I woke up this morning after having had the strangest dream. I was in an anonymous motel room somewhere, and I had in my custody a ferret and a polar bear cub. Only the ferret was an extremely large ferret--sort of a cat-sized ferret, actually--with silky-soft reddish-brown fur. The ferret particularly liked to have its stomach rubbed. The polar bear cub was a round white bean of a cub--very tiny--the size of the newborn polar bear cubs Klondike and Snow who were hand-raised at the Denver Zoo after having been rejected by their mother. It seemed very important to me that I keep the ferret and the polar bear separate, and for lack of better containment systems, I had each of them stored in large plastic Hamster Habitrail houses. The ferret, however, wouldn't stay inside its Habitrail--it kept climbing out and making me rub its stomach--and then the next thing I knew, the polar bear cub popped off the top if its Habitrail. I felt very concerned that the polar bear cub would eat the ferret, even though the ferret was technically larger. I put the polar bear cub back in its Habitrail, and it popped off the plastic top again. This, time, however, as it stood up on its hind legs, it sprouted up in front of my very eyes into a full-grown polar bear. "Well shit," I thought to myself. "Now I'm going to have to take it to Sea World." And so, for protection, I wrapped white hotel towels around my hands until they resembled giant Q-Tips, and plotted on how to cajole the full-grown polar bear into my car so I could drive it to Sea World. (For some reason, I was driving a Geo Metro.)

Interpretations welcome.

EVERY dream means we need to be laid more---that’s a given.

On a serious note I would say the polar bear represents abandonment and the ferret your carefree or playful side. Abandonment isn’t safe to take out of the box b/c 1) it eats things and 2) it grows. Both animals are you, one can be played with and scratched on the belly but the other needs to be driven to Sea World;)

The Geo Metro I have no explanation for...it's just wrong.

I was reading Howard Norman's memoir of his experiences in Churchill, Manitoba, collecting Inuit oral traditions about Noah's ark (titled "In Fond Remembrance of Me"), when I was struck by an overwhelming feeling that you would relate to this slim volume about life, death, indigenous traditions, friendship, reincarnation and birds. (I was remembering your poem from a few posts ago, which mentions cormorants). So maybe your dream, with its polar bear reference, is somehow tied to the thoughts I sent your way from the airplane in which I finished the book. Or maybe not, but it's still kind of cool that I shut this book about the arctic thinking I should recommend it to you, and now I read a post that mentions a polar bear.

But I don't take responsibility, real or hypothetical, for the Geo Metro. My partner and I, who dote on our Geo Prizm, could not abide that.

Anxiety dream, clearly. A Geo? Anxiety.

I think this is a dream about compartmentalization; you're trying to keep separate two things that won't stay in their respective Habitrails. Both things want your attention. You're afraid they're incompatible. You're afraid that if one gets out it will grow to an overwhelming size (too big for your house, too big for your car).

I don't think this dream's about anxiety, but alignment and ingenuity--more so figuring out how to handle two parts of yourself/issues in your life and succeeding at it--even if the solution is as cumbersome as fitting a polar bear in a Geo Metro (you gotta use whatever vehicle's available to you , I guess...).

On a different note, so good to find you blogging again (I'm delurking).

Too much pre-somnambulation cheese?

I'm very appreciative of all the interesting dream readings . . . very interesting (and insightful) stuff.

Yup, the dream itself is about juggling priorities. But also, it's about how ferrets are awesome.

this is great. i love this.

Ferrets are definitely awesome.