Iya Titi, our neighbour then, recounted their ordeal many times and asked if we gave her paracetamol, because how? How could Nora bark one day non-stop? But Nora was alright, she did what she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, before I forget, we fed Nora like a king.
People would say the dog ate better than their households.
But we knew she was an investment \u2014 and we invested in her wellbeing because she invested her whole life in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we moved to another packaged area of Lagos, the security became legendary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She didn\u2019t guard just our house. Nora guarded four houses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- ours<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- the one behind us<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- the one beside us<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- and the one behind the one beside us<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Security issue?
Not on Nora\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay or night, she patrolled like a trained officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet behind all that strength lived a softness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside our walls, she was a baby \u2014 rolling on her back for belly rubs, nudging your hand, dancing when someone she loved arrived or walked past, whining when we went away for a few days and returned, or circling herself in excitement at the sound of our car tyres. She danced \u2014 full-body joy, tail like a metronome, head tilted, waiting for full attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, she loved biscuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You know, she was a warrior outside, but inside our compound, Nora was a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except with strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nora was the strictest immigration officer God ever created.
She recognised no one who wasn\u2019t family.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDomestic workers? More than ten years \u2014 she didn\u2019t blink.
Even if some lived with us four years in a row, she barked like they walked in afresh every morning. Zero tolerance \u2014 it was almost as if she kept them on their toes to know she was watching them in 3D.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNeighbours?
She barked like they were invading Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut her loyalty had intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She loved only those born into our hands \u2014 especially my nieces.
They all came after her arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey climbed on her, tugged her ears, balanced themselves by holding her face, dragged her tail to walk when they were babies \u2014 and she simply stayed still\u2026 patient, playing, gentle, devoted, like she was their mother too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It always amazed me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ada lived with us before Ayo was born, and Nora hated Ada.
But Ayo \u2014 this tiny human \u2014 would order her around, and Nora obeyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAyo wielded more authority over her than Hitler and the Nazi party had over freedom.
Nora did not dare defy this tiny human.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe guarded them with a devotion that felt inherited, as if she understood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese little ones belong to my people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is the miracle of dogs.
They know their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s a story we will never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had just moved houses to our new neighbourhood.
I had to leave early, and my sister walked with me because, of course, I am afraid of any creature that breathes and isn\u2019t human.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe street was still new, unfamiliar, and a stray dog \u2014 wild, unpredictable \u2014 ran towards us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before fear even formed in our throats, Nora, who had been walking ahead, spun around with the speed of ten dogs combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one move \u2014 clean, sharp, instinctive \u2014 she centred herself between us and danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her stance was majestic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her bark?
Thunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother stray joined.
Nora didn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe stood like a king guarding a territory, forcing the strays back step by step until the road was ours again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afterward, when we could breathe, we marvelled at her body movement as we walked.
My sister held the leash, but truly, Nora was the one leading.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNora walked calmly ahead, as if to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI told you \u2014 no harm will touch you while I am here.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
And none did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She could outrun birds, catch them mid-air and kill them \u2014 but she never ate them.
I always wondered why.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe killed many stray chickens in one breath.
We never saw a rodent.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNot even the monkeys that invaded the neighbourhood after their reserved area was cleared \u2014 they never came near our home. One time they did and busted all the pipes, but Nora was barking and we didn\u2019t pay attention. When we realised those monkeys had busted our pipes and those of our neighbours, we learnt another lesson of \u201cnever ignore Nora\u201d that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She sensed visitors long before they reached our street.
She knew the sound of the school bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe knew her barks \u2014 the one for \u201cknown person,\u201d the one for \u201cstranger,\u201d the one for \u201cintruder,\u201d and the one for \u201cfoolish person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her ears were tuned to the frequency of our family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am personally afraid of dogs.
My grandmother too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut Nora insisted on loving us. Sometimes by eating my shoe for sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She waited for the sound of my footsteps.
Recognised my voice.
Accepted treats with the gentleness of a priest taking communion.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe knew when we prayed.
She knew when we were leaving for Mass.
She knew when something in the house was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe was magnificent like that, inside and out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People begged my mother to let her mate \u2014 \u201cThis kind of dog should have children!\u201d
But Nora rejected every male brought to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe died childless \u2014 a warrior who chose loyalty over lineage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when she annoyed us \u2014 like the day she mistakenly ran past me and I fell \u2014 she tilted her head and widened her eyes until my anger melted into laughter. Of course, it was not Nora\u2019s fault that I am a petrified human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever she fell ill, my mother moved like a woman saving her own child \u2014 calling vets, buying medicines, arranging immunisations.
Nora never missed one.
Not once.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe was cared for the same way my mother cared for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then this morning \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Sunday.
The same day my Grandma died.
Almost the same hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNora closed her eyes for the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She waited.
Just like Mama waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSome departures are arranged in Heaven, not on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nora lived eleven years like a soldier at a post.
And when the woman she guarded from afar had gone home, she knew the house had a form of silence, so Nora ended her watch too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeople who have never loved a dog will think this is exaggeration.
But those who have will read this with tears:<\/p>\n\n\n\nDogs know.
Dogs feel.
Dogs love with a purity humans rarely manage.
Dogs stay when others leave.
Dogs protect beyond logic.
Dogs hear what we\u2019re afraid to say out loud.
Dogs understand loyalty better than many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is something sacred in her exit timing.
This kind of household member does not die randomly.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI remembered our little joke yesterday: prayer for the dead is a win-win-win \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- If they are in Heaven: praise<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- If in Purgatory: it\u2019s like a cooling breeze<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- If in Hell: God reallocates the prayer like surplus budget for someone else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
And I whispered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLord, if You apply the win-win rule anywhere, let it also be for creatures like Nora \u2014
who never sinned, never lied, never pretended, who loved us fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf Heaven is praise, let her bark be music.
If there is rest, let her sleep in grass without fear.
If You reallocate prayers, take ours and keep her close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nBecause if loyalty has a sound, it is Nora\u2019s heartbeat.
If protection has a posture, it is Nora standing between you and danger.
If love has a body, sometimes it walks on four legs like Nora.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMy grandmother prayed for us every day.
Nora watched over us every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBoth of them left within two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps in Heaven, Mama is telling the angels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my dog. She guarded my children.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
And perhaps Nora is lying at Mama\u2019s feet, keeping watch in the only language she ever knew:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loyalty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mama, who feared dogs on earth just like me, is now holding the spirit of the dog who protected her grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a reunion that must be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No living thing dared enter our home because Nora was there.
She protected four houses though she lived in ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe was Mama\u2019s friend.
She was my nieces\u2019 guardian.
She was our silent soldier.
I really loved her.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNow I don\u2019t know what my poor mother will do.
Knowing Nora was outside made us sleep without checking if the gate was locked, because only a fool would dare.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNow that our patrol officer \u2014 the second to Mama in watching day and night \u2014 is gone, what will we do?
What will Chappy, who has been her companion, disturbing her life like puppies do for the last two years of her life, do?<\/p>\n\n\n\nNora lived almost 11 years.
And today, I am very, very sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBecause we didn\u2019t just lose a pet.
We lost a presence.
We lost a protector.
We lost a loyal heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRest well, Nora.
You served us faithfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThank you for your strength.
Thank you for your loyalty.
Thank you for your service.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThank you for the eleven years you watched us, circled us, barked for us,
and loved us in the only language dogs know \u2014
unconditionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou were more than a pet.
You were family.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd today, we say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rest well, Nora.
You followed Mama home.
Your watch is done.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWith love and painful memory,
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPS: If you want to follow the complete series of Alice The Matriarch, you can find it below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day 1 \u2013 Where My Story Truly Begins \u2013 Ol\u00fa Ab\u00edk\u00f3y\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAY 2 \u2014 When Mama Told Me to Walk \u2013 Ol\u00fa Ab\u00edk\u00f3y\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAY 3 \u2014 When Two Depart, but Not Away \u2013 Ol\u00fa Ab\u00edk\u00f3y\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n