12/30/03
One Rat, Two Rat, White Rat, Brown Rat...

I had this dream during a brief nap I took this morning. I think it was after my cat woke me up trying to break into my room; I dozed off for about another twenty minutes, and had this dream.

I don't remember the beginning, if there was one, but I ended up walking outside (I was in some strange location I've never seen before) onto this long winding paved trail, like a sidewalk. It was snowing and overcast and the land was kind of open but hilly and rolling around me; there were trees not too far ahead, like a pine forest. The ground descended slightly from whatever building I was in and this paved path wound off ahead as well. I think it was kind of tannish colored rather than gray, and mostly clear. I get the feeling my parents had left for somewhere maybe for a few days and I was alone now, and, perhaps trying to stave off the feelings of loneliness, I was looking for something to do to distract myself.

I bundled up and went out onto this path because some roundish things went rolling down it. They were dark grayish-brown and resembled animal pellets of some kind...roughly round shaped, about the size of golfballs and rather smooth. Maybe like big kidney stones. I believe they were meant to be truffles or some other edible item and I went outside to sweep them back up this path and collect them and eat them later.

As I said the little round things seemed to go bouncing and rolling down the path, but then I was sweeping them ahead of me in the other direction, back toward the building. Confusing. I had a big wide broom like the kind a janitor might use; we used to have one like it in real life. It was about as wide as the narrow little path and I just swept these roundish objects ahead of me, maybe humming or something in a casual manner. I felt very lonely, but I was trying hard not to let it get to me.

Somehow I swept these things up somewhere, maybe into a bag or something? Then I started sweeping again at a part of the path I hadn't done yet, closer to the building, and here it got snowy. I think before the path had been mostly clear but now it was covered with this thick wet snow and there weren't very many of the round things anymore. The sweeping became hard and now there were some dead leaves and such as well, where the path hadn't been cleared. Still I pushed the broom as hard as I could; I might as well clean off the path while I was doing this. I swept a few of the little roundish things ahead of me but as I pushed, one of them bounced off the right side of the path and down into the snow beside it. (Earlier the snow had formed little banks alongside the path, but here the path seemed elevated above most of the snow.) "Ohhh," I said in disappointment, but decided to try to retrieve it anyway.

The little ball kind of rolled out of sight or sank into the snow or something, so I wasn't sure where it had gone. I poked at the snow a bit with the brush or with my boot. I saw a bit of a shelf/crusting of ice, and a little darkish hole the "truffle" might have gone down, just a melted spot it might have fallen into. I poked a little more and thought I saw something move. Was something alive down there? Curious, I poked again and then stood to watch. What had moved before now poked out again and as it squirmed its way out I realized it was a white rat.

I watched it crawl out of the snow. It wasn't pristine white, but more of a dirty white, I think; and though I later thought about it being albino, its eyes seemed to be dark, not red. I wondered what a tame-looking rat was doing out here in the snow? It didn't belong here; it must have been an escaped pet or something. It was going to get all wet crawling around like that. I felt sorry for it being out in the snow by itself like I was, so I somehow picked it up--maybe with the broom or with a shovel or something--being careful not to touch it as it could bite, and brought it into the building with me.

I don't remember much of the building as it was unfamiliar; maybe it was some sort of lodge I was supposed to be staying at? There was this one smallish area with a golden wooden floor, shiny and waxed, maybe with white walls...maybe a foyer or something. I remember leaning against the right wall (kind of facing the door) and doing something with my boots, maybe taking them off...I think the floor was wet from snow. Snow-wet, dirty floors always depress me in real life, and it was no different here. :/ I still had the white rat but I think it was crawling around on a shelf or in the window or something. I believe this was the part where I wondered what an albino rat was doing in the wild, then wondered, is it even really albino with its dark eyes like that? All I knew was it didn't look like a wild rat and so it didn't belong on its own, out in the snow. It must have been escaped or abandoned.

I can't recall how this part went very well, but as I was observing it I found another rat, perhaps crawling around on the floor or down the wall; this one was dark brown. It looked more like a wild rat, but it acted as tame as the first one, so I felt it didn't belong wandering around on its own, either. I was just as careful collecting this one--they acted friendly, but I didn't know where they'd come from and didn't wish to get rabies or anything, so I used something else to pick it up and I think I put it with the white rat. Maybe I set them together in the window? I'm not sure, but I paired them together and looked at them in puzzlement. Just like me they were apparently on their own now, and I was genuinely perplexed as to how they had ended up in this state, the poor things. :/

This dream was immediately remembered and was very clear on awakening, though as I type it up now, a little while later, it's a little bit muddled. I can still see it pretty well in my head though.

This dream may have been slightly influenced by something which happened in real life a couple of days ago. While watching the chickadees feed on our porch, I noticed something poke out of a little melted hole in the snow. It was just a little gray head--it snatched a seed and just as quickly vanished again, and though I watched it didn't return. I believe it was a mole or something.



2003 Dreams
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