Am I seeing a Ghost?

Many of my close friends know that we had to put our beloved "Tiny" to sleep a couple of weeks ago. He was a red haired, miniature dauschand who had been in our family for over 12 years. It was sad, but Tiny had lost the feeling in his back two legs because of a back injury and it was the merciful thing to do.

We have another miniature dauschand "Lexie" who is small and black haired. She has been lonely and tends to howl when she is sad, so it has been rather pitiful watching her look for Tiny and cry for him.

Anyway, after church today, I was home by myself. I was sitting at the kitchen table and suddenly a glimpse of a small animal with red hair went by our back door. Okay, I am telling myself....that was probably Lexie and you just thought it was red hair. So, I went to the door to look out and ya'll, there was a miniature red haired dauschand that looked just like the presumed dead Tiny. This dog was in our backyard! Lexie was huddled behind her doghouse evidently terrified of the "ghost" dog. I immediately called my preacher husband and told him that we have had a miraculous resurrection of our Tiny. He was stumped as I was. You have to admit, this is a little weird.

Well, when Phil got home and I was brave enough with him there, we both went out to look at our resurrected dog. I am sad to say, it was not Tiny. Yes, he was a miniature dauschand and yes, he had red hair, but just as Lexie knew, he was not Tiny. He did not smell like Tiny, he did not have the swagger Tiny had and yet, here he was in our yard.

Many thoughts ran through our heads. How did this dog get in our yard? Who put him there? Did some sweet (out of their mind) church member, bring us a new dog to replace Tiny. We finally figured out it probably belonged to our neighbor on the next street over. Come to find out, yes, it was their dog and the next door neighbors saw it out and assumed it was our Tiny. They sweetly put it back in our yard thinking it was ours, where later it scared the wilies out of me and Lexie.

Our neighbors have their dog back. Lexie is back to howling. Everything is normal-or as normal as it gets around here. If some sweet church member or friend is thinking of replacing our Tiny, please DON"T! I have had enough trauma today as it is.