Everything was going fine this morning, not great, just fine. When the alarm went off I had already been awake for a couple of minutes, so the waking up process did not begin with the usual stumbling out of sleep and wondering what the buzzing was. I managed to make breakfast without spilling or burning anything, and the teeth brushing and shaving proceeded as scheduled and without incident. I found clothes that matched and were clean and ironed without a problem. I got my laptop bag, stepped out the door and then it hit the fan.
I’m currently working on a contract away from home so I’m staying at an extended-stay place, nice clean place not too expensive, more like apartments than a hotel, so I can park my car close to my room’s front door. I was making my way to my car when I heard a guy calling me:
“Hey buddy, can you give me a hand here.”
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw this guy standing behind a blue Taurus waving his hand at me, he looked disheveled and somewhat “off”, but otherwise non-threatening so I put my laptop in the car and walked over. When I got closer I saw that at his feet was a blanket, wrapped around an enormous black Rottweiller, very obviously dead.
“I’m sorry man”, he said, “can you help me put her in my trunk?”
“What happened? Did she get hit by a car?”, grabbing one side of the blanket and lifting while he got the other end.
“No, she was just old and died during the night.” His voice kept breaking up and I could tell he’d been crying for a while.
“I’m sorry”, I said.
“She was a good girl”, he said.
We got the dog in trunk, it was heavy, well over a hundred pounds I think. The guy thanked me and drove away.