Saturday, January 24, 2009

When i was a little girl I lived in Iowa. This particular night that Poochie came to visit, there was a terrible blizzard happening outside. It was so cold outside, that my parents had closed off the parlor and only heated the dining room and kitchen and one bedroom downstairs.
We were sitting in the dining room which was being used as a living room also when we heard a scratching at the door. My mother wondered who could be out on such a terrible night. She did open the door a little and zip a little dog came running in and jumped up on what we called at time our davenport. She whined and inched herself over to mother begging her to let her stay. Poochie which my mom soon called her, had very short hair, a long nose and big brown eyes. We had had a farm dog a long time ago, but at this time we didn't have a dog. This little dog seemed to touch my mother's heart. Of course, I begged her to let the little dog stay. She said that we could keep her, but she belonged to someone because she had a collar around her neck. If someone came looking for her we would have to give her back.
Sometime later there was a knock at the door. My heart sank, I just knew that it was the people that had lost Poochie. When my dad opened the door it was two people who had been traveling and the blizzard had made them lose their way. They had walked from the highway down our lane. It was a quarter of a mile long, but our house sat in a valley and was not seen from the highway. They were very lucky that they had not frozen to death.
My mother of course, made them coffee and gave them food to eat. They stayed for two or three days until they could shovel out their car. My parents were amazed that not only a lost dog, but lost people made their way to our home.
Poochie stayed with us until she died, the travelers made their way home. If I remember right they lived in another state. Some time after the storm there was a package that arrived that had gifts for my parents, my brother and me in it. It also had a lovely thank you note that thanked my parents for being so nice to two strangers.

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