Another great dream…

I’m in Maui. I’m sitting here in my cousin’s guest room that I spent a fantastic week redecorating a few years ago. Today it looks very much the same and it is my very own bedroom for the next to weeks. I have a window open and I’m listening to the rain falling. It’s pretty rare to hear rain falling in Kihei and I’m quite enjoying it. I thought it would be a nice time to write about another interesting dream I had. This one happened last night.

I guess to tell this with all the required impact it deserves I’d need to tell you about Mansell, my cousin’s late dog. Mansell was a shepherd mix, an amazing spirit, and lived until he was 15, while still retaining the personality of a puppy even when he couldn’t walk on his own anymore. He finally had to be put down a few months ago, when he communicated to his owners that he was tired of living in his old worn out body, mortified by his incontinence. They suddenly just knew taht it was time to put him down, because there was no way Mansell was going to leave them on his own volition. When he was put to sleep, we were all devastated.

But, a few days after he died, he visited me in a dream — I can still feel his long nose brushing up against my hand. And I knew that he was happy wherever he was. It made me feel better about him being gone.

Then last night I looked up at dinner and saw a picture of him, and my heart ached. I miss him so much. I looked down at the box that contained his ashes and thought “come visit me in my dreams tonight Mans, I miss you and want to see you again.”

Mansell in his backyard. One of the few pictures he let me take of him- he hated cameras.

Well, Mansell didn’t show up last night, instead he arranged for me to be visited by two other late pets…

The first was my childhood dog, Sire, the Doberman. Sire looked old, but still good, much like Yoda. I spent some time petting him and lavishing him with affection before he was taken away from me. He lives now with an old celebrity who has since passed, I can’t remember who he was but he takes good care of him.

The second pet that visited me in my dream was Ratchops — my close friend’s pet rat that passed away some months ago. Ratchops was amazing, she was super intelligent and loved by many, especially Raina, her owner. So Ratchops and I had an awesome reunion last night. She looked young and healthy and I petted her with two fingers on her neck like I used to do, while Raina would cut my hair. And then Ratchops perched herself on my shoulder and told me that I needed to help her find a new house/cage. So we shopped around a pet store and I found her a cool setup, with a spinning wheel and a hammock type thing. She was really grateful.

This morning I told Raina about the dream. She got really excited and asked me to explain it to her. I told her that Ratchops asked me to find her a new house. Raina said that she had been thinking about getting a new rat. I thought that made total sense, Ratchops needed me to find her a new cage so that a new rat could have her old one! And then Raina admitted to me that she had been looking at Ratchops ashes last night and really really missing her, just like I had been doing with Mansell! That must have been how this whole thing came together.

Anyway, now both Raina and I know that Ratchops is happy and healthy wherever she is and has given her blessing for a new rat to be brought into our lives!

Ratchops asleep in my lap while Raina was doing my hair.