As I do every morning, I walk my dog. On days that I have to work, I follow a usual path. We walk to the end of our subdivision and we hook a left onto the street. From there, we take another left at the intersection and follow a route that takes us to a pond. During the spring and summer months, we actually add a walk around the pond in addition to this standard path. These days, the sun is nowhere near up and so we don’t actually make it around the pond since it isn’t well lit. And as you know from my last post, I’m not lucky if there’s no lighting.

Back to the story…

On the way to the path, we pass by some condos. If we crossed the street, we would be on the backside of a shopping plaza. But I like to stay on the side we are on so I don’t have to cross the street and I don’t have to fear being hit. But today I had a different horror.

After the condominiums, there is a large swath of trees and green space. There is lighting every 50 feet and I’ve never felt the need to be afraid. Today, though, Remy was walking at her usual pace until about 100 feet into the green area. All of a sudden, she began walking into my leg. I chastised her and continued walking.

She did it again but this time she also looked up at me. It was like she was nudging me off the sidewalk. I walked another few feet and she continued to do the same thing.

Now I knew I needed to listen. I looked to the right and we crossed the street.

We continued on our merry way with no other interruptions. I’m not sure what was going on but I knew that I needed to get off of that sidewalk and away from those trees.

We hear plenty of stories about animals sensing danger. I had a black lab who really did sense danger and saved her new owners life. He was having a widow-maker heart attack. His wife called 911 and my puppy starting pounding on his chest. They say that if he hadn’t done that, the man would’ve died. I’m proud of that dog but he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. I prefer to think that he was jumping on his chest saying, “Play with me! Play with me!” Either way, after I heard that story, I knew that dogs are amazing animals.

I didn’t think that Remy was that smart of a dog. And maybe she’s not. But today, I listened to her and because of that we still here.

That’s probably not true but I like to think that she saved my life this morning. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!