by Richard Seifried
Signal Hill Musings
April, 2005
Dawn, March 11, 2005.
The sun came up a brilliant, eye-hurting orange. Instead of the red ball and the usual golden light on the pines, the tree trunks were white with early rays. Why the variation I don’t really comprehend and actually don’t care to know. Somehow, that would bleed the magic from our sunrises.
When I went out to get the morning paper, three crows sat together on a dead limb, watching my movements, wondering if they should fly away. Lately they have been busy chasing a red-tailed hawk away from our ridge top, unknowingly protecting our little yorkie, Gypsy Rose.
Richard with a non-sleeping Gypsy Rose
She is so tiny that I find myself outside, laughing at 2:30 a.m., because Gypsy is so small that the motion lights do not come on. They are on about half of the dark hours because deer graze through our front yard and other smaller creatures like opossums, raccoons, and armadillos prowl about. Most nights Jean hears something “thump” upon our roof, right above the bed. Then the creature runs up and down the shingles. Why, we don’t know, but I am pretty sure that we have a nocturnal flying squirrel living in our oak tree.
Much earlier, around 12:30, I once again cupped my hand around Jean’s, enjoying the coolness, the soft, feminine digits of her lovely hand.
Two fingers twitched slightly. Was she dreaming? Sometimes, when I believe that Jean is experiencing nightmares, I call to her, waking her a bit, ending the unpleasant nocturnal fantasy.
Our dogs dream too. Fergie will, upon occasion, moan and rapidly move her legs as she imagines she is chasing “that stupid squirrel” or heaven knows what else.
For much of my life I had pet cats. They dream too, you probably know. Eyes rolled up white, twitching muscles, paws jerking or kneading, as if running or cuddling.
I wonder what our little companions’ dream of? Then, I realize that other animals must dream too. What do deer dream? Bears? Do skunks experience sleep adventures in which they catch and crunch away on a mouse? Do mice dream of frightening skunks?
A non-sleeping Yellowstone bear
Do elephants have humungous nightmares and trumpet in fear? How about whales? Leviathan sleep adventures?
Perhaps only mammals have the capacity to dream, but I wonder if that assumption is true. How about birds? Do turkey vultures have wonderful dream adventures about plunging their tiny pointed heads into the delicious, rotting carcass of a horse or cow?
Ugh!
Where in the animal chain of evolution do dreams end? Snakes? Fish?
Come on now, Richard! The first thing you know is that you’ll be writing that butterflies and the praying mantis also dream.
Well, why the heck not?
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