“Hey, it’s Chelsea. Spencerville has gone from ‘Happy Tails’ to ‘Tales of the Unexpected’. Snow’s falling, dogs are rattled, and strange phenomenons are unravelling. Quite a mystery within our canine kingdom. Stay tuned! P.S. – Still hate carrots! Over and woof out.”

Listen to the story here

Suddenly, everything was changing. The “bumper sticker” type peace and harmony left Spencerville as the first snow fell. Not your average story kick-start, but then again, this isn’t your average dog or town we’re talking about. There’s a different drumbeat here, a heartbeat Ohio may seem blessed to ignore and we, dear reader, would be poor to disregard.

Spencerville, like any too-good-to-be-true place, always had that eeriness beneath all its doggie treat bakeries and the Pupsicle Palace serving their blow-your-mind honey-glazed beef ribs. That place could have a saint on his knees in prayer, beggin’ for more.

Like me, she’s a creature of comfort. Damn snow. Damn carrots. Wait…carrots? Ain’t her fault, that appalling orange infamy, popped up in her dinner bowl like a bad penny. She was a fine diner, a meat lover, and she wasn’t the only one. We, the veterans, the paws of Spencerville, shared the same spirit.

Spending my days with the queen, you’d say Chelsea was the Marilyn Monroe of our canine clan. Commanding attention just by breathing. Copper and Lily by her side, like a royal court. They were the main vein, pulsing life and spirit into the nearly perfect place. Hell, you’d think we were in Doggie Disneyland…and then, yesterday happened.

Unbearably strange. The birds that chirped an uninterrupted pipe organ concerto, went silent. Doggie Daycare resembled a haunted mansion, not a soul stirring except those absurd creaking noises that gave you the heebie-jeebies. And, at Pup-Gone Good BBQ, a placed packed tighter than sardines on a regular afternoon, was eerily deserted.

Hang on tight, ’cause this is where the rabbit hole drops deeper. We were in White Westie Woods, an ordinary gathering spot turned anomalous. Before we were even out of the woods, the sky darkened, thunder booming loud enough to shake the dead from their graves.

Then we saw it, out of the corner of our eyes. A soft, pulsating light, unnatural, but oddly soothing. A magnetic pull towards it and we caved in. Just a dog thing, you know? Perhaps we shouldn’t have…but then where is the story in that?

Chelsea brave as ever, led us.

“What’s going on here?” Copper’s eyes echoed my worries.

“Let’s find out,” she dared.

Got to hand it to her, bravery is attractive, even if you’re left nose to “ground zero” of the supernatural in Spencerville. That cold invading my bones, I couldn’t shake it off. I couldn’t shake off that feeling of something being wrong…terribly wrong. The raw, astounding heart of Spencerville was losing its rhythm. Chelsea, Lily, Copper, and me…in the eye of the storm.

Snow falling in dog paradise, things don’t just “happen.” Here, every tail wag matters, every breath, every lively chase, and every silence…

And it’s hard, you know, living in Spencerville, in the shadow of tomorrow which might just be the reunion day…and the silence. But there’s bravery in it. There’s solace. Solace, even though beautifully strange things are about to flip our world upside down. Yes, snow fell in Spencerville…but damn, what a story it started.

The End.