The country.
I’m driving past fields. Fields and fields of fields.
I’m coming up on two homes—one on each side of the road.
At precisely the same time, I see people open the front doors of their homes.
And at that time, one little dog comes out onto the porch of one home, and two small dogs come out onto the porch of the other home.
I’ll call one dog, the one by himself, “Buddy.”
The two dogs on the other side of the road are “Oscar” and “Willie.”
I look at the clock and see it’s 7:00 AM on the dot.
“The owners must let their dogs out at 7 AM daily.” I think to myself.
Oscar and Willie come shooting out the door and race toward Buddy.
Buddy shoots out into his front yard and darts toward Oscar and Willie.
They are running like they’ve been looking for each other for years.
I stop the truck. I know one of them is about to dart over the road; whichever one gets there first.
Buddy shoots past the front of my truck, over the road, and into the grass. His tongue slaps the side of his face as he sprints.
Oscar and Willie keep scooting it toward Buddy with their tongues just’a slapping each other as they run side-by-side toward Buddy.
I’m mesmerized. I know I’m seeing something beautiful in this moment. —I stare.
Sprinting towards one another, with excitement on their faces, they finally meet.
They fall all over each other and hit the ground. They begin licking one another and play “biting” each other.
At this time, I can only imagine what they are saying.
“Oh! I’m so happy to see you and Willie again!”
“I thought I’d never see you again, Buddy,” Oscar says.
“I promised myself that I’d tell you ‘I love you, Buddy’ if I ever got to see you again. ‘I love you, Buddy!'” Willie yelps.
“I love you too, Willie, just like I told you yesterday! I thought we’d never see each other again, too!”
“Oh, I love you too, Buddy!”
“I love you too, Oscar!”
“Hey, hey, I got an idea,” Buddy says, and the other two sit and listen.
Buddy is obviously the leader of the pack.
“Let’s go and chase ‘Scoot’ the Squirrel! I’ll bet he’s out at this time. I bet we can chase him back into his nest!”
“Yeah! Send the Squirrel back home!” Willie Barks out.
I sit and watch all three dogs take off toward the woods.
All three are side-by-side as they go after Ol’ “Scoot.”
“Best friends,” I whisper to myself.
And it was beautiful to watch.
I press the gas pedal and begin driving.
