Grief hung heavy as the Smith family tearfully buried their beloved dog Max in the backyard. The mourning took an eerie turn, however, when the father was awakened two nights later by the unmistakable sound of barking echoing through the house. Bewildered and worried, he hesitantly followed the sound, only to see a sight that defied all logic....
Patrick Smith and his young son Billy were standing at the top of the stairs feeling almost too scared to go downstairs. Both of them had been awoken by a very familiar barking sound. A bark they must have heard hundreds of nights before. It never scared them once, but this time was very different. Mainly because the barking sounded unmistakably like their beloved dog Max, whom they had buried just days prior.
Patrick’s mind was racing a million miles an hour trying to find an explanation for what the hell could be happening. The only thing he could think of was that there had to be a different dog downstairs. But how it was possible that that animal had gotten into their house AND that it sounded exactly like Max, was completely beyond him…
Patrick was thinking back to 2 days ago. A day that had put the family in a state of grief ever since as it was the day that they had to put their beloved dog Max into the ground. The family had seen the health of the aging animal decline for a little while by that point. And even though he was not exactly a senior yet, he was not a young pup anymore either…
But none of them had expected things to decline that fast for Max. They were planning on visiting a very very soon to see if there was anything actually wrong with Max. But they found out the hardest way that there was very much something wrong with Max as that morning when they all got out of bed and made their way downstairs, they found Max lying motionless in the garden…
Billy thought that Max just had to be sleeping in that day and Patrick of course tried to reassure his son that this was the case. But deep down he was already fearing the worst. He felt incredibly guilty that he had not brought Max to the vet sooner and when he got up close and personal with the family dog, his worries were quickly confirmed to him.
There was no doubt in his mind that Max had passed away. The loss of his pet hurt Patrick deeply, but he also understood that this was a very important moment for him as a single parent. This was going to be the first time that Billy would have to deal with death and it came out of absolutely nowhere for the young boy. He had not prepared his so for this in any way yet…