Footprints

One night a dog had a dream.   She dreamed she was running on the beach alongside her best canine friend, named Lucky.   Across the sky flashed a message from her Person.  The message looked just like the one that she heard with her ears.  “Come” it said.  The message flashed by her ears again.  “Come” it said, again.  And again.   She heard it.  She kept on running.  In the sand, one set of footprints belonged to her and one to her best canine pal, who not-by-coincidence, was also ignoring the message flashing by both of their ears.  “Come” it said, now sounding more than a little bit irritated.

When the last slice of beach passed away from the pads of her paws and she began to bound into the ocean's water, she looked back upon the footprints in the sand.  She noticed then that most of the time, there were two sets of footprints in the sand.   

But, for the last hundred yards, there was only one set.  Her own.   

This really bothered her and she turned to question her Person about it.   She turned. Turned again. And yet again.  What?  No person.  No canine pal.  It can’t be, the dog thought.  She turned her head round and round and round, looking for her now lost Person and canine companion.

She thought:

"You said you would never ever leave me.  I don’t understand why when I finally decided to come that you would leave me.”

Rising up from behind the rock where she was hiding, the dog's Person now started walking toward the dog.  The dog's best canine pal was safely back on leash and strolling contently alongside the Person. When the Person reached the dog and gently latched the leash to her collar, she said:

“I love you and I would never leave you.  When you see one set of footprints in the sand.  It was then that I decided to train you."