Last week The Sous Chef and I along with a friend took a road trip up north. We left our dog with our trusted friend Mr. B who has a dog of his own Tucker. It is nice to have friends who have dogs who can dogsit while you are gone and vise versa.

We were into our third day of good times and had just ended our first tour of wine tasting at one of the wineries in Sonoma. We went outside to sit on the patio to enjoy the views. I was feeling a little tipsy just from the four different types of wine that we had tried. I noticed that there was a message on my phone. Upon checking my voicemail my heart nearly stopped beating as only two words seemed to have registered in my brain: “lost” and “dog.” I panicked. For a split second all I could think of was my wonderful, sweet, submissive, and unable to survive in the wild for 1 hour dog being lost in the mountains of Idyllwild and being eaten by coyotes. Of course I went immediately into the worst case scenario possible. I re-listened to the message while my heart was beating so hard that I thought it was going to break my rib cage, slice open my skin, and fly out of my body.

The message was from Avid, the company that tracks lost pets based on the information on their chip. Someone had found my dog’s dogtag and had called the number to report having found it.

I took a deep breath because I immediately knew that my sweet baby was not lost because the dogtag found was the one that belonged to Avid, which lives on my keychain. I figured out that somehow it had fallen off the keychain while The Sous Chef was carrying it the day before.

It is a good thing to know that the info works and they do call you, although, I got the message a whole 24 hours later. Anyway, I carry the Avid dogtag on my keychain because I always have it with me anywhere I go. Our dog not only is chipped but also wears a nametag with my cell phone number as well as The Sous Chef’s cell number on it, but she also wears a second tag that has her rescue group’s number on it. So really, who ever finds her would have a choice of three numbers to call before having to take her somewhere were the chip info can be scanned.

Anyway, I called the company back and they gave me to person’s name, Bryan, and his number. I called him and sure enough he had found the dogtag on the street in Berkeley and he was kind enough to put it in an envelop and send it to our home address.

I re-uncounted this whole story because it is what I call a random act of kindness. Bryan didn’t have to pick-up the dogtag, take the time to call Avid, or mail it to me for that matter. But he did. And for that I am extremely grateful.

It is refreshing to see people who are kind and considered. But most importantly, and ironically, it was a reminder of “what goes around comes around.” I say ironically because I had a conversation with The Sous Chef recently precisely about how I feel that it seems that I notice more and more a lack of kindness and consideration by others, especially those who you actually give to.  I find people who are takers very hard to deal with. It gets tiring to give and give while simply receive back a lack of appreciation or at times a thank you.

What happened this past week was a good example of what The Sous Chef reminded me. In a nutshell sometimes you get back kindness from people who you least expect it from or know for that matter, and not from those whom you have given to. It is all about what you put out in the universe. It will come back, one way or the other.

Have you experienced a random act of kindness?