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During the first half of the twentieth century no American writer of dog stories was better loved than Albert Payson Terhune.
Rex was not allowed in the dining room. So he went out on the porch and stood looking at Terhune through the French windows. He was not allowed in the writer's study, either. He always lay down in one special spot outside the study door. It was his only resting place. Rex died in March 1916. Terhune wrote about his death in his book Lad: A Dog. The next year Terhune's old friend, the Rev. Appleton Grannis, paid him a visit. Grannis had not been in Terhune's home in many years. They dined together. As they were leaving the table, Grannis said, "I thought I knew all your dogs. But there's one I never saw till now. The large dog with the short, light brown coat and the scarred forehead. Terhune shook his head. "We don't have a short-haired dog," he replied. "Or one with a scar across his forehead." "But," protested Grannis, "the dog was standing outside the window looking at you all the time we were eating. He's disappeared now. What's his name?" Terhune answered truthfully. "I don't know." Henry A. Healy used to visit Terhune of ten. Healy was interested in crossbreeding, and he had made a study of Rex. In the autumn of 1918, the Terhunes had the Healys to dinner. Afterward, they sat talking by firelight. The hour grew late. The Healys rose to bid good night. "I wish there were a creature as devoted to me as Rex is to you," Healy remarked to Terhune. "I was observing him as he lay in the firelight at your feet. He stared into your face with a queer kind of worship. He must --- " "Good heavens!" Terhune interrupted. "Rex died more than two years ago!" Healy frowned in confusion. "Of course ... I know ... Yet, I swear he was lying at your feet all evening." A collie named Bruce was the only Terhune dog allowed in the study. After Rex died, Bruce never once stepped on the patch of floor outside the study door where Rex used to lie. During the four years in which Bruce outlived Rex, the collie always walked around the spot, as if avoiding an invisible object. Time and again Terhune put Bruce to the test before guests. When he called the dog into the study, Bruce always took the strange little detour. Why? Terhune did not know. He did not believe in ghosts, dog or human. Still ... "How did Grannis chance to see a dog peering through the window at me?" he said. "Grannis never heard of Rex. Healy is a level-headed businessman, not given to fancies. What did he see lying at my feet in the firelight?" Terhune
could only guess. |
Written by: David Duncan