* How did Oscar know this moment of transition? Did he sense DeeDee’s emotion, or was it something more? His reaction reminds me of a poignant scene in an enchanting old film called On Borrowed Time. In it, Mr. Brink, the personification of death, comes to take a sweet old grandmother. Her cocker spaniel sees Death before she does, and he cries. When she takes Mr. Brink’s hand and peacefully dies, the dog cries again. He knew what was happening, just like Oscar seemed to with Bill.

There’s a long history and much mythology around dogs howling before or during the death of a human. Stanley Coren, PhD, psychology professor emeritus and author of a dozen or so popular books on dogs, wrote an enlightening article on this phenomenon in Modern Dog magazine. One of my favorite “explanations” for this behavior was his description of an ancient Norse legend: “It speaks of Freyja, the goddess of love, fertility, and magic, but also death. When she is acting as the goddess of death, she rides the crest of a storm on her chariot pulled by giant cats. Because cats are dogs’ natural enemies, it is said that dogs would start to howl when they sensed the approach of Freyja and her mystical felines.” If there are giant cats in the sky when it’s my time, Gus is not going to howl. He’s going to bark and chase them until they find a suitable hiding place, from which they will skulk away, never to trifle with me again as long as he’s near.