All Dogs Go... Somewhere

The dog ran off. I’m not a dog owner, but if I was it would undoubtedly run off. It’s not that dogs hate me – in fact, quite the opposite, they’re usually drawn to me. I think it has something to do with my aura that only dogs can see, or maybe it’s the fact that I whistle inaudibly all the time in a tone that only dogs can hear, or maybe, just maybe, it’s my personal hygiene and I stink such that only dogs can smell.

Actually, my guess is that they can sense that I need protection. They see me and they think, “I’ve got my work cut out for me with this one.” As I said though, they would undoubtedly run off, but it would undoubtedly be when I wasn’t there. I would go to work for the day and a few hours later the dog would start to worry, “where’d that boy run off to this time!” Another hour or two later and the dog would resolutely set off on a heroic search and rescue mission. For all it knows, I could be anywhere!

This week my wife and I have been house-sitting, and well, the dog ran off. Soon after we arrived one day after work, we were back in the car, hollering out the window. We knew immediately that it was no use. We were on a dirt road in the middle of rolling farmland, the dog could be anywhere.

After a bit, we tried to convince ourselves that it was best if we stayed at the house and waited for her to return on her own. Dogs are smart, I remember thinking. But we both shared the same feeling of dread. It didn’t feel like the dog was on her way back home.

My wife had put out a few calls to folks around the area but nobody had seen anything. Then the phone rang. Somebody who was in town visiting had seen a dog on the road a few miles up. Back in the car, we drove almost four miles before we slowed down to crawl and began to yell her name out the window. It was pretty far away, but it was all that we had to go on. We drove another mile like this without any luck before we turned around and continued searching as we drove back to the house.

Near the end of the street, about the place we had slowed down, I thought I saw something in the woods. I stopped the car to watch it. It wasn’t moving. I knew it wasn’t a dog, but I had to double check. I turned the car around and quickly confirmed it was not a dog. About to turn around again, my wife told me to go a bit further, more out of safety than anything else as it was on a blind turn. About halfway down the stretch of road that we had already searched, I turned around. It was almost dark. Our search was getting pointless.

A few houses down a woman had come out of her home. While I don’t suspect she recognized my wife, she had been one of my wife’s teachers growing up. My wife did the talking, and her response went something like this, “You know, we saw a dog a while back….” At this point she looked over our car into the large field across the street. “Oh wait,” she said pointing to the fence about a hundred feet off the road, “is that your dog?” As we thanked her she said, “I’m not sure why I came outside, but now I’m glad I did.”

She was scared to the point that it took a long time for her to recognize us. And she limped on both front legs because she had run the pads of her paws raw. But she was alive, which was a huge relief.

While I might be tempted to roll my eyes and say, “Always in the last place you look,” I’m beginning to wonder if there’s not more to it than that. I’ve been mentioning my faith in the abundance, and along with that I may have some belief in the Universe, and I think this story is that in a nutshell. One coincidence after another allowed that dog to be found. The visitor from out of town happened to be driving by just then, I turned around to double check what I knew wasn’t a dog and it led to my wife seeing someone she hasn’t seen in twenty years.

It makes me wonder. Maybe all this happened for a reason. Maybe the Universe is trying to tell me something. Maybe I’m suppose to get a dog. And name it The Universe. Then I could be the Master of the Universe, just like He-Man! Of course, then you'd hear me say, "Well, The Universe ran off again." And then I would have to set off on a heroic mission to rescue The Universe! I could see it now...

Unfortunately, I'd also have to mean it when I said, "No digging The Universe!" which I'd have trouble with, ya dig?