#Tiger always wore a suit. he was the funniest and could make us all laugh with his stories.

[esleep]

i just had the most crystal-clear, narratively coherent dream i've had in a while and i NEED to write it down before i forget it. i dreamed that while on a camping trip i discovered a doorway to a world of intelligent, talking, semi-anthropomorphic animals. they walked upright but otherwise looked the same as their mundane counterparts, besides the fact that they wore clothes, and the fact that some of them were considerably larger than a regular member of their species (they all towered over me, however i am quite short irl so i'm used to that).

i made friends there and returned repeatedly over the next few weeks so i could visit with my good friends Elk and Tiger and Wolf and Rabbit (there were a couple others as well but i can't recall them all clearly enough to describe them). we would often sit in Elk's sunny dining room with the windows open while we chatted and had tea, or sometimes we'd take my van (in the dream i had a large van i sometimes camped out of) out of Elk's neighborhood and to a scenic spot in the woods for a picnic. it was lovely - all my new animal friends were good company with distinct and unique personalities.

there were also regular animals inhabiting this world. they were referred to as "cousins" of my intelligent friends, and while i was in the company of my friends, i knew i had nothing to fear even from the wild wolves and bears that roamed the woods. they would simply observe us curiously as they passed by.

after i had been visiting a while, i learned that there was another human who knew about this place. his name was something like Galarian or Galadon or something similar, it's a bit fuzzy. he lived full-time in the animal world, and he was something of a boogeyman to all my friends. he was a scientist who performed horrible experiments on "cousin" animals in the secluded laboratory he'd set up in this world, trying to figure out how to turn them into their "intelligent" versions like Dr. Moreau - so far without success, according to my friends. still, the mention of him sent a visible shiver down Elk's back.

one day, while we were picnicking in the woods, we noticed a "cousin" wolf in the distance running straight at us. my friends observed its movements with concern for a moment, then urged me to pile into the van with them as quickly as possible, leaving behind all our adorable picnic supplies. just as we closed the door behind us, the wolf reached us and slammed into the van so hard it rocked. the wolf was making horrible snarling sounds, muzzle dripping with lathered drool that it smeared across the windows as it circled us, testing every possible entrance and snapping its jaws horribly. my friends and i bunched together inside the crowded van and quivered in fear until the wolf finally gave up. we watched it ragefully destroy our picnic, and then at last it ran off into the wilderness. Tiger advised me to leave the picnic stuff behind - it was contaminated now - and head back into town.

the next part i remember is all of us gathering at Elk's house, talking quietly about the situation. all the lights were kept off, and gray clouds obscured the sunlight that normally streamed in through the front windows, so it was quite dark inside for our somber conversation. my friends told me there was a virus that would make animals go mad, and they were starting to see it appear more and more frequently. they weren't sure if it was the evil scientist's doing, or some kind of natural phenomenon, but either way they told me to be cautious and avoid traveling alone. they weren't sure what the virus would do to a human, but they didn't want to take any chances.

as we were gathered in the dining room, i noticed a Deer wearing a ripped, mussed-looking suit wandering dazedly in front of Elk's house. i pointed him out just as he noticed us through the windows, and then the same mad fire lit in his eyes as he launched himself toward the house. my friends and i immediately jumped to lock the front door and close all the windows we had half-opened to admit the breeze. just like the cousin wolf had, this Deer battered at the windows roaring and snarling, leaving streaks of foamy drool behind, before finally running off in frustration.

there's a big chunk here at the end that's fuzzy, but i do recall going on a mission to find out if the evil scientist knows about the virus or if he even may be the cause. as we observed his laboratory we learned that he actually had a couple of intelligent animals working for him, a Bear and another Tiger (not my friend Tiger, a different one). as we watched, they brought him a vial of what looked like spit and told him it was a "sample", which my friends and i took as evidence that the scientist was only just now learning about the virus and planning to study it. we all deemed this a bad thing and started making plans to raid his laboratory when i woke up.

upon awake reflection, this is clearly just rabies. i should've introduced them to the miracle of vaccination and been the hero who stopped a rabies outbreak in furryland.