My Dog Will Protect Me From Alien Abduction!

My bedtime routine as a little girl involved surrounding the perimeter of my bed with stuffed animals. Lions, penguins, koala bears, cats, hippos. On some level of my youthful being I felt that they would protect me. I had no physical or sexual abuse in childhood, my daddy was an officer in the Air Force and we lived on the military base, so what did I need protecting from? Monsters. Monsters with big black eyes who came to me in my dreams. But they came despite the stuffed animals, despite big strong daddy sleeping right down the hall. They came and they took me away to scary white barren rooms and then .... and then .... I couldn't remember the rest.

When I got older I was sure to have our family dog sleep on the foot of my bed. Dogs are loyal and fiercely protective. He may have only been a medium-sized Poodle, not a massive Rottweiler or terrifying Doberman, but he loved me and would keep me from harm, I knew he would. But still they came.

I think the betrayal cut deepest when I saw my beloved cat Sarah in the arms of a grey alien. She gave me one of those cat looks as if to say “You aren’t my only person, you know.” And then she purred. Loud enough for me to hear as the grey alien slid smoothly past me with my not-so-faithful cat in its arms.

Ok, but that was a cat. We have an understanding about the fickleness of cat loyalty. So I needed a dog, a dog who would surely bark and put his life on the line for me. I moved to a home with a big yard and I indulged my love of animals, eventually living with 4 large dogs and a cat - yes the same cat, traitor Sarah. Yet still the monsters came; still I screamed in the night when the big black eyes stared into mine, leaving me breathless and motionless as my heart pounded as if it would explode. The dogs did nothing.

Our highly intelligent and comical golden retriever/border collie loved to sit in a chair like a person and observe the family activities with an air of detachment. Once my daughter quipped “She’s gathering data for the Mothership.” Suddenly it all made sense. They are in on it! And with that recognition a flood of blocked memories came unblocked. Often in abductions I’d witnessed animals along with the humans, cats mostly; some dogs; a horse once. They are wiser than we are in some ways, in the ways of knowing one's intentions. I've always trusted my dogs to be a good judge of character and if my dog didn't like someone it would be for good reason. So in a way it was reassuring to know that the animals are ok with the monsters/aliens; they must be benevolent. Surely if these alien creatures meant us harm, the dogs would know. The cats would know. The horses and llamas would know. Insert the word "alien" instead of "men" in this quote:

“If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” ~ Francis of Assisi

And so began my slow acceptance of aliens, the truth and reality of their existence, and my realization that our furred, feathered, and finned relatives have a far deeper ancient knowledge of the way the world works than we do with their innate connection to the natural world.

My current dog, who looks like Toto and acts like a lion, barks sometimes at night. But she barks at someone passing by our home speaking in loud drunken tones, or at a couple shouting insults at one another in an argument; she never barks at aliens when they come to visit. And yes, they visit, they do not abduct. That was a misunderstanding on my behalf. They are not monsters, they are simply friends who don't look like us.

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