A ghost and his dog

April 29th, 2025

By Alexis Gallagher

Writing prompt: POV of a ghost

               A Ghost and His Dog

 There is a middle aged man named Gary who was walking with his Alaskan Husky dog named Bear along a river bank near Portland Oregon where he lived. It was a foggy rainy morning when Gary lost his footing along the riverbank and fell into the river where he drowned. 

   Now Gary was learning what he could do as a ghost. He was feeling like he could do a lot more being invisible, which has its downside. Learning to haunt people he was reading his new book 101 ways for ghosts to haunt people for ghost dummies. Gary was on a mission now, he wanted to find his dog Bear.  

  Gary enjoyed hanging out by the cemetery by the river where he could hopefully try and find Bear. Unfortunately he was having no luck.

  That's when he noticed two men walking dogs. It was also a foggy rainy morning. 

  Little did he know that one of these men could help him find Bear. He decided for some reason that these two men would be perfect for him to try his hauntings on.

  It was a chilly, rainy, foggy morning in November when Gary saw Ben and Jim walking their dogs Charley, a chocolate lab, was Ben’s who worked as an English teacher at a local High School. Molly, a husky, was Jim’s who worked as a personal trainer at a local YMCA. 

  This morning while the two men were out walking their dogs Gary decided to haunt them. The foggy weather made it better for him to haunt them. 

  Feeling excited about this Gary made some birds chirping sound that he knew the dogs would run after into the fog which is exactly what happened when he made a force of wind come along just enough that the dogs leashes were able to come loose from the grips of Ben and Jim’s hands. The two men looked confused as to what had just happened and seemed to be trying to find the chirping birds the dogs had run after which of course were nowhere because he had made the chirping sounds. Gary was enjoying the haunting chaos he had made with the two men and their dogs.

  For some reason Gary felt as if there was something pulling him towards Ben and Jim but he wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe one or both of them would be able to help him find Bear. He would need to find a way to communicate with them somehow. He decided he would stick near the two men and find a way to get them to help him find Bear.

  Gary went back to reading his book on hauntings for ghosts. Maybe there was something in here on how to communicate with live humans but how? 

                  

                      ~//~

    A few weeks later Jim and Ben were sitting in a local pub having a beer after work. Gary decided to try to communicate with them by playing with the electricity and moving objects around. 

   First he made the power go off and delightfully watched everyone in the pub stop whatever they were doing in confusion of what had happened to make the power go off. He watched people start to take out their phones and look up what may have caused this power outage. While the power was out he moved the drinks Jim and Ben had closer to the bartender. When he turned the power back on all the people in the pub were happy. Meanwhile Jim and Ben were confused as to what had happened to their drinks and how they had been moved.  

  Well that was a good haunting but it certainly didn’t help Gary communicate with the men for helping him find Bear. Feeling giddy with a bit of hestitation maybe he should try writing or drawing something for both of them. He decided to try and show them his obituary and leave it somewhere each of them would see it.  

    February 7th 2012

Obituaries:

 Gary Gallagher Born 1960 - 2012

Gary passed away recently by a tragic accident of drowning in a river while out walking his beloved Husky dog Bear. 

He worked for a local newspaper and left behind a younger sister.

 He left his obituary in both Jim and Ben's kitchen so they were likely to see it. Hopefully they would be able to help him find Bear.

   He watched the two men read the obituary confused as to how it got there and what it meant while looking around to see if anyone was around to have somehow put it there.  

  Gary was feeling a bit of hope with the idea that maybe he was finally getting close to finding Bear.

      About a week later when Jim and Ben got together for a coffee they both discussed how they had found an obituary for a stranger neither of them knew and were wondering how it ended up in both their kitchens.

     As Gary was watching their coffee meeting he heard them talk about the possibility of him communicating with them.

   “Do you think that maybe Gary is trying to communicate with us?” asked Ben jokingly

    “Only you would ask such a question, you're into that sort of mysterious stuff. I guess that's possible.” Said Jim

  Ben had to think about this. “It was great catching up with you, I am going to think about this Gary ghost communication through some more.”

    “Sounds good, I will chat with you later.” Said Jim

   Gary was now hopeful that this communication would help him reconnect with Bear. He missed him a ton. Bear was a great companion for him and they were always out for a walk together especially along the river bank by the cemetery and he would feed him chicken from a rotisserie chicken. He wondered where his dog was now and how he was doing.  

  As Ben was sitting at home contemplating this ghost communication of his he was wondering how he would communicate with Gary. Supposedly Gary could communicate with him but how was he to communicate with Gary to help him with whatever it was that he wanted. 

  Ben called up Jim later with some ideas on how to communicate to a ghost.

  Gary was feeling frustrated as if nothing seemed to be working on communication with Ben and Jim to help him find Bear. He felt heartbroken and really missed his dog companion Bear. Feeling at loss as what to do next he went back to his spot by the cemetery overlooking the path in front of the river to think and just clear his head as much as possible.

  Ben and Jim were walking their dogs by the river. It was once again a crisp foggy weather and it smelled as if it could almost snow. Charlie and Molly hear a dog barking in the distance. Suddenly just like the last time they were there only a few weeks ago the two dogs ran off fast into the fog.

  Bear appeared in front of Charlie and Molly once they got deeper into the fog. The two dogs started howling.

  Looking up from his perch on the rock wall between the cemetery and the path, Gary could hear Charlie and Molly howling. Something with a lightness to it appeared to start making its way towards him. As it grew closer Gary became delighted. It was Bear! Bear had found Gary! He realized that he never needed to find Bear. Dogs have a sixth sense and that's what helped Bear find Gary.

  Charlie and Molly ran back to Ben and Jim just as the fog started to lift. They noticed as their dogs were approaching a shadow of a man and his dog walking in the distance wave to them with a smile and then disappear.