Me and two buddies and one of their sons were kayak fishing in the salt marsh south of Winnie. Wind was terrible and we were exhausted paddling against it. We decided to call it quits and turned back for the dock. Had to cross the Diversion canal against the wind and time it between barges. About halfway across I see Todd flip out of the corner of my eye. He was wearing waders, exhausted, and not in good shape. His waders dragged him down and the wind had the waves beating the crap out of the overturned kayak. My other buddy Holt and I raced over and grabbed him just as he was going under for the third time.

I’ll never forget the look on his face, sheer terror. We couldn’t pull him up, he was too heavy, too tired, and there was a barge coming so we had to act fast. Holt held on to him enough to keep his head above water, I lashed the boats together and paddled us to shore. By the time we got clear of the oncoming barge and him the shallows all three of us were completely gassed.

We lay in the mud panting, saying nothing, for what seemed like a long time.

We dragged the boats the rest of the way to the dock, loaded up, and started driving home. Finally I think it all hit us how close we came to losing him.

The really dumb part was that Todd had brought a PFD but Holt had forgotten his and his son’s so Todd had insisted that Hunter wear his. I said “guys, I’m never putting my boat in the water with y’all again unless everyone is wearing a life vest. I refuse to have to tell one of your wives and their kids that dad is gone.

We all agreed.

I also saved one of my golden retrievers from choking on a racquet ball. By the time I got it unstuck her tongue was purple and she was close to gone.