Bow Wow Ni Hao

Last night, as I was sitting on a bench in a shopping mall eating some chocolate, a dog came up to me. I don't remember if it had a collar, but I think it did as it was well groomed and not at all "mangy". It sat down in front of me, displaying intense interest in my tender morsel. As I was telling the dog that I wouldn't oblige because chocolate is bad for dogs, it very gently and thoughtfully lifted one paw and placed it on my knee, as if it were saying please. I was struck by the way this dog moved so gracefully, so I talked to it some more but steered the subject away from the chocolate which I had just finished eating. The dog seemed to be losing interest since I no longer had anything yummy on hand, but I wanted to keep talking to it. It seemed to be mingling among the patrons, trying to charm food from them. Oh, and it was a male dog, so I will now change pronouns.

I wasn't desperate, but I was curious enough to attempt to maintain/regain his attention. So I asked where he was from. He was from China. So I started speaking Chinese to him. That seemed to perk his ears up. I started telling him what to do in Chinese, "Come," "Sit," "Not in the chair, on the ground!", "Don't do that!" He was obeying. As this was all going on, I felt a strange mix of emotions concerning the people around me. Partly I felt pride that I was able to communicate with this dog, and in Chinese. Also I felt a bit self-conscious, though, following a dog through a mall, not in China, a white boy speaking Chinese to a pet. I was aware of more than a few pairs of eyes, but I continued.

Then, abruptly, the dog stopped obeying me when I said "Come," and instead scampered off and shouted back in Chinese, "Just a moment!" I thought I heard this, but I couldn't believe he had just spoken, so I quickly shrugged it off as being only my imagination, and yelled "Good bye!" in Chinese as he rounded a corner and went out of sight.

I was just killing time anyway, so I decided to begin walking in the same direction. Just moments later, I met the dog again. He was coming out of a store, and puttiing on his backpack. He asked me if I could go to his house and play, only now he was speaking English. I told him I had to get back home to the farm, adding that it was very far away. He seemed a little disappointed but understood.

Then the dream got blurry and turned into an adventure where I was helping to save people and boats and all-terrain surfing behind a jeep. The co-stars were friends that I haven't seen since high school. I remember giving one of them money, 1000 Japanese Yen, but referring to it as a "ten spot".

Then the scene shifted to an apartment building. I was on the third floor, and sometimes due to absentmindedness I would stop on the wrong level and open the door to someone else's apartment. (I have done the same before in real life, but never actually got the door opened.) The woman on the first floor seemed to be aurally challenged, if not completely deaf, so when I opened her door, walked into her apartment and yelled "Hello!" (I have no idea why I did this), she didn't look up. I realized I was an intruder before she realized she had one, and made a swift escape back to the stairway.

I had friends, I think, on the second floor, a middle-aged woman with a cat and her temporary boarder, a middle-aged man with a small dog. I don't remember many details, but I do recall that one day the woman was getting ready to go power walking and she had dressed the cat in athletic gear, including yellow sunglasses. I commented that it was amazing that the cat put up with that and the woman said, "Oh, well, you know they have the elastic band, and besides, she likes the puppies!" The cat looked up as if to give assent.

And then some other stuff may have happened, I am not really sure. And I woke up.

So in real life, last night I went to a Chinese restaurant. Should I be concerned that I dreamt about a Chinese dog???