Strange Dreams & The Doggie Decimal System

I was pretty convinced that some time late last night I’d gotten a phone call from Pipistrella that woke me up from a sound sleep. She was very excited about something and it took me a few moments to gain enough clarity to put the rapid fire string of words coming out of the phone together into sentences. Even after my brain had managed to begin assembling them grammatically, I had to mentally proof them again because they still didn’t make much sense. It was, of course, a dream.

Pip was explaining in excited (and slightly impatient) detail that she had succeeded in convincing the city to abandon its concept of Dog Pounds and instead fund her idea of a Dog Library. Instead of being penned up, stray and unwanted dogs lived at a special facility where they could be rehabilitated, trained and otherwise cared for. People who didn’t or couldn’t have a dog could apply for a Dog Library Card here and check a dog out. You could peruse the Dog Library by just about any aspect of dogness and Dog Librarians would be on hand to help you find the dog you were looking for.

Pip explained that just like normal libraries, which encouraged people to enjoy books and media and actually increased the private market for such, the Dog Library would help people better appreciate pets and pet ownership. It would also help people make informed and educated decisions about what sort of dog would best suit them, if and when they decided to become a dog owner.

My increasing wakefulness and her profound clarity and planning slowly won me over.

She explained that she had everything in place and they were set to open tomorrow morning but they didn’t have a reference system for the dogs. The various breeding and kennel systems weren’t suitable in her opinion. So she was calling to see if I could help her design an alternative system appropriate for the goals of the Dog Library.

After a few cups of coffee and a very long Skype session, we had hammered out the Doggie Decimal System. I’m certain that by the end of this, Melvil Dewey was spinning in his well-organized grave.

The process was only interrupted a few times by Lemon calling from Florida to ask what we knew about Mermaid Hieroglyphs. She was disappointed when we said “nothing” but when we asked “why” she just said “Oh, no reason” and hung up.