My 18-month-old son, Adam, called from the front door. "Look, Mama! Doggie!" I dropped what I was doing and stuck my head out the door. Brandy, our next-door neighbor's 11-year-old dog, was over again. "Go away!" I shouted. Brandy's owner had died about a month earlier. The woman's family had emptied the house and stuck a "For Sale" sign in the front yard, but the family had left old Brandy behind. For weeks, she'd been wandering around the neighborhood. It wasn't that I disliked dogs or anything like that. I just didn't think about them very much. I never had a dog growing up and had never thought to get one. Brandy went away and I stayed outside with Adam. Then the phone rang. I went inside to take the call. When I came back, Adam was gone. I searched the yard, front and back, then the basketball court and public pool. No trace of him. I was so nervous that I ran home and called the police, then my husband. Police searched the neighborhood. Suddenly I heard another sound: a dog barking. "It's coming from the woods," one of my neighbors said. We followed the barking to a wooded cliff . There we found my son, and he was just inches away from the edges of the cliff, fast asleep. Brandy was beside him, leaning against him to keep him away from the edge. When I picked Adam up, Brandy sank down on her side, breathing quickly. She must have been holding Adam there for hours! I thanked the police and brought Adam and Brandy back to our house. She hesitated a moment on our doorstep, no doubt remembering the time I'd driven her away. "Come on, girl," I said. "This is your home now." Brandy stepped in, and once she saw she was really welcome, she relaxed and lay down on the floor just inside the door. She'd done a great thing, and I wondered if she knew it . She'd certainly touched me in a way that no animal ever had. What a pity a dog like Brandy had been left behind! What did the woman do when she first saw Brandy?
She gave her some food. She drove her away. She took her home. She said thank you to her.