I had one such encounter while Loverboy and I were on our vacation. We went down to the island of Palawan for a few days and decided one day to hire a boat and go beach/island hopping. It was a beautiful day and our boatmen took us to an island called Snake Island (because of its shape, not because there were snakes). Beautiful beach. Just a few other tourists besides ourselves, along with their boatmen and the few people that make their living there. We settled in, picked out crabs and fish for the locals to cook for our lunch and chilled out in the water and the sand. But off to the side, sleeping under the shade of a picnic table to the right of us, was this little white dog. Just chillin. Just nappin. He caught our eye. A seemingly quiet little guy, no barking, no growling, just chillin.

We set up our hammock (cause of course we thought to bring one with us), ate our lunch, drank a beer and relaxed in the warmth of this beautiful little island of sand and mangroves. The dog kept sleeping. The other tourists pretty much ignored the little guy. Finally, Loverboy decided to call him over. "Hey Dog! You wanna eat? You hungry?" He opened his eyes, picked up his head and walked over to me. I tried to give him some of my roll. He pushed it away. Not interested in bread. I tried some rice. Nope. Aha! Crab! I extracted some crabmeat and offered it. Nope not crab either. But he patiently sat there at my feet while I kept trying. Fish. I deboned some fish and offered it to him. BINGO! That’s what he was waiting for! I hand fed him and he gently and politely took the fish from my fingers. No biting. No grabbing. Like we did this everyday. Loverboy was amazed. I fed him, making sure there were no bones, little piece by little piece as he sat there politely eating from my hand. He pretty much hung out with us for the rest of the day. Just keeping an eye on us wherever he happened to be chillin, but always pretty close by.

A little later, I decided to walk around the mangroves looking for shells to bring back. As I bent down and searched the shallow waters, walking along the mangroves, I hear a barking. A loud, energetic barking. I look up and there comes this dog, running toward me and barking up a storm. Uh oh I thought. I’m probably in his territory and he’s running to chase me off. But he comes running past me, stopping and searching the shallow waters just a few feet ahead of me. He was fishing. He was showing off for me, and boinking all over the mangroves trying to catch a fish for me. I stopped to watch. He kept looking back to see if I was still there and watching him. Chest out, tail wagging, ears up. Alert. Proud. Adorable.

I ran back a few feet and called Loverboy to come watch. He grabbed the camera and camcorder as we watched that dog try for 20min to catch a fish. It was hysterical. But pretty soon it was clear that this dog wasn’t going to catch a thing. So Loverboy called out to him waving his arm, "Come on dog, lets go. You’re not catching shit!". And with that, the dog barked and ran past us, leading the way back to the hammock, standing there leaning against my legs while I patted and scratched his head, praising his efforts. His tail wagged and he licked my chin as I bent down to scratch his chest. "Good boy! You tried though. Maybe you’ll do better next time. Good boy!" And with that he plopped down, belly and balls in the sand and chilled out for a while. When we were packing up to leave he slept. As we walked back to our boat at the shore, we heard a loud barking behind us. Turning around we see our little dog running to catch up, barking furiously as he ran past us, clearing the way to our boat giving us a royal escort. He sat there at the shore, barking and watching us get into the boat and watched as we pulled away from the beach. He sat there until we cleared the beach and quietly walked back to his shaded spot.

I want so much to go back to that beach. He touched me. His soul connected to mine. I will never forget him. You never know when in life you will encounter a familiar soul. Sometimes it’s that feeling you get when you see someone you think you’ve met before, or when someone thinks you look familiar to them. And sometimes a baby takes a particular attachment to you, because babies have not learned yet to doubt their inner spirit. It could be an animal whose eyes lock into yours when you’re visiting the zoo. Or you remember a place you’ve never been to and people you’ve never met. And sometimes, just sometimes, you go to a beach on a remote resort island in the South Pacific and encounter a dog. Whenever souls touch they are forever linked. No matter what form they take in future lives. Always familiar. Always comfortable.