouldn't own pets unless they can pay for them... this woman is ridiculous."

 Hero? Nut-job? Either way, only in AK. 


To see impressive video footie of the road, watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acUoAZiyMv4#t=77

To learn more details about the hero/nut, read: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140129/woman-says-she-tried-cross-avalanche-clogged-road-valdez-save-her-cat