Woofling everyone….
By now the “outside" was really cooling and all the trees were changing their “fur” colour.
I still enjoyed my walks... if possible… I enjoyed them even more, now I was able to run around, investigate, chase birds and cats… without getting too hot and bothered!
Our gathering increased in numbers since all of my K9 felt much more comfortable too.
My hooman on the other hand was not as happy, funny enough she seemed to thrive in the hot sticky weather, and I sensed that for her going walkies every morning was a real challenge, by the time she was ready to leave the den she looked like the cushion in my bed… all wrapped up in several coats, but to give her her dues, she never faltered and never shortened my outings!
It was on one of these crispy days as we were walking to our woofling spot for some quality socialising, that my eye was caught by a little old human couple sitting on a bench by a beautiful, if slightly tired looking tree, in the company of a grey dog.
I say they caught my eye, but it really was something else, a feeling… I can’t explain… like if something or someone was calling me, but not by my name.
I wilfully pulled my hooman toward the very spot… as I approached them, the little old lady greeted me straight away.
“Ooh hello little guy!!”
I don’t normally let unfamiliar humans get too close, being a little dog, more times than not, they try to pick me up and I really only let my pack hoomans do that; but I sensed this old lady had more important things to chew on than picking me up and so I let her hand get close to me.
I was right, she patted my head gently, “aren’t you the sweetest guy ever”, she said in a sad voice as she sat up right again.
The little old man, obviously her mate, now stood behind the bench and said nothing, just looked at me intently, their K9 companion sat obediently next to the human female… there was something very unusual about that dog, for one thing I could not smell him… that wasn’t normal and it unsettled me a little, so much so that I backed away and gave a little growl.
“What is wrong my Biscuit” asked my hooman alarmingly and then added, “I am so sorry, he never does that”, this time talking to the old couple.
“Oh!!! don’t worry my dear, he probably senses that I am a little upset… I just lost my Arthur you see, my poodle, a grey bundle of fur, it has been the sweetest thing in my life since… since… well…" She stopped , then continued "...your little guy must be sensing that”.
As she said this, the dog stood up as if on command and came towards me…
“Hey mate” he said and I jumped out of my fur and yelped. This was totally unexpected because my scentless friend, the one who lives in the lounge windows... always made an appearance, sometimes barked but never left its spot to come towards me... and never ever spoke to me!!!
“Biscuit are you feeling ok? You are behaving very strangely today”, my hooman said.. while stroking my back.
“Don't be frightened, I am not going to hurt you…” the dog creature tried to reassure me.
By now my fur was standing on end and I was still growling quietly, I realized that like my scentless friend in the doors, I could also see the world through this creature as well!!!
“I am Arthur”
“No you are not!!! Arthur is lost in the park, the human said that!!!”, I barked, and run behind my hooman’s legs… my hooman looked at me as if I‘d gone barking mad.
“Please let me explain…” he said gently sitting down.
I cautiously emerged from behind my hooman’s legs.
“When my human said she recently lost me, she didn’t mean she lost me in the park, she meant I went for the long nap, crossed over to the great field beyond, in short... I died, and she misses me because she can’t see me”
Now... this was the reason I could not smell him… and this was also the reason why my hooman thought I was a few bubbles short of a full bath, I was interacting with something humans can’t see.
“So you are the part of the “somethings” us dogs can sense?”
I learnt early on that human have all these “somethigns” around them, but most of them are partially or totally unaware of them.
“Yes… and I really need your help, from this place we can see much further but have very little influence on the world of humans, and I need you to do something very important for my humans”
I sat in the cool grass by the tired looking tree for a while and listened to what Arthur had to tell me, once he was done I assured him I would do my very best to help him and his humans.
“When the time is right, I will come to you”, he said and suddenly he was no longer in front of me, but sitting by the little old lady, licking her hand.
I don’t think she was aware of it, but she must have sensed something because even though absent mindedly, she looked down at her hand and stroked it with her other hand.
A week passed and I noticed my hoomans became a little frantic around the den, they adorned it with positively strange objects that somewhat didn’t match my sense of well being, it was as if the object themselves carried a strange low aura around them, but my hoomans seemed completely unaware of this and kept doing it, enjoying it as if it were the best walk in the park, and all this was done in the honour of a day called Halloween.
When I started to think that Arthur had decided against the plan, he reappeared, just before my Halloween morning walk, but he was a little more see through than the last time I saw him, he seemed to be vanishing.
“Hurry, you know the plan, I haven’t got much time, you know what to do”
I did!
I got up and started walking to the entrance of the den, barking, yelping and crying.
“I think your Biscuit really needs to go out”, my hooman’s mate pointed out, and as quick as I could “woof” we were out and, unknowingly to my hooman, on our way to our rendez-vous.
“Biscuit what is the matter?” my hooman asked as I pulled her this way and that…
“You really seem to know where you are going this morning, don’t you?” she added, giving leeway to my unusual behaviour.
“Ok mate, that is the bench” came Arthur voice, he was floating now and very transparent… “I managed to influence her enough to come back here, although I had help from…” but by then he was too faint for me to hear… all I could do is see his outline and he was pointing towards a bush.
The little old couple were sitting on the same bench as the last time we saw them, and I approached the bench as established in our plan.
“Fancy meeting you here little guy” the lady said, and she tried to pat my head, but this time I moved away a little.. then came back.. then moved away.. and during this exercise I barked happily.
“I think… he wants to play with you” my hooman told her.
The little old lady got up slowly and started to play… this was the most important part of the plan, I would need to keep her going without making her tired or else she would sit back down, Arthur warned me about this… but I was a pro in looking cute, and soon enough I led her to a bush that grew a few feet away.
"HEEE HEEE HEEE"
“What is that?” she suddenly said, “can you hear that?” she asked my hooman.
“Yes, it sounds like… like a… cry”
Both women walked towards the bush and begun investigating the source of the noise.
“OH MY GOODNESS!!!” The old lady cried out, she bent over and picked up a little fur ball…
It was a puppy, grey fluff… eyes still closed.
“You poor little thing, how did you get here?”
That is when I saw Arthur again… he was standing next to his human.
“Thank you mate!!! He said to me in just a whisper, “we got here just in time, another half an hour and this little chap would not have made it”.
What happened next needed no explanation, Arthur mustered all the strength he had left, floated upwards and passed the left over of is life energy to the little pup, as he did so, slowly fading away, his voice following suit, he just managed to bark… “THANK YOUUUUUU ” and he was gone.
“You are coming home with me” said the little lady to the precious little tike as she rapped it up in her scarf.
On the very same afternoon my hoomans invited a couple of their kind to the den, and after a brief barking about the day event and how I seemed to instinctively know there would be a puppy in the bush...they darkened the den, put on some feeble fires all around it, sat down on the floor around a piece of bark, began poking it and kept asking if there was anybody there.
Alerted by the possibility of another visitor, I began listening out, ready to warn them should more of their kind would be arriving, but nothing happened, strangely this didn’t seem to put them off, and they carried on, the silence only broken when one of them giggled or howled quietly but theatrically...
I sat down next to my hooman, and observing the strange, to me… futile ritual, I had to admit that human were very strange indeed!
It was then that suddenly a shape appeared to come out of the piece of bark… and I started to bark loudly, jumping to and fro from the piece of bark... to raise the alarm.
He finally arrived!!! The next.... human? The one they called out to, the one they were expecting.
At the very moment I did this, all the humans got startled… one screamed, another got up and away from the piece of bark as if it were infested with wasps.
“What was that Biscuit?”, my hooman concerned, not so much at my behaviour, but at the reason behind it, she kept looking at me and then at the piece of bark.
“Can you see something?”
I COULD! I COULD!!! But then it dawned on me, I was the only one who could.
From the middle of the piece of bark, the figure was taking shape…
“wait, I know you… you are.. you are…”
“Yes Biscuit, I am Dotty’s husband, the little old lady you helped”
“But… but if I am the only one who can see you, it means you too are…”
“Dead? Yes, I am, and when I realized that your human pack was opening a door to the spirit world, I took the opportunity to come and tell you how grateful I am for all the help you gave us.
I wasn't too sure I understood this door business, I checked it myself several times, it is a good dog duty to make sure the den is safe, and our den door was securely shut... so how did he...???
"You see..." the man stopped my ruminating ", in a matter of a couple of years, she lost me and then her best furry friend, she was so lonely and upset, when Arthur died, to her it was as if I died all over again. Neither me nor Arthur could leave her side without making sure she would have someone else to love and to love her in return.
Arthur will partially live in her new friend, as for me... now I can go to where I am supposed to, knowing she will be ok, and as I said, I wanted to thank you for your help... and to let you know that you are fullfilling your dog mission very well... goodbye my little friend..."
And before I could woofle anything, he was gone!
I was mesmerized by him and what he said, and didn’t realize that I stood still on my hind legs for a while.
Once he was gone, I shook and laid down again, this is when I realized that all the humans in the den were looking at me, eyes as big as toy balls…
“I’m telling you guys, something just happened here” my hooman said.
“Whatever it was, I think that is enough spooks for me” one of the friends said.
“I agree” the other said as she made the den light again, hurriedly getting rid of the feeble fires.
“I know you saw something my Biscuit, I just wish I knew what it was all about” my hooman whispered to me that night while falling asleep stroking my back.
A cool breeze passed through the room, and my hooman in a sleepy stupor covered us both with the duvet, something came to check up on us, and as quick as it came it was gone... and the breeze that carried it followed suit.
If you would like to look at some of my hooman's pastel portraits and shop go to:
... and don't forget to spread the scent and leave a nice licky like!!!
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