My Faithful Dog

I read somewhere that an animal that is very close to their owner knows when it is their time to go. They can sense when they are needed in their owners life and then again when they aren't.

My mother got us a cockapoo (cocker spaniel and poodle mix) when I was eight years old. She was the best dog and her name was sugar. She even travelled with us from Oregon to Mississippi when we moved. She was our surrogate "mother". She liked to check on us when we were sleeping every night. I would sleep with my legs Indian style so that she could lay down there. It was her favourite spot. Sugar had a collar that would jingle when she walked. That dog was loved very much.

When I was 19 Sugar's health started declining. She was going blind and getting diabetes and could hardly walk. I had just gotten married (my husband got stationed in Kuwait/Iraq) and I was pregnant with my first child. My mother was in a relationship and my sister was living with her boyfriend. I think Sugar knew it was her time. She came to me and lay her head on my pregnant belly and I swear to you she smiled at me. I cried because I knew this would be the last time I saw her. Sugar passed away in October of 2002! I still have her collar!

After my daughter was born I got post-partum depression. I thought I was hallucinating one night because I thought I saw sugar run to my daughter's room. I ran in there to see if it was really her but there was no Sugar but my daughter was awake.

One night, about a week later, I was in my bed about to fall asleep when I heard the jingle of my dog's collar. I was half asleep so I didn't think nothing of it and put my legs Indian style for my dog to sleep there. Sometime in the middle of the night I patted my dog. I remember rubbing my hands through her fur and feeling at peace. When I woke up in the morning I couldn't believe it. I told my mom about it and she said it didn't surprise her that I would see our dog.

I needed her the most at that time in my life and my dog new that. I haven't seen her since that night but every once in a while I hear the jingle of her collar and on some mornings when I wake up my legs are Indian style.

Thanks for reading!