The family
had gathered for the funeral of my wife, their mother, mother-in law,
grandmother or great grandmother as the case might be. Several of us were
seated in the family room when the back door leading to the garage swung open.
A large dog,
that none of us had seen before, came into the house as if he lived here. He
walked through the kitchen, dinning room and down the hallway toward the
bedrooms. My son-in-law Joe was cautiously followed him not sure what to make
of this intruder. He was thin, but not starved, had a collar but no tags and a long nose with graying hair.
At the end
of the hall our visitor turned abruptly, walked past Joe and back through the
dinning room and kitchen and entered into the family room where he proceeded to
lay down between my recliner and the chair where “mom usually sat.”He made
himself right at home while we all sat in stunned silence staring at him.
While
looking at the dog ,I ended the silence. “Mom always said, ‘Paul keep the
garage door down and the back door locked. Otherwise anything could walk into
this house.’ I guess she sent this guy to make her point.”
We were expecting a pastor to arrive at any
minute so Joe led the dog outside by his collar. When Joe released him the dog made no attempt
to leave. Joe sat on the front step and the dog joined him. They sat there
together for several minutes. A cat
ambled up the front walk and stopped when he saw the dog. Neither animal moved.
Then the cat came up the rest of the walk and sat next to the dog. Joe, who lives in the neighborhood, hadn’t
seen either animal before. The cat stayed awhile and then ambled away. The dog
sat with Joe.
That evening
Joe took the dog home with him fully intending to try and fine its owner in the
morning. He put the dog in the garage for the night with some water.
The next
morning he fed the dog and then let him out in the yard with his own smaller
dogs. The three seem to get along
fine. Then the stranger dog walked to
the edge of the property, looked back at Joe as if to say farewell and walked
away.
We haven’t
seen that dog or cat since. Go figure.
Paul Tuck
Newfield,
New Jersey
