Man's Best Friend



It is only a miracle that I am still alive today. If it wasn't for that dog, I would be dead.

I just arrived at the market where I sell my goods and crops for hard-earned money. I brought my loyal dog, Baxter. He was a Great Dane, my father got me this when I only turned 13... I always brought Baxter along. He was like my personal best friend, I am now 18, and my father is soon giving me the farm for my own.

After about 2 hours, my father says that we need to return back to the farm early, as there is something he forgot to explain to me before I took over his farmland. So we drove back to the house, he walked me out into the fields. On the far end of the land, there was a shed. It was small, but on the inside he showed that it was empty, "If you would ever need any spare storage space, this is your shed, although this is quite a walk away... Come this way, I have something else very important to show you." my father states as he leads me around the shed to a machine that I could see peeking out of the front.

The machine was a tractor, I immediately started to think about how good it is to have myself a spare tractor. Shortly after looking around it, I saw this rod coming out of the back, there was a guard around it, but you could still clearly see the rod. My father explains what it is, "This is a power take-off shaft, although you can call it the PTO shaft. Yep, a deadly beauty... All this does is it allows implements to draw energy from the engine. Be very careful and only use this at last resort, even with the guard I am scared to use it..." I looked at the shaft and wondered, ''How exactly could it be dangerous? Then'' I asked, "What could be so dangerous about it? It has a guard, does it not?" My father puts a stern look on his face and replied, "Of course it is dangerous! You can and will get yourself killed if you are not careful... Yet alone if you take off the guard!" My dog climbed around the tractor and jumped in the driver's seat. He looked out the side and me with his tongue sticking out of his mouth acting cute, I smiled. My father walked up to me and said, "Your mother will be here shortly to pick me up. Remember my rules and stay safe!"

"I will, Dad, enjoy the new house!" I said as he leaved.

I did a very nice job taking care of the farm and land. It has been 3 years now, my father is still happy and healthy living at his house he bought years back, and my dog was wanting to go outside. It is mid-day and I thought I would go out with him for some fetch and ball games. We passed it, Throw, Fetch, Drop, Throw, Fetch, Drop, then I throw the ball once more, but decided to challenge him with throwing in a different direction. I threw the ball, but slightly more to the left. He went to go pick up the ball as he griped it in his mouth, dropped it, and propped his head up and stared at the shed. He picked up the ball and ran to the shed, I followed him, thinking he wants to play chase, a fun game we had always enjoyed. I arrived at the shed and lost sight of him, I began calling his name, "Baxter! Where are you boy? Baxt-" as I was interrupted by a bark, I looked over and he was sitting in the driver's seat of the backup tractor. He peeked out of the side and when he noticed me, he quickly tucked his head back behind the door.

I started to get curious about this, I wondered if it even worked, so I prepared it and tried to turn it on. It didn't work. I forgot that my father made this so that you have to regularly check the guard to start it, so I did. I went through his steps and started it up, with my dog prepped up beside me looking out the windshield. I liked it, and I made this my main tractor. I thought I liked it better than the other one, still no idea why... I just did. So after about a month of using this for harvests, riding, and plowing, et cetera, I started to get confused as of what this PTO shaft is like that I have never used yet, so I decided to test it, as I go through the trouble of checking it every time I want to use the machine... So I took off the guard, and checked out how it was, my dog got out of the tractor with me, but he actually went back a few yards to watch in curiosity of what I was doing.

I was checking it out, preparing it to be used and I noticed a raccoon... It was actually kinda cute, so I shooed it off by waving my foot at it, as it took the hint and moved away. Without realizing it, the raccoon must have hopped up into the driver's seat and sat there to watch me. After a minute or two, the raccoon slipped. I just finished preparing it and was ready to get out and start it up and sadly, the racoon's fall beat me to it. The racoon's body hit the start button, guard off, with me on it checking the shaft. It has started, it started so fast too... It started immediately without warning. I barely escaped the grasp, but my shirt got stuck on a nudge that I should have fixed right away, it pulled me in. I lost normal sight right away, and I didn't notice but I only was able to catch anything for a few seconds. I hear Baxter's barking and feel a searing pain in my biceps... Spinning, spinning... Suddenly, I become loose and thump to the ground, I broke unconscious...

I awaken, Baxter licking at my face to wake me up, luckily it worked, I started to realize my surroundings, stomach down on the grass. I have pain in my biceps but nothing there-down. I looked over but all I could see was my shoulders. I turned over, nearly screaming in pain of my body weight on the arm. I looked down, and I couldn't believe my eyes. My arms were gone! I had bled out so much! I felt so light-headed so I slowly got myself up... and looked at the shaft, I nearly fell right there... My right arm was right there, under the shaft, which was still spinning. My left arm was about 80 yards away, I turned to the house. It seemed so far away. I force myself to the house, still bleeding out, until I got stuck, at the slide-door. I attempted to use my chest to push open the door, but failed. I tried to open it with a small bump from my bone, which was painful, but I still failed. I went around the house through the garage. Inside, was a knob-door, which was useless to my finger-less arms... I used my mouth to grasp it and turned my head to turn the knob. It worked.

I got inside, called my mother with much creative effort and asked her to call an ambulance, not even thinking of calling one for my own. Shortly after, the ambulance came, claiming that they could reattach my arms if I get them in ice quickly. Then they asked the question that made my heart stop, "Where are they?" I said, "At the tractor, the older looking one..." but before a paramedic could get out of the ambulance, Baxter ran out with great speed and grabbed the arm about 80 yards whipped out from the shaft and brought it back, the paramedics threw it in ice right away as my dog headed out for the other one... The paramedics saw him retrieve the other arm, he was not capable of stopping the shaft, but risked his life to retrieve my lost arm. He got down low, and basically crawled over to grasp the arm in his mouth as he slowly backed out, still very cautious about his safety, but he made it back, the dog hopped in the ambulance and we drove off.

That was all about a year ago. My arms are returned and are mostly back to normal, the doctors were able to reattach my "lost limbs" and I have destroyed that tractor and shaft long ago...

So here I am, at my farm, still alive and everything has returned back to normal, because this dog saved my life.