Yesterday during my walk, the neigh-bor horse thrust her muzzle  over the top of her fence, inviting me in for a muzzle nuzzle.

 

So, of course, I obliged.

 

It felt sooo good to be in touch with a real live horse again.

 

I miss my horse-y years.

 

Last night, I had a long, involved dream that included a horse and a whole lot of other animals.  The details are fading even as I write this, which is a shame, because it was a completely wonderful dream; all of the animals were really in touch with me, and I with them.

 

The dream started out that Jackie and I were to meet Laurel in Seattle, but Jackie didn’t let her know she was bringing Laurel’s horse to her there.

 

After unloading the horse and sending the horse trailer away, Laurel arrived, and she had no way to get the horse to her place in Rochester. Jackie had tied the horse to a telephone pole just outside a bank in its parking lot and disappeared –she was no longer in the dream — and it had no food or water to sustain or even entertain it.  So, the horse and I were  just stuck there, more or less. Laurel could take me back home, but not the horse, and there was no way I was leaving the totally innocent, totally stranded horse there!

 

Laurel didn’t know what to do, either. Ordering up a horse trailer on the spot certainly wasn’t in the cards.

 

I told Laurel I would walk/ride her horse to Tacoma and keep it there until we could hire a horse trailer. But since it was almost dark, leaving at that time wasn’t wise, and since “the horse in a Seattle bank parking lot” had attracted significant local notice (although luckily no news reporters!), a concerned lady suggested I bring the horse into the underground parking lot where she kept her vehicle overnight.  Another volunteer went to buy a flake or more of hay to sustain the horse overnight, and someone else got a big bucket and filled it with water for the horse.

 

So, an overnighter seemed the only logical solution. I told Laurel to go on home, that I’d be fine.  She left me a blanket and took off.

 

But as the word spread that there was a horse overnighting in a Seattle parking garage, neighborhood kids started stopping by and popping in.

 

And so did various animal waifs: cats, kittens, raccoons, opossums, rats, mice, an owl, you name it.  All of them gathered ’round in our little temporary “horse apartment” below ground, where it was quite dark after the sun set.

 

One of the kittens, I noticed, was a very young bobcat.  The biggest feral tomcat in the neighborhood started eyeing it as if he was going to dispatch it, but I pointed my finger at him and he backed off.  I drew the bobcat kitten to me and tucked it into my shirt to make sure it would stay safe. It went right to sleep.

 

At the beginning, all the kids were quiet and respectful. But as time passed, they got bored just watching animals do a whole lot of nothing, and one suggested to several friends that they go get their electronic devices and come back.

 

I said, “Sorry, no electronic devices in here, please. If you want that more than you want what you have here, you’ll need to go someplace else to do that.”

 

I didn’t get any pushback.  The kids who were really into critters stayed put; the others left.

 

I don’t remember much more of the dream. I know I wondered about which route to take out of Seattle, leading a horse, that would be the most peaceful for him. I knew that speeding cars, honking horns, and scurrying pedestrians weren’t conducive to a pleasant atmosphere for a horse that wasn’t accustomed to noisy, bustling cities.

 

What I remember most about the dream is how amenable the animals were to cohabiting with me and the other species (except for that one tomcat, and even he was amenable to being told “ix-nay on murder, Buster Brown!”)

 

I was with MY family in that dream. The animal kingdom. Thinking about their needs, thoughts, and feelings.

 

My heaven will be filled mostly with animals I’ve loved, lost, and never met (Koko the gorilla,  Trigger –Roy Rogers’ horse, Flicka, otters, seals, dolphins).

 

IF there’s a heaven. Big IF.  Most animals (and truly loving, compassionate people) deserve one. I feel that strongly. But myths cannot be proven, so I remain a hopeful agnostic on the topic of heaven.