Dreamtime

Doggie dreams

twitching storylines

while asleep

Where do dogs go when they shut their eyes? Is their dreamland as brilliant, adventurous, courageous, unnerving, fearsome and grotesque as ours? Do they process the day's events while they twitch and jerk and let out faint whimpers and sighs, so when they wake they can face the world again with a slobbering grin and wagging tail, ready for whatever the day might bring?

Do their dreams gravitate between racing through the park, sniffing a million different smells, greeting their owners and each other, relishing mealtimes and rewarding treats, to the not so pleasant experiences of life?

Does the neighbourhood feral cat that torments them, just out of reach, morph into a gigantic hissing spitting monster with eyes of orange fire and claws like ten-foot talons? Does the attack from the dog around the corner take on monumental proportions, where the clenching teeth become a steel trap which whirls it round and round, sending it soaring through the air only to land a quivering heap in an evil smelling sticky mess? We would like to think not, but who knows.

My dreams these days seem to have become somewhat more nondescript, but they used to, and still do on occasions, travel down bizarre roads such as people becoming trees whose branches thrust themselves out like tentacles, weaving themselves into an all encompassing cage with me curled up in the middle nonplussed as to how I came to be in this situation, and how to free myself. In hindsight, depending on what's happening in my life at the time, it's not difficult to work out their meaning.

Whatever a dog's dreamworld involves, it is obvious things they learn along the way become indelibly imprinted on their canine psyche. Whether those things are good or bad, man's best friend has a way of rebounding, trusting, ever faithful. We'd like to think they would be spared the night time horrors we at times endure which cause us to wake in a cold sweat and wonder 'where on earth did that come from?'

So dream on dogs, sweet dreams.