{"id":89,"date":"2025-10-19T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T06:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/?p=89"},"modified":"2025-10-12T15:36:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T15:36:59","slug":"the-tale-of-the-four-legged-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/the-tale-of-the-four-legged-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tale of the Four-Legged Witness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Every notary has one signing that lives rent-free in their head.
For me, it\u2019s the day a signing turned into an interrogation \u2014 and the only eyewitness had four legs, fur, and a questionable alibi.
It started like any other appointment. Papers prepped. ID verified. Coffee in hand. Then came the bark \u2014 short, sharp, and suspicious. Out from behind the couch trotted the real star of the show: the client\u2019s golden retriever, tail wagging and tongue out, ready for duty.
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d the signer said. \u201cHe\u2019s harmless.\u201d
That was a lie.
Harmless creatures don\u2019t wedge their heads between the signing table and your elbow every time you lift a pen. They also don\u2019t drool directly on the acknowledgment page \u2014 the one with the blue-ink requirement.
I tried to stay professional.
\u201cSir, I need you to focus on the document, not the\u2014\u201d SLOP.
The dog had successfully claimed Exhibit A: the loan packet.
Now, for the record, Oregon notary law says nothing about canine interference. But if it did, this pup would be Exhibit B \u2014 obstruction of workflow.
Eventually, I managed to recover the documents, wipe off the drool, and resume signing. But that\u2019s when I noticed something worse.
The dog\u2019s tail had swiped the pen right off the table.
The signer bent down to pick it up.
Thunk.
Head met table.
Ink met carpet.
And me? I met my limit.
After a brief pause and some laughter (the kind you do to stop from crying), the paperwork was completed \u2014 smudged, but legally sound.
The dog, however, wasn\u2019t done.
As I packed my notary journal, he planted one giant paw on the folder and gave me a look that said, \u201cI was here too.\u201d
So I let him.
I took a picture of that muddy pawprint \u2014 not on the document, of course \u2014 but as a reminder. Because in this line of work, things will go wrong in ways you can\u2019t plan for. You can have the checklist, the journal, the ID, and the perfect pen. And still\u2026 fate (or fur) will intervene.
That\u2019s the beauty and chaos of being a mobile notary. You never know what\u2019s waiting behind the door \u2014 a confused signer, a missing witness, or a golden retriever determined to make your day memorable.
And if I\u2019ve learned anything from The Tale of the Four-Legged Witness, it\u2019s this:
Always carry extra pens.
And maybe some dog treats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every notary has one signing that lives rent-free in their head.For me, it\u2019s the day a signing turned into an interrogation \u2014 and the only eyewitness had four legs, fur, and a questionable alibi.It started like any other appointment. Papers prepped. ID verified. Coffee in hand. Then came the bark \u2014 short, sharp, and suspicious. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10,12,9,13,11],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-signer-horror-stories","tag-funny-notary-experiences","tag-mobile-notary-tillamook","tag-notary-signing-stories","tag-notary-verification-rules","tag-oregon-notary-humor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Oct-12-2025-06_44_18-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwnotaryonthego.com\/thenotarynook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}