He Is Not Alone

The doctor was right; I will need some physical therapy. I can hardly sit up without help. After being released from ICU, I am transferred to the rehab facility. In the beginning, just sitting up requires assistance. Over the next few weeks, I go from just sitting up to taking baby steps to the bathroom and finally walking and running on a treadmill. In all this time, I haven’t talked to anyone. None of our friends have tried to call. Since my family is basically gone; no one has come to visit. Sandy’s parents have sent a few cards, telling me not to worry about anything; they are taking care of everything and would get together when I was better.

After a couple of months, I am walking around the hospital making a pest of myself. It is so boring. The only good thing about the rehab facility is they have dogs that are allowed to visit the patients. I find myself looking forward to these visits. One dog, in particular, is a German shepherd named Nein. The owner says as a puppy he was always getting into trouble and they were constantly telling him no in German which is nein. It kind of stuck. I could easily relate to the dog. At times it seemed as if we could communicate. The dog would come into the room, see me and immediately come over, sit and offer me his paw. When I was hurting or feeling down, he would place his head on my lap and it almost felt like he was taking the pain away.

One day, Nein, came in with his tail down, his ears laid back and the saddest eyes you have ever seen. I got the feeling that something was wrong. Sure enough, as Nein got closer, I could feel he was in pain. Something was wrong. I told Kim, his owner, that Nein was in pain, she looked at me like I was crazy, but did notice that he was not his normal self. She decided to take him to the Vet after the visits. I heard a few days later that Nein was being retired. Shortly after that, I was released from the rehab facility.

My first task was getting home. Sandy always took the train home, however, I seldom rode the trains. Thankfully, it is early morning and most of the passengers are heading to Philadelphia so the trains should be pretty empty. I headed to the train station. The train ride to 30th Street Station was short and gave me time to think about what I’m was going to do. I have to find out about Sandy and her funeral. I’m not sure if I still had the house, furniture or a car after being out of it for over six months. My first step was to get home. After arriving at 30th Street Station, I transfer to the Warminster line and start home. I began to think about my next steps. I would have to take care of any of Sandy’s estate issues. Contact her family and express my condolences.

The trip home on the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) was kind of quiet. The train was mostly empty during the mid-morning trip. Most of the riders were heading into the city of Philadelphia and outbound was for those that worked overnight. SEPTA had recently started to update the trains and this was one of the newer models. The car was clean and the seats fairly comfortable. The electronic signs show what station they were approaching and how long before they would be there. Warminster was still 40 minutes away as I began to relax. I would have to walk from the station to my home if I still had one. My eyes started to close as the clack; clack of the rails slowly drew me into sleep. As I started to nod off I again saw the blue haze overtake my mind. The conductor woke me up to take my ticket. Good thing too as we were approaching the station I needed to get off at.

Sandy and I live in a nice ranch style 3 bedroom home, one and a half bath, eat-in kitchen, dining room, family room, and a nice size fenced in backyard. We have only been in the house about 6 months before the accident, having moved out of the city to have some more room. Sandy wanted to have the room so we could have a couple of kids. Being work-a-holics I am not sure when we would have started. Now, it won’t ever happen. We lived about a quarter-mile from the train station which Sandy used to go to and from work. Upon arriving home, I found, in fact, still had the house and car. Sandy’s family has been taking care of it while I was in the hospital. Once I let myself in, I found that her parents had been coming over to take in the mail and whatever else that had to be taken care of. I called them to let them know I was home and to thank them for looking after the place. Sandy’s father, John, said that I had received some checks from her workplace and the insurance company. He would drop them off in a little while.

When John Jackson, Sandy’s dad, arrives and he sat down with me and explained what had been happening while I was in the hospital.

“Sandy was driving the car when the truck came onto the highway”, said John. “The rear of the truck rolled over her, killing her instantly.”

“You were trapped in the wreckage for over an hour while the fire department cut you out of the car. While you were in the hospital the folks at Pickerelli and Associates that Sandy worked for decided to take up the case as wrongful death. It will be a while before it will be settled.”

“Sandy had a life insurance policy, one with work for $1 million dollars that had a double indemnity clause for accidents.” That was one of the checks he gave me.

“This other check was from the auto insurance policy on the car. It is for accidental death.” He handed me a check for $250,000. Sandy also has a life insurance policy that she and I took out for 1 million dollars on each other. I’ll have to contact the insurance company about that. John tells me that he and Jill, Sandy’s mom, will help in any way they can.

Over the next few weeks, I get things under control. Talked to the insurance companies, mortgage company and credit companies seem they all had policies that covered the loans in the event of death, so I am debt-free.

I love my evening walks around the neighborhood. Each night, I just walk around the block or to the park nearby. It’s strange, but I can almost hear the animals. The squirrels are constantly looking for food, on the lookout for trouble and signaling each other. At the park, the dogs are interacting with each other. Some are not very trusting and just shy away, while others are more dominant and want to show the others who’s boss. I enjoy watching them.

Over the next few days, I get back to work. As an independent consultant, I had a lot of customers that had been looking for me. I got back with them and started to throw myself into the work. Most of them had already found someone else, so my workload was light, which is good, I really wasn’t in the mood to work and I just wanted something to take my mind off the accident and losing Sandy.

One day while I am walking to the train station I noticed that I had a couple of dogs following me. The bigger dog seemed to be a mutt, maybe a mixture of Terrier and Shit-Zu, mainly black with some silver on the face. He is very well mannered and weighs about 20 lbs. or so. The smaller dog looked to be a Terrier, brown and white, pretty much all over. He weighs about 12 to 15 lbs. When I stopped they came right up to me and sat. As with Nein, I am able to feel that they were hungry and wanted something. As this was happening, the dogs began to wag their tails and the expression on their faces changed to what could only be seen as happiness. Having some time, I walked back to the house with the dogs following me. I entered the backyard with the dogs. They lay down at my feet immediately. I put down some water, but I have nothing else for them, so I need to take a trip to the pet store. There is a Pet Start a couple of blocks away, so I tell the dogs to stay and I will be back soon. To my surprise, they seem to nod their heads in understanding.

I take my Jeep to the store and purchased some dog food, snacks, bowls, and a few toys. When I returned home, the two dogs were still lying there waiting for me. I poured some food in the bowls and sit down, watching them while they eat. As I was sitting there one of the dogs seemed to be looking at me with sad eyes. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, so I asked, “What’s wrong?” The dog came over and I got the impression that there was a problem with his back legs. Knowing that I should take the dog to the vet’s, I called my client and rescheduled the meeting for tomorrow.

After the dogs are finished eating, I tell them we are going to have them looked at. Although not fully understanding, they seemed to know I was looking out for them. They quickly went to the Jeep. When I opened the door, the bigger dog jumps right in while the smaller one seems to be having problems. I picked him up and put him in the back, get in and drive off to the vets.

After a quick examination of both dogs, the vet tells me they appeared to be in good shape. No microchip was found. I asked about the hind legs of the smaller dog and the vet said he didn’t notice anything. I explained that the dog had problems jumping into the car and seemed to be in pain. The vet agreed to do some more tests and after the x-rays determined that the dog has arthritis. He gives me some medication that will ease the pain and stiffness.

On the way home, I could not help but feel the joy coming from the dogs. Their expression and body language showed total relaxation and contentment. By the time we reached the house, both dogs were wagging their tails and ready to go. I take them back to the yard and sit with them while they rest.

While sitting there, I think about the dogs. They seemed to know what I was thinking and responded to MY thoughts as if I spoke them. I wanted them to stay while I went to get a drink. They both sat down and stayed put. I was kind of amazed that they seemed to understand me. So, I decided to test this out. I told them, in thought, to lie down. They immediately laid down with their tails wagging away. I took a toy and threw it out in the yard. I told the bigger dog to go fetch it. The dog ran into the yard, grabbed the toy and came back. “Drop it,” I said and the dog dropped it at my feet.

I really couldn’t hear them thinking but I could understand what they needed or wanted, I could also feel what they were feeling. Now with the commands understood by thought, I was really beginning to enjoy this. My last thought was to ask the dogs if they wanted to stay with me. Both dogs jumped up and started licking my face with tails wagging away. I had two new pets.

I spent the rest of the afternoon setting up bedding for the dogs, placing food and water for them and building a doggie door so they could come in and out as they pleased. That night I fell asleep with my two new best friends.

The next day I had to spend some time working with a client in Philadelphia. I told the dogs to be good and left for the day. They had plenty of food and water and could access the house if needed. On the way home from the client’s office, I stopped at a Pet Start. I had been thinking about the interaction with the dogs and wanted to see if it happened with other animals. Pet Start has birds, cats, puppies, and some reptiles. I found one of the salespeople and asked if they had a trainer in-house. After a few minutes, Frank came by and introduced himself.

Frank is a younger man, about 5 feet 10 inches and a little overweight. You can tell he likes his beers. He is clean-shaven and has a bald head. A few tattoos on his arms, nothing gross.

We introduce ourselves and Frank asked, “What can I do for you, Will?”

“Well this might sound strange, but I was wondering if I could talk to some of the animals you have here?”

“Are you looking for a new pet?”

“No, not at all, in fact, I just adopted two dogs.”

“Then, what do you mean ‘talk’?”

“Yesterday, the two dogs followed me home. I seemed to be able to understand what they wanted by their body language and facial expressions. Then while I was thinking of getting something to drink, I thought I didn’t want them to come into the house. They had been following me around everywhere I went. All of a sudden, they both sat down and waited while I entered the house. That in itself wasn’t too bad, but the smaller dog kept looking at me and I got the impression that something was wrong. So, I asked him, “What is the matter?” I immediately got the impression that his hind legs were bothering him. I took him to the vet and found out that he has arthritis. The vet gave me some medication for him and he seems better. So, I wanted to see if it is just me, just those dogs or if something else is happening”

“I have never heard of such a thing. Guess I can call you Dr. Doolittle, hehe. But we have some cats and birds you can talk to if you want. Just don’t be too disappointed if they don’t talk back.” Frank laughs as he shows me to the cats.

I was given a kitten to hold and I try to communicate with the kitten with my mind. The kitten shied away from me. I sensed fear in the kitten, but I seem unable to communicate. I can feel that there is something there, but I don’t yet understand. I try a couple of older cats and get the same reaction. They shy away and won’t come near me.

Frank is watching this the whole time and is kind of amazed at how the animals are behaving. The kitten is normally very loving, as it was for a few seconds. Then it backed away and didn’t want anything to do with me.

Next were the birds. The store only had two types of birds, hand-fed Cockatiels and a Parrot. I hold a cockatiel and try to ‘talk’ to it, nothing seems to happen. No feelings, no reaction at all, until I go to put the bird back in the cage. As I begin to put the bird back into the cage, it starts to squawk and flap its wings. Clearly, the bird is upset about something. Frank takes the bird and puts it back into the cage. Again, something is strange about the behavior; Frank explains that these birds are used to being handled and normally are very tame.

Finally, I am shown the Parrot and all hell breaks loose. As soon as I start to ‘talk’ to the parrot, it begins to flap its wings and squawking up a storm. I give Frank the bird back and the bird begins to speak. It says my name. Frank is taken aback. No one has said my name or for that matter, anything to the parrot. Yet there is no mistaking that the parrot said, “Will.”

The parrot continues to talk to me. “Will, don’t leave”, “Will, take me with you”, “Will,”, “Will”, “Will”. Frank escorts me away from the birds and says, “Will, I have never seen any of these birds act like that. The cockatiels are hand-fed from birth and are used to being handled. They have never reacted like that to anyone. You didn’t even say anything to it and the parrot went ballistic as soon as you approached and it said your name, not once but several times. How did you do that?”

“I honestly don’t know. Like I said before, the dogs seem to understand my thoughts. Seems like the cats and birds do as well. I wish I knew why and what it means but I have no idea. Thanks for letting me do this experiment. I hope I didn’t cause any problems.” I leave the store, more confused than ever.

As I get home my new pets are waiting for me, both are happy to see me. Both express their appreciation with love and kisses. I enjoy the attention and play with the pups for a while. While playing with the dogs, I work on trying to understand just what I can and cannot do. The dogs take to simple tasks quickly and without any training. Harder tasks require me to think about how to do something. As the evening progresses, I find out that I can basically make the dogs do anything I want and they are happy to do it. I soon have two of the best-trained animals I have ever seen. While I am working with the dogs, my neighbor, Brad, comes over and watches from the fence. After a while, Brad says to me, “Will, how did you do that? You aren’t saying or doing anything, yet the dogs seem to be following some kind of commands?”

“I have been working with them for a little while. They seem to know what I want them to do based on my body language.”

“I have never seen anyone able to do that. It’s really cool the way they follow your commands, really cool.”

“Thanks.”

The next day is Saturday and I take the dogs out for a walk to the park. Along the way, we seem to have a conversation between us. The dogs are happy to follow along and want to be with me. At the park, they run and play without any issues. I can call them at any time and they both run to me and sit immediately. Several of the other dog owners notice how well the dogs behave and respond and ask me for my secret. I, tell them that it was easy for me. I demonstrate some simple spoken commands using their dogs. All of the dogs seem to instantly understand and obey. Once the dogs know what the spoken commands are, they also follow their owners’ commands. This kind of training brings me a lot of attention as well as satisfaction. For the rest of the day, dogs and their owners are hanging around. At the end of the day, I begin to understand that this is a gift that has a lot of satisfaction and is helpful to others.

Saturday evening, I take the dogs to the Pet Start and talk to Frank. Frank and I work the dogs through all kinds of exercises. Frank explains some exercises that are more advanced and watches as both dogs start to perform as if they have been trained to perform for years. Afterward Frank asks me if I would like to help him with some classes. Frank explains that he has some special dogs that seem to have problems understanding the commands and thinks that I could be a great help. I say that I would like that and we plan to get together on Tuesday evening for the first class.

On the walk home, the dogs are leading the way, tails in the air and prance in their steps. As we approach a garage in the middle of the block, both dogs seem to alert at the same time and I can sense danger. The dogs’ hair starts to stand on end, their tails go down and they are sniffing the air. With that, two young men come out from beside the garage and approach us. They have knives in their hands and demand money from me. I back up and tell them to leave before something bad happens to them. They look at me like I am some kind of crazy.

“Look, old man, just give us all of your money and your wallet and we will be on our way.” says the older one.

They have weapons, I have nothing. The dogs are sitting down behind them and don’t appear to be a threat.

“Look, I don’t want you to get hurt. Just leave and I will forget that you were ever here.”

“Fat chance! Now give us the money, NOW!”

With that, the older one steps forward with the knife ready to take a stab at me. Without saying a word, I tell the dogs to attack. Both dogs take off and start to bite the hands with the knives in them. The bigger dog takes down the older guy and is biting him and drawing blood. The smaller dog has managed to make the other one drop his knife and he runs away. Bleeding, the one on the ground begs to have the dogs stop. I tell him to stay on the ground and tell the dogs to ‘guard’ while I call the police. When the squad car arrives, the kid is still on the ground with two dogs guarding him with their teeth bared and a low growl anytime he tries to move.

“What happened here?”

“Officer, this young man and another that ran away tried to rob me. I told them to just walk away and well, they didn’t want to. When this one threatens me with the knife, I had the dogs attack. The younger one ran away. This one wasn’t so lucky.”

The police take him into custody. I am very proud of how my new friends reacted, but I am also concerned. When the kids first approached, I seemed to hear or sense fear in the younger one. When I told them to leave, I feel he started thinking of doing just that. If it hadn’t been for the older one approaching, he may have done just that. After the police leave, I get down with both dogs and give them a well-deserved hug. They are quickly becoming my best friends.

Tuesday night, Frank and I are waiting for the owners and their pets to arrive. Frank explains that 3 of the dogs and their owners are having a difficult time getting even the simple commands down. As Frank begins working with the owners on the commands, I take charge of the dogs and follow Frank’s instructions. The dogs quickly begin to follow commands and the owners are amazed at the results. As I am sitting on the sidelines, I feel that one of the dogs has a problem. The beagle is afraid of the owner and is very unhappy. I start to look at each of the owners and soon I feel that the one man in the group thoughts or aura is not very pleasant. I begin to ‘talk’ to the beagle and also find out that this is the one afraid of the owner.

After class, I approached Frank.

“Frank, the guy with the beagle, I think he is hurting the dog. When I was working with the dog, he was very nervous and afraid. When I looked at the guy, he could care less about the dog and seemed to really despise it.”

“I didn’t see any problems. Are you sure?”

“It’s just what I sense from the dog.”

“That is my cousin, is there anything you can do?”

“I really have no idea. This is all new to me, remember.”

By the following week, I have been honing my skills with animals. Working with my own pets and the ones at the park makes it easy for me to quickly have the dogs do what I want. On Tuesday, I am again helping Frank with the class. As the class starts, I feel a lot of hurt in the room. Within a few seconds, I can tell that the beagle is being hurt pretty badly. I kneel down by the dog and can tell that it is in pain. The poor thing can hardly sit without pain in its rear. Rage begins to build inside me. No one should hurt any animal let alone a small pet like this. I stand up and call Frank over.

“Frank, this dog is being beaten.”

“What do you mean? How can you tell?”

“Remember Frank, my ability to understand them? This one is in pain and the hindquarters are bruised.”

Frank approaches his cousin and asks what is wrong with the dog, that it appears to be in pain. The cousin tells him it was just his way of training. He says he is punishing the dog when it doesn’t do what he is told.

“I can’t believe you would hit a defenseless animal like that,” says Frank.

“Look, it’s only a dog. I can do whatever I want to It.” with that, the cousin goes to kick the dog.

I have been watching this and can tell something bad is about to happen. I call the dog over just as Frank’s cousin goes to kick the dog, saving it from being hurt anymore. Frank escorts his cousin out of the building, without the dog. Another life saved and it feels good.

“I’m sorry about that, Will. I had no idea he was that way. I’ll take the dog home with me until I can talk to his wife. I promise that won’t happen again. Thanks for letting me know.” Frank turns around and finishes teaching the class.

I still don’t understand what is happening, but I am glad that I was able to use this new capability to save another animal.

After class is over, I head home to Butch and Sundance. Figured I had to give them names if they were going to stay. Butch is the bigger mutt and Sundance is his sidekick. Both of them have really helped me since Sandy died. They are my constant companions and seem to appreciate what I do for them. It’s nice to sit at home in the evening and having them nearby is very comforting. The three of us also enjoy the evening walks. Sundance is doing better with the medications.

Around 7 pm or so, I take Butch and Sundance for a walk around the block. It gives us all some time to exercise and bond. After a few hours at the park, it’s time to head home. As we are leaving the park, I begin to feel a little out of whack. My head starts to spin and the blue haze comes back. The dogs instantly come to my side as I fall down. I can’t seem to see straight. Butch is licking my face and Sundance is nudging my arm for attention. All I can see is a blue haze. It lasts a lot longer than the first time. After a little while, it seems to fade and I am able to stand and see my way home. Butch is very protective on the way home. Once we get home I decide to head to bed. It’s after 10 pm and the episode near the park took a lot out of me. Butch will not let me alone. He seems to be protecting me from something and is very alert. Sundance is overly loving. Both dogs demand to be on the bed and we all settle down for some sleep.