When I posted this photo of Lucy on social media Wednesday, I just wanted to share my best furry friend. But a stranger who saw the picture saw more than I intended.
“Lucy doesn’t ask for much,” I wrote as the caption. “Most of the time, she’s happy and content if she can just lie quietly in the floor and watch me work.”
This stranger named Alan made a comment on the photo.
“My Lucy would often join us where we were working, too,” he wrote. “Cherish those moments, and don’t forget to give them a pat, and talk to them.”
His use of the past tense was my hint that his Lucy was a beloved dog from his past, but I still didn’t realize what was going on. After I assured him that I talk to Lucy more than I talk to humans, he responded again.
Birmingham man offering $10,000
Once you taste what is possible, you can’t accept being ‘normal’
A year later, my father’s death looms large, but I have no regrets
Creator knew truth when He said 
Barack Obama’s effort to imitate FDR’s ’36 campaign full of danger
Words on paper don’t give governments the right to rob us
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone