My nephew was given a small mixed breed dog when he was around two years old, I'm thinking about 1978 or 1979. His mother named him Benji, but my brother always called him Ralph. Myself, I called him Benji-Ralph.
My brothers, my mom, and myself all live on a 160 acre farm that my parents bought in 1959. (Dad passed in 2006.) So, we all live in one area and it wasn't uncommon for me to see Benji-Ralph on just about a daily basis. I wasn't especially close to him, but would talk to him and pet him, when he let me, when he was around. I love animals, but Benji-Ralph was pretty skittish around everyone. He was a little stinker though, during the summer months when we slept with the windows open, he would always manage to be under my bedroom window, barking most of the night. Why didn't he go bark at his own house?
Fast forward to around 1988. My bother's wife had called all of our family to let us know that Benji-Ralph had not been around to eat that day and they feared something had happened to him, and to keep an eye out for him. As he got older, he became arthritic and had bad cataracts. She thought it was possible that he had went to get a drink out of the creek or pond and had fallen in, he preferred to drink at one of these spots rather than his water bowl. She spent hours that day and the next searching for him.
On the second or third night he was missing, he came to me in a dream. In the dream, I was outside of my house, everything looked as it normally did and the dream felt very "real". Benji-Ralph came running up to me and started barking. He would bark, looking directly at me, then turn and run in a direction towards his house. He did this repeatedly, coming to me, barking, then running in the same direction. I finally caught on that he wanted me to follow him. I started walking towards his direction, he would run ahead, then stop, look back at me and bark. I followed him along the driveway bridge, down the side, then along a creek that runs there. I followed him a ways down the edge of the creek, finally, he got to a certain spot, sat down looking at me, and slowly vanished.
The next morning when I woke up, the dream was just as clear in my head as if it were something that had actually happened to me. I called my brother's wife and told her that I was almost positive I knew where I would find Benji-Ralph because he showed me where to find him in a dream. I don't think she believed me, but I knew. I put on coveralls, my gloves, hat, and old mud boots. It was late winter, early spring...cold, wet, and muddy. Going outside, I started at the point in my dream that Benji-Ralph had come to me. I followed the exact route that he had shown me in the dream, keeping my eyes open for him. Across the bridge, down the side, then started following the creek. As I neared the area where he had vanished, I saw something in the water that was the same color as his fur. As I got closer, I saw that his body was caught up in some branches and things that were stuck in that part of the creek.
I stepped in with one foot, as he was almost center of the stream, and gently picked up his body. I carefully carried his lifeless, frozen little body across the field to my brother's wife, who had been watching me from the window of her house and had came out to meet me. She told me that she had searched that same area over the past days and had not seen a thing.
One thing I loved about the dream was, how Benji-Ralph was running like a young dog. Clear sighted and pain free!
This is one of a few dreams I've had where I was given information that I would have no way of knowing otherwise. I've had quite a few unexplainable experiences in my life and will add more stories.
So, this is my first story here, I hope it was clearly written and enjoyable to read. Comments and questions are welcome.
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