Title: I've had my dog since the day I was born - all 31 years. Yeah I know it sounds impossible to you. Last night he passed away, and 4 hours later, a group of people showed up in my yard.

Author: inaace via reddit/nosleep (u/inaaace)

Ok, now that I'm writing this I can see how  strange it is that I've had my dog for almost 31 years, but when you  live with something every day of your life, it's kinda normal, you know?  I mean, sure, it crossed my mind here and there that, hey, how come  Snoop is 20, 24, 26 years old, but I never gave it extensive thought.  Good nutrition and daily exercise is what I'd say and move on. It wasn't  impossible, right?

Snoop's always been  with me, since day 1. I was born on August 10th, 1985, and my parents  got him on August 9th, about 12 hours before I was born. They wanted me  to grow up loving animals, so they got me a best friend from the start.

He  was the best dog in the world, and I know everyone says that about  their animal, but mine really was. He never left my side, and I took him  everywhere I could, I even brought him to the U.S. when I moved here  from Montenegro. Some of my ex girlfriends weren't thrilled that I was  so close with Snoop, but since he's been my buddy from the day I entered  this world, he was always my priority.

Not  only was Snoop always available for infinite cuddles and 24/7 game of  fetch, but he also got me out of few strange situations.

I  remember one day about 19-20 years ago, I was mowing the lawn outside  my parents' house, and a man walked up to me. He wore black suit and a  nice hat so he looked legit to 11 year old me. He talked to me about  Star Wars which I loved obsessively, and told me that he had a huge  figurine collection in his van that was parked just down the street.  Normal looking man + Star Wars toys equaled me throwing everything  parents drilled into my brain about strangers right out the window.

I  was about 3 feet away from entering this man's van when he turned to  me, his face pale as a ghost. He then violently turned back around, ran  into his van, and sped away like a madman, without saying so much as a  word. I stood there confused for a second, and when I shrugged and  turned to go back home, I saw Snoop standing right behind me. He didn't  bark, but he still must've scared the nice gentleman who was going to  show me his toy collection. I was mad at Snoop for startling the man,  but he was my best buddy so I forgave him right away.

Let me think if I can remember more situations where Snoop helped me.

Oh  yeah, I remember a strange one when I was 19 or 20. I went camping with  couple of buddies. You know, beer, lots of meat to grill, that kinda  deal. Of course, I took my dog with me, everyone loved him and he loved  woods as well. Last night of camping, my buddies went to look for some  wood to light a fire, and I went on a stroll to the river. Snoop was  sleeping in my tent so I didn't take him. He was such a good dog, I was  never afraid of him running away.

When I  got to the river, it was getting pretty dark. I got close to the water  to see if I could gauge how deep it was, and I heard footsteps behind  me. I turned and saw this, maybe 11 or 12 year old little girl standing  behind me. She was kind of out-of-place looking, wearing a nice black  dress in the middle of woods. I asked her if she was lost and she told  me that she was, apparently she wandered away from her parents' tent. So  I helped her look, basically just following her around the forest. Just  when I started thinking that I may end up having to call forest  rangers, she turned to me with a smile and said that she could see her  family tent in the distance.

We walked up  to a large black tent I thought was empty because, well, it was  perfectly quiet, and also, I assumed her parents were out there looking  for her. However, when she opened the tent, I saw a man and a woman  sitting inside it, smiling at us. I thought it was very strange that  they were all so inappropriately dressed for camping, the man wearing  what looked like a black sport coat, dark turtleneck and black jeans,  and the woman with a long black cocktail dress, sitting on the ground.  When the kid got inside the tent, the man finally spoke up in a cheerful  voice and insisted that I get in and have a drink with them, since I  found their daughter and they were so worried about her. And although I  found everything kinda odd, I went for it. Hey, I was never good at  saying no. Right as I started stepping inside the tent, I heard whining  behind me.

Snoop stood some 5 feet away,  whining and looking very disturbed, I've never seen him act like that. I  stepped out of the tent and as I walked towards Snoop, I heard the man  yell for me to come back inside. I still chose my dog, as I always do.  When I kneeled by Snoop, I thought it was weird that I couldn't hear a  thing coming from the tent, or that none of them would come out. All of  this was a bit too much for me, so I just yelled that I had to go back  to my camp, and my dog and I left. Snoop started wagging his tail as  soon as we were walking away, and I was happy that my best friend was  cheerful once again.

Another time a few  years back I was driving around town with Snoop in the passenger seat.  That was kinda our thing, riding around and letting him look out of the  window as we passed the world. It started getting dark so I turned and  headed home. When we got near our house, I noticed a car parked on the  side of the road, with all lights off on and smoke coming from under the  hood. In front of it stood this girl, dare I say, attractive girl, who I  barely noticed because she was dressed in black and it was already so  dark.

I don't know much about cars, but I  felt inclined to help, so I pulled over. Snoop became very restless,  jumping from seat to the floor and back. I told him to relax and got out  of the car, leaving him inside.

The girl  seemed very relieved that I pulled over. I told her I didn't know much  about cars, well I knew nothing about them, but that I had some flairs  to give her so she would at least be visible to other drivers. She  thanked me as I handed her the equipment. She then asked me to just take  a look under the hood anyways, and again, despite me being terrible at  cars, I had a hard time saying no, plus the girl was really good  looking. As I got close to her car, Snoop started acting really strange.  He was now scratching at the window and whining. I told the girl to  wait a second because I wanted to let my dog out, but she grabbed my  hand and asked to just take a look at her engine first. Again, I put  Snoop in front of everyone else, so I just smiled and walked back to my  car and opened the door. He jumped out so quickly I thought he'd hurt  himself. He was already over 24 years old, and his joints weren't what  they used to be.

When I turned my  attention back to the girl, I was really surprised to see her driving  away, with hood still lifted and smoke still coming out of it. Huh, I  thought, I guess she fixed it. Whatever, m I didn't give it much  thought, really, I just picked up my flairs and got back into the car,  with Snoop wagging his tail right next to me.

Finally,  and I'm starting to notice a pattern here now that I write this, last  strange situation I can remember happened about a year ago. Snoop was  feeling a bit under the weather, I mean, he was almost 30 after all, so  we were just hanging out in our front yard. We live in a quiet suburb  where nothing happens. Kids were riding bikes on the street while my  best bud and I relaxed by the blow up pool in the yard. I heard a loud  crash followed by crying coming from the street. When I looked up, I saw  a kid crying by his bike. I walked out on the street, leaving Snoop in  the yard since he wasn't feeling well. He was whining, but I wanted to  quickly check on the kid. I asked the boy if he was ok and he rolled up  his black pants to show me his bleeding knee, and I saw that his dark  shirt was also torn up in few places. He asked me if I could take him  home, which was just around the corner. Of course I could, I walked with  him and when we got in front of his house, he asked me to come in.

I'm  not the one to enter stranger's houses, especially with a kid, so I  thanked him and started walking away. Then, the door opened and his mom  came out. She was dressed in a black dress and accompanied by a very  nice smile and warm, inviting face. She begged me to come in and have  some freshly made lemonade, her way of thanking me for helping her kid. I  was reluctant but I caved in, she seemed so nice. As I was climbing the  steps to the door, I heard loud barking behind me. I turned around and  saw Snoop standing in the street. He almost never barked. It was strange  because my fence was at least 4 feet tall and my dog could never jump  over it. Then I saw that his belly was bleeding, all scraped from what I  figure was him jumping over the fence I always thought was too high for  him.

As I started walking towards him,  the kid grabbed my hand. He asked me again to come in, followed by his  mom who was now basically begging me to come in and try her fresh  lemonade. Once again, I chose my buddy over strangers, so I apologized,  let go of kid's hand, and walked my hurt buddy home as the door slammed  behind us. Snoop was so happy, even though he was hurt.

Snoop  passed away yesterday evening. He died in my lap, while I was gently  scratching him behind his right ear, his favorite. I didn't want to cry  while he was taking his last breaths because I wanted to be strong for  him, to show him that it was ok t let go.
Once his belly stopped  moving and I knew he left me, I broke down. I cried harder than when my  grandpa died, harder than ever in my life really. I knew that this day  was coming, I just wasn't ready for it. Almost 31 years, man.

I  buried Snoop in my yard last night. Some people may find that strange,  but he was my best friend, indescribably big part of my life, and I  couldn't just give him away to be buried or cremated who knows where.

I  had trouble sleeping last night. I was tossing and turning for hours,  and when the clock hit 4am, I knew sleep wasn't going to come. All I  could think about was my best friend, now laying in the cold ground in  front of my house. Almost as if to check on him one more time, to see if  he somehow miraculously woke up and was waiting for me, I got up to  look at his final resting place.

When I  walked up to my second-floor window, all of the sadness and heartbreak I  felt at that moment got instantly replaced with horrifying wave of  dread that struck my body.

On his grave,  right in my yard, stood some 12, 13 people. They were all looking up,  straight at me. You never expect to see someone standing in your front  yard in the middle of the night, especially not 13 people, all dressed  in black.

And then, another shock hit me.  I recognized them. One by one, I knew them all. It took me a bit, but I  did, I swear to you I did know them. The kid on the bike and his mom.  The child from the forest with her parents. The girl I stopped to help  on the side of the road. Some other people from different, one time  situations from my past. But the one that nearly paralyzed me right  there was the man. The same man who tried to make me get into his van  almost 20 years ago. He didn't look a second older than how I remembered  him. Everyone else there, I met in the US. The man, though, the man I  met as a kid in Montenegro, 5,000 miles away. And he was standing in my  yard, looking at me.

He then yelled at me  to come on out. Everyone else started motioning for me to come down,  the kid and his mom smiling, the broken-car girl combing her hair and  sending kisses, the camping family waving. They all wore the same  clothes I remembered them wearing in the past.

I pulled, nearly tore actually, the drapes closed and dialed 911.

7  or so minutes of dreadful silence later, police car showed up. They  didn't see anyone in the yard, but promised to keep looking around the  neighborhood. I told them to go to the lady down the street's house, and  they said they would. I haven't heard anything from them yet, and it's  11am. I can see lots of footprints in the grass of my yard, so this  definitely isn't some grief-caused hallucination.

What  do you guys think of all this? I am not some sort of oblivious idiot, I  fully recognize the absurdity of this, I just have zero ideas on what's  happening.

This bizarre situation is now consuming my mind as I sit here thinking what to do next. I think I'll call my parents now.

I wish I had my buddy next to me, man.