When Maggie moves into a new house with her son, Ethan, and her husband, Kyle, she’s more than ready for a fresh start. Her son needed a new home and a new school, and Maggie just wanted him to be happy. But one day, a husky wanders into their yard, eats their food, and gets close to Ethan. Soon after, the husky leads Maggie and Ethan into the woods, ready to show them something devastating…
When we moved into our new home, I had a good feeling. This was a new chapter in our lives, and I was more than ready for it. Kyle, my husband, and I were excited to give our son, Ethan, a fresh start. He had recently been through a bullying experience at school, and we all just wanted to put that behind us.
The house belonged to an older man named Christopher, who had recently passed away. His daughter, a woman in her forties, sold it to us, saying it was too painful to keep and that she hadn’t even lived there since her father died.
“There are too many memories in there, you know?” she told me when we first met to tour the house. “And I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands. I want it to be a home for a family that will love it as much as my family loved it.”
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“I know exactly what you mean, Tracy,” I said reassuringly. “We’ll make this our forever home.”
We were eager to move in, but from the very first day, something strange happened. Every morning, a husky showed up at our front door. It was an old dog, with graying fur and piercing blue eyes that seemed to look right through you.
The sweet boy didn’t bark or make a fuss. He just sat there, waiting. Of course, we gave him food and water, thinking he belonged to a neighbor. After eating, he would wander off as if it were a habit.
“Do you think his owners aren’t feeding him enough, Mom?” Ethan asked one day when we were at the grocery store getting our weekly groceries and food for the husky.
“I don’t know, E,” I said. “Maybe the old man who lived in our house used to feed him, so it’s part of his routine?”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ethan said, adding some dog treats to our cart.
At first, we didn’t think much of it. Kyle and I wanted to get Ethan a dog; we just wanted to wait until he was settled into his new school first.
But then he came the next day. And the day after that. Always at the same time, always sitting patiently on the porch.
I had the feeling that the husky was not a stray dog like the others. He behaved as if he belonged here. As if we were just temporary guests in his house. It was strange, but we didn’t pay much attention to it.
Ethan was over the moon. And I knew my son was slowly falling in love with the husky. He spent as much time as he could running with the dog, throwing sticks at him, or sitting on the porch, talking to him as if they had known each other forever.
I looked out the kitchen window, smiling at how Ethan had immediately bonded with this mysterious dog.
It was just what Ethan needed after everything he had been through at his old school.
One morning, while petting him, Ethan’s fingers traced the dog’s collar.
“Mom, there’s a name here!” he shouted.
I walked over and knelt down beside the dog, removing some of the fur that covered the worn leather collar he wore. The name was barely visible, but it was there:
Christopher Jr.
My heart skipped a beat.
Was it just a coincidence?
Christopher, just like the man who had owned our house? Could that husky have been his dog? The thought sent shivers down my spine. Tracy hadn’t said anything about a dog.
“Do you think he comes here because it was his house?” Ethan asked, looking at me with wide eyes.
I shrugged, feeling a little unsettled.
“Maybe, honey. But it’s hard to say.”
At the same time, I had the feeling that the husky was not just any stray dog. He behaved as if he belonged here. As if we were just temporary guests in his house. It was strange, but we didn’t pay much attention to it.
Later that day, after Christopher Jr. ate, he started acting strangely.
He moaned softly, pacing near the edge of the yard, his eyes darting toward the woods. He’d never done this before. But now, it was almost as if he were asking us to follow him.
The dog stopped and looked straight ahead, and that’s when I saw him.
“Mom, I think he wants us to come with him!” Ethan said excitedly, already putting on his jacket.
I hesitated.
“Honey, I’m not sure this is a good idea…”
“Come on, Mom!” Ethan said. “We need to see where he’s going and what’s going on. We’ll get our phones and I’ll text Dad so he knows. Please?”
I didn’t want to do it, but I was curious. There was something about the dog’s urgency that made me think this was more than just a random walk in the woods.
So we followed him.
The husky led the way, occasionally glancing back to make sure we were still there. The air was crisp and the woods were quiet except for the occasional snap of a twig under our boots.
“Are you still sure about that?” I asked Ethan.
“Yes!” he replied enthusiastically. “Daddy knows where to find us, don’t worry, Mommy.”
We walked for about twenty minutes, deeper and deeper into the forest. Deeper than we had ever been before. I was about to suggest turning around when the husky stopped abruptly in a small clearing.
The dog stopped and looked straight ahead, and that’s when I saw him.
There was a pregnant fox, trapped in a hunter’s trap, barely moving.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as I rushed towards the fox.
She was weak, her breathing shallow, her fur matted with dirt. The trap had sunk into her leg and she was shaking in pain.
“Mom, we have to help her!” Ethan said, his voice shaking. “Look at her, she’s hurt!”
“I know, I know,” I said, my hands fumbling to free her from the cruel trap. The husky stood close to us, whimpering softly as if he understood the fox’s pain.
After what seemed like an eternity, I managed to release the trap. The fox didn’t move at first. He just lay there, panting heavily.
“We need to take him to the vet immediately, E,” I said, pulling out my phone to call Kyle.
When Kyle arrived, we gently wrapped the fox in a blanket he had brought and rushed him to the nearest veterinary clinic. The husky, of course, came with us.
We had a feeling he wasn’t going to give up on the fox, not after all this.
The vet said the fox needed surgery, and we waited nervously in the small, sterile room. Ethan sat silently next to the husky, his hands resting on the dog’s thick fur.
“Do you think she’ll make it, Mom?” Ethan asked.
“I hope so, honey,” I said, squeezing his shoulder. “She’s tough. And we’ve done everything we can.”
The operation was successful, but when the fox woke up she was screaming, her cries echoing through the clinic.
The vet couldn’t calm her down, and neither could Kyle. But when I entered the room, she stopped. Her eyes locked on mine, and she let out one last soft whimper before falling silent.
“It’s like she knows you helped her,” the vet said.
We went back to pick her up two days later and brought her home. We put her in a little den in the garage where she could rest and recover. CJ the husky, as Ethan had taken to calling her, stayed with Vixen the fox the entire time.
A few days later, she gave birth to four little kittens. It was truly the most incredible thing I have ever seen. And she let me be a part of it.
“She only lets us near her babies,” Ethan told me one day when we went to see Vixen and the babies. “She trusts us.”
I nodded and smiled.
“And the dog too,” I added. “CJ seems to be at our place.”
When the babies were old enough, Kyle and I knew it was time to let them go. We built a proper den for them in the forest and watched Vixen disappear with her babies.
Now, every weekend, Ethan, CJ and I go into the forest to visit them. The fox always comes out to greet us, her cubs following her, ever so curious.