An Unlikely Hero
Last week, my mother described to me a dream she had had. In it, she and I were walking with two of our dogs: my Labrador, Toby, and her eldest German Shepherd, Kayla. As we strolled along together through the forest, my mother held both leashes while I trailed behind them. As she tells it, I started complaining. First, I rambled on about how I didn’t feel that she could safely handle walking both dogs simultaneously. Why I wasn’t walking my own dog remains a mystery, however, the next thing I muttered was, “For some reason the back of my neck feels warm, and wet.”
When my mother turned to see what I was whining about, she saw a ferocious grizzly bear looming over me, breathing down the back of my neck and showering me with drool.
Stunned, she dropped both leashes and shouted, “Donna, get off the path!”
Because it is the nature of dreams to shift and slide like sand between your toes in the surf, when I stepped out of the way, the great bear morphed into a giant wolf. With nothing between them, the ferocious beast fixed its cruel gaze upon my mom and started a stiff approach.
Then, the action began. Looking to protect her guardian, Kayla flung herself at the beast as any loyal Shepherd would, snarling and snapping in an attempt to ward off the woodland attacker. Yet the wolf was swifter, snatching Kayla in its giant maw and thrashing the hapless dog about, while my mother looked on in terror.
Where was I at this point? Who knows? Maybe I fled into the woods. Hopefully, I was looking for help. In either case, I had left my poor mother all alone, and faced with her dog being torn apart by a malicious creature of the night, she started screaming for help.
“Toby!” she cried, but even as she called my dog’s name, she thought to herself, ‘What in the world is Toby going to do?’ After all, this is a Labrador who has no idea that he is equipped with weaponry in the form of fierce fangs and a powerful jaw. A peaceful being who believes life revolves around food and fun. A dog who was once seen play bowing at a frog.
Yet – to my mother’s astonishment (and mine) – Toby appeared from the woods and charged the wolf. Remaining in character even in a dream, instead of trying to bite the wolf, he ran straight at it and rammed it with his head, freeing Kayla, waking my mother from her dream, and executing a rescue in true Labrador style.-
Donna Owczarekwww.donnaandthedogsblog.com
