A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man
was enjoying the scenery when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying and he remembered that the dog had been dead for years.
He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high white stone wall, along
one side of the road. At the top of a long hill, the wall was broken
by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing
before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother of
pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
He and the dog walked towards the gate, and as he got
closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough,
he called out "Excuse me, where are we?". "This is
Heaven, Sir" the man answered.
"Wow, would you happen to have some water?" the
first man asked. "Of course, Sir. Come right in and I'll
have some iced water brought right up". The man gestured and the gate
began to "Can my dog come in too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry Sir, but we don't accept pets".
The man thought for a moment and then turned back towards
the road and, with his dog, continued the way he had been going. After
a long walk, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that
looked like it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he
approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading
a book.
"Excuse me" he called to the reader "do you
have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there".
The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate
"come on in".
"How about my friend here?" the traveler
gestured to his dog. "There should be a bowl by the pump"
the man replied.
They went through the gate and sure enough, there was an
old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the
bowl and took a long drink. Then he gave some to his dog. When
they were full, they walked back towards the man who was standing waiting
for them.
"What do you call this place?" the traveler
asked. "This is Heaven" was the answer.
"Well, that's confusing" the traveler said.
"The man down the road said that was Heaven too".
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and the
pearly gates? Nope, that's Hell".
"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name
like that?"
"No. I can see how you might think so, but
we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their dogs
behind".
(author unknown)