Angelic Tails: Buddy’s Promise

Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads. — Harry S. Truman

I met Eric at a church youth group where I spoke about angels. Afterward, he shared his own story with us. It was the first time I had ever thought about the connection between dogs and heaven, and I still can’t read about Buddy without getting goose bumps.

When Eric was only a few months old, his family adopted a beagle puppy from a nearby animal shelter. Eric named the dog “Buddy” because that was his first word, even before he learned to say “mama.” The two were inseparable. Buddy appointed himself baby Eric’s guardian and seemed to know when the little boy needed help, and when he was simply enjoying life. (The two were often the same.)

Buddy was a well-mannered dog, too. The only conflict the family had with him was his behavior late at night. Although Buddy knew that his own bed was in an alcove in the dining room, and that’s where he was to stay, he often awakened shortly after midnight and tiptoed (if a dog can tiptoe) up the stairs. Quietly he would enter Eric’s bedroom (the door squeaked just a little) and jump up onto Eric’s bed. This, of course, immediately awakened the boy. “Buddy would stay at the bottom of the bed,” Eric recalls. “He would turn around a few times, to get comfortable, and the bed would shake a little. Then he would lie down with his back snuggled up against my legs and go to sleep. He always kept my legs so warm.”

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