My Hero Ransom

A high-school student and a dog not yet one year old, we were two friends still getting acquainted. He was born a mix of Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Border Collie, and Australian Shepherd, and I assisted with his birth in my grandmother’s house, later incurably charmed by his dark, shiny eyes when they first opened for me. I knew in an instant he would be my very first dog, if I could only persuade my parents to let me keep him. To my eternal gratitude, they said yes, and I named him Ransom in reverent allusion to C.S. Lewis’s fictional protagonist, whose heroism and sacrifice made him legend in the book.

Within a handful of months, Ransom and I took our usual stroll in our enclosed backyard together, but little did we know an intruder had dug a hole to wriggle in underneath our privacy fence. Our usual merriment of playing fetch with a dirty, drool-soaked tennis ball met an abrupt end when a grey blur whizzed past us. Ransom took off after it like a shot in an explosion of dust and crunchy autumn leaves.

My body chilled at the sight of a young rabbit scampering about the yard, desperate as a victim in a horror movie as it met every dead end between the four corners of our fence while Ransom maintained hot pursuit. I shouted and bolted after Ransom, but my speed was no match for the epic chase. As they rounded the corner past me, I scrambled to grasp my dog’s strong, bulky body between my arms.

“Ransom, no!” My tone firmed with the command, but his predatory instincts drove him like an unstoppable tank, breaking him free from my fingers and knocking me to the ground.

An instant later, with a solid thud, the rabbit slammed into the fence, narrowly missing the hole in its panic and too late to escape before Ransom leapt on top of it. For the first time ever, I heard a rabbit make a sound: a screech in sheer terror and one I knew would haunt me forever as a flash of the creature’s impending fate provoked stinging tears from my eyes. Ransom pinned the squirming rodent on its stomach, his heavy, white paws shoving the frail body into the dirt as he opened his mouth and clamped his jaws about the creature’s neck, mere seconds from dealing the fatal blow.

“No!” I screamed. “Please! Please let it go!” The words scraped from my throat as I watched, bleary-eyed with hot tears and too paralyzed in horror to stand from where I had fallen. The moment my pleas carried to his ears, those dark, shiny eyes met mine from thirty feet away, gentle as the day he first opened them in my arms, as though he understood my desperate wish. Time slowed around us even with the shrill shrieks of the rabbit begging for its life. I could feel this was a turning point in our story: to know whether my best friend would listen, even go against his own predatory nature to make me happy.

Every predicted outcome of the frightening scene permeated my thoughts in a split second, like alternate endings to this tragedy. But I didn’t dare hope for the happy ending until, suddenly, Ransom loosened his grip on the rabbit, taking a few steps back to release it from his clutches. The prey silently darted to the hole and disappeared behind the fence, never to return. Gasping and sobbing my relief, I watched him jog back to me, panting with satisfaction this merciful gesture meant something to me.

Still on my knees, I threw my arms around him, his soft fluff tickling my face and arms while I kissed his head dozens of times and whispered my thank-you in his floppy ears. He whined softly sensing the tension ease from my body and smeared the tears on my cheeks with his cold, wet nose. “I love you so much, Ransom!” I laughed in an eruption of relief, my hands still tremoring.

It is said dogs have a bonding process with humans, and often one human in particular, imprinting on that person as the one they will trust and protect with their very lives. At first glance, this story may sound simple: a dog hearing his owner’s request and gladly obliging. But I would forever remember it as the moment I knew I could not only love Ransom but could also entirely trust him. His heroism and sacrifice made him legend in my book.