In 1999, I moved back to Washington State from traveling around the country for 4 years.

My grandmother let me move in with her for a while so I can get back on my feet again

in. I hated the basement of her house, I've always had, but it was free rent and she

was caught chuck by 90 pound black lab. Plus my grandma and I got along pretty well.

Late one night, about 3 months in, I woke up because chuck was moving around on the bed

and he kept shaking in the mattress. Then I heard him start grumping. You know those grumpy

groans old dogs make when you scratch behind their ears and they love it. He started

doing that.

Once I realized what I was hearing, I sat up to yell at him to go back to sleep and

that's when I discovered the reason he was moving around so much. He was trying to get

closer to the woman, standing right next to my bed, scratching him behind the ear. I

didn't scream and I'm proud of that. But also, what the actual fuck? Where did she come

from? Who was she? Why the hell was she standing right in my room, petting my dog at 3 a.m.?

I was too scared to ask. I did the only thing I knew how to do in these situations. I hid

under the blanket. Certainly she would be gone by the time I re-emerged from under the

blanket right? That's how these things are supposed to work. I waited for a little while

but when I came out from under the blanket, she was still there. So I hid under the blanket

again three more times and every time I came back out, she'd still be there, smiling

at me and scratching my dog's ears. The last time I was under the covers, I realized

that I wasn't actually afraid of the woman. Chuck and I met under stressful situations.

And because of that, he and I had a super strong bond. I trusted him implicitly. If she'd

meant me harm, he would have reacted to her negatively. His reaction was clearly positive,

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