It was very early on a Wednesday morning. I was asleep and was awoken by whining. Sidney, our eldest and most intuitive dog, was in distress.
I swung my feet over the side of the bed, put on my slippers and followed him into the kitchen. Water bowl? Full. Doggie door? Open. Was Charlie, our other dog, hogging the dog bed? Nope.
I picked him up, placed him back in his bed at the foot of ours and crawled back into bed. He continued to whine, but I was determined to ignore him and go back to sleep. I think I must have lightly slept on and off for at least two hours. The whining went on and on all of that time.
Once again, I got out of bed, rather irritated and looked around to see what was wrong. Nothing that I could see! Before I got back in bed, I happened to glance at my phone. It was lit up, and there was a message. “Mom just passed away. Dad and I were with her. She is at peace.” The text came in at 1:13 am Detroit time. Don's mother had just died. Sid’s whining had begun close to 1 am.
After I read the text, I pulled Sid close to me. The whining stopped. It was as if he knew something had happened, and I needed to pay attention to him. For the rest of the night, he was silent.
It is a mystery to me how Sid knew to continue bothering me until I read my text message, something I never do at 3 am! There is so much we just do not understand. I do know that animals seem to know things that we do not, and I am grateful that Sid communicated to me to keep looking around until I discovered what we needed to know! God uses the most interesting ways to get our attention.