I had a dream last night about a man who came into a small town–one of those little tourist traps on the Oregon Coast, I think–with an animal. He was telling us that it was unknown to science, that we’d make millions from this animal because it was so new and weird and extraordinary.  Then he whipped the cover off the little plastic cage.

“Oh!” I said, “It’s a needle-nosed shrew! And what a great specimen, too!”

He was crushed, while I explained that the needle-nosed shrew was an obscure but already documented mammal found on the coast, with four large fangs that protruded like tusks when it closed its mouth, that feeds on the blood of mammals and seabirds much like a vampire bat–nicking a little hole with the fangs, then sticks its pointy little snout into the hole and slurping. “Also known as the vampire shrew!”

I woke up, thinking “Does that really exist?” but it didn’t. Still, it doesn’t seem like something I made up. Must’ve been in a book or something.