FREAK out

So I've been staying up way too late as of late. I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that "late at night" is the only time I have any time alone, which I really need right now. I have no answers for what's going on, nothing life or death or too horrid. So I'll pass on sharing that.

But lastnight something weird happened.

I read a lot of fantasy or science fiction novels. A LOT of them. I was raised Catholic, in a family rich in superstitious traditions. I now practice at being Lutheran (sort of a lazy Catholic), but I still pinch spilled salt and toss it over my left shoulder. I do my best to avoid stepping on cracks on walkways. I pick up pennies on the street, and toss them away without watching where they go if the coin face is down (bad luck). I don't really like cats and my husband is severely allergic to them, but I do my best to be kind to them, especially black ones. I do all these quirky little things, not because I really believe that breaking a ritual will cause me harm, but because I have a thousand family voices whispering in my ear, "Just follow the steps, what harm can it do?"

So my imagination is filled with fairies & other magical creatures, vampires & werewolves, and all sorts of craziness. Our home is in a quiet neighborhood in an area at the edge of suburbia and farmland. It is almost shockingly quiet here at night. Last night, it had started gently raining and I was walking around the house shutting things off and closing up the house before I went to bed. The streetlight at the corner of our yard has been switching on and off intermittently for awhile (I keep forgetting to call for them to replace the bulb). When I looked out the front window, it was almost black dark. No biggie. But then I saw a huge, white, long-haired dog trotting across the driveway, passing through our yard.

What was that? A very large white, long haired dog, trotting around alone at 12:30 at night. I ran to another window to see if I was hallucinating or if it was truly running through our yard. I saw it go to the far edge of our yard and then turn around. Freak me OUT! Ahh! It came back to the driveway and stopped. Delilah the mallard duck was hiding out under the bushes, I'm sure not moving a bit. I wasn't sure what the heck this creature was doing in my yard, so I yelled out the window at it to go home. (I was afraid that it might try to attack Delilah, right before her eggs would hatch!) It was dark in the room I was standing in, with an open window facing a dark outdoors, so the dog faced my direction and just stared. It may have even done that funny dog look of tilting its head.

After a minute or two, it trotted off towards the park behind our house.

Then I started to feel bad. My sister is a serious animal person. She works at a vet clinic and has a herd of creatures at her house. I thought of what she might have done for this dog. It was likely lost, walking around in the cold rain, late at night.

But then, I worried about what this "vision" of a white, wolf-like dog really meant for my life. I said a little prayer that, if this was someone's dog, it would have safe travel back home to dry off and warm up. If it was a vision to tell me something of my future, then what the H-E-double hockey sticks did it mean?

Ahh. I'm hoping something positive. I'm hoping it was a guardian creature, protecting me from harm. But man, that freaked me out so bad. If you have a pet, keep it sheltered and safe, not just for the pet, but for anyone who might come upon it at a weird time of day, in a weird state of mind. Thank you.