Since we're talking about dreams . . .

[JC]

I don't know much about dreams to confidently comment on someone else's. However, I did have a really wierd one last night that I wonder about after reading these other posts. Not the same as my other nightmare. This one didn't scare me, it just disconcerted me a great deal.

I was watching television at night in our family room and our family dog, Riley, was laying at my feet like he usually does. Suddenly he looked up. When I glanced to see what had caught his attention, I saw a shadow move over the bay window. Riley went nuts and ran through our kitchen trying to catch whatever had caused the shadow. When he couldn't see anything through the entry, he turned to come back into the family room with me, but then saw something through one of the doors onto our deck and ran into the living room to bark at it. Whatever it was, he must have scared it off the deck because after awhile he came back to the family room and laid back down. I wondered what was out there, so I opened the deck door to check. Out in the backyard the was a tan greyhound with black tiger-type stripes. I was very surprised because it would have had to jump the fence to get in the backyard. I walked toward it to see if it had tags on it's collar, but it started growling very defensively at me. That was when I realized the dog was an amputee - it's rear right leg was missing. There was somthing wrong about the place the leg should have been, too. It was dark, and I was about fifteen feet away from it, but it looked like she had gangrene. I backed away without turning around, so I could keep an eye it, and went back into the house. Something told me I should get food, either because I thought the dog was hungry or I thought it might calm her down, I don't remember. Probably a little bit of both. So I filled up a typical plastic dog dish with some food and took it out to her. But when I tried to take the dish to her, she began growling again. That was when I saw the other dog. It wasn't in an unobstructed line of sight from where I was on the deck, but I could see it through the railing. It was some kind of Himalayan sheep dog. If you have a copy of Beck's Odelay! cd, you'll know what kind of dog I'm talking about. It looked much calmer, and was laying down in the grass, so I went down the other set of stairs - to avoid the growling greyhound - and, when I got within ten feet of it, set the dish down on the ground and pushed it in the sheep dog's direction. Then I backed away again, also without turning around. When the sheep dog got up and walked over to the food, I saw that it was also an amputee - it's left hind leg was missing. I hadn't been able to see this beacuse of the position it had been laying in. And the place where his hip would have connected to his leg was definately black, but not oozy. I watched it approach the food and begin eating to make sure it was okay with the food. After the sheep dog had taken several mouthfuls of food, the greyhound came over and sniffed the dish. The sheep dog did not seem threatened by her checking out the food it was eating. I could see the place where the greyhound's leg was looked not only black and slightly rotten, but also very, very burnt. Since the greyhound hag growled at me, I figured it was time to go. I backed up some more towards the deck and the entrance to the house, but this must have startled her. She turned around and began growling and jumping on her front paws. I lost my cool and turned to flat out run into the housed. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the greyhound run a really nice semicircle from where I had left the food to get in between me and the stairs up the deck. The last thing I saw was her teeth as she ran up just in front of me. I woke up just before she jumped up to bite my lower jaw or neck. My immediate reaction was that it had been a really odd dream.

Hopefully, this hould be a pic of the album cover I mentioned.
http://www.coastnet.com/~monkman/bac...99/bec1996.jpg

[lunalafey]

Quite a dream. The thing that interests me the most is that both dogs have the same leg problem. This has significance. I would start with a word association using the key elements in the dream
dog
leg
the first thing I thing of with the word dog would be K9
for leg, I think run.
make a list of about 5 words.
you may find some clues from that.
Let's say it was my dream and with K9 and 'run' and the fact I was helping these dogs, I might consider a 'run' for my own dogs, if needed. But that is a weak example beccause there is way more depth in your situation.
Put your self in the place of these dogs, see the dream through thier eyes and connect with thier thoughts.
Look for puns and other kinds of play on words and common phrases like 'bring home the bacon' & 'at the tip of my tounge'.
Give your dream a title and note it's theme.
Also what happend in the last day or two before the dream.

[zorya]

dogs can represent our defensive structure. do you feel that something has recently 'amputated' part of your self-defense, or your physical/home security? maybe your ability to move to safety?

dogs sometimes represent our own animal nature. do you feel as you may have lost access to an important part of your 'animal' self? you fed the dogs ie; nurtured or gave sustenance to them. this makes me think they are more about you then some external threat.

is there part of yourself that has been hurt or damaged, that you try to bury and may 'fear' in a way.... at least fear it's coming out from the buried place? maybe it's time to look at some of your old hurts. maybe it's time to 'give them sustanance'.

in my experience, buried hurts and fears can jump out at you when you least expect and want them to. fears and hurts brought into the light of day, still hurt for a while, but can be brought under control. believe it or not, these same fears and hurts have gifts that can be discovered.

[allibee]

Using LLF's word association of Dog and Leg, it brought to mind for me the term dogleg, which in golf means a sort of two part hole where it starts off in one direction and then goes off in another, usually a 45 or more degree angle.
You also say JC that the greyhound came at you in a semicircle manner, and I am wondering if you feel people in life aren't being 'straight up' with you.
In your dream you often say that you are afraid to turn your back on these dogs, and when you do, one seems to make its move.
You are feeding this animal, but it seems to want to bite the hand - or any other body part - of the one that feeds it.

So my feelings on this are that you are feeling or may feel that people are taking unfair advantage of you. They are asking for your sympathy and hospitality, and then turn around and dump on you behind your back. Maybe suck you in with their sob story, and then laugh about you behind you back. The gangrene then may well signify someone you may have thought of as being a bit poisonous, even if they are your friend.
It is said that it is best to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, but in this case I'm not so sure.

allibee

[lunalafey]

oh oh oh...
bit the hand that feeds...that is one of those saying that I was talking about...
another thing that came to mind after reading zorya's and allibee's post...
grey hound is a running/racing dog
and the sheep dog is a hearder/protector dog.
dog's also represent loyalty.

[JC]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll fill you in if I have any clarifying moments.

[Karenwhe]

Here is my take on the dream:

The dream starts with the living room, watching television and the dog, this means that the message starts with the image that you portray to others and the way which you go about your life (basic beliefs and yourself and who you are). The television represents the your brain and its flowing thoughts on the image you portray and the way which you go about life.

The dog represents your own values and intentions that will enable you to go forward in the world and succeed, those values kind of protect you from failure. As you have in the house one dog that is protecting you I would assume those values are of individuality, originality ego and being a winner (which come inevitably with ego).

The shadow represents aspects of yourself which you have not acknowledged and/or incorporated in your personality (but they exist). You current values are guarding you from incorporating them as you may think that they are not necessary or they are harming.

In other words; if you think that you are at some point a venerable person you will create huge walls to protect yourself, you have not removed the vulnerability, you just refused to incorporate it and the wall (other characteristic) are constantly guarding (that was just an example, not part of the dream).

The fact that the shadow moved over the windows says that the characteristics you did not incorporate are surfing to your consciousness and awareness. But the dog Riley (your individuality, ego, etc) is protecting you from other characteristics to creep in.

When you opened the door means that you still are moving from one level of consciousness to another. You want to know what is the shadow, even though the dog already scared it off and protected you (you decided to expose yourself to whatever that was).

The fact that it was the backyard door, tells you that these aspects are about secrets that you are keeping or aspects of your life which remain hidden from view and not acknowledged.

What do you find there? A another dog and you where surprised how did it get there. This tells you that you are surprised how did the “shadow” that you tried so hard to suppress surfaced all of the sudden, after all you fenced the place (put another wall) and put a dog (other characteristics of your personality) to protect you?

By the sound of the dream I would assume that you already know of the characteristics and aspects that are trying to surface as you have already fenced yourself in and protected yourself to the best of your ability – meaning your protected your consciously from something.

Checking if the dog had tags of a collar means that you want to identify the aspect or characteristic (as there are more that are hidden – which one is this one?). This is also further emphasizes that later you see another dog – so there is more than one and you are more interested in identifying the once that succeeded to creep in.

Now here the dream get tricky (or interesting)…………. As it can mean more than one thing….

The dog growling signifies usually inner conflict within yourself, but it may also indicate betrayal and untrustworthiness. As this dog are values and maybe intentions that have been denied existence the created an inner conflict. It is possible that his has been triggered by some feelings of betrayal, by denying this values and intentions you created an inner conflict which in turn can bring feelings of betrayal and untrustworthiness (inner type of thing).

What values are creating these feelings this may be hinted in the amputated leg. Rear right les missing. Usually the right side speaks of “spirit” and the left side of “will” in any case, this dog may be speaking of intentions or values that were suppressed and their “spirit” was also eliminated (amputated) I also think that this is not an old thing from the far away past but something in more recent years (this is reflected by the type of wound) it didn’t heal yet – but it also refuses to heal as it just jumped back into your back yard to get noticed – the only way this one intends to heal is by acceptance and acknowledgement of existence.

You obviously see it as a weakness (this value or intentions) as you do not turn your back on it (you keep it in check), and you are afraid that it will backfire (which you know it will sooner or later) unless you integrate it. But integrating it means acknowledging it and healing it and accepting it, not fearing it.

Giving it food is trying to make up. Food means emotional nourishment and energies and that is good, but you are giving it in a plastic dish, a plastic dish (any plastic object in a dream) fake and artificial. You are giving the fake and artificial energies not genuine and true. It knows that you are giving it what it wants to make it go away and stop bothering you – but it refuses as it know better.

The other dog has the same symbolism (intentions or values that have not been integrated) but it is from the further away past. This dog has a different leg amputated. The “will” was eliminated, the reason that dog was not as vicious is because it is easy to eliminate “will” (not so much “spirit” without the backfiring boomerang effect). That dog eat from the dish signifies that those values and intentions can be fakely suppressed (for whatever reason) and probably have been suppressed this way for a long time. As you are not that afraid of this dog as you know it can be controlled.

The dog almost bite you neck means that it wants to “stick your neck out” (there is a saying like that), and if you are not doing it willingly it will do it for you. It wants you to integrate her even if it means “sticking you neck out” it will not longer be willing to be suppressed. And the fact that it did not eat the food means that it will not be tamed anymore in any form.

That was the end.

If you have any nightmares I would check them if I was you (I also wouldn’t be surprised by the sounds of this dream).

I truly hope that this helped. But like I always say…. I reserve the right to be totally wrong.