Nightmares and neurotic dogs. Happy 4th of JULY!

Its the Fourth of July, the national holiday that appears each year as a cheery frenzy of red, white and blue and explosives. In Seattle, the tradition is to BBQ something under light showers of rain and afterwards gather in the glooming dark rainstorm to watch a well-regulated firework display set off on a barge on one of the city lakes. Personal fireworks are illegal which does not stop people from enjoying them on a small scale which lead to this belly-holding paragraph in the local paper. Friends on other continents, you will surely sense the absurdity here:

Thunderstorms Wednesday night also had an unexpected effect on pet owners' Fourth of July preparations, said Khadijih Harding, a veterinary assistant at Seattle Veterinary Associates' Ravenna-neighborhood hospital.

Many pet owners who had bought sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs for the cats and dogs before the Fourth exhausted their supplies during the night's erratic weather.

"We had prescribed medication for people weeks in advance, and they ended up using most of it because of the thunder," she said Thursday.

Apparently this is a well documented issue for American dogs who not only obtain prescription mood regulators but in Seattle can also enjoy dog naturopaths, dog accupuncture and dog massage.

Speaking of medical issues, Wren still had a fever this morning but it is lower, around 100, and he seems energetic but a little sombre. He is now napping.

For the past few nights I have been plagued by nightmares and last night was no exception. I dreamt that there was a huge downpour and the street filled up the water. One of the manhole covers lifted up and water poured out of the sewer. There had been a car crash on the street moments before so there was a debris field as well as the flood.

I watched out the window while neighborhood children came out of their house across the road [a house which in reality has no kids] to play by vortex of water.

Predictably [told you this was a nightmare] the toddler fell into the manhole and was sucked down after an awful almost-rescue swirling around in there. Then he was washed back out and his big brother who was about 5 tried to save him but fell in too!

Finally, both were rescued.

By this time I was outside and moved the children away from danger and went into the house and shouted at their mother. I can still remember fragments of the tirade but it was mainly stuff like "what are you thinking???" and it felt very liberating to castigate her for not looking after the kids. I was the Good Mother and Protector of Babies.

The previous night I dreamt that I took WrenFrost swimming in the Ganges in India and he drowned. I was carrying him out of the water [supposedly dead] when I realised he was breathing and injured by being in the water. So then Joshua and I had to decide whether to have him undergo surgery at a hospital in India or to risk flying him to a hospital near home [in the US].

I am sure you can see the themes here but it is still interesting to see my mind processing them. The dreams aren't frightening as such, just disturbing.

Frost had a hard time getting to sleep last night. He woke from light sleep crying and yelling and told me that he wanted a "private conversation". Joshua left us alone and he confided that he often had nightmares but they were not normally as scary. However, when I asked him what the nightmare was about he said "I don't want to talk about it". He repeated this with increasing vigor and my probing produced no results although I learned his nightmare was about "people". I tried to prompt more details but he said that he didn't want to have a "question and answer" conversation either.

I was a bit frustrated. I mean, isn't the conventional wisdom of nightmares that the fears are real until shared? How am I supposed to help diffuse the terror if he won't even talk about it? He doesn't write a blog. Argh. Why won't he talk about it? He's my son, right?