Barking

Dog Orion is, in general, a typical sweet love-bug of a Golden Retriever. He is the pack Omega and he is happy with that place in the hierarchy. He waits patiently for the Alphas (us) to finish eating before he begs his own supper. He humbly attempts to absorb everyone else's bad moods. He initiates play.

Sometimes, though, when he sleeps, he seems to dream of being a different creature. He twitches his feet as though running, barks and growls, occasionally lets forth bloodcurdling howls. The howls especially tend to come out in the depths of night, when the Viking and I are asleep too. This of course wakes us up, and usually wakes the dog up too. When he does wake up, he seems surprised and somewhat confused, or even embarrassed, as though he'd inadvertantly revealed some deep dark secret about himself.

Of course, we have no real idea what's he's dreaming about. Chasing rabbits? Being chased by rabbits? Being Alpha in a wild pack? Fending off wild creatures in defence of our den? All of the above? Something different?

The Viking is, in general, a sweet and good-natured man. He has much in common with the dog, in fact, though he is not an Omega-type. I should probably not have been surprised, therefore, when I was awakened in the depths of the night last night by my husband, barking, growling, and yes, howling in his sleep.

Once I had woken him up sufficiently to stop the howls and growls, I huffed a bit about him being just like the dog, 'waking me up with barking at the moon.'

'I wasn't howling at the moon,' he grumbled. 'I was fighting demons. You can't communicate with them in normal language.'

Oh.

Well, then, Good night, Demon Slayer (4th link, halfway down the list; you can play it through your media player on your computer. Best. Lullabye. Ever).

verso - recto