My Sweet Little Bird

A Dream And A 3d Visitor, I Miss Her!

Little Bird

One night I had a dream about strange, white, fluffy birds in a “cage” but the “cage” was nice and roomy and deep and the “bars” weren’t made of metal or anything sharp or unpleasant. These birds were “housed” in this enclosure, comfortably. The holes I looked at them through were round. The material the enclosure was made of was white and textural, like something strong, yet soft. I just say cage because I have no frame of reference for what this lovely structure was.

The birds were staring at me with exquisitely beautiful and transfixing eyes. There was one closest to the front, closest to me, that stared at me a certain way. I was taken in by its beautiful eyes.

I woke up and thought, wow…..that’s interesting. I wonder why I dreamed about those strange birds.

I arrived at the wall the next morning ready to paint (I am working on a large exterior mural). I was FOCUSED. I talked to Source all the way there. I had my assignments. I mixed the color quickly and got to work. The guy who works in Building and Grounds popped his head around the corner and said, “HEY! Someone abandoned a dog and left it tied up in front of the doors of the main building! I put it in the shed, it’s a mess. I think it needs some help”.

I looked in the shed and saw a beautiful dog with white fur. It looked like the back legs were injured because they were so filthy and the dog had vomited on the blanket it was cowering on.

I sat down next to her and she came over to me and laid down by my leg. I poured some of my water into a cup for her.

I was thinking about who to call and what to do. I made a call to the county to have her picked up. I mean, I didn’t know if she was injured or what kind of a situation we were looking at. Her hindquarters were dirty and I thought she had a hip or leg injury. She moved strangely with her back end when she came over to me. I was under the initial impression that the dog needed medical attention. They said they would send someone out.

I was waiting with her because she was warm against my leg and resting. This dog was a sweetheart and had recently been through something. So, I stayed there to keep her calm and give her a sense of peace so that she could rest while we waited. I knew she wouldn’t get much rest where she was going. We waited and waited and waited. It was getting hot.

I couldn’t get any painting done at this point. I put all my stuff away, convinced that I should take this dog to the shelter myself. I couldn’t leave her out here and I couldn’t take her home if she was injured. I honestly can’t afford a problem like that right now, guys. I walked back in to sit with her and it hit me.

“Oh my gosh! I had a DREAM about you!”

And she looked at me with her amazing blue eyes, like “yeah…….I know….”

The way she turned her head, turning those fantastic sky eyes on me, stood out to me later when I would recall that moment. It was as though her face had turned and was coming out of another field, creating subtle trails as it turned toward me. Her eyes were very birdlike in their way, as well.

I immediately thought, “Her name is Little Bird”. Then I thought, “Uh, oh. YOU are in trouble. She is beautiful, she needs someone and you have named her. Watch it. Why are you REALLY here?”

Later, I couldn’t get that look out of my mind. But we will get to that.

So, I wanted to assess her walking ability to load her into the truck. It was getting REALLY hot in that shed. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pick her up without hurting her.

I pulled the truck up and called her to me.

She got up and did a weird “steppy thing” with her back legs like when you put socks on a dog. Then her legs wobbled and she fell over into a submissive position with her belly up and her legs curled in.

I thought “Hmm, maybe she IS having trouble with her legs”.

This solidified my idea that I was doing the right thing, taking her to a shelter. (it’s a “no-kill shelter”, supposedly) but I had other feelings of assurance that I would know what my role here should be; if I listened carefully.

I was convinced that it was my job to get her to the shelter. I KNEW that she would be okay. I KNEW that she would have a home and be happy, she was too beautiful to not be adopted immediately.

She was so sweet and beautiful, that I was convinced at the very least the vet at the shelter would fall in love with her. Her energy was a lot like a dog I had once named Ellie. She was the sweetest girl and so obedient.

So, I took her to the shelter. While we were getting the paperwork filled out I was sitting by her. She was right where I had placed her, on a blanket on the floor.

I told her before loading her into the truck what we would be doing as though she were a person.

“I believe I am here to help you get home. I don’t know where that is, but I know you have a future of happiness. I am sorry for whatever you went through with your previous owner, but you are so beautiful. You will be okay. We are going to this place where the people will be loud, the other animals will be loud and it won’t be fun, but it’s on the road to home. You will be okay, just relax and know that you are loved.”

While we sit there, she is perfectly at ease. The guy who works there is INCREDIBLY loud, the animals are loud. She is unmoved, calm, and sitting at my feet.

I sign the paper that says it’s not my dog and if they find out it IS I will be fined, and I “surrender the animal to them.” They need better language in these places.

Boom.

As soon as I signed it, she got up and started walking around perfectly fine.

“Wow. Apparently she IS okay. It was almost like I wasn’t supposed to know she was okay or I might have kept her and that wasn’t why I was there”, I thought.

When I got home, I was devastated.

I couldn’t DO anything.

I was frozen in time, staring at a corner of the wall and crying intermittently. I cried A LOT. I was surprised by the level of attachment I had in that short time. I have loved dogs, but I always think of myself as a pushover for CATS. I have never been so moved so quickly, upon meeting a dog.

I had just asked “Please, please let me know I did the right thing. What if I didn’t do the right thing? I mean, it was OBVIOUS that I was meant to do SOMETHING?!! DID I do the right thing? Please let me know. Please let me know.”

And then the phone rang.

My friend called me and said that he had a sudden urge to do so. I told him what happened and he told me he believed it was his job to tell me that I had done the right thing.

OH man.

While she was riding in my truck, I said to her “Just so you know, I have named you Little Bird”.

Here’s a note I left myself the next day.

“Little bird, I thought of your night at the shelter.

I wished you a good morning this morning.

I will think of you again tonight.

When I am at the wall, I will send you calmness and my presence.

I sit with you.

I send you protection.

I have never felt this way before.

Whatever happens, know that you are loved.

I need to pay closer attention”

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I don’t remember the acronym they used, but they call return owners RO’s or something like that. I called back a few days later to see what was going on with her. If they couldn’t home her, I was going to try to adopt her.

The girl took her description, which is a real stand out in a shelter, and she said she didn’t have any dogs like that there. The owner must have come back and gotten her. “We had a lot of RO’s in the last two days.”

I said I thought that was odd considering that she had been abandoned at our door. I assumed the owner couldn’t take care of her because she had health problems or something.

The girl said, “Well, the dog may have been lost and was found by someone who didn’t have a phone or a car to transport her in. Maybe they left her there.”

We do have a large homeless population around the area where I work. People like to use our property for various things, at the very least it’s a nice place to relax in nature for a minute.

Either way, she was “retrieved”. She wasn’t on any lists. She had made it home, wherever home was. It was not my job to adopt her.

I would have done all of this without having dreamed about it ahead of time. I think the dream was trying to tell me, “Hey, I know things. You know things. Sometimes the things you dream about will be signs of things to come. Sometimes they won’t. Pay attention”.

I love you, Little Bird!

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Working on this mural has been so good for me both physically and spiritually. 

“Yesterday, I grew more as a person in a single day than I have in an entire year prior.” That’s the note I made to myself one day.

You are supposed to think that doing what you want to do is wrong and there is no time for that because money is more important.

Pahahaha.

But working on this wall has been priceless.

There is no comparison to be made.

The amount that I enjoy enjoyment is incalculable, I cannot put a price on that.

I feel enmeshed in the “stuff” of it all.

May you feel the same.

Peace.