Terrier Tales....

Dream Worlds

Evil, sharp, little teeth resembling baby alligators' grinned as the three dogs

entered their dream worlds. As they slept their eyelids twitched with the white

orbs rolling round and their padded feet waved in the air as if playing ping-

pong. These Scottish terriers hunted even in their dreams. Extinct animals

were a favourite prey as well as beasts from mythology. No wonder they

woke up their human mother with such loud grunts, growls, groans, howls

and even barks escaping their floppy lips.

Daisy Netallworth, felt like any worried mum, who hears their child in the

night, only she heard all three of her ‘boys’ and so decided to listen in and then

test if they were secretly awake by pulling faces at them. First was her cat-

face, consisting of a slow smile and half-closed eyes. Next, she pulled a frog-

face, her large eyes now goggling from side-to-side with her tongue flicking in

and out. Then came the real tester, her fox-face, this one sent them bonkers

usually, but today they still slumbered. Several attempts at twitching her nose

high, showing off her teeth and flicking back imaginary whiskers made not the

slightest difference: the three terriers were limp and heavy, dead-weights, in

fact, and with smiling expressions and closed shut eyes, they “innocently”

slept on.

‘Hey, you three!’ hissed the poor woman desperate to get to sleep but they

were in another world.

Behind their closed lids, millions of images flickered away like a silent

movie. This was no normal sleep, all three were actually at the ‘mental flicks'.

Within their memories they had stored rolls of creature pictures that they

enjoyed in the privacy of the mind's eye. This is a secret place we all have

inside us where we can retreat to, experiencing wild and wonderful things

through the power of our imagination. Hence, we humans are often puzzled

over a dog's ability to snore for a whole week; yet is it any surprise when they

are not simply lying there but are off in far away places?

Henry, top hunter, nicknamed the General, often took a dream-week in

Wales with the dragons of old. He would snack on the charred remains of their

prey similar to his mum’s barbeques. Angus (better known as Fangz) was

smaller but no less a 'butcher', and dreamt of stalking the dreaded minotaur.

This half man-half bull would be half dead once Fangz got a grip. Lastly,

Dudley, the West Highland White Terrier, fantasized the most. Yet Dudley

only ever thought of one thing -'babes'. As for hunting, it left him too untidy to

get a girl. It followed, therefore, that whatever these three dreamt about,

dreamtime was a noisy affair.


(This is an extract from a series of children's books I have written based on my terrifying terriers who got me banned from every park in London: enjoy!