When I was a boy, we lived next door to a widow woman, Mrs. Thomas, who was loved by all. We kids did errands for her, and our fathers trimmed her hedge and mowed her lawn. She had a big back yard which was always available to us as a play area.
And she had an old brown dog named Brownie. We lived on a dead-end street, with low traffic, and Brownie had the run of the neighborhood. He was everybody’s friend, and welcome everywhere.
If you were feeling blue, and sitting on the steps, moping, somehow Brownie always found you and would sit down beside you to keep you company–and before long, you felt… better! He had a gift for that.
Yeah, I know, it’s a bygone era, blah-blah. But you know something? All these years later, I still love Brownie. Remembering him always brings light to the darkness of an evil age.
Every neighborhood should have a dog like Brownie.
Well, we do have Norbert. And Byron.
Brownie gets a cameo appearance in “Behold!” But I can’t say any more about it, lest I commit a spoiler.
I wonder if Norbert’s folks realize how happy he makes people. I think they do.
I’ve known a few animals like that; not just dogs, but cats as well. I had a cat that circulated throughout the neighborhood, and people all along the way put food out for him, hoping he would just become their cat.
He did, in a way, by father kittens at one place.
Animals are truly a gift from God. They are able to do us good, because they are endowed with that ability, by their Maker. What a great memory.