A Canine to the Rescue

There’s always been this special connection between myself and the dogs I have had the pleasure of coming across. From the stories I’ve heard, I imagine it’s the same for many people, especially those who also recognize the “guardian angel’” aspect of humankind’s best friend. I have friends who feel the same way about their cats. Although I love my three cats dearly, they have always been more preoccupied with self-grooming and complaining about their half-full dishes than the daily mundane task of contributing to anyone’s emotional wellbeing. It was during my globetrotting, backpacking years in the 1980s and 1990s that I first truly became aware that my guardian angels often appear in canine form. Hitchhiking in Spain on my way to a boat to Morocco, I settled down for the night on a beach just outside of Cadiz. It was cold, January, and as I stumbled along under the black sky in search of a minimally less windy spot, I was suddenly joined by a large dog that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She spent the whole night sleeping with me, only jetting off into the dark whenever a noise caught her attention, before returning and taking her place on the foot of my sleeping bag. As soon as I reached the highway the next morning, she happily trotted away along the