Bees and Dogs and more cereal fun

 This morning I pulled out a box of Honey Nut Cheerios.  After pouring a bowl, I went to go get some milk and after turning around from the refrigerator I had a better view of the front of the box facing me a few feet away.

This is it:

I guess I just wasn't expecting to see "My Dog" in the largest letters centered on a box of Cheerios, where "Cheerios" is meant to be.  I'd never seen this kind of thing, and it just kind of surprised me.

I had a dream about my dog last night, but that isn't what first came to my mind, but would later as I reflected on the box.  Rather, as  I looked at Dog and the Bee, and I recalled that homework my son had brought home earlier this Spring that had both an "Amazing Talking Dog" and a Spelling Bee.   I also did a follow-up post found here.  Below is the homework I had written about (with boxes I had drawn for those posts added):

Here again, on the Cheerios box, we had the Bee and the Dog, just like that homework.  In those posts and others, I have compared the Bee with Eowyn and the Dog with Faramir (and with Sirius), and here we have, if you imagine the picture just right, I guess, the Bee expressing that the Dog makes their heart happy.  To be fair, and for fans of felines, on the back of the box it turns out you have big letters saying "My Cat", but that is both the back of the box (as cats rightfully should be relegated behind dogs... at least the marketers get some things right!), and isn't what was facing me as I was holding the milk I had just retrieved from the refrigerator.

As part of this message, we have the image of the Red Heart, or Ace of Hearts, that takes the place of one of the heart-shaped Cheerios.  Cheerios are usually round like a circle with a hole in it (we've seen that imagery before), but in this edition of Cheerios, these circles are all hearts now.

So, I don't know - just seemed like there was a lot going on with this cereal box.

As to my dream about my dog, it seemed strange and random, and I wasn't actually going to post about it, but seeing "My Dog" on the cereal box makes me think that I may as well include it.

In the dream, I was looking out my kitchen window toward the backyard.   A chaotic scene unfolded all at once for me. My chickens had escaped from their fenced area and were loitering around my pack patio. My dog was on the patio with the chickens, but she was in a fight with a huge, monstrous wolf.  The wolf was black and dark gray in color, and appeared to be interested in my chickens.  My dog had situated herself between the wolf and my chickens, and was barking as loud as she could, trying to chase off the wolf.  The wolf wasn't going to back down, and attacked my dog.  Although she was brave and was also not going to back down, my dog appeared outmatched for this fight.   This wolf was huge.  I saw the wolf take one swipe with its claws that connected with my dog's face on the side of her nose, and I ran upstairs as fast as I could to get my gun, hoping I could get back down in time to save both my dog and the chickens.

I got back downstairs, and ran outside.  The wolf saw that I had a gun, and decided to retreat in the trees surrounding my farm.  After checking to make sure that my dog was OK (she was pretty beat up, but otherwise fine), I ran after the wolf into the trees, and began hunting for it.  I saw what I thought was its silhouette hiding at the base of a tree, and raised my gun to take aim.  I believe at this point I woke up.

Like I said, I didn't see any initial connections.  Yes, there were chickens, a wolf trying to get them, and a dog standing in the way of the wolf's plans, but nothing was immediately obvious to me in terms of posting the dream.  It would be less than 20 minutes later after waking up that I then saw "My Dog" on the cereal box, which I then thought was sufficient reason to at least log it.

By the way, in that initial Talking Dog/ Spelling Bee post, I made mention that the dog in the homework drawing is "pied", meaning Black and White.  My dog in real life, and in the dream, is also Black and White.  She is a Bernedoodle (half Bernese Mountain Dog and half Poodle), and although she is supposed to be Black, White, and Brown, the Brown completely faded away as she grew up and is now just Black and White.

And one other potential nod to previous topics:  I've written a bit about Top Gun, or at least used some analogies from that movie.  Top Gun, as we learn in the opening text of the movie, was a school set up to teach the "lost art of aerial combat".  Another word for an aerial combat or encounter, and a phrase that is used repeatedly in the movie by the pilots, is a "Dogfight".  When planes are engaged with each in close combat, its referred to as a dogfight.  I guess that a Wolf and a Dog fighting would be called the same thing?