I very rarely remember my dreams. However, I had one about 10 years ago that was interesting to me because during the course of the dream, I became conscious of the fact that the dream was pretty funny, and I found myself telling myself to remember the dream so I could tell it to my fiance.
A very short dream, but it takes some background to set it up. Ten years ago, I was engaged to my husband, kpm. He had a Siberian husky named Alf who was in heat. A lot of the dogs in his neighborhood were very aware of this fact, and started hanging around a lot. One in particular whom it seemed was constantly haunting his place was a Big Black Dog (probably a Shepherd/Lab mix). We didn’t know his name, so we just called him the BBD.
On the day the Persian Gulf war began in January, I got a call from kpm. He had taken Alf out for a brief walk, and came back inside to hear the news about the bombing of Iraq. Unfortunately, he was so intent on getting back inside to hear the news that he didn’t latch the door properly, and when he looked around, the door was standing wide open, and Alf had escaped. He had to give a presentation at work early that morning, so he couldn’t stay home from work to look for her, so he asked me if I could. I also had to give a presentation for my job that day, but it wasn’t until around noon, so I agreed to come and look for her.
Kpm left Alf’s leash and a box of dog treats in his mailbox for me. Not too long after I got into his neighborhood, I saw the BBD coming out from behind some bushes. (I was looking for evidence of a smile on his face, but I couldn’t tell.) So, I went into the bushes shaking the box of treats and calling Alf’s name, and she came bounding over to me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a key to kpm’s house, and he hadn’t left me one. I put Alf in my car and drove to a convenience store. I called one of kpm’s coworkers and told him to tell kpm that I had found Alf, and that I would tie her to a tree in the back yard.
I sat with Alf for a while in the backyard, but I had to get back to my apartment to shower and get ready for my presentation, so I had to leave her alone. So, all told, Alf was alone outside for approximately 45 minutes between when she escaped and when I found her, and another 45 minutes or so between when I left her tied to the tree and when kpm got home to take her back inside.
That left us with the question: Did the BBD and/or other neighborhood dogs have time to mate with her during the time she was alone? Neither kpm nor I had any idea how long dog mating takes. kpm being the type of guy he is, he went to the library that night to research the issue. (This was before the days of Google, AltaVista, etc.) He came back and said that it said in some sources it said that the act could take as long as 30 minutes to an hour for dogs.
OK, so much for the setup; now for the dream that made me think “I’m going to have to remember this to tell kpm!” while still dreaming:
In the dream, kpm and I were taking Alf for a walk. When we got to the end of the street, we saw a couple of people walking the BBD on a leash. kpm said to them “Oh, is that your dog?” and the anonymous people replied “Yes, we call him 50 Minutes…”