In the late 60s my parents owned a small black mongrel dog that they named Pippin. They lived in a quiet little village in Oxfordshire that had a pub, a village shop and an infrequent bus service.
Their house had a driveway with 6ft double wooden gates onto one of the main roads through the village.
One afternoon when Pippin was about a year old he started acting peculiarly. He was staring in horror at a patch of gravel a little distance inside the gates. His hackles were up and he started to give little terrified yelps. My mother went over to him to see what the matter was but there seemed to nothing there, only an ordinary patch of gravel. She picked him up and calmed him down.
The next morning she had to go out to the village shop. She opened the gates and Pippin who she had thought was safely shut in suddenly darted out of the gates just as the bus was coming past. The bus hit him and he was injured and bleeding. My father carried him into the drive and just as they passed the patch of gravel where he had acted weird the day before blood dripped from him on to the gravel making a dark patch. Sadly Pippin died from his injuries but it seems to me that he foretold his death by “seeing” his blood on the gravel the day before it happened.
My parents were devastated by his death. If they had only foreseen what Pippin did they might have saved him. But then if they had acted differently and prevented his accident he wouldn’t have “seen” his blood on the gravel.
Their house had a driveway with 6ft double wooden gates onto one of the main roads through the village.
One afternoon when Pippin was about a year old he started acting peculiarly. He was staring in horror at a patch of gravel a little distance inside the gates. His hackles were up and he started to give little terrified yelps. My mother went over to him to see what the matter was but there seemed to nothing there, only an ordinary patch of gravel. She picked him up and calmed him down.
The next morning she had to go out to the village shop. She opened the gates and Pippin who she had thought was safely shut in suddenly darted out of the gates just as the bus was coming past. The bus hit him and he was injured and bleeding. My father carried him into the drive and just as they passed the patch of gravel where he had acted weird the day before blood dripped from him on to the gravel making a dark patch. Sadly Pippin died from his injuries but it seems to me that he foretold his death by “seeing” his blood on the gravel the day before it happened.
My parents were devastated by his death. If they had only foreseen what Pippin did they might have saved him. But then if they had acted differently and prevented his accident he wouldn’t have “seen” his blood on the gravel.