Early on in our relationship with Brown Dog aka BD, I had concerns. We had an indoor cat. Would BD ever run into her when we randomly let her out? Once I kept the grand dogs for a week. I had concerns there also that turned out to be nothing. Brown Dog did come over to visit them, but he jumped right into part of the gang. When I started playing fetch with my grand dog Bella, I pitched a ball for BD,not wanting him to feel left out. He quickly let me know that he didn’t fetch. Not his style.
His visits became more and more infrequent. Sometimes there would be several weeks or a month or so in between visits. It is clear that he has found his new house though, showing up with a new collar and looking healthy.
He started coming by only on the weekends, so I started saying that he only worked a few days a week, our part time dog. He came by the 4th of July and hung out for a while. He would come by on Saturday and I would say “He is reminding everyone to go to church safely if possible or watch a church service online ” as COVID was continuing to rear its ugly head.
I began to notice that his visits seemed to have a timing that was impeccable when he showed up and special things would happen or it was a special occasion. He showed up the weekend that our daughter was getting married. He came to visit one Saturday morning right before we left to go spend some time with family. During that family visit, our niece and her husband announced that they were going to have a baby after two years of trying. “Wasn’t Brown dog at our house this morning?” I thought. Yep, he was.
I began to make statements like “Something good is going to happen today: Brown Dog has come by”. His visits became a quick run through our yard. running up to us when we were out in the yard, or us catching a glimpse of him walking up our driveway after he spent the night in our screened in porch unbeknownst to us.
That screened in porch has a doggy door. From the beginning it has been his big dog house. I have always enjoyed walking out and finding him lying out there. One stormy day, he showed up and went into another outside storage room that he could push the door open and get into. He didn’t like the storm. I gave him a blanket, and as always, the next morning he was gone.
One particular visit was special. I will never forget that one. A dear friend of mine lost her husband to COVID early on. It was awful. It was all so unexpected and sudden.
It happened to be Thanksgiving. As I was preparing for Thanksgiving weekend, I was overcome with emotion. This part brings me to tears even now. I went outside to my front porch, sitting on my steps. I started to just cry and cry. It was a moment that I needed. After a few moments of release, I looked up, out towards our front yard. There about 10 feet in front of me was Brown Dog. I will never forget that moment. He was just watching me.
Brown Dog is a special dog. He reminds me that God is with me, watching over me always. As a follower of Jesus, this is so comforting. I realize that he is just a dog, but dog is God spelled backwards. I know that is silly, but in one of our most recent crazy moments, he showed up again. Til next time…
Life in Paris aka Life with Brown Dog 