There is a house down the street from where I live, with a nice white fence surrounding a plush green lawn. The only sign of life outside the house that I have seen, is a little brown and white dog who loves to bark when you go by the house. This I know because I jog by the house at least three times during the week. Weekends I vegetate, no excuses, no apologies. I have never, ever seen anyone on the outside of the house in the two years since I moved into the neighborhood, with the exception of the little dog. The dog appears to be well fed, you just don’t know who the owners are, since no one is ever outside. More than once, when I run past the house, I have been tempted to go up to the door and knock, but what do I say, “Hi, my name is Michael, just thought I would stop by and say hello”.

Then what? Suppose the little dog likes human legs? Not something to look forward to in any case. It just strikes me as strange that there is never any activity around the house and for some reason, I am drawn to this house. People at the other homes are always waving or saying hello, if you are close enough, but not at the house with the shutters and the cute little dog.

One day I could no longer stand the curiosity, I talked myself, in the middle of my jogging, into going up and knocking on door. I was quite nervous to say the least, the little dog just sniffed at my leg, no biting thank goodness. No one came to the door at first, so I knocked again. After the second knock I could hear footsteps. The door opened and there stood the nicest looking young woman around my age, a little shorter than I, with the cutest button nose. I starred at her like a silly teenager, finally found my voice and intro- duced myself. She smiled, making me feel a little less awkward , she told me her name. I said that I had never seen anyone, except the dog outside and it made me quite curious, so I stopped by. She said that she and her parents, who were not very active, usually stayed indoors and entertained themselves as they saw fit. She laughed at me for being a little embarrassed , but I could tell she was flattered by my obvious admiration.

We chatted for a short time, after which I told her I was going to finish jogging, that I was very pleased to meet her and went on my way quite excited. That was three years ago, we dated about two weeks after our initial introduction and we were married about a year and a half later. She and I live in my house, our house now, her parents parents and the dog, who is a lot bigger now, still live down the street. We are very, very happy and I am extremely glad I had enough instinct to go up to the door and knock. You just never, ever know, do you? By the way she jogs with me now.