two strange dogs

Our local e-news includes this note today, Mother's Day 2009:

<TWO BLACK DOGS IN THE ELK PASTURE

Sunday afternoon, two black dogs about Lab size were seen in the Elk pasture. It looks like they are in a fairly deep hole in the middle of the field. This hole is about 50 yards from Stickney Bridge Road and opposite Santo Lane.>

Around a year ago I saw two strange dogs in my own pasture. They were so remarkable that they might have been angels, my son's spiritual guardians coming to stare at our bitter cold farm in the USA, where their royal African child would live. The two dogs matched: boxy in shape and liver-spotted piebald in color. When I noticed them I was near the northern corner of our fenced-in area, and the dogs were moving out of the woods along the fence edge. They stopped when we saw each other, me facing them and the dogs perpendicular to the river. With my bent to imagine great import to anything, I snagged on the idea of angels visiting on behalf of my son-to-be. I thought or prayed good will in the rosy spotted dogs' direction, hoping to communicate hope and peace. I felt scrutinized by them and judged myself unworthy because of my many flaws and faults that must have been evident across the shimmering air to the two dogs, the way dogs can hear things humans can't.