A Happy/Sad Dog Story
Many years ago I lived in coastal North Carolina and was friends with the manager of the local bank who handled my accounts and was a member of my Rotary Club. Her widowed father lived alone several miles outside of town on his farm with only his treasured bird dog "Jack" for company. He took a two week vacation trip once and asked his daughter to look after the dog, and feed, water him, etc., while he was away.
My friend very faithfully drove ten or so miles out and check and feed and water the the dog each and every day. The dog was being kept in a fenced enclosure with a dog house behind her father's house. On the very day before her Dad was to return home, my friend drove out to check, and behold - there was the dog lying in the middle of the road directly in front of the house, obviously hit by a car.
The poor animal was still alive, so my friend tenderly and desperately gathered him up in a blanket and put him in the backseat of her car. She drove as fast as she dared to get him to the vet's. The vet did what he could, but finally had to tell my friend that he couldn't save the dog and had to put him down. Two hundred dollars poorer and mortally grief stricken, my friend took the dog's body with her, wondering how she would handle delivering the sad news to her father the next day. In those days before cell phones she could not pick up the phone and call him as you would now. Probably a good thing too as it turned out.
Dreading the phone call to her father, she phoned about the time she knew he was due home the next day. She gathered her courage and just blurted out to him, “Gosh Dad, I just can't begin to tell you how terrible I feel about old Jack."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, then her Father said, “Well yes, I guess I can see what you mean. I really, really missed him too. But, I certainly do want to thank you for taking such good care of him while I was gone."
Breaking into tears, my friend said, "Yes, I know Dad, but that can never, never make up for my letting him get out in the first place. I must have just mistakenly left the gate open and somehow he got out. I just don’t know how it happened, and how he was run over that way. I've got him in the car because I know you will want to bury him someplace special. I’d give just anything if it hadn’t happened, and I’m just so, so very, very sorry."
Run over?" asked her puzzled dad. "What the Hell do you mean? He’s sitting in the living room beside me right now! First thing I did when I got home just now was go out to check on him and he sure was happy as hell to see me. Hungry too, so I guess you didn't get a chance to feed him yet today. I’m looking right straight at him at this very minute and he's just fine! What the hell do you mean he got run over and you have his body in your car? Did something happen that I don't know about?”
That's when she realized with joy that she had mistaken a look-alike dog for her Dad's. She never did find out who's dog had actually been run over, and she still had to pay to get rid of the other dog's body. But she told me that didn't matter in the least to her now. She was so relieved and happy she said she would have been happy to pay the expenses for putting ten more dogs down if she had to.
True story!
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