My lovely armadillo

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt that my porcelain armadillo holding a bear bottle was destroyed.  I was very upset about it and I saved the pieces, even though it was not salvageable.

I'm not sure why it's so important to me or why I've kept it for so many years or why it suddenly appeared in a dream.  I know that several room mates over the years hated it, and that my husband would rather not have it in the living room (although its no longer an issue, as it's not what I'd pick for front-room display, plus our current sitting room is pretty small, so there's not a lot of 'extra' space).

I forgot the dream until I was cleaning yesterday and suddenly remembered how upset I'd been in the dream.  I was so glad to see it that its temporarily on a visible shelf.  I think I will make him a santa hat and put a wreath around his base and he will be a Christmas decoration this year.

It's odd that I had such a sudden fearful dream about a possession that shouldn't be so valuable to me.  Maybe its subconsciously linked to selling my Subaru recently (my first car) which I'd had for about the same amount of time.  Or maybe its not meaningful at all.  The only 'deep' association or image I have of an armadillo is the one in Rango that crosses the highway and makes prophetic and meaningful statements about "the other side".

I'm sure there's plenty out there to choose from, but this is the first thing I found when I googled armadillo totem (http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/armadillo.htm):

Boundaries, Protection, Empathy Armadillo wears its armor on its back, its medicine is part of its body. Its boundaries of safety are a part of its total being. Adjust your rhythms and senses and you will know what is safe and what is not.

Armadillo teaches you how to protect yourself and when to let your defenses down.

And here is an armadillo very similar, if not identical to mine on ebay for $100 (pictured above), but I'm not selling mine: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lone-Star-Beer-Advertising-Chalk-Statue-Armadillo-Texas-/270814660613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0dcfc805

And a taxidermied armadillo with a lone star beer (not a fan of this one) also on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lone-Star-Beer-Advertising-Chalk-Statue-Armadillo-Texas-/270814660613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0dcfc805

I think if there was a deeper meaining, it was a combination of keeping my armadillo (literally speaking), learning to protect myself, and the Rango clip about the other side ("we each see what we need to see").