Tom sent this to James, and I couldn't convince him to post it himself ... so here goes! You have to read this:
An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my
yard; I could tell from his collar and well-fed
belly that he had a home and was well taken care
of.
He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats
on his head; he then followed me into my house,
slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the
corner and fell asleep.
An hour later, he went to the door, and I let
him out.
The next day he was back, greeted me in my
yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the
hall and again slept for about an hour. This
continued off and on for several weeks.
Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would
like to find out who the owner of this wonderful
sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that
almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house
for a nap.'
The next day he arrived for his nap, with a
different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives
in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3
- he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I
come with him tomorrow?'
I've seen this before but laugh at it every time. I don't care if it's true, it makes me smile and reminds me that growing up in a family of eight was very noisy business. Too cute!
When our (large) granddogs come to visit for the weekend, my Poms will try their best to keep up, but when they have had enough, usually by Sunday just before everyone leaves, Chloe will go get on the bed and Kebo will go hide under the bed and they both say "I have had enough, I am going to sleep!"
Great story, thanks for posting it Molly. I for one never tire of dog stories as long as they have a happy ending, true or not.
My mom used to have a cat visitor who came to her kitchen door each day or so and cried to come in. He was a big black cat, in apparent good health and well nourished, but he'd come into Mom's kitchen and help himself to a snack from one of her cat dishes and then stretch out in the dining-room for a nap. He never stayed more than an hour or two. Strangely enough, Mom's two Siamese cats showed no aggression towards him; letting him eat their food and sleep wherever he wanted.
This went on all Spring and Summer, and then in the Fall, Jet (as we'd begun to call him) stopped coming by. Maybe it just got too cool up here in Canada for him to go outside visiting neighbours!
So I believe in the visiting dog - animals can have a circle of friends just as we can!