Dog days

Glen and I were looking at pictures of dogs that people had posted on a forum last night, and it caused me, in my exhaustion to have a dream about Altair, my family's dearly departed golden retriever. In my dream, Altie had gotten loose, and it was the fall, so there were people hunting in the woods. (In real life, we were always worried that the dog would get out and get himself shot because he looks like a deer, in coloring, running through the woods.) We were very concerned about him and tried desperately to bribe him back to us with cheese, his favorite people food. He wasn't coming, and finally my father and I took a train somewhere. Then, my mother reported that it was 97 degrees outside and the dog had been out for six hours, and was likely close to death if we didn't find him soon. My father and I took the train back through Brookline Village, and I hung strips of American cheese from my ears, so my hands would be free to crinkle the plastic wrap which I hoped would call the dog back. Finally he did come back, and I grabbed him by the back of the neck as he struggled to run off again. He whirled around and tried to bite me but I wouldn't let go. We brought him inside a store (there was a big copper vat), and tied a lace thing on his head, some combination of a hat, a leash, and reigns. That's all I remember of the dream. Weird.

np in my head: Some looping and sickening combination of single lines from Ani Difranco ("Names and Dates and Times" - see previous post), Elvis Costello ("New Amsterdam" - thanks to it playing in Starbucks this morning), and U2 ("Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" - blaring from someone's car as I walked to work from class).