Nija pulled her heavy, thick body to the front door of her new home. The glistening copper door knob, only three or four feet above the old dog, loomed like a distant star. She sniffed the door jam to see if her mistress had been there during the night. Had she dreamed it? Yes, it was a dream.
Sadly and slowly she inched her way back to the kitchen and laid her billowy body on the mat that had been placed there for her by the back door. Resting her head on her bony paws, she thought, "Where is she? I know she wouldn't leave me like this. It's been such a long time and she hasn't come to see me or take me away. I hope she's all right. What could have happened?"
Her sadness and anxiety grew stronger as she laid there, her old bones aching, her breath shallow and her heart breaking. The silence of the house made her even lonelier. The boys had gone to school she guessed. Jason and the other two big people were almost never there.
She tried to remember what her mistress looked like, what she smelled like, what she felt like. She stretched her memory back to the good old days in the big house, before the awful day when they were separated. Nija remembered so many of those days. It was the flood of those memories that kept her hopes alive.
She remembered hot summer days when, as a tiny puppy, her mistress carried her in her big sun dress pocket. They walked, bouncing down the street, to the store where everyone called them by name and gave Nija an occasional treat.
She remembered the sound, the smell and the rough embraces of the two children--running and playing on the big front lawn.
Oh yes; Nija remembered the time that she stopped the car thieves from stealing their neighbor's truck. After that adventure Nija was brought wonderful big thick steaks for her reward. She had been embraced by neighbors from blocks around.
Then there was the time when she was very ill--near death, she suspected--and people gossiped around the neighborhood because her mistress had paid $400 to save her life. Oh, such love!
"Surely if she did all of those wonderful things for me," thought Nija, "she would not leave me here. She would come to get me."
With a heaving sigh that rattled her bones, Nija's thoughts rambled again. The children. Oh my, the children: A boy and a girl, very close. Sleep-overs gave her a chance to be cooed and petted by a dozen happy hands. And the summer trips to the park. Oh, how happy she had been. Graduation pictures, yes, graduation pictures. Nija had always been included. Right in the middle of her laughing family.
One day the boy and the girl were giggling and throwing her bones and balls and the next day they were gone. Gone somewhere together, like they had always been. His mistress told him that they had gone off to college. Where was college? She still didn't know.
Then she shivered, recalling that awful day the sheriffs came and locked the door to the big house and would not let her mistress inside. Her mistress screamed and cried as if her heart was breaking. She remembered the neighbors putting her on a leash and pulling her next door. She remembered her mistress being helped into her car. She turned and tried to come to Nija, just as Nija tugged at her leash; but other arms prevailed.
The two were not permitted a last embrace. Her mistress grappled and tugged and finally gave up; blowing kisses to her beloved Nija through her tears. Sadly she drove away. Nija's thoughts were scrambled: "Where is she going?" And, "Why am I here?" "The house, my house. Why aren't I over there? What is happening to my family?
She took her spot by Mr. Henderson's back door, facing the big, boarded-up house, waiting for her mistress to return. Nearly every day Mr. Henderson patted her satiny black head patiently and said reassuringly, "She'll be back, Nija. She'll be back."
Mr. Henderson tried to feed her, but Nija would not eat. She refused all the treats. Once she had bounded for the juicy steak bones Mr. Henderson tossed over the fence. He tried to make her comfortable, but Nija was forlorn. She was too unhappy to be comfortable. Besides, Nija remembered wearily, there was Big Buster, Mr. Henderson's menacing and inhospitable German Shepherd. He lived not more than six inches away, just on the other side of the back door.
Grass grew tall in the yard of the big house as Nija waited. It seemed like forever, but it was really only seven days when the doorbell rang. Nija sensed that the doorbell was for her. She sat at attention. "Maybe it's my mistress coming for me." Her heart leaped.
It was Jason, a young friend of the family. Nija thought, "I can smell my mistress on him." She wagged her tail, leapt on the boy and licked his face furiously. "Jason has come to take me to my mistress," she thought.
She pranced excitedly to the car, hopped in the back seat and stuck her head out as the car sped away. Driving along she daydreamed about her happy reunion with her mistress. With building hopes the car slowed and stopped in front of a small house. She looked at the house expectedly. Surely the door would open and her mistress would be standing there to greet her. Instead two little boys opened the door and came running towards the car. Her heart sank and she suddenly lost her balance and fell back onto the seat. The boys tugged at her leash but she would not move. She didn't want those boys; she didn't want to go into that house. She wanted her mistress. Finally, Jason, who was very large, picked her up and carried her unwillingly into the house. He set her down on a mat near the door. She immediately got up, shook herself and walked through the house sniffing for her mistress. There was no sign, no scent anywhere.
Dejected, alone, resigned to the fate imposed upon her, Nija walked through the kitchen, lapped a few swallows of water and was about to drag herself back to the mat when she heard Jason's key in the door. She ran eagerly to the door, hoping that he had brought her mistress with him. After all it had been an unbearably long time since she'd been brought here.
She greeted Jason and instantly smelled her mistresses scent on his pockets. She grew happy. But why wasn't she with him? He'd seen her...he'd seen her!
Jason patted the old dog and reached into his pocket. He pulled out two worn twenty dollar bills. "Your mommy sent you some money for your food," he said, holding the money to Nija's dry nose.
"Oh-h-h," thought Nija, "that's why I smell her scent." Nija turned slowly and walked dejectedly back into the kitchen, to her spot. It was getting late and she lay down quietly on the rug.
A darkness came over her and a great sadness filled her heart as the corners of her eyes welled up with tears. She put her head down and hoped that the sadness would go away; but the darkness still hung over her head throughout the night as she dozed. Her heart was broken.
Suddenly, as she slept, a great light filled the room. She thought she heard a voice calling her name. But the lights were off and everyone in the house was asleep. There, she heard it again.
"Princess Nijeria Elizabeth Hill...Princess Nijeria Elizabeth Hill, I've come to take you home," said the soft voice.
Nija peeked through one eye, then she cautiously opened both of them. There before her, stood a beautiful, young iridescent girl surrounded by light. "I'm your guardian angel and I've come to take you home," said the girl.
Nija whimpered softly, "But...but I haven't seen my mistress yet. I can't leave now...I just can't leave now."
The girl replied, "Nija, you are 105-years-old in dog years. You are tired and it is your time. I promise you, your mistress is fine, but she cannot come to see you right now. She's afraid that you will try to follow her and harm will come to you. I promise you, though, as soon as you're home and settled I'll let you come back many times to visit her and look upon her."
Nija sighed with resignation. "Well, okay," she said.
The iridescent girl lifted the old dog gently into her arms and rose effortlessly through the locked and shuttered door, upward towards the sky.
A cascade of white soft light unfolded from the base of the moon as Nija and the beautiful girl ascended into the unknown. When their brief journey was completed the pitch black of the night engulfed the seeming staircase and there was silence. Princess Nijeria Elizabeth Hill was finally home.
Jason found Nija, cold and lifeless, in the morning. Unceremoniously, he scooped her up and put her body in a trash can by the curb.

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From the book Timothy & Friends: A Series Of Dog Stories [Based on True Experiences] by Millicent E. Hill and Valerie Shaw © 2005