I had a transferee couple from northern Michigan. They were major dog lovers. They were very concerned about moving the dog to lower MI as he was not in good physical shape. We went to see one house that seemed to fit their needs and wants. It was a cold and damp March day.

As we peeked out into the back yard, we saw they had a cocker spaniel who looked like she was frozen in place. We all felt so badly for the dog. The male buyer went out into the yard to comfort her. She loved the attention he gave her.

At about the same time, the seller walked into the kitchen, getting home early from work. He was very scruffy looking with a four-day beard, rumpled clothing and an awful looking hat. I mentioned to him that we were concerned about the dog being in the yard unprotected. He said “I know I need to get her in; I’m not being very good at doing all I should”.

He then told us his sad story of abandonment by his wife who took the children and moved to AZ with a new boyfriend and left him with the dog. He wasn’t mean to the dog; he just wasn’t very involved with it. He said to us he had no idea what he was going to do with the dog, Ginger, when he sold the house. Both my buyers jumped up and said they would like to have the dog with the house, if they decided to bid on the house. He looked so relieved I thought he was going to cry.

As the seller whirled around to tell Ginger that she was going to have good new parents, my buyer saw the outline of a gun in the back of the seller’s jeans. After the buyer told me what he saw, I turned back to the seller and pulled him to a corner and asked if he had a permit for the gun. The seller said “yes” and “tell the buyers not to be afraid”. I thought, “OK”. He just didn’t seem like a bad guy.

The buyers decided they would write an offer on the house and include Ginger, the dog. Next day, they wrote the offer and he accepted the offer. But he forgot about Ginger, so we wrote Ginger into the contract. I wasn’t sure how the mortgage company would deal with this but they seemed OK with it.

The day of closing, the buyers and I walked into the conference room at the title company. There was a man sitting at the conference table, dressed in a nice suit, clean- shaven, with glasses. We had no idea who he was. I said to my buyers that he was probably the attorney for the sellers. The man stood up and said, “Hi, it’s nice to see you again” to the buyers and me. We looked at each other and him with a blank stare. “I’m the seller. Remember? You met me at the house.” We couldn’t believe it was the same man. At that point he decided to let us in on the secret. He was an undercover narcotics detective with the state police.

All my buyers cared about was “Where is Ginger?” At that point, the door to the conference room opened and one of the closing secretaries brought in Ginger. Ginger was all cleaned and washed with a huge red bow on her neck. Don’t ever tell me that dogs don’t have emotions. Because the minute Ginger saw my buyer, she yelped a happy yelp and ran right toward him and jumped in his arms. As far as I know, they all lived happily ever after.