Good News---I am NOT being haunted!

                Last week saw Nixon and me at the dog park.  To say the least, Nixon loved it.  That is one of the best things about Nixon—he is great with other dogs.  I let him off his leash to play with some of the other dogs there while I sat and talked to the other dog owners.  I couldn’t help but feel like I was a mother at a park with her kids.  While Nixon played I chatted up with the locals while we supervised the “kids.” 

                One of the guys I was talking to started telling me about hiking spots in Herndon.  Since I am new the area, he listed a few places that Nixon and I could go.  I love hiking.  I have since I was little.  Some of my best memories are of me and my family packing up all of our camping gear and going exploring in the mountains or desert.  Maybe that is where my wanderlust originated.  Either way, I am always up for a hike!  He recommended going to a place called Frying Pan Farm.  It is an equestrian farm with a merry-go-round for the kids and a few hiking spots.  One of the trails led to a waterfall.  I was instantly sold.

                The next day after the dog park, Nixon and I were trapped inside the house.  It had been raining and I knew that I didn’t want to deal with a wet, smelly puppy.  When it finally did clear up around 5pm, Nixon was going nuts.  I could tell that he was dying to go outside.  That is another thing that I love about Nixon.  I often find that he is the one who keeps me motivated to keep going. 

                When we first brought Nixon home, I was going through a lot of emotional stress.  My world had been flopped upside down and I didn’t know what to do with myself.  It felt like I was going through this tunnel with no end in sight.  I had been living in the sunshine enjoying the beauty of everything and then I suddenly got sucked into this tunnel and I didn’t know if I would ever come out and see the world again.  I started looking for an escape from this tunnel when my sister-in-law recommended me getting a dog.  She has two golden retrievers that are her pride and joy.  I realized that I could do that.  I could get a dog.  I had always wanted a dog, but growing up my mother had always said that if I wanted a dog I had to get married first.  Well Judd and I had gotten married a month earlier so why couldn’t I get a dog?  That was when I started doing some research.  I spent hours on my computer looking up different breeds that fit my personality and lifestyle.  One breed that kept coming back to was the West Highland Terrier.  I was pretty confident that I didn’t want a terrier, but those cute little fluff balls on my computer screen were darling.  I eventually gave in.  I started researching them.  I realized that they fit me perfectly.  They were medium sized (I wanted a smaller dog), but they were still playful and active.  That was when I started looking at different breeders.  I came across a website that had a brand new litter of westies.  I saw “Westie B” and was sold.  I bought him that day and picked him up from the airport two days later.  As Judd and I were driving to pick him up, I couldn’t help but think, “What am I doing?  I don’t know anything about dogs!”  But all of my fears melted away when I saw my little Nixon.  His little tail was wagging from inside his kennel and he just licked my face over and over when I pulled him out.  It was a dream come true. 

                Sorry about that rant.  I just sometimes look back and reminisce about how lucky I am to have Nixon in my life.  I am happy to report that I am doing much better now and I give credit to Judd, Nixon and my Heavenly Father. 

                Anyway, I decided that Nixon and I should go ahead and give Frying Pan Farm a shot.  It was still overcast and when we showed up at the farm, it was deserted.  The rain had kept everyone inside, not just me and Nixon.  When we found the trail head we set off into the woods. 

 The Trail

                Here is the thing about Virginia woods.  It is thick.  Once I turned the corner, I couldn’t see the horse pastures or the farm house or anything anymore.  But it is beautiful.  I felt completely isolated inside the woods.  There were lots of twists and different paths that I could go off on.  I was heading in the direction I thought the waterfall was but with no portable maps for me to take, I was mainly guessing. 

                The forest was getting thicker and with the overcast sky and lack of people, there was an eerie feeling in the air.  I didn’t have the feeling that someone was watching me, but I had the feeling that I wasn’t alone.  But to be honest, I wasn’t afraid.  It was as if my subconscious had accepted that something was with Nixon and me and that I should just keep moving.  So I did.  The rain that had recently stopped had made the forest quiet and I could just hear my footsteps and the jingle of Nixon’s collar.  There were no birds chirping, no bubble of a stream or waterfall, and no rustling in the bushes or trees.  It was silent.  I almost felt as if I was interrupting a silent moment in the forest.  That there were other things at work and I had decided to stomp through this moment with my tennis shoes and dog.  But the weirdest thing is that when Nixon suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked past me at something I couldn’t see, I didn’t panic.

                Nixon is the most fearless dog I have ever met.  He is the one who approaches people first, tells us (by barking) when someone is walking past our apartment, chases down squirrels and other animals, and is willing to greet any animal he comes in contact with.  That is why his reaction at this point made me stop.  He dug his paws into the mud and refused to take a step forward.  I turned to look at him only to see that he wasn’t looking at me.  He was looking past me.  I turned around to see what he was looking at, only to realize that my human eyes did not permit me to see what he was seeing.  I spoke.  I told Nixon to come on.  I told him to keep going.  But he didn’t budge.  Instead in a blink of an eye, he turned the opposite direction that we were walking and bolted.  I am grateful that I had his leash in my hand because he would have kept going if I hadn’t stopped him.  What on earth was going on?

                While Nixon’s instinct was to bolt, I am someone who had the opposite reaction.  You know how everyone has a fight or flight instinct?  Well I was programmed with the fight instinct.  Somewhere deep down inside of me, I find myself thinking, “If something is going to get me then I am going to go down with a fight.”  However, that is unfortunate for me since I am only 5’ 1”.  But it isn’t like I consciously think, “Oh, I am going to get them.”  No.  It happens in that split second that doesn’t give your brain a chance to react logically.  So when Nixon’s adrenaline was telling him to run away from the problem, mine was telling me to approach it. 

                I won out (probably because I am like five times his weight) and he started to move forward with me.  That is when we came to the top of a hill and the forest cleared out.  Nixon and I found ourselves standing at the outskirts of a graveyard that had been around since the civil war.  Now I am not saying that Nixon and I ran into a ghost or spirit from that graveyard, but the thought has crossed my mind that dogs can sense spirits.  Nixon is no exception to that. 

                I decided to go into the graveyard and check it out.  Since I was already there, I wanted to see what was scaring Nixon.  Most of the headstones were just rocks sticking out of the ground without any writing on them.  However, there was a description outside of the gates to the graveyard.  Turns out the church house that sits on the grounds has been around since the civil war and was used as a meeting house for the confederate army.  There also were three confederate soldiers that were buried in the graveyard.

The Graveyard

                After discovering what had freaked Nixon out, I couldn’t go back into the forest.  Luckily there was a road on the other side of the graveyard and Nixon and I walked on the road until we made it back to the car. 

                I have to admit that I was freaked out as well.  It isn’t everyday that your dog freaks out while you are in the in the middle of the forest and you end up at graveyard.  I was very grateful that I made it back to the car alive and that I haven’t been haunted since that experience. 

                Judd didn’t believe my story at first.  And when he did finally believe it, he didn’t like that I had gone hiking alone.  We live and we learn, I guess.  I decided to take Judd back to the graveyard on Sunday after church so he could see it for himself.  He admits that it is pretty freaky even though on the day we went back it was sunny and warm.  We did find it pretty cool that it had such a unique history behind it.  I will probably be going back to Frying Pan Farm, but I will make sure that it is on a sunny day with lots of people around!