altivo: Clydesdale Pegasus (pegasus)
[personal profile] altivo
I think I know where it came from. Yesterday [livejournal.com profile] soanos and I were having a chat that, among other things, touched on giraffes and okapis and zebras. Early this morning, right before awakening, I had a bizarre dream. Not disturbing, but unusual even for me. This one lacked the more or less sequential plot that my remembered dreams usually have.

Anyway, the setting looked vaguely like the US in old west days. The way you used to see it on television or in movies, dry, dusty, rather drab. Driving or riding in a horse-drawn wagon into or out of a town (vague, I know, but it was.) And there was a young kid with two four-legged animals. He was trying to ride one, and it was taking exception to that, not by bucking like a horse, but by squirming and twisting around. In the dream, I thought of these animals as giraffes, though really they didn't look like giraffes. No spots, necks more like camels or llamas than like giraffes. They had stripes like okapi, but were shaggier, like alpacas or llamas. Anyway, in the dream they were supposed to be giraffes, apparently.

And the kid pulled a thing like a gun out of his pocket or a holster, held it to the head of the creature he was struggling with, and fired. It made a dull thud, and I thought "OMG, a captive bolt like in slaughter houses," but the animal continued to struggle until it succeeded in shaking him off its back. By that time I was on foot and shouting at him, but he ran and disappeared.

I turned to the two odd animals, thinking one must be dead, but it wasn't. The larger of the two, the one the kid had shot, was still standing but holding one hind foot off the ground. A little blood was dripping, but not a lot. I asked it if I could look at the injury, and it nodded, turning to present that side and lifting the foot, which had padded toes rather like those of a camelid but three in number. There seemed to be no broken bones, and the bleeding had already stopped, but there was a large gash in the skin.

"We should have that cared for," I said, and to my surprise, the creature answered me.

"What would you propose?" it asked.

I got over the surprise quickly enough, and suddenly it seemed perfectly normal to be conversing with the two creatures. They did not tell me what they were, and I didn't ask how the situation had arisen. The talk was all about the injury and how to treat it. At length they agreed to let a veterinarian examine the wound. We walked, or rather, I and the smaller beast walked while the large one limped, down the street until we found a veterinary office and went in. The vet said the wound should heal all right but it needed to be cleaned and stitched shut. He also proposed to give the creature an injection of some antibiotic. It agreed to the treatment. The vet asked me to hold the beast's head while he gave the injection. He explained that it might be painful, and that the poor thing should not struggle because it might hurt itself. It nodded understanding.

Then I was holding its head and shaggy neck while the vet gave the injection. It went very rigid and started to shrink to the size of a large dog, while I still held and petted its neck. Somehow this seemed normal, as if it had explained that it could change sizes at will when necessary. The vet was stitching the wound shut without difficulty when I woke up, interrupting the story line.

I still have no idea what the creatures were. Something like llamas, I guess, but not exactly. They spoke perfect English, with radio announcer type voices, and seemed very gentle and civilized. I suppose they might have been some sort of alien race, though this was never acknowledged.

Date: 2009-01-01 09:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] deerplushie.livejournal.com
I've had very weird dreams, very much like this.

Date: 2009-01-01 12:47 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (altivo blink)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
I have weird dreams often, but they are usually a bit more coherent, and only rarely furry.

Date: 2009-01-01 12:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] avon-deer.livejournal.com
What an odd dream. Too much new year champagne? :)

Date: 2009-01-01 12:46 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (Default)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
Not a drop. :)

Date: 2009-01-01 01:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] soanos.livejournal.com
Hmm... Perhaps an inspiration for a new story-line?

Your dreams sounds nice. I wish I had interesting dreams. They usually just have someone dear to me get hurt.

And maybe we should talk just about zebras next time so the creatures will be a bit less of a mixture of species. :D

Date: 2009-01-01 01:14 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (Default)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
Well the mixture was interesting actually. What seemed strange when I woke up was that I knew I had been thinking of them as giraffes when in fact they looked more like llamas or alpacas.

I know less about zebras than I do about camelids and giraffidae.

Date: 2009-01-03 01:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] soanos.livejournal.com
Well, if you know about donkeys and horses, you know about zebras :)

*nuzzles* Perhaps lessons are required? :)

Date: 2009-01-03 10:42 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (Default)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
I think donkeys are cute, but I'm no expert on them. :) Zebras seem to be closer to donkey kind than to the horses I know.

Date: 2009-01-01 05:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] animist.livejournal.com
Sounds less like a furry dream per se than a archetypal dream. If this was my dream, this is what I would think about it. Animals that can carry a rider can represent the body-self and the rider (or other human characters) can represent the ego-self. Both are aspects of the whole-self, but the body and the ego are sometimes at odds. The body resists the ego's domination, which can be quite cruel at times. We push our bodies to go beyond what they are comfortable doing. Human characters in dreams can often represent aspects of the will, ego or intellect; and in dreams animals can often represent emotions, feelings, the body, or certain deep values and principles.

Your action to care for the creature and take it to the vet shows a different kind of relationship between the ego and the body, a healthy partnership. I think the creature's changing of size has to do with the way that parts of the body seem bigger when they are in pain - just like the dentist's tiny needle feels like it should be 1/4 inch in diameter when you get injected before a tooth is fixed. The body magnifies as a way to draw attention to a problem non-verbally.

This is just my thoughts on the matter, as a fellow dreamer. You might want to pay attention to what your body indicates as important for you to pay attention to in the next few days. An ailment or injury may need to be cared for, and you may need to get outside help.

Date: 2009-01-01 11:10 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (Default)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
Seems like a fair analysis except that I don't think I have any analogous health problem. I'll see if anything similar repeats, though.

Date: 2009-01-02 02:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] animist.livejournal.com
Best wishes for a healthy new year!

Date: 2009-01-03 12:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] saythename.livejournal.com
That reminds me....

Not to discount your 11hz Llamas...

I had a dream where I was sitting in this park I
knew as a kid and a fox came over.

This sort of dream mostly ends with me waking
up because the fox bites me or is angry, as
normal in such a situation.

This time the fox put his head on my lap and
I petted him and curled up.

My son took pics with his phone.

I want those pics, but getting them out of
my REM costs too much.

@.@

Date: 2009-01-03 10:45 pm (UTC)
ext_39907: The Clydesdale Librarian (Default)
From: [identity profile] altivo.livejournal.com
Gary actually held onto a fox spring before last. She didn't try to bite him, though I thought she would. She only struggled to get away. As soon as he had cut her loose from the fence she got tangled into, she was gone.

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