Mar 22, 2014 Awake in Dream Time - Journal Entries about the almost real, the surreal and the unreal
Canine Comfort
©March 22nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
A dark presence hovered at the door.
It had no emotions attached to it, save one. It wanted something. It was in a state of NEED, urgent, voiceless need.
Atavistic it was, and it called upon its ancestors.
Behind it, silently, appeared the ghosts of need.
The pack shifted behind the dark presence.
Somewhere, in another time and another place, an ancestor lifted its dark head and called into the tundra.
Somewhere close by, in a cave, someone awoke and stiffened against the ghosts of the night. Death was always close. The person in the cave reached for a piece of meat and threw it out into the shadows. There was a padding and a scuffle. a growl, a snarl and a chase. Then, a snuffling, a chomping and a tearing of meat. The ancestor crept into the cave. There was a small fire there. The ancestor liked that. It came closer. The human held her breath. Then, the ancestor lowered itself to the floor by the mouth of the cave, thumped its tail briefly and closed its eyes.
The human was strangely comforted. She pulled her baby close to her, and her male, who grunted in his sleep, turned over and snored, oblivious to all that had occurred.
She felt complete.
The night faded. The time and place disappeared into the mists.
Here, now, at the door, a dark presence, a cloud of need waited. It looked at me, mutely.
I opened the door. I let out my dog. She went out, sniffed the night air, attended to her needs, said a farewell to her ancestor, and came back in. The radiator drew her, and she lay down, sighed her sigh of contentment, thumped her tail briefly, then closed her eyes.
I felt comforted. My child and my husband were up and about, doing human things. I looked at my dog. She settled into quiescence, sank into placidity. One eye opened and looked at me. She needed me to be close. I needed her to be close.
I felt complete.
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Tags: ancestor, canine, Chronicles of Holly, human and dog, need