Background:
I was watching a clip on National Geographic about a new breed of canine that seems to be roaming the open places in Texas. No one really knows what it looks like other than glimpses from a distance. People who have seen the animal say it's about the size of a full grown wolf. It's been seen mostly at night and has large eyes that reflect the light. Seen in the daylight, it appears to be hairless, with dark skin, pointed ears and large fangs; it's back legs are also longer than the front legs. The other odd thing mentioned about it is that it doesn't fear people, cars or animals. One person said it was stalking a calf on his ranch so he tried to scare it away. Instead of running, it turned and looked at him and simply growled. This was just an excerpt. A full episode was supposed to air sometime last week. I tried to look up the program online to learn more about it. I was unsuccessful in finding the program, however, I learned that this new canine is being called El Chupacabra. El Chupacabra is a mythical creature told about in South America, primarily Mexico. I guess it's something akin to the Boogey Man. They use the legend to scare their children? I guess the name means "goat sucker." The legend is that this El Chupacabra roams the hills and kills animals, but doesn't eat them, only sucks their blood. It's a hairless, canine looking creature with big eyes, fangs, and wings. Of course, these excerpts were all played with scary music in the background.
Significance:
I woke suddenly in the middle of the night, sweating and not daring to move. The nightmare was as follows:
I was in Costa Rica and I was walking to some sort of documentation office. I had been there before, so I knew the way. I had missed the last bus I needed to take, so I had to walk the last 4 blocks to the office; 2 blocks north, 2 blocks east. The first two blocks were along a rural road with no houses, just lined by rain forest on both sides.
I figured it would take me ten minutes to make the walk. As I turned onto the road I remember thinking I would need to walk quickly because there had been reported sightings of this hairless dog-like creature assumed to be El Chupacabra and I didn't want to see it. Well, just as I made the turn I saw out of the corner of my eye on the right a large canine creature. It's hips (back legs) were as high as my waist, the shoulders slightly lower and it was somewhere close to 6 feet long. It was hairless, light brown and had large fangs, a long whiplike tail and big ears. I looked around immediately for some place to hide or escape. The only thing close to me was a 10 foot high chain-link fence.
I ran for it and climbed as quickly as I could (wearing flip flops- I'm not really sure how I got to the top that quickly). I could feel my adrenaline pumping and my body wanted to freeze up from fear. I sat atop the fence looking down on this creature now circling below me wondering how long it would be before it stood up on it's hind legs to try to reach me- it could have, no problem. It paced. Back and forth, back and forth, just looking up at me. I kept having to change position. A chain link fence is not easy to balance on, nor to sit on. I was terrified I was going to fall. Back and forth, back and forth . . . I could see it's blazing eyes, sense the tension in it's body. Suddenly it through back its head and let out an unearthly howl! I tensed, grabbed the fence and fought for my balance, my body nearly paralyzed from fear.
My eyes flew open! I was safe, I was home, I was in my bed. There was no El Chupacabra. I still couldn't move, didn't dare close my eyes. I just lay there and caught my breath, sang songs to myself, made sure Ryan was against my back and at least an hour later I fell back asleep.
Aftermath:
I no longer have any desire to watch that program.
Does anyone want to take a guess at trying to interpret that dream?
And, for that matter, why do I dream about animals so often?
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