Fu Dog /Acrylic and pastel on paper/ Elaine Clayton copyright 1997
I had a collie I very much loved as a child. I had a lot of deep emotions about this dog that I was not very conscious of having, and a dream along with another event healed me in unexpected ways. When I was about twenty five, I had a dream that I saw my collie, and I walked over, sat down and embraced him. I slowly realized that actually, he was a lion, not a dog. I felt I might be in danger hugging a lion like that. But then the dream switched, even though I was still in the same place. It was as if a screen was lowered to help me understand. A Chinese Fu dog, shimmering and magical, was dancing the most adorable dance. A few months later, I happened to walk by a pet store and desperately wanted to “rescue” one from the place. It was a furry fuzz ball of a puppy, but it seemed to pick ME. So I bought this dog and on the way out of the store, the attendant said to me, “Here’s a book that will tell you about this kind of dog.” I knew nothing, but looking at the little book saw that it was a Shi Tzu and inside it said, that this dog breed was known as Fu Dog or “Lion Dog”. I felt slammed by that, in a good way. I kept thinking, “What if my dream about my beloved dog from childhood was telling me that he was coming back in the form of a new dog, a protector, a lion. A lion dog?” Having this extremely interesting dream connection and the new dog in many ways healed me in that the dog provided companionship and unconditional devotion as well as a lesson in responsibility, grounding me. I still feel this dream and many others are spiritual signs and worth paying attention to. Over the years, my artwork has included Fu Dogs I like to connect to the feeling of synchronicity and guardianship, emotional and physical. (My current dog is a pug, also very much a Fu Dog, she literally dances and prances).
Detail from Planty Goes to Heaven/ Elaine Clayton copyright 2013 
