Tribute to a hero

I stepped out of the barn with feed buckets in both hands. Sunlight made me squint and for a moment the nearby movement wasn't easily identified. The dark silhouette took a four-legged step closer. It was a dog. A black doberman. We stared at each other and the big male advanced again a single step. Uncertain I sat one bucket down and  knelt down. There was no friendly approach. There was no threat in his demeanor. I looked around quickly for a human companion's arrival, and found none.

"What's your name?" I asked. "Are you lost?"

Black dog just stared.

"Sit." I commanded. Immediately, and as if grateful that I knew the word, he obeyed. I rose and walked half the distance toward him and stopped. "Here, come here." Eagerly he came to my side, and when he did I saw that he was limping. "Shake" I held out my hand. He extended his paw, raw and bleeding.

"Poor fellow," I commiserated. "you've been on the road awhile. Auditioning for a home are you? Someone obviously has taught you well, and once loved you. Harder times now huh boy?"

I finished chores, invited him into my truck, and won a best friend.

Time would show how good a friend.

 Running through the alphabet I finally tried Spock and there was an immediate response followed by waning enthusiasm. "Oh no," I moaned. "Tell me it isn't 'Spike!'. Without a doubt it was.

 A year or so after his arrival I was considering renting a small farm nearby. "I have a doberman that would be inside. He is very well behaved." I assured them. The woman balked. There was only one doberman, and she had had several, that she would have ever let live inside. Someone stole him, they thought her son's angry classmate. None of them had ever gotten over it. He had been the best dog they had ever known in years of raising dobermans. She actually became teary eyed. His name had been Spike. I knew. I knew right then. After all the times I had wished and prayed that the owner that had so loved and taught this dog could somehow know he was again loved and safe  she was here. I was sure.

With sorrow in my heart I told her I felt I had her dog. Her disbelief dissolved when the whole family arrived and concurred, identifying an old leg tractor injury.  Their joyous reunion was mutual. I was fighting hard not to show that I was near tears. After greeting and loving each one, several times over,  Spike came and sat at my feet and leaned gently against my legs. Several silent moments passed before his loving family hugged him, hugged me, and left, letting Spike's decison stand. 

In the years that Spike lived with me he caught a thief running away from a hospital, he alerted me to encroachiing coyotes, and hunters. He ran miles for help when a horse accident fractured my ribs. He escorted me safely everywhere I needed to go, at whatever hour, and functioned as a balance dog if need be, on rough terrain in the woods at night. 

I am happy to pay him tribute here. A friend who lived a long and noble life. A friend I will never forget.