Ghost dog
Had a dog growing up, his name was Charlie.
Charlie was a mutt - pit and German Shepard mix and some other stuff. He was very willful, and prone to occasional violence with the other dog, Sam. But for the most part he was a good dog, even though he ate the arm off my dads recliner chair and just claimed it as his own.
This dog chewed everything. Shoes, couches, sticks, rocks.
He also loved to get out of the yard (a poorly fenced 1 acre woodland lot) but because of his aggression problems and his wanderlust, he wore a pretty heavy chain around his neck with a bell and reflectors attached.
Anyway, because he chewed everything, my mother bought a supposedly "unchewable" plastic bone thing for him.
First of all, fuck whatever company made that thing, because Charlie had no problem chewing through it and swallowing pieces of it.
A piece he swallowed ended up rupturing his intestine, and surgery would have been $6k at a predicted success rate of 20%. We didn't have that. Mom took him in and had him put down. Dad buried him in the yard.
Ten days later or so, it was me, my brother, and my dad, all up late. Just talking, not much going on.
Then we all heard it, and we all looked at each other. It was unmistakable. All at once we all heard the click clack of Charlie's claws on the deck, and the jingling of his chain, and the tiny little jingle bell. It just sounded 100% like Charlie was asking to come in.
Dad got up, went to the door, and opened it. Nothing was there on the porch. But dad just stood there with the door fully open for a good 10 seconds, standing off to the side as one would when letting a dog inside.
He saw that we were confused and said, "Just want to make sure Charlie got all the way back in."
And that was the end of it. Never heard him again. The only other thing of note here is my dad did not like dogs or cats until we got Charlie and Charlie promptly ate his very expensive chair. In some weird way, my dad respected that. Don't ask me why because I'd need to ask him, and sadly that's not possible.
Three people, myself included, all heard it at once and knew immediately what the sounds were. The closest neighboring house was a half mile away and our driveway was steep and long, so any noise was cause for alert. It was a very quiet place.
Anyway, that's the story of when Charlie came back inside for the last time.
From reddit user
u/nutbastard
