Dog May Point to Concern for Friendship

Dear Cynthia: In my dream, I find my dog in the backyard, dead, with ants and bugs all over it, one eye is sunken into the socket. My first thought is to make sure my kids don’t see the dog like this. When I begin to brush the ants off to move the dog, he comes alive, the more I brush off, the more animated he becomes until he is 100% fine.

--MIKE GASTON

Orange

Dear Mr. Gaston: Many people don’t want to remember their dreams because of the uncomfortable images they contain, but dreams often use strong visual scenes to make an impression and, once understood, the meaning is often less gruesome. Your backyard refers to something close to you, something going on in your personal life or frame of reference. Since dogs are known as man’s best friend, a dead dog may symbolize the death of the relationship between you and a best friend.

You want to protect your children from the emotional pain of seeing the dead animal in this condition. Bugs, including ants, can represent things that annoy or bother us. Here, they and the sunken eye seem to represent the fact that this situation has been over or dead for a while. The eye, since it is no longer functional, may indicate there are things that are not being seen. When you remove the annoying things that bug you, you restore life to your friend!

You could ask yourself: Where in my life is something dear to me ending or dying? What has been bugging me lately? What would I like to protect my children from seeing or being affected by? What could I clean up that could restore life to something I thought was over? Is there something that I have not been seeing correctly? Am I trying to restore life to something that seems well beyond help? What am I trying to change the appearance of?

It seems as though your subconscious is communicating that there is something in your life that you believe is over, which, in fact, you can bring back to life if you wish!

Cynthia Richmond’s book “Dream Power: How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life” (Simon & Schuster) will be available Jan. 1 and may be pre-ordered at Amazon.com. Fax your dreams to Cynthia Richmond at (213) 237-0732 or e-mail them to [email protected]. Please include your hometown and a daytime phone number. “In Your Dreams” appears every Tuesday and should be read for entertainment purposes only.