Transfer of Information is Complete

I've finished The Wonderful World of Dogs! I said. Hoorah! Now I can wrap it up.

So what was your final impression? asked Pliny. Did you find it to be meritorious?

Oh very meritorious, I said. And I have a third favourite story.

What is it? asked Pliny.

It's the story of Corky, I answered. And it is quite spooky. Corky was very old and collapsed one day in the kitchen He was taken to the vet's where he was pronounced untreatable. The owner and her husband agreed that he should be put down. The vet said it would be done in twenty minutes. They said their goodbyes and went home.

Why didn't they stay? asked Pliny.

If they had, I said the following would not have happened. At home the owner turned on her computer to search for some photos of Corky. As she was searching she got an alert message and heard a voice say, "Transfer of information is complete". She'd never had a message like that before. It was very clear and quite deep. Then she got a call from the vet to say that Corky had died. The time of death was exactly the time of the voice message. Her husband thought it must be a God thing, and that "Transfer of information is complete" was a message to say that Corky was already in heaven.

Did she think so too? asked Pliny.

She said she would like to think so. She said the voice had not been mechanical, but had sounded quite human.

Then clearly it could not have been God, said Pliny.

She didn't say it was, I replied. She said a God thing. She didn't even say it herself. She said her husband said it.

This is a confusing story, said Pliny. I don't know why you liked it.