Conference hydra::dejavu

    Dogs are very special animals.  We have always had dogs but there
    was one special one... her name was Pooh Bear and she was very big.
    When we first moved into our house, my son used to have nightmares.
    He dreamnt that he saw a "white woman's face... like a vampire"
    staring in his bedroom window at night.  He was afraid to stay in
    his room alone.  One day he dreamed that there was a terrible evil
    thing under his bed... than a big brown dog came into his room and
    chased it away.  Three weeks later we got Pooh Bear.. we didn't
    pick her out.. her former owner was going to have her put to sleep.
    She killed chickens and they thought she was dangerous.  When Benjie
    first saw her, he asked me how I knew what the dog in his dream
    looked like and how did I find her.
    
    Pooh lived with us for about 10 years... until she was very old
    and feeble.  She died of old age at home in the kitchen watching
    me cook supper.  Sometimes when I am alone in the house I'll feel
    a presence beside me as my attention is elsewhere (reading usually)
    and I'll hear a dog's heavy breathing and a warmth and I'll 
    reach over to pat Max (our Neufoundland) and there will be nothing
    there... then I'll call Max and he'll come up from the cellar or
    out from the den.  Sometimes Max just stares into space as he wags
    his tail and sometimes he'll whine too.  We all loved Pooh very
    much and we miss her.  
    
    I believe that animals have souls like we do, that they have spirit
    and personality and will.  I feel that Pooh still protects our 
    house and that she is (somehow) still with us...  Its difficult
    to explain but I know she is around somehow.. I can feel it.

    
    OK, how many dog lovers here?   (as she raises her hand...)
    
    We started off with a beautiful collie named Snoopy.  She was 8
    years old when we adopted her (from my husband's brother when he
    went off to college).  She was such a love and always managed to
    make us feel happier when she was around.  She died 3 years later,
    and every once in a while we find a Snoopy hair (collie owners will
    understand this one) and that will bring back some fond memories.  
    I still think she is around when I feel a presense of love and warmth
    in the house - expecially while sitting on her favorite chair (which
    she wasn't allowed on, but that never stopped her....)   
                                                                 
    We adopted a stray Golden Retriever a few months later.  He was
    a great dog too, however he wasn't with us for very long due to
    spinal meningitis which wasn't caught in time.
    
    Now we have 2 dogs, mixed breeds named OB and Bear.  Their primary
    interest in life is food (such shallow personalities they have).
    OB came from a young boy who had to give her up, and Bear came from
    the Nashua Humane Society (found him listed over in CANINE just over 
    a year ago).  They're quite a comic team together!
                                                                
    Dogs are great people.  Arf!
    
    Cindy
    

I've always had dogs whenever I could.  We had a shaggy mongrel from
1970 thru 1983 while we lived in various places in Western Mass.
The dog refused to be left home and would wreck the house or even
leave her pups to chase us if we left her alone.  She would ride
a motorcycle or snow-cat if necessary, and wait paitiently with 
the vehicle until we took her home.

The dog never bit or nipped, but would announce arrivals.  At one
apartment she seemed to be able to tell if a visitor was going to
our place or the next when they started up the bottom stair where
she couldn't see them....

She only reacted negatively to one person and would watch him closely
whenever he was around.  He later talked his girlfriend into a trip to
the Southwest where he took her car and cash at gunpoint...

She lived until David was one and Katie was about to be born, & we kept
her ashes.  During this time and while Kate was an infant, I would
often be the only one awake in the evening, so I would work in the cellar.
I would frequently hear the familiar sound of her toenails across the
kitchen floor, boards creaking into each kids' room, then back to settle
with a thud in the living room...I'd realize this shouldn't
be a familiar sound anymore, and run upstairs to find...Martha
asleep on the couch and the kids sound asleep in their rooms...

We now have 2 cats, a Golden Retriever, the kids are 4 & 5, and the 
    house is never quiet enough to listen.......Michael Rainville.

     Someone once said that dogs aren't very far behind us  humans  on  the
     evolutionary path.

     A number of years ago a couple, friends of mine,  moved  into  an  old
     house  and  a  couple  of months later they got a bull-dog puppy.  One
     night her and Max, the puppy's name, were walking  in  the  back  yard
     when  suddenly Max came between my friend and "something" in the yard.
     Bull-dogs make terrible watch dogs, but they are *very* protective  of
     their  owners  (they'd  help a thief steal the silver, my friend says,
     but you've lost a leg if you raise a hand to harm a bull-dog's owner).
     Max started growling and there was nothing to be seen.  My friend, who
     doesn't claim to have ever seen a ghost but does claim  that  she  can
     "feel"  when  there's  "something" there, "felt" there was "something"
     there in the yard on the other side of Max.

     Another time in the kitchen, Max came between my friend and  the  back
     door  and started growling.  Again, nothing to be seen, but, again, my
     friend felt something.  Now my friend had learned that for many  years
     the house belonged to a couple with an invalid daughter.  The daughter
     occupied a back room and one went through the back kitchen door to get
     to  that  room.  Well my friend guessed that this "something" might be
     the daughter, so she said out loud, "Go away.!  You  don't  live  here
     anymore."  With that, Max quieted and my friend hasn't "felt anything"
     since.

     Alvin

    Re:.0	Maybe you should try concentrating on your dog's
    whereabouts and just picture her in your mind - it could help find
    her if she's around. I don't know how much a psychic would help
    because their feelings aren't nearly as strong as yours towards
    it. One of my cats disappeared for 10 days and a psychic told me
    that the local Chinese restaurant had him! He showed up all dusty
    and dirty but in one piece! I think if your feelings are real strong
    that they may be able to help you find your dog. Hope for the best.
    
    Mark Higgins

    RE: .5 (MarK)
    
    That was a rotten thing for that "psychic" to say, even if it had
    been true.                                      
    
    I'm glad you found your cat.
    
    
    John M.

    Another story of the encouraging lost-and-found variety:
    
    One of our cats disappeared for 8 days.  I was terribly worried,
    because this cat is a real love bunny, and _never_ misses a meal
    time.  The only two other times he'd not come home were when he'd
    been racked up, appeared two days later, limping, and required mucho
    vet bills to fix back up.  So I was supposing the worst.
    
    On the 8th day, I decided to take some action.  Not exactly paranormal,
    but just a gesture to let the Whomever know that I trusted that
    Tarzan was okay and would come home.  I wrote up 50 little notices
    describing him and asking if anyone had seen him, and put one in
    all the mailboxes in our neighborhood.  When I got back from this
    hour-long trek, I started to cook dinner and suddenly Tarzan appeared
    at the kitchen door!  Alive and unhurt and very hungry.
    
    So as a thank-you gesture, I wrote up another 50 little notices
    for the neighbors' mailboxes letting them know our cat had returned
    and thanking anyone who might have fed him during his disappearance.
    
    Marcia

    Marcia,
    
    You are a nice lady.  No wonder Tarzan came home!
    
    Marion
    

    Uh, er, well gee...thanks.
    
    Marcia

    My dog died last January, a fact that I still haven't totally
    internalized.  He was (is) as important to our family as my
    brother or I am, and through the years I came to some strong
    conclusions about him and his purpose.
    
    Dogs love you -- it is pure, unjudging, unconditional love.
    They don't care what you look like, what kind of mood you're
    in, whether you have a honking zit on your chin -- you are
    THEIRS and all they ask is for food (lots of it) and love
    (lots of that too).
    
    I have no doubts that Louie had complete control over his
    death.  His illness overcame him within days -- he didn't
    want to put us through the trauma of a long deteriorating
    process.  The doctor was perplexed as to what was wrong
    with Louie, and had planned to do exploratory surgery on
    Friday.  On Thursday everybody in my family went to visit
    him, and then he very quietly passed away.  Boy, this is 
    difficult to talk about.
    
    I still feel Louie's spirit with me.  I have many, many
    dreams about him where he's with me again, and in those
    dreams I invariably have the thought "Now that he's dead I
    don't have to worry about him dying anymore, and he can be
    with me forever."  That is such a great comfort to me.  It
    is also wonderful for me to know that HE now *knows* how
    very much I love him.
    
    Double arf.
    					Carla

RE: .10

    >  It is also wonderful for me to know that HE now *knows* how very
    much I love him. < 


I'm willing to bet he has known that from day 1, Carla!


John M.

    I read once that dogs know when it's time to die, and that
    they often expect us to help them leave this world.  I comfort
    myself with this thought, whenever I remember (as I often do)
    my 16 year relationship with a beautiful boxer named Maja.
    That dog was MEANT to be mine...she came to me under rather
    complicated circumstances.  And I loved her dearly and she
    knew and I knew when it was time for her to go.  That didn't
    make letting go any easier.
    
    My cat did the same thing.  As she lay dying in the vet's office,
    I begged him to help her.  He took her away for the 'final injec-
    tion' but was back 30 minutes later, announcing "a miracle".  She
    lived for 4 more hours, time for her family to love her and pet
    her and stroke her and tell her all the things we wanted to say.
    She purred the entire time.  Then quietly passed on.
    
    

    I'd like to bring this note back to life, if you will all pardon
    the unintended pun. Of the few ESP-like experiences I've had in
    life, many have involved dogs.
    
    To relate just one, about six years ago I went to visit my mother for
    the weekend and took my new Husky along. Nickie ( that's the Husky not
    my mother ) was about 2 years old at the time and this was her first
    long trip with me. It was a great weekend, the two of us had great
    times exploring the woods around my mother's house and the big rocks
    along the shore line of the bay. Then came Sunday morning as the
    family started getting ready to go to church. Nickie reacted as if she
    knew she was going to be left behind ( something she still does very
    well :-) and began to sulk. It was mom that desided I should leave her
    out on the screen porch while we were gone. 
    
    About half way through the service, I had the most vivid emotional
    experience I've ever had. In an instant I knew that Nickie had broken
    out of the porch and was running free. I could feel the ground racing
    past her feet, the wind at her back, her tail held high. The feeling
    was wonderful and I soaked it up for several minutes. Then I started
    to wonder how I was going to find her before I had to leave that
    afternoon. I wasn't really worried, just concerned that it would
    take a lot of time to find her.
    
    Almost imediately this cold feeling of fear came over me and I knew it
    was coming from Nickie. It took a lot of reserve not to race from the
    church and go looking for her. Visions of an auto accident or of her
    falling off the dock into the bay and not being able to climb over the
    rocks to the shore played on my mind as we drove home. All the time
    the fealing of fear grew stronger. As we pulled up the driveway, to my
    releaf, I saw Nickie sitting in the back of my pickup as if she
    couldn't wait to leave. When I got out and went to her she had
    the most terified look on her face and shrank back from me as if she
    thought I would strike her ( I have never hit any animal ). 
    
    My only guess is that at the same time I was getting her feelings of
    freedom and joy she was picking up my feelings of concern. And the
    more I worried the more fearful she got which only made me worry more
    and so on. But for one breaf moment we were one, running along the
    shore in the morning sunshine without a care between us. God I love
    that dog! 
    
    Paul.

    PS - Sorry, but the system mangler seems to have "fixed" DECspell
    so that I can no longer call it from Notes. And so it gose.

    Nickie sounds like a wonderful dog.

    
    
    We have a 6 year old 'puppy'.  She's not a big dog so we still
    call her puppy.  When I was in school, my mother had a part time
    job that got her home about 2:30.  I would arrive home from school
    at about 2:10.  EVERY weekday Mitzi would jump up on my parents
    bed with her favorite toy in her mouth at about 2:20 and stare down
    the street till my mom came home.  She probably still does it but
    I'm here and not there to see it  :-)
    
    Also, my Dad goes to his parents house every Saturday morning for
    coffee.  He takes Mitzi with him.  Well, she follows him around
    from the minute he gets up till the minute 'they' leave.
                                                            
    Do dogs have an inner clock or do they 'just know?'
    
    				Judy
    

RE: .15
    
    I would say that they have an "inner clock" just like people do.
    Being able, for example, to know that it takes about two hours to
    get back to the den and that it will get dark in about an hour and
    a half (of course, the time units are arbitrary) can make the
    difference between life and death for animals.  Animals without
    an inner clock would not last long.
    
    People invented external mechanisms for measuring time, but they
    did not invent time, or a sense of it.
    
    					Topher

    	My dog, Louie, died a year ago today.  I had a very nice 
    	dream about him last night; woke up feeling very happy 
    	for him and also happy for me that I'm still able to see
    	him so clearly and lovingly in both my conscious and my 
    	subconscious.  I hope to dream about him tonight too.
    
    	There have been some very rough moments this week, but
    	it is getting easier to think about him without getting
    	so tearful.
    
        Here's to you, Boo Boo!
  
        				Carla