My in-law's house has dogs...
... more dogs than a straight head-count would have you believe.

Y'see, my fiancee's parents (so they're not strictly speaking the in-laws *yet*, but that's neither here nor there) have pretty much always had Labradors. I'm not really a dog person, but I like Labradors and as long as I'm throwing a ball or feeding them they seem to like me.

Now a couple of years ago, I was over at my fiancee's parents house. We were house-sitting, as they'd gone off on holiday with both dogs. I was sitting upstairs footering with the computer, and my fiancee was off out somewhere. I'd just made a cup of tea, and done the thing we've all done "I must take the do- ah, no, no dogs so no walk" thing. Then I heard, quite clearly, one of the dogs settling down for a snooze. "Humph " as I've heard them do many times, that big world-weary Labrador sigh, the clink of a doggy tag and the thumping of a tail against the wall by their bed.

Now here's the thing, I didn't think anything of this until the second time it happened. I've also been sitting upstairs in my fiancee's old bedroom while house-sitting, and not-quite-seen the most recently deceased dog pop her nose round the door, just to see if the coast was clear before hopping up on the bed. I'm not even particularly a believer in the "spirit world", but I'm damn sure I've sat for ten minutes with a dog that's not there at my feet.

It's kind of comforting, really.
(gordonjcp, Sat 5 Jul 2008, 0:51, Reply)