A Very Sad Dream

A dream that's stuck with me for a couple of days.

In real life, I was having trouble sleeping.  One of those nights where I seemed to wake up every forty-five minutes or so.  I do manage to fall asleep, but then in the dream, I'm having trouble sleeping.

There, I wake up and I'm at my folks' house.  In the dream, I'm housesitting, taking care of their dogs.  It's night time, and I look outside, out into the woods surrounding the house.  I see a bright light in the woods, and at first I think it's Christmas lights.  I go outside to investigate.

There, my parents' cat Doofus shows up.  I pet him, and tell him I've missed him.  (Doofus died earlier this year, after a long life of somewhere around 19 years).  Then, their dog Sally comes up and greets him in that dog way.

Doofus then leads Sally into the woods surrounding my folks house, in the direction of the bright light I'd seen earlier, which now looks like a sunrise.

That's when I woke up.

Sally is an old dog.  I wandered to see my folks yesterday.  I took and extra minute to say hey to Sally....