FOREST RIVER GORGE — August 19, 2024, 09:41:07 — The bodycam opens on the bridge itself — or what is left of it — and directly below the broken planks, a rain-swollen river is tearing through the gorge in white foam.

A black-and-white Border Collie is stranded partway across a severely damaged rope-and-wood suspension bridge high above the rapids. Several planks ahead of the dog are broken or missing entirely. Soaked through by heavy rain, its long fur plastered flat, the dog is lying low against the slippery moss-covered boards, white paws spread for grip, watching the only way off the bridge: the rescuer kneeling at the stable end, a few feet away.

The rescuer, filmed from a chest-mounted camera, wears a bright orange waterproof technical rescue jacket with reflective gray stripes, thick black gloves, black waterproof trousers and a climbing harness hung with steel carabiners — and he stays clipped to his safety rope for every second of the crossing that follows. One gloved hand grips the wet timber; the other reaches slowly out over the gap in the planks.

There is no rushing an animal on a bridge that is coming apart above a river like this. The rescuer leans forward from his knees, weight low, both hands moving a few inches at a time across the slick wood. The Border Collie reads the approach, raises its head, blinking rain out of its eyes — and shifts one front paw toward him.

At close range he slides one gloved hand gently beneath the dog’s chest and sets the other against its shoulder, taking its weight so it no longer has to hold itself flat against the boards. The bridge cables creak under the strain, the timbers flexing above the waterfall roar — and, supported on both sides, the dog carefully rises onto all four paws, every foot placed on a plank that can still bear weight.

Then comes the shortest and longest walk of the dog’s life. The rescuer never stands and never lets go. Still kneeling on the stable section, he guides the Border Collie backward toward him, one small, cautious step at a time, until the dog settles low on the solid planks directly in front of his knees, pressed against his hands, the broken span and the whitewater still visible at the edges of the frame — but now behind it, not beneath it.

By the final frames the dog is still trembling, but it is no longer stranded. It is held, supported, and standing on boards that will hold.