The Dog Who Wasn’t There by John Cali

Photo licensed under Creative Commons Attribution generic license

In our last newsletter article, Materializing, Dematerializing, and Other Illusions, we talked about how physical objects can seemingly appear and disappear with no logical explanation. Today we’re continuing that topic, but with a strange, eerie twist.

One cold late February night 20 years ago, my mother-in-law died at home. My wife, her sister, and our dog Schnapsi, were with her the moment she died. I was at home a short distance away, and when my wife called I immediately went over.

I walked into my mother-in-law’s bedroom where she was lying peacefully in bed. My wife, sister-in-law, and Schnapsi were in there with her, all obviously sad and upset. Schnapsi, a miniature schnauzer, had been very close to my mother-in-law, and appeared just as upset as the two women.

We busied ourselves attending to all the things you’d expect under those circumstances. An hour or so later, we realized Schnapsi wasn’t there. This was a small, single-story, two-bedroom house and it didn’t take us long to search the whole place. But Schnapsi was nowhere to be seen. It was a cold winter night, and no doors or windows were open. There was no logical way he could have gotten out. Yet he was gone, only adding to all the emotion of that cold dark night.

About 2 a.m. the next morning my wife and I left to go home. As we approached our car, Schnapsi came galloping out of the black night, clearly very glad to see us — as we were him.

Later I asked one of my spirit guides to tell me what he thought. Even though I should not have been surprised by what he said, I was.

The guide said Schnapsi, since he’d been close to my mother-in-law, had also decided that night to die. And he actually did, and moved back into spirit. But then my mother-in-law persuaded him to come back — he was young and healthy, and she knew we would all miss him. So he came back.

Even today it seems as strange a tale as it did that dark February night so long ago.


Have you ever had any similar experiences? What are your thoughts? Please share with us below.

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12 Responses

  1. Monica

    I have three dogs and so often when we are out walking they seem to disappear and re-appear quite randomly. One second they are there, the next they are gone, then you look again and they are back. It is as if they switch themselves off from this world, go to some other place and then switch themselves on again. At first I found this very alarming and distressing.
    Thanks to you and Chief Joseph for your wonderful input and inspiration
    With light and love
    Monica

    • John Cali

      Thanks very much, Monica, for sharing your stories. Dogs are amazing beings, and far more spiritual than most of us give them credit for.

      Hugs,
      John

  2. Cyrl

    Thank you for that. Love reading your stories about dogs !

  3. Martha

    I love Schnapsi !!!

    I can by the photo he is a magnificent and focused being.

    Dogs embody unconditional LOVE.

    Thank you John, for sharing this beautiful story of true love and devotion. Obviously Schnapsi is a very evolved BEING.

    I was feeling upset and quite triggered just now about something to do with humans NOT being unconditionally loving (!) and hearing about Schnapsi really helped to calm me down.

    I REALLY NEED TO HAVE A DOG IN MY LIFE AGAIN!!
    They just make me SOOO happy!

    Love,
    Martha

    • John Cali

      Thank you very much, Martha. Actually, that’s not a photo of Schnapsi — but that could have been his twin brother, as they look almost identical.

      I agree with you — dogs are just plain good for us.

      Love,
      John

  4. Ron

    This is the type of event which can provide the incentive for a person to change their entire life course. There are many and not necessarily as dramatic as yours which tend to rest in our subconscious (?) and still be very powerful.

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