Activity Ramps Up; The Elders Want the Apartment Empty

Well, there is a lot to report. Things have not stopped happening, the problem is that my time to report them is minimal. Considering that each post takes about 45 min. to an hour for me, and there are 505 published posts, well the math adds up to over 500 hrs. of work. That’s a big chunk of time in a working woman’s life. Time excuse aside, I know I owe a lot to ‘catch up’. I would like to… just have to find the time. A list of things to sum up activity over the missing years:

1. Lois started to knit – and knitting is a very enjoyable activity that often intruded on blog posting.
2. Things never did stop happening. Just my ability to write it all up and report has been compromised.
3. The area of the house where it all began in 2009? — we rented it for the last 4 years as an apartment. The 4-year occupant just moved out in December (2017) and son Stewie is about to rent it, starting Feb. 1.
4. Nuttah has been kidnapped – about a month ago (more on that in future post).
5. And lastly, sadly, Niko died on my birthday in 2017, and as Niko goes, so goes Tëme.

An internet picture to depict “The Elders”

So, the best way to deal with this backlog of story, I think, is to just start with now. So this is what is happening now. Today is Saturday, January 27, 2018. Sometimes when I write that year (2018), I just can’t believe it is actually that number, so far along. I hear other people saying it too, that what used to be a month now feels like a week of time. Like time is speeding up. I feel that every day; time just slips away, speeding along. I hear young people say it too, so I know it’s not just a factor of age. I think the only people not complaining are 10 and under.

Anyway, back to TODAY. We are home, it’s Saturday. We were expecting 3 things today:

1) A firewood delivery
2) Stewie dropping off the lion’s share of furnishings as part of his move-in process to the now-empty apartment
3) An electrician to wrap up a project that was supposed to take a day (we’re now more than a week into it, because of problems encountered with this 100 yr. old house, wiring and such).

Two of these events have already postponed: 1 & 2. The electrician I’m just waiting to hear from, but given the scenario, there is a good chance he will also postpone. Why, you might wonder? Because the elders have taken over the apartment. Bob went in there last night, he says he was met with strong resistance. He says it was obvious he was not wanted in there and he was shuffled right on out. Upstairs, there was a big noise. He came back to our part of the house a bit perturbed and asked me to go over and check it out. “NO!”, I said – I don’t like putting myself in the midst of that activity, on the chance that I would perceive it, it freaks me out a bit much, like walking into a room full of ghosts. Would you do it? I think not. So why are they there? Well Bob was ‘given’ a bit of a hint overnight in a dream. He was shown that they are there, and they ‘need’ the space to be left alone and empty for their purposes. How was this information conveyed? Why did Stewie postpone, why did Mike, who was bringing the firewood delivery, postpone? Somehow they – the elders – influenced all of that too. Bob got a text from Stew this morning, that he was not prepared yet (truck rentals, etc.) for it to happen today. Bob replied that he was shown last night that this would not happen today.

Here’s how the texting went back and forth:

Stewie: Pushing back the uhaul til tomorrow if that’s okay with you, realized I still have a bunch to prep for it, plus there’s no 17 footers available

Bob’s reply: I saw that last night

Stew: Huh?

Bob: There was activity last night in the apartment, and it was made clear that you would not be here today

Stew: Wow, how?

Bob: The old joints were having some ritual when I went in and made it clear that no one would be allowed in until it was complete, they would delay stuff to ensure that that would not happen, and they kicked me out, essentially.

I guess it was more or less no surprise then when Mike postponed the firewood delivery. So what is his relevance to this scenario? We don’t get firewood in the apartment and it’s delivered to the street on ‘our’ side of the house. But Mike, coincidentally, is also the person that ran the wall replacement project. We’ve been buying firewood from him ever since, so we’re on our 9th year with Mike. The wall is relevant, because it’s when all this activity started – or thereabouts. The electrician? Well, he hasn’t postponed yet, but maybe will because electrical activity might interfere with what they are doing?

Bob just walked in to a text from the electrician: he is “feeling under the weather”, and wants to reschedule to Monday.

So there you go… all three scheduled Saturday events have been ’caused’ to not happen so that the elders can conduct their business in peace. And what is their business? They are discussing the annual ceremony that takes place about this time every year; every year since (our year) 2013 anyway. So this would have been the 5 year anniversary celebration of saving the Lenape tribe from annihilation.  Bob was part of that time-travel foray into their time to assist both with strategizing and the actual event. So was Duke/Tëme/Niko; they were instrumental. I say “They”, but they exist in the body of one. As does Bob and his (their time) avatar. Hard to explain, I won’t get into the details of this now. But Bob believes that the elders are trying to remedy the problem of not having Nuttah there to perform the proper ceremony. Nuttah is now an important Shaman (woman), and because of that, she has been kidnapped. I will get into that in another post, because Bob (and avatar) has been part of that scenario as well. Nuttah has not been able to communicate much since her kidnapping and we don’t know where she is being ‘kept’. Prior to this, we did hear from her occasionally, enough to know that she still could and would communicate. All for future posts, I did document it all.

So you see, there is lots to post. I am overwhelmed in a way with the volume/magnitude of it, but all I can do is chip away slowly, one post at a time. And leave the elders to their important task.

If you want to catch up on the past events that led to the ceremony they have now at the beginning of every year, here is a link to the one I wrote up last year, which then includes links to the event that started it:
https://whosetimeisit.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/the-annual-ceremony-commemorating-the-big-event/

 

 

The Annual Ceremony Commemorating the “Big Event”

A sample of a Native American “Medicine Wheel”, and its symbology

It didn’t dawn on me until a couple of days after my latest post about the arrangement of laundry on the bed, that it was probably a ceremonial event. If you have read this blog from the beginning, then you know that most of the first 3 years of it (2010 -2013) were leading up to an event that occurred in January of 2013. And then in subsequent January’s after that event, there was usually some kind of ‘acknowledgement’ of that event, in the form of a celebration or ceremony. I am learning that ceremony was critical and essential to the Native American way of life.
So since we believe that the key event happened on January 3, 2013 or thereabouts, I should not have been surprised that on January 6th of THIS year, 2017, there was a visit from Nuttah and that she left a sign. I think the clothing on the bed the night we came home on Jan. 6 was a symbol; the ‘Healing Circle’, ‘Ceremonial Circle’ or the ‘Medicine Wheel’. Is it too much of a stretch that I think the clothing arrangement has the ring (so to speak) of a Medicine Wheel? I don’t know, maybe so, but I think no coincidence.

	A ‘live” version of a healing circle or medicine wheel. Was the clothing on the bed supposed to indicate one?  From the site: http://mesacreativearts.com/html/medicinewheel.html

Here is a little bit of the history starting with this post from Christmas Day of 2012:

https://whosetimeisit.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/dreams-and-strategy/

Then shortly after the strategy post, there was this one called “The Day it Happened”. This was dated 1/3/13:

https://whosetimeisit.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/jan-3-2013-the-day-it-happened/

Here’s an excerpt from that day:

“It has taken me weeks to figure out how to properly portray this scene, because it was easily the most significant, most terrifying and most life-changing of anything that has happened thus far, and that is saying a lot. Suffice it to say, Niko is alive and still with us. Bob returned unscathed as well, thankfully, as it was not lost on me that if Niko might not survive the venture, it was possible Bob might not either. But they are both back. There were only two minor injuries amongst the strategizers; neither was Bob or Niko, it was the two other braves/warriors that were helping them. The one Bob calls the “buddy”, the “evil one”, who is the leader of the Central American marauders was “taken out” as it were.” He is gone. Done. Annihilated.

And here, from January of 2014, a year AFTER the “EVENT”:
https://whosetimeisit.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/a-weekend-of-events/

And then on January 6th of 2016, 1 year ago:
https://whosetimeisit.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/flowers-and-a-visit-in-january/

As a side note, I think the only reason that 2015 is missing, is because that falls in the period of “lost months”, about 18 of them, when I kept track of events, but couldn’t find the time to form them into posts.

Here is a description of the meaning of a Native American “Medicine Wheel”:

“All Medicine Wheels are tools for teaching people about their place in the Universe and their relationship to all things created by the “Sacred Mystery”.
And this quote from https://americanindianshistory.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-sacred-number-four-over-length-and.html” Most of [the] festivals and celebrations had symbolical or direct allusions to the four points of the compass. The ceremony of smoking, without which no treaty could be commenced or ratified, was usually begun by the chief of the tribe exhaling tobacco-smoke toward the four quarters of the earth. Among some tribes other points were also recognized, as, for example, one in the sky and one in the earth. All these points had their symbolical colours, and were presided over by various animal or other divinities. Thus the Apaches took black for the east, white for the south, yellow for the west, and blue for the north, the Cherokees red, white, black, and blue for the same points, and the Navahos white, blue, yellow, and black, with white and black for the lower regions and blue for the upper or ethereal world.

And then this quote from the same site where I got that picture of the stone Medicine Wheel above:

What is a Medicine Wheel?
“Forms of ceremonial circles exist all around the world, from the great stone circles of Europe to Hindu mandalas.  A Medicine Wheel is an ancient form of ceremonial circle used by Native Americans for teaching, meditation, prayer, healing, and celebration.  Just as stained glass windows and mosaics in ancient Christian cathedrals were used to teach Bible stories to people who could not read, so too were Medicine Wheels used to instruct The People.  From stories and oral history associated with the quadrants and individual stones of The Wheel, they learned about their relationship with Nature and the Spirit World, the cycles of life, connection to their past, and the interconnectedness of all things.  They were also used as gathering places for ceremony and celebration and acted as connection points to contact the unseen world of the “Grandfathers” or Spirit Beings.    In that respect, a Medicine Wheel also functions as an altar.  In her book about altars, Beautiful Necessities, author Kay Turner writes, “Altars mark the potential for communication and exchange between different but necessarily connected worlds, the Human and the Divine.  They make visible that which is invisible and bring near that which is far away.”  Wheels were designed to meet the needs and beliefs of those who created them and are still used today.”

And here is an assortment of ‘wheels’ that involve the turtle:

A drop-in visit and a glimpse of a ceremony

A couple of days later, on the morning of Feb. 10, Bob wrote me this email:

An impressionist internet picture I found of a ‘ritual fire ceremony’ to possibly illustrate what Bob was getting glimpses of.

“Drums and rattles were back in full force last night, loud. The sound machine did not even effect the clarity, it is like the two don’t exist on same plane of reality. Kept getting flashes of scenes of ritual dancing around large fire. Nuttah was involved as the high priestess or medicine woman or whatever they designate her as, never was able to get clear long vision , just glimpses. Quite a few people, looked like more than just the one village. ”

The ‘sound machine’ is a new device I just recently bought to drown out noises. Here is a link to it on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/LectroFan-Jr-White-Machine-Options/. It’s called the LectroFan White Noise Machine. It works. I can now turn off the air conditioner (have been running fan only) in the middle of a cold winter. Bob gets up early, before dawn, in the dark, and as a HUGE favor to me, he gets all the dups out to do their business so they don’t wake me up to do this an hour after he leaves, which they inevitably would. Hence, the need for the noise-drown-out machine, plus, our corner can get noisy in the morning with school buses, plows, landscape trucks with trailers bouncing over the bridge, garbage trucks that actually have this technique of backing up a street to a house to pick up the trash. You know… beep-beep-beep, etc. Only in the country could they do that.  Anyway, that is the reference in Bob’s email to the ‘sound machine’.

Feb. 11, my morning email to Bob included this:

“You know your dups are rearranged on your bedside table again? All standing up. Were you aware of anything?”

He was not. But it had just been the night before, that Bob had heard the drums and rattles and glimpses of a ceremony, that I mentioned above. Below is the picture of Bob’s table scene. Not much different from the prior posting, but nevertheless, it was new and in a different spot:

Lights on and some rather insistent drumming

As we are readying the apartment for the as-yet-not-moved-in tenant (February?), I moved some lamps over there that had been in the basement for months. Since the apartment painting project, I would guess. These lamps have to be either “always-on” or plugged into a wall-switch-operated-outlet to be turned on because the chain-pulls on them have permanently come out. So I made one of the lamps, pictured against the far wall here an “always on” downstairs night light more or less. After that, we  no longer found the lights turned on in the apartment, as had been going on all fall. Bob probably had been going out there daily to shut the light off in the stairwell. Maybe that is ALL it was ever about – having some kind of night light? Do the “night-lights” ward off evil and that’s why it kept being turned on? Perhaps I should put one in the office!	Lights on in the apartment have stopped the daily trek to turn them off
Nuttah “moved” herself to the dresser sometime Saturday, 1/18. Today is 1/21, and she still sits there in front of the TV	All weekend (January 18-19) Bob and I were hearing serious drums. There was also a minor movement of Nuttah’s character in our bedroom. This happened Saturday night while we were out. We came back, and instead of on my bedside table where she had been, she is now in front of the TV, right where we’d see her if we’re lying in bed staring at the TV (which both of us spend some time doing every night).Is there something to that? She seems to be purposely putting herself in our line of site.
Getting back to the drumming we’d been hearing: Bob hears the drums themselves, I hear a pretty solid-sounding vibration with some degree of variant tone, always in my left ear. We heard it Saturday night, loud, and we still heard it Sunday morning from downstairs as we sat in the stove room. It was loud and “insistent” enough to prompt me to go up to the bedroom and see if anything else had moved around. As Bob assured me it wouldn’t have, it hadn’t. Then Sunday night, I was hearing it again. I guess I should say “them”, not “it”. To me, a vibration sound is an “it”. I hear “it”. But Sunday morning I started asking Bob what it was he heard, since I don’t hear “drums”, just a vibration.”How many do you think it is?”, I wondered.”Four or five” Bob answered. “Four, I guess… one for each of the cardinal points. I think there is a tie-in with that, especially with these we’re hearing now. I only hear the drums this time, no rattles, no flutes”.	A Lenape drum, from the site: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/02/neweneit-na-ahas.html
Could we construct this? (From the site: http://www.lenapenation.org/lenapeculture.html)	I think the Lenape used the sounds to invoke something. “What do you think it might be about?”, I wondered. “No idea.” Bob replied. Last night, which was Monday night, January 20, I got home around 9 PM. I got out of the car in the driveway, and heard an intense buzz/vibration. It followed me to the mailbox and back to the house. It disappears for awhile in the busier, noisier parts of the house, but as soon as I get upstairs into our bathroom, I hear it loudly vibrating in my left ear again. Some day I want to make one of these (see picture of hut above) and see where it leads. We would bring a couple of drums in with us, or even just trash cans to bang on with a wooden spoon. I think we might be surprised by what might happen. I feel there is something I am missing by being so caught up in our industrial/technical world. Something we are all missing. Provided nothing happens in the next day or two, my next post is going to be a quote from a Coast episode that I listened to on my Podcast on the way home last night. It was about a ceremony that took place on the Winter Solstice in December. Very thought-provoking for those of us consumed by what has become our distracted way of life.

A Weekend of Events

Tonight it is Wednesday, January 8, 2014 and I came home to loud buzzing in the driveway. It followed me to the mailbox, and it followed me into the house and upstairs, and now I hear it dimly in the office as I sit here typing. I’ve already checked for changes upstairs, and things are still the way they were placed this weekend. Bob had reported Niko being distracted and unsettled earlier, last night it was that way too. But I get ahead of myself… going back to the weekend:

The bark hut was left by itself where it was propped in front of the TV

It was the first weekend of January, 2014. First, Bob went out to the apartment on Friday night, Jan. 3rd and heard lots of drumming and rattles. Then, we went out the night of Saturday, January 4th, and when we came home, there was a change in the display of objects upstairs in the bedroom. All but the bark-hut had been moved to be repositioned on my bedside table. I will add a picture of that change. And then Sunday the 5th, again in the apartment, Bob had to turn off lights that we did not leave on. It occurred to me as we were talking about these latest,  but relatively minor events, that maybe the drums and rattles that Bob heard over there Friday night were part of a ceremony. Because it was exactly one year ago Friday that I posted this one:

Jan. 3, 2013 – The Day it Happened

It might be hard to see but a ruler registered 7.5″ of snow Friday, Jan. 3

And remember, the “Day it Happened” was the day Bob’s “buddy” was finally annihilated. Knowing that the Lenape are very much conscious of the ceremonial aspects of life in the form of “events”, I was pretty sure that there was something going on Friday to commemorate it. Why wasn’t Bob part of it? Were the pups? Niko? We had been home all day: it snowed heavily Friday. Bob had a rare planned day off, I ended up calling out because of the weather. Yeah, pretty lame, but I also knew it was going to be a really slow day. I don’t do that often, but with Bob being home, it made sense. This would have been the day that something would happen regarding a “ceremony”. And maybe it did, and maybe it just didn’t work out that Bob or Niko could be involved. Remember, we have been made aware that Bob can only “go” a limited number of times.

I still have not made my new characters. I had lots of time off, but I also had lots of things to do. Maybe this weekend. Here is the picture I promised of the way things had changed on my bedside table:

What I found when I got home

It is always an unusual, large, white bird that comes to “talk” to Niko

So I mentioned in the last post that I came home to something the night of the “Holiday Party”.  Something had gone on earlier between Bob, Niko, and external forces, and there had obviously been some kind of “visit”. Niko had another encounter with that white bird; that seems to be the way “they” communicate with him. I don’t know what was said, or why, but the visit really seemed to be about him. Much to my surprise, I was not being vilified for asking Bob to get Frank out of the mix of our pups. It just did not seem to be working, although that was a surprise too, since we thought that Frank was more or less “brought” to us as a result of Bob’s dream. But I guess we don’t always read the right message into what’s going on. That is really pretty hard to do sometimes with all this weirdness; to get the message right every time. (I’m open to suggestions!!)

At any rate, of course the first thing I checked coming in the house was my desk. There was nothing new or unusual there, so I went up to check the bedside tables in our bedroom. And it was on mine that I was to find this display. I will put a large version of the picture below, and then continue my commentary below it:

The arrangement found on my bedside table when I got home from holiday party

It starts with the bark-hut, and in front of that is layered all of the dog/wolf pictures that I’ve made and used to date. Then Nuttah positions her character in front of the dogs/wolves, and lastly, we have the pewter turtle and Bob’s special stone that came from “her” time.  This is arranged to face where I would be if I was in the bed. What does it all mean? I asked Bob the next night to take a look at it, and see if he could “get it”, especially since he’d been part of the communication the night it happened. He had nothing to add. I’m stumped. But I do believe that it means Niko is being celebrated, and miraculously, I am NOT being hung out to dry for Frank not being here anymore. I am guessing that they are accepting of it, thank goodness. Apparently, Niko is our star, and our protector, and maybe they felt he was being threatened. They appeared that night for a reason. The morning after Frank was no longer here, I took all the pups out as usual, and Niko just tore into Red, as if she was now the stand-in for Frank. Niko had just been so wound up by the aggression of Frank that he couldn’t even forget it the next day. Luckily, Red knows how to take all this in stride, and her lack of winding up against him settled things down. (Wish she would behave like that when I’m walking her on a leash) It took a couple of outings for things to calm down to their normal level.

Another (the 3rd?) ceremony to honor Niko

Bob wrote this email Saturday morning, 10/13, 8:19 AM:
Had a dream last night. The honoring Niko dream again, only this time Niko/Teme/dukey was at the north cardinal point, covered in some sort of white robe. An emblem on a banner that looked like a white bird, very stylized was held over him by a young boy. Nuttah at the east in red predominant adornment,  she had her baby with her. Old man in yellowish adornments to south and a big joint to the west in primarily blackened clothing. My vantage point was in the middle. All directions offering obeisance,  I think that is right, to the north. Very serious, solemn affair. Remember feeling awe. Nuttah looked healthy, her baby is looking strong and healthy. Lot of pledges to always honor from directional points. Pretty interesting dream. Woke with Niko staring at me around 3:20.

A graphic from the website: http://ueln.com/, the United Eastern Lenape Nation

Email from Bob the next morning on October 14, 2013:
I have an increasingly different view of Niko after each incident, may just be delusional, but I see glimpses of things with him that are much deeper than the obvious bond. It is very humbling at moments of recognition. Can’t really explain it, I just know that what we “know” is not all there is, not even a terribly important part of what is.

Me, 10:14 AM: Curious what’s going on with Niko. As I was typing up and posting the stuff that happened in July, I was getting a feeling of something much deeper and significant, but it was eluding me. Maybe it will all become apparent as time goes on.

Walking Red in the local woods

Now me just narrating: I do hope that this work honoring Niko has an effect on his behavior. This has been about the 3rd “ceremony” to honor him. I am guessing that there will be four, due to the directional points. There has not been any incident since July, thankfully, and we are now halfway through October. Of course, there is also the fact that we are limiting his contact with virtually anyone, due to the potential of an issue. He seems to be better with the addition of “Red”, the other shepherd. She is the one we are convinced was “brought” to us, possibly to help Niko. There is also yet another dog in our midst now, plenty of pups for the shepherds to herd. Four dogs, two cats, do you think it’s getting out of hand? Dog #4 was a flea-bitten stray that looked on the verge of death when Bob found him curled up in a ball on our property. We kept an eye out for signs in case anyone had lost him or was looking for him, but the way he appeared, his fur about an inch think in flea “dirt”, we really did not think anyone was taking care of him or was much interested in his welfare. He was also completely deaf, so it was a relative mystery how he’d survived. Maybe he was just “meant to be here” as well. We named him “Sprite”. All 4 dogs get along, and we just keep the cats separated and everything is fine.

Bob Experiences another Ceremony to Honor Niko

The night of September 23rd, we both had a perfectly lousy night of sleep. The dogs all had gotten a new batch of fleas, and although we’d treated them, it had not yet taken effect. It was a miserable night of scratching for them, and sleep interruption for us. How long does it take these flea meds to work! Then, to compound that problem, some strange animal was making noise right outside our window. It would get very close, somewhere in the yard, then move away. It was making the oddest, saddest sound, but didn’t sound like it was being harmed or attacked. I have no idea what this strange creature was. Then, Bob had a dream: another ceremonial dream honoring Niko.

Bob’s email to me the next morning:
“Rough night of sleep, starting with the dogs scratching then the ceremonial dream, then the dogs scratching, then the noise outside, then the dogs scratching. Tell me what to get and I will do it on way home. I will make vet appointment too. They have to be miserable.  Then the dogs scratching….and whining.”

Later, Bob was to elaborate on the ceremonial dream he had:

“The ceremony was interesting because now they have incorporated a little bit of the stuff from the spring celebration and honoring of the guys that got rid of my “buddy”.  Also the merging of the wolf/turtle tribes. Teme/Dukey/Niko and my avatar were put at the north point with a collar of white feathers on each. There was a woman in yellow dried flowers directly across facing us. To the right or west was another old woman covered in some brackish tar like substance and some blue feathers and other stone of blue holding a deer skull with antlers. Then there was Nuttah in red face paint with a snake skin necklace and turtle shell pendant and wolf skin. All surrounded by the tribe with drums rattles and something else I couldn’t see but sounded flute-like. Lots of words said and bowing and offering to sky. It ended with a solemn walk away from the cross to another large fire at the end of the village. Then they broke into a feast…  I, of course, didn’t get to stay for that. Anyway, hope you slept well.”

And my email back to Bob, 9:04 AM: I don’t know what that animal or bird is, I heard it one time before, it was across the creek one night when I had the pups out late. It freaked me out. As loud as it was in bedroom, you should hear it outside, when you’re not expecting it. Gave me chills and hurried me right in. I tried to spot something with flashlight, but couldn’t. Last night it sounded like it was up high, and the sound also moved around, which would mean it’s not necessarily a “distress” sound, unless it was being hauled away. Guess it could have been something caught by a night bird.

Great ceremony! I was trying to tie in what you described with the arrangement left on my desk: I brought the four clover points in on Sunday, and arranged them in a cross. Nuttah then elaborated on it, as pictured below. She now sits at the point closest me, opposite her is the paper heart, the other 2 points have the pewter turtle with a stone heart atop, and also a wolf pup, and opposite that point is your stone. I will send you a picture. I tried to interpret it last night to no avail. Wish you could have stayed for feast, wonder what that would have been like to taste that food. You never have, have you, tasted the food?

Here is a picture of the arrangement that I found on my desk after Bob’s description of the ceremony. I can only hope that these ceremonial events will somehow help Niko (and the others he carries with him) to recover:

Nuttah’s illustration of the Ceremony to Honor Niko

A “Red Wolf” becomes part of our pack

Just a few days later, on July 15, Bob wrote me this email at 8:20 AM:
Rough night last night. Interrupted twice with “dreams”. One with two wolves. One was Tëme, one was a younger female. Had to do with Niko and his ceremony. I know, at least at the moment how to “perform” ceremony. IN PRIVATE!. I am so tired, because of the dream instruction. At least I think that is why.

8:58 AM, Me: There are 2 wolves on my clock radio: a pup, and Tëme, I think. Does that make sense? No idea where they were before they showed up there. What does the ceremony involve? I’d be interested in the details. Had a dream that there was a “see-er”, of dead people in our midst, and could “see” my mother sitting in the corner of a room. She got up to go somewhere, and he said “There she goes, she’s off for somewhere…”

Then the weirdest thing happened sometime during the day on Monday, July 15. Bob got a call from the woman who runs the rescue club where we got Niko. She said she was in touch with a woman who runs another dog-rescue club and she had a nice female shepherd that was adoptable. Were we interested? Bob texted me to ask, and I told him to go meet her.

Bob meets Red Girl and sends me this cell phone picture at work.

At 5 pm that evening,  Bob went to meet the woman. She introduced him to “Girly”; definitely a shepherd-type, but she had a lot of red in her. “Girly” was desperate for a home, this woman had been fostering her for quite some time. Bob sent me a couple of cell phone pictures of her so I could get an idea what she was like. One is pictured to the right.

The next morning, on 7/16, Bob sent me an email to fill out an application for “Girly”, so we could adopt her.  I did, and her “Foster Mom” came out later that day to pick it up when Bob was home. She  also brought “Girly” to meet our other dogs and to get a look around.

AND THEN SHE LEFT HER HERE!

Was this speedy adoption process somehow related to Bob’s dream:  “One with two wolves: one was Tëme, one was a younger female”. This experience with “Girly” and this rescue club was SO different from when we waited months last fall to adopt Niko. What was different?  Was this “younger female” supposed to figure into Niko’s “therapy” somehow? Maybe. How else did this all come together in just TWO days. One day really. Seems impossible given how long it took to get Niko. It definitely seemed that there was something working with us this time, it just happened so quickly. One night, Bob has the dream, the next night, we have a new female shepherd. We renamed her in short order, and now call her “Red”. Here is a picture of the beautiful “Red” and Niko below:

Niko in front, “Red” the new female shepherd behind him, shot through the kitchen window.

The ritual to help Niko’s behavior

After the bite incident, Kate continued to recover, and Bob and I were severely admonished for “betraying” Niko. This was evident almost immediately, and I was in complete confusion and denial as to why. How were we betraying Niko? I put it out of my mind, since I thought the way we reacted was appropriate and necessary. I really wasn’t sure what part of it was being objected to. It was literally the first time in 3 years that I’d questioned anything about Nuttah’s judgment. It just didn’t make any sense. Kate was doing well, and in my opinion, that was really all that mattered. We would deal with Niko as time went on, so Bob appealed to Nuttah for help with this odd behavior. It went along the lines of “What is the problem, and what can we do to help him?”

Monday morning, July 8, at 7 AM, Bob wrote me this email:

“I asked again last night, I think I might have had some response: I was shown an intensity of fear that was instantaneous and it just as quickly dissipated. The intensity was shown to me and then equated to my most intense negative emotional moment in my entire life. That was something I didn’t want to relive, I still have a slight hangover from that re-experience. I am not sure that it is anything more than a dream, seems so long since I have had any connection that I doubt myself on this.

Duke with his favorite ball and his reflective collar

It was only initially through Nuttah that I “saw” what was going on and how to approach it. The larger part was through the old joints and Tëme. There is a “ritual”: I have a hard time seeing myself doing it, or at least doing it with sincerity, and that is apparently important. It also involves a talisman from a former embodiment, a necklace or something from Dukey, something that contains some of his energy. I don’t know what that is to be, all we have is his toys, can’t see how I am to tie a ball around Niko or whatever. I feel stupid even writing this. Really can’t see me doing any ritual with sincerity, which sort of defeats the purpose. Anyway, I will try, but can’t believe Niko will walk around with a ball hanging off him willingly.

I may have to do it several times and I certainly won’t be doing it in public. Also, I am supposed to say it in a derivation of Lenape, not completely Lenape, sort of a sacred language that I think contained some Maya words, Manche Chol dialect to be precise. That will be interesting. I guess it could be equated to computer language, writing code to correct or change a program, when I say it that way it doesn’t sound so stupid. Regardless I will try… in private.

Later, same day, at 9:07 AM, my email back to Bob:

“Well, there are two things that might work for this “talisman”, that I came across lately, if I am interpreting this ritual and what it’s about correctly. For one, we have Dukey’s collar; it has his name on it, and I also have a little bag of hair that came from him. Maybe the collar alone would work? If necessary, I could sew a little pouch to it that contained the hair. Does it have to be a ball hanging off him or just something attached to him? Can you describe better what the problem is, what the fear is? I hope this will work. Any contact Niko has with anyone now makes me very nervous, and you can’t get around the fact that he has bitten people in the face three times, at least that we know of. In the past, and without his history as part of what’s going on here, I wouldn’t have tolerated that for a second. I can only rationalize letting him stay because he is somehow part of everything, and seems to be here for a bigger purpose. Because there is simply nothing rational about it, especially three times. But we’ll see how this goes, I wouldn’t assume it was a dream, it sounds good to me. Just start working on it. What do you have to do that would be embarrassing to be seen doing?

Email from Bob, later same morning, 9:37 AM:
We have Dukey’s collar?! Leave it out for me. I was thinking all we had was old toys, couldn’t see that working. Something very traumatizing happened to him at a very young age, equated the level of emotional response to me. I don’t know what it is, but it is extreme. I will start tonight, he has done too much for us, apparently more than we know, to not help him.

Me at 10:49 AM:
Funny, I was just going to get the collar from where I put it and leave it out for you, and it was gone. I had put the collar on the shelves against the wall where my knitting and stuff is. I thought, “Great, just when we need it, it’s gone”. But then I had this thought, “Maybe it is already on Niko?” I went to go check, and as I turned to go, I spotted the collar: it had been moved to the table in front of the big screen TV. Right there, where you couldn’t miss it if watching. Now I was watching something on that TV last night and I think I would have noticed if the collar was sitting there. Anyway, I have it, I’ll leave it out. We’ll work with him. What is it that you have to do?

Bob, later, 11:09 AM:
“So you are saying the collar was moved? We/I have to perform, repeatedly, a ceremony honoring him for all he has done to protect us, to honor him for having given himself up in order to be with us, to honor him for his willingness to die for our safety, to honor him for his willingness to confront his only fear to be among us. Those are the four points I must honor. I have to do this each in proper order to the four cardinal points. I have to do it for 5 cycles. That means once a month. It was also made shamefully clear (having a feeling of shame/embarrassment right now acknowledging this to you) that Nuttahs’ father would never have abandoned or forsaken a friend, nor would any man of honor. Makes me kind of sick to my stomach to acknowledge those feelings. Anyway, I will do what I can. I don’t know that I am capable.”

Well, the bottom line is, that it is worth a try if it can possibly help him.