Bad Doggy Dream

I went to bed early last night with back pains. The husband tucked me in with a heating pad and I read for a bit, then dozed off. I woke up around 10 and took off the pad, then settled in to sleep the rest of the night.

Then I had the nightmare.

I dreamed the husband and I were on vacation somewhere, a coastal city in the south I think. At some point, we were on a street in a neighborhood and I was standing at a dumpster in front of a house while the husband retrieved something from behind a house. Weird little British cars drove up the street with bumpers on them that did some sort of advertising and I was peeling a sticker off of something when I realized the people in the house were coming out. I willed the husband to be done with whatever it was he was doing and saw him come over the fence. He fell down, at which point two dogs came running towards me. One stopped and another kept coming. Thinking it was Sofie, I bent to pick it up, but it was a white terrier instead. Somewhere in here I remember hearing someone yelling about proving it was their dog causing problems and seeing a sign about some other white dog who was blamed for injuring other dogs and terrorizing the neighborhood. I went over to the stopped dog, which was Sofie and picked her up like a baby. Then the husband came over and was on his cell phone. I asked him who he was calling and he said the vet and if that dog had hurt Sofie... I looked at her and noticed the fur on her thigh was mangled, but there wasn't any blood, more like it had gotten wet and was separated. Then I looked at her again and realized that her back feet were missing like they had been cut off. It wasn't bleeding and she wasn't crying or anything, just looking at me as if to say "fix it mommy." I tried to scream at the husband, still on the phone, but couldn't get a sound out at first. Then I managed a choked cry, at which point I kind of woke myself up but by then it was too late and I was crying.

The husband came in and got me thru it and Sofie was right there, licking my face and enjoying the taste of my salty tears. She even tried to clean out my nose for me. It took me a while to stop crying and I'm still bothered by the dream. She was so still and quiet, but looked at me as if I could take away her pain. And I was helpless.

When we went for our walks this morning, I kept looking at her, making sure all four paws were there. I don't know how people with kids manage if they have dreams like this. I love my dog, but I know it's not the same as a child.