Spirit animal visions in the forest.

I took the dogs up to the forest yesterday. Mondays are always my day off, and always a million things to do, like build a patio. Paint the house. Rehab a teeter totter. Which really means I end up attaching the mailbox to an old wooden horse body instead because, I don't even know what I was thinking. I get easily distracted and overwhelmed, and usually head up to the forest so I can let loose the forest creatures and sit in the mud ferns, under the redwoods, and just listen to the spring. While 2 of the forest creatures run up and down and up and down the steep slopes and exhaust themselves, and Ruby putters around under the giant old tree roots and in the spring box. I am way better at stuff like that than house craft. I can really APPLY myself up there, just sitting there and thinking about important topics like how do your draw fringey gloves on a monkey?

No matter what time I go to the forest, I always see the German Shepherd ladies. I've drawn their picture once or twice. Someone bought them on etsy. Two big, ferocious shepherd dogs, each with a big, tall lady in weather appropriate jogging clothes. See them up there, rain or shine, at different times of day. Saw them yesterday, and like they always do, carefully yank their dogs into downs on the side of the trail, stand over them, and yank them, murmuring, "Leave It", as I walk by with the small dogs. We always walk by fast, and Ruby always comes in close to me. I almost always pass them on the part of the path where I still have Gustavo and Otterpop leashed up. They kind of freak me out, the German Shepherd ladies and those big dogs. I always liked German Shepherds, but I get a creepy feeling from these 2 because of the way the ladies manage those downs and stand on top of them. Like maybe they've eaten small dogs before.


Last Monday, didn't go to the forest. I had to take my car to get fancy new, expensive brakes. Poor car. Getting old. It is outside crying for me to vacuum it, right now. I dropped off the car real early, and walked home by way of the river levee and through Beach Hill. Was a nice city hike, the dogs had to stay on leashes but it was a long walk and we saw a bunch of stuff we don't usually see in the forest. Buses. Different homeless guys, with shopping carts instead of backpacks. A lot of older, Latino gentlemen strolling along in polished cowboy boots and smart looking hats. Who always love Gustavo. Always impressed he came from Juarez. Those guys, never walk in the forest, but were out in droves on the levee. Way fewer moms with giant strollers and fancy jogging kicks and pastel baseball caps. Actually, none of those on the levee.

The levee has little beaches down on the river, but I'm always afraid of the dogs playing in needles and condoms and broken glass, which is maybe what you find on those little beaches. So we just stay up on the path, on leashes, and enjoy the scenery from the levee path. It's actually a pretty cool walk, my Santa Cruz friends. The river has a trickle of water in it you see through the willows, and you can see down into the backyards of the funny little mobile home park on River Street. You see cooler, more thought out graffiti on the backs of all the downtown buildings. Meet a different morning population of people. Sometimes who you don't find out are crazy people best kept at a distance until they're already petting your dogs. And then all those cool old houses and motels up on Beach Hill, above the Boardwalk on a quiet, foggy morning before the summer tourists take over. Maybe you walk there sometime, if you don't already.

And then they appear. The German Shepherd ladies.


I'm not kidding. They came running by me, at a steady trot, looking straight ahead, and on they go, fading off in the distance at their steady clip. The dogs on short, thick leashes, with prong collars and heavy black studded leather collars too. I'm all, WHOA! Because it's a Monday, and even though I'm not in the forest, I have to see them. This is a cosmicly, weird thing. But how did they know?

Clearly, only 2 possibilities.

One is, they don't exist and I just imagine them, like they are zombie figments of my imagination and I am THE ONLY ONE TO SEE THE GERMAN SHEPHERD LADIES so maybe they're ghosts?

Or two, somehow they have access to my most inner thoughts. Like which also, I think is a zombie power, the power of mind reading even if it's just once per week.


I'm not sure which it is. I think on this issue for a while. Because if I don't, I have to think about teeter totters and my bank account and where is the drill. Obviously, they are not zombies because they have never tried to eat any of our flesh, and actually go to great lengths to ensure our safety. Ghosts? Possible.

But then I realize, there's 4 of them, and there's 4 of us, if you count ladies and dogs both. Dogs and ladies, a simple math equation.

It's like a vision quest!

According to native american traditions that I am just making up right now, each one of us gets one free spirit animal per lifetime, and this weekly Monday sighting, and Monday being my most favorite day of the week, we get either a lady or a German Shepherd. Like what kind of rip off is that? No magestic squirrel. Proud monkey of the redwoods. Bison. I either have a the taller blonde lady that yanks her dog with a prong collar, the shorter, stouter one that yanks her dog down with a prong collar, or a big, probably mean German Shepherd for a spirit animal.

And which one is Otterpop's? Ruby's? Gustavo's? Isn't one of us supposed to be having a vision to sort it out? Does that mean I'm supposed to build a sweat lodge or use yarn to make a dream catcher and get a wolf painting?


When I saw them yesterday, I slowed down for a moment as we walked past on the far edge of the trail. Almost thinking, I should be asking them about this. Are they real, are they our spirit animals, or we all just have Mondays off and maybe their car had worn out brakes last week too? But they were so intent on their Leave Its, and holding down their dogs with their special German Shepherd leashes, that I just figured, maybe these are questions that best go left unsaid.