Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

Benny
Hounds and Hauntings

by Jaclyn Reay

My dog, Benny, was my best friend. He was half Jack Russell and half Chihuahua, and was given to me when I was seven years old. We did everything together.

When I got older and went to high school, Benny found it hard to keep calm when I’d not return home at my normal hour. If I went out with friends or to an after school project, he got so stressed that sometimes he would try to escape to find me.

I moved to Sydney, Australia, soon after turning eighteen, and whenever I came home to see my parents (who lived on a farm outside of town), Benny was excited to see me. I spent every waking moment I could with him. We were inseparable until I had to leave and return to the city.

One day in July of 2005, Benny went missing. He was so old now that he got tired after a five-minute stroll. And he was also going blind and deaf, so he couldn’t have wandered off too far. But despite the best efforts of my family, we couldn’t find him, or his remains either.

I was grief-stricken and cried for days over losing my best friend. Fearing that I had let him down, I went and saw a medium … by accident. I thought this woman gave career guidance but she gave more “life guidance” instead. She told me that Benny is fine and that he sits outside where my mother often sits. (My mother is a smoker and would sit on the back veranda where Benny had his sleeping blanket.) She told me to not worry and that he was there and knew that I loved him very much. He didn’t want me to see him die, so he wandered off and did it quietly.

When I visited my parents again, I was lying in bed and could hear Benny walking around on the veranda right outside my window. I feel his presence every time I go home and I’m glad he is still with me, even though not physically. I miss Benny but I know he’s sitting there keeping my mother company.