Nightbitch

Over the phone, Nightbitch tells her husband about the dogs on her lawn, and how she now wants one. However, her husband makes no effort to grasp their significance to her, and tells her to leave them alone. As Nightbitch says, “he didn’t understand anything, not her sadness or her anger, not why the dogs had been so oddly disturbing” (64). In contrast, Nightbitch feels that the dogs do understand her, although she also realizes that she cannot explain any of this to her husband.

Nightbitch wonders about Wanda White, author of the Field Guide to Magical Women, and who she is. She finds that White is part of the philosophy department at the University of Sacramento. Nightbitch locates an email address and sends her a message. She asks White if her research is true in a “scientific and rational sense” or whether it represents an experimental “performance” of scholarship to make a broader point (70).

In the middle of a deep sleep, Nightbitch is awoken by the sound of dogs scratching and huffing outside of her bedroom window. She goes out to meet them, finding that they are the same three dogs from the previous day. The dogs pull and rip her clothes off with their mouths and push her onto her hands and knees.