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The dream starts off with my parents and I at a very modern looking train terminal. My parents look the same as they do now, but I look like I did at about age ten. The station we are at sits on a narrow plateau on the side of a snowy mountain and overlooks a wide valley. The valley itself is entirely surrounded by high mountains and there is not way in or out. The train encircles the edges of the valley and the station my parents and I are at is the only station that is located on a mountain; the rest being located on the valley floor. The train itself is silver in colour and very sleek. The engine looks like a traditional steam engine, but it to is silver and has a very modern/sleek look to it. (It was very neat. I'll have to try and draw a picture of it or something.) There were no dining cars, only flat cars. The first two flat cars had metal canopies that were supported by curved beams on the car's outer four corners, and the rest of the cars were uncovered, with railings running down the middle.

Despite the snow, it is bright, sunny and very warm. We are dressed in winter clothing, but nothing too heavy and I do not recall feeling overheated, even though I had on a wool hat and scarf. My parents are talking with two people near the train's engine, one of whom is a smiling woman in a red sweater. I do not know who she is, but she keeps looking at me and nodding. While there is nothing unusual about her demenor, I feel anxious under her occassional gaze. While my parents are busy, I am looking at a row of machines near the platform's edge that look like ATM machines. They are either gambling videogames or real gambling machines, but I cannot remember which. I played the middle machine and lost two thousand dollars. I recall being confused in the dream about whether or not I had actually lost money or if I had just played a game, but before I could figure it out, my parents called to me because it was time to board the train. They were on the train's first covered flat car and I had to climb onto it even as the train was already moving. No one bothered to help me climb on, but I was able to pull myself up without any help anyway. I glance over at the train's engine and can see the smiling woman in the red sweater looking at me again. I go and sit by my parents and enjoy the scenic view as the train starts down the mountain.

There is no snow at the valley floor. The train first travels through a thick temperate forest, which soon thins out to an open, tree-speckled countryside. It appears to be autumn as most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves, and those that still cling to the branches are brown and crumbling. There are no signs of towns or civilization along the way, though after travelling through the countryside for a while, the train suddenly slows down and stops at a brown brick building that seems to sit in the middle of park space. There are no roads or paths, but there are benches and empty flowerbeds. It is not a train station however as I discover when we are let off the train for a stretch and a washroon break. The building is like a kennel and it houses many cats, most of which roam freely about.

I am petting random cats when I see a cat that looks very familiar. When I pick her up and hold her, I realize that it is my old cat Bambi, and she appears as she did when she was a kitten.

I almost instantly become lucid, because I know that Bambi is dead in waking life. While I am aware that I am in a dream, I do not have any control over anything other than myself. I am happy to play with and cuddle Bambi but very soon we are called back to the train. It is sort of an unspoken rule, but the cats are not supposed to leave the kennel, but I decide I want to keep my cat and board the last, uncovered flat car of train with her in my arms. The train begins to move and I can feel a tugging, as if some unseen force is pulling at Bambi. I do not have the strength (or dream control) to fight the invisible force and I carefully lean over the edge of the flat car and drop Bambi down to the ground. She disappears for a moment and I panic because I think she has fallen underneath the wheels of the train. I attempt to stop my dream by holding my arms straight out and imagining everything to 'pause,' but nothing happens. The train slowly continues on its way and my parents come up to me, roll their eyes at each other and ask me what I am doing. I tell them that I am trying to stop the dream so I can save Bambi, but they just look at each other again, in annoyance with me, and point out that Bambi is fine, even though they don't look anywhere else but at me. I do not believe their confidence of my cat's condition, but when I turn to look in the direction of the kennel, there is Bambi playing with some other kittens by the brown building's front doors.

I try to stop the train several times by saying "train stop" very forcefully, but it just keeps on going. I cannot gain any control over anything, though my awareness of being in a dream does not fade at all thankfully. I even try to jump off the flat car but an invisible wall keeps me from doing so. The train doesn't travel very far before it stops infront of a large stage. It is damaged and looks as if it has not been used for a very long time. For the first time since my parents and I left the station on the mountainside, we see other people. They are gathered in a group in front of the stage and eave to my parents to join them, but I am too interested in finding my way back to the kennel so I can see Bambi again, even though I know she is just an image from my subconscious. I am also kind of annoyed by the lack of control I have in my dream.

The dream gets fuzzy and cannot remember that next part. I lose my lucidity somewhere along the way, but I do end up back at the kennel. My parents are long gone with the train and I am stuck at the kennel until it returns, and I have no idea when that will be. I play with Bambi and the other cats to my heart's content. Though it has only been one day, it has felt like I have been there for much longer. The sun begins to set and the train finally returns. My parents are very upset and tell me that I have been gone for a week. I try to argue otherwise, as it has only felt like one day to me, but they will have none of it. I do not care that they are upset with me because I am still cuddling with Bambi and she is purring anf kneading me at the end of the dream.

This dream takes place in a field close to where my parent's live called Mr. Salmon's field, and their house as it appear approximately 5 years ago (there have been some renovations since then).


The dream starts off with me in Mr. Salmon's field. It's a large grassy area with dotting of trees around and a small swamp. Bordering the field is Mr. Salmon's house and pool. I cannot remember now what I was doing in the field but at some point three people I do not recognize from waking life came up to me and urged me to come along with them. I think they suggested going for a swim in the pool but I cannot exactly remember now. As we walked up the path toward Mr. Slamon's house we ran into a man dressed in a camoflague uniform and he said that he was going to arrest me, but broke out laughing when I protested. Apparently it was a prank planned by the three people who I had just met.

The three people and the military man disappeared at this point and four friends I used to know (three of them are now former friends) appeared and asked me if I would like to go camping. In the dream we were still friends apparently, so I agreed. I said that I would have to go to my house, up the street, to get some clothes and other camping supplies. Three of the friends said they would wait in the field and the fourth, Cathy (the least favourite of the former friends), said she would come along with me.

Rather than go up the street we decided to cut through the backyards leading to my house because it would be faster. When we got to my new neighbour's backyard I could hear music coming from the house and I knew he was home. I told Cathy that we had to run because the neighbour was a real jerk and he would hurt us if we were caught tresspassing, (which is not far off from how it would be in reality because this neighbour is a real @$$hole).

When we got into my backyard I noticed that the back door leading to the basement was slightly ajar and I was worried that there had been a break-in. When I opened the door there was one of my brothers standing there wearing an apron, yellow rubber gloves and was holding a large pair of forcepts. My first impression was that he looked as though he was dressed as a mad scientist. He scowled when he saw Cathy and then disappeared.

Cathy and I went upstairs into my old bedroom (my bedroom is now in the basement) and I was surprised and excited to find my cat Bambi there. Even though the dream seemed to be set a few years ago, I knew in the dream that Bambi was dead and that what I was seeing was her ghost. I forgot all about packing for camping and picked up Bambi and started coddling her. I was so happy to be holding her and she felt so real - the softness and warmth of her fur; the wetness and coldness of her nose - the dream felt so real and vivid at this point but it did not become lucid, (unless acknowledging in the dream that my cat is dead in real life is lucidity), but I really believed that I was holding my cat again even if I knew it was only a ghost.

This upset Cathy, because I wasn't paying attention to her, and she started sightly loudly and trying to emotionally manipulate me like she used to all the time. Though now in real life I would never put up with that crap, in the dream I reluctantly put Bambi down and packed clothes and stuff for camping. As I was packing, Cathy stood over me with her arms crossed that damn smug smile on her face that I hate so much now. In the dream however, I did not react negatively to it and continued to do what she wanted me to. I looked for Bambi when I was done packing, but she had dissapeared.

We went back to Mr. Salmon's field, which now had trailers and campire pits all around, and met up with the other three friends. We went into the trailer that we were going to stay in and began unpacking, but since there were only two bunks, Cathy said that I would have to share one with her. All of the anger and hatred I feel for Cathy now in waking life came to me then and I was so disgusted at the though of having to share a bunk with her (even in the completely non-sexual way that the dream implied) that my negative feelings woke me up because the dream ended there.


It does not surprise me that my former friend Cathy was emotionally manipulative and a control freak in this dream because that is exactly how she is in real life. I can also see a corellation between the three people and the military man playing a prank on me, and the four former firends appearing right after, and how it all reflects how our "friendship" was in real life.

The main character is me, but I do not look like me. I looked like a young boy with short blond hair, wearing a dirty grey jumpsuit and a bright orange scarf, and I was very thin. Every time I mention myself in this dream, picture the aforementioned description of the young boy.

No long before this dream I had to euthanize my first cat, Bambi, because she was very sick. I find it interesting that my memories of her, and the pain I feel from losing her, appear in the dream - but she does not actually appear herself. I also acknowledge my memories and feelings of her in the dream but it does not become lucid when I do so.

Picture of my cat, Bambi:


The dream took place in this beautiful, lush back-country that bordered the ocean with huge rocky cliffs. There was four areas to this place: a flat, grassy field that lead to the cliffs; a lightly forested area that was "hilly"; a farmhouse and country road on the otherside of the lightly forested area; and a heavier forested area that bordered the other three areas.


The dream starts off with me inside the farmhouse, tidying up rooms and packing my belongings because I was supposed to leave that place for good for some reason, though my heart was reluctant to go, because my memories awere in that farmhouse. It felt especially painful because my cat, Bambi, just died and I kept finding cat toys and other things that would bring up memories of her. There are other people there cleaning up as well, but I cannot remember specific descriptions about them. There was a middle-aged man, a young girl, and a young boy who was similar in age as I appeared in the dream.

Eventually I went for a walk because my heart ached for Bambi too much. I cannot remember now how in the dream I got there, but suddenly I was at the cliff overlooking the ocean. The cliff edge was very steep and must have been hundreds of meters above the sea level; it was one heck of a long way down. I cannot remember how or why now, but somehow I got too close to the edge and I slipped over. I grabbed a handful of grass that grew on the edge and it held me up (which totally wouldn't happen for real, but whatever). I screamed for help but I knew no one could hear me. I struggled for a bit and at first I was convinced that I was going to fall. I thought of letting go for a moment, because if I died then I would get to see my cat again, but somehow I found some sturdy handholds in the rock and pulled myself up onto the cliff top and to safety.

I laid there for a long while before gettting up and wandering along the cliff's edge (but far enough away so I wouldn't fall off again) and I came across some stray cats playing and lounging around near the cliff's edge. I pet them for a while and thought of my own cat before walking to the heavily forested area. On the way I kept running into stray cats and I wanted to believe that if I found out where they were coming from, I would find my cat Bambi, still alive. There were many strays that looked like her (gray, stripped tabby) but none that were her.

In the heavily forested area I came across a large hollow tree that many of the strays seemed to live in. I became worried about them because I was going to leave this place soon and there would be no one to take care of them. I wandered out of the forest and back to the farmhouse. I explained to the three DCs about the cats and they told me to stop worrying about it. Just then a large truck pulled up in front of the farmhouse and some construction workers got out. They worked incredibly fast and put up a chainlink fence around the farmhouse and the large hollow tree in the forest. I asked them what they were doing and they said the next people who were moving into the farmhouse were Veterinarians and wanted to make sure the stray cats were safe.

It was a great relief for me to know that the cats were going to be taken care of, and I hung around until all of the construction was done (including an extension on the farmhouse that was going to be a cat hospital), and this seemed to allow me to accept that my cat, Bambi, was gone and I could leave without regret or sadness.

Just at the end of the dream, as I was walking towards the car that would take me away from that place, I turned my head and saw a black bear by the edge of the heavily forested area. The middle aged man was there as well and he was ignoring the bear, which was ignoring him as well, and since I did not sense and danger I ignored the bear as well. The dream ended there.

I was standing at the waterfront of a beach that had lots of sharp rocks and debris shrewn about. It looked like it had recently been devastated by a hurricane or something. My appearance in the dream was young and slender and with flowing silvery white hair. I was wearing a lavender-coloured dress and a white apron and my feet were bare.

There were random people standing amongst the rocks and garbage. They watched and did nothing as a huge wave came suddenly from the sea and almost washed me away. I somehow regained my footing and turned to see another wave coming. It was bigger then the previous wave and I yelled at the people on the beach to run and get away from the water - but no one seemed to take me seriously (or even acknowledge the approaching wave for that matter) and I assumed that the people were all washed away while I ran for my life away from the beach. For some inexplicable reason I could run faster then the incoming tsunami.

When I was too tired to run anymore I found myself in a grassy field. I could see the beach in the distance behind me, but there were no huge waves or flooding or even debis anymore; it looked like just and ordinary beach. In front of me there was a small Mideval looking castle and beyond that - maybe a mile or so away - there was another small castle. There were armored knights on horseback riding between the castles but they were not attacking each other or anything. The knights would just gallop their horses from one castle to the other and then turn around and do it again.

I went into the castle closest to me and most of the rooms were devoid of people - but the people I did come across were seeminly paralyzed in mid-action and could not move. They were like statues but they were neither made of stone nor frozen like ice. I came across an old man who was holding a letter and though frozen in place he could still talk. He asked me if I could take the letter to the other castle across the field. I said that I would and he asked me if I would bring him some tea from the next room. I went into the next room to get the tea but when I picked up the tray that had the tea silverware on it, one of the horseback knights came galloping through the room and told me to leave. The knight then grabbed the tray from me and spurred his horse out of the room.

I apologized when I returned to the old man but he said something that upset me so I ran away. I ran seemingly endless halls until I found some stone stairs leading down into thick darkness. I ran down the stone steps and found what was very much like subway station. There was a small group of people waiting on the boardwalk and I joined them just as the train was pulling up. The subway train did not look like a standard "subway train" by more like a large submarine made of thick clear glass.

The glass train flew up out of the dark tunnel and out into bright daylight. It soared over a vast "s" shaped lake where the water was crystal clear and the lake's fish and other water creatures could be seem swimming around. There were also many small fishing boats in the water and I was jealous because I wanted to be down there. I remember commenting to someone sitting beside me on the size of the fish. The train suddenly entered another dark tunnel and when it came to the station it was not a modern platform but a thick undergroud forest.

The trees were oversized and deciduous, the roads narrow and maze-like. I wandered aimlessly at first because I was lost. Eventually, I ran into a male elf that appeared to have come from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings triliogy, but I was upset because it was not Legolas. I followed the elf for a while as he walked through the forest because I was lost and I figured that he would lead me somewhere. Eventually he dissapeared up a tree at a fork in the road.

There was a left and a right path. I headed left because I could see open sunlight and that direction felt warm. I came out of the forest into a trialer park that was occupied by domestic cats and not people. The first three cats I saw looked sort of like dark grey occelots with glowing, firey orange eyes . I walked down the singe gravel road until I came to a hill. I turned around and there was a large pet superstore. The trailer park dissapeared (faded out) and now there was only the superstore floating in space in front of me with the front doors wide open. I did not have a choice but to go in really.

I was appalled by the conditions in which the baby animals were kept. They were in cramped honeycomb shaped crates (with one baby animal to a cone) behind large panes of glass without food, water or litterboxes and all of the little animals looked absolutely miserable. I started crying because I could not do anything for the suffering baby animals and I was also upset because no one else in the store seemed to care about the poor conditions in which the animals were kept. It was set up almost like a museum display: each crate was numbered and people stolled along gazing at the crates behind glass at their leisure.

I came across a side corridor and followed it until I found myself in a large warehouse or barn or something. It had a corral for sick and deformed baby animals and on the inside the coral was an oriental woman. She handed me a thin bamboo stick painted black and told me to start beating "the black one," pointing to a listless long-haired kitten. I was appalled and horrified and I picked up the kitten and cradled him in one hand and grabbed the long switch from the lady and hit her a few times with it. The dream ended here.


The large wave coming out of the sea, almost washing me away is parallel to my near drowning incident that happened when I was about 4 or 5 years old.

Original dream dated 02/19/2006:
I had this dream that a whole bunch of people were back from the dead. Not zombies... just suddenly not dead either. Including my old pet cat, Abby, whom I loved more than anything on the face of the earth.
However, all of the people who had returned were also going to die again soon. For some reason, in my dream, I thought that the best way to commemorate Abby's passing (and soon, her passing again) was to eat her remains. Hell if I know what goes through my head, it was a dream. Except that we put her in the pan and started cooking her while she was still alive, and when I realized "oh my god, what the hell am I doing?!" her paws were all charred and she was halfway cooked. She didn't seem to be in pain and she didn't seem to hold it against me, but I knew that she was going to die again very very soon because of what I'd done... my mom rationalized it by "She was going to die anyway" except that it wasn't good enough reasoning for me because it meant that she was going to die sooner than she would have died on her own...
So anyway, I held my half-cooked cat for a while and cried. On to the next dream...

So then I dreamed that there were 2 teams of people. All of them were female. One of them was 3 different people, and one of them was composed of a team of one person, cloned 3 times. The second team sat on top of some very tall poles and had little white explosive balls that bounced off of everything and anything. The first team's job was to get the balls from them. The second team got no weapons or anything at all, but their position was very secure. The first team got a whole bunch of gadgets and toys.

So, the first team got really close - they had to because their weapons didn't have much range (one of them was a fan attached to a rope). The second team threw 2 of the 3 balls at them, which they managed to whack away from themselves with a flashlight, and the explosions the balls made were really big. The first team managed to kill 2 of the 3 clones, but the third one was impossible to get to.

Finally, after talking with the clone for a while, it came down from the pole. It had originally been a girl, but now for some reason was a boar. The leader of the second team talked to the boar and told it that she wished that it could see something really beautiful so it would appreciate life.
There was also a cat. The first teams' supervisor came up, and the boar was afraid of him, so it ran back up the pole. He wanted to talk to the cat, but the cat was also afraid of him.

Then I woke up.

Morning of September 21, 1969. Sunday.



This was a highly annoying dream that seemed to “reset” all night long. There were a couple vaguely interesting parts, but it mostly involved having to sweep outside, in the early morning until late afternoon, the whole area between the cafeteria and the northern side of the main West Elementary school building, not just the sidewalks and portico areas, but the grounds as well. Of course, there was always more sand and a bit of debris to go back to and never actually feel any sense of completion of the required job.

The other students were doing chimney cleaning throughout the neighborhood, apparently. There were not even any actual chimneys to speak of much for such work in reality. In the past (about a year before I finally “got” the real lyrics), I absentmindedly sang “Chin chin chir-ree” (instead of “Chim”) without anyone noticing - I guess because I thought “chin” actually related to the person’s face while doing the cleaning. This was also related to the somewhat precognitive “cat-woman” dream where the girl on the roof at Rose Street was a foreshadowing of an actual school play with the “same” girl (of the sparsely recurring December 20, 1966 dream). I believe there is also a vague association with Mickey Mouse in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and a concern about not getting my job done (the idea of “without magic” is only a very vague thought at one point). Of course, it could also imply an indirect association with the “mystery girl” during this time, in her Wendy persona, as she rode a broom.

In the background, also, is the “Money Cat” association. The eerie black cats, however, are only moving about in sparse patterns of swiftness on the roof of the main school building (the “Mary Poppins” rooftop associations were “perfectly” integrated with the “Gay Purr-ee” rooftop associations for some reason, with that sort of tentative “charcoal”, “submarine periscope chimneys”, and vaguely unpleasant wide-reaching industrial implications). No one else is around and I am close to anger at having to be the only one with the job at hand. The task seems ultimately pointless. The dream drags out in an uncomfortable manner - and, if that were not bad enough, it resets as I have already stated - back to the “beginning”. The cats coming out later, especially as the sun sets, means that I have “failed”, yet I do not see the relevance to my actual school grades.

Relating to this dream and several pleasing ones, there is some sort of odd, layered nostalgic conscious association going back to the “Money Cat” song from “Gay Purr-ee”, the “carrot creature” (what I call “her”) from “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” (“The Outer Limits”), the dance by Nichelle Nichols in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” (which had alien “cat women”), and the “cat burglar” girl from the 1966 (and later) dreams. I found it interesting how the first viewing of the “Star Trek V” movie triggered what almost amounted to a false and “distant” memory, but was actually a “buried” long-term association with the imagery. It “struck” me at a very deep and personal level.

Morning of January 4, 1969. Saturday.



This childhood dream journal entry has been revised on Friday 20 October 2017 to complete and clarify revelatory dynamics to more coherently define the meaning. This dream occurred about 3:30 in the morning. Sunrise was not until about 7:20 a.m. I had attempted to watch the 1942 black-and-white movie “Cat People” (which started around one a.m. on this Saturday morning), though our television was black-and-white anyway, but I slept through most of it, though I did not go to my bed until about 3:15 in the morning.

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In my dream, as I am walking out from the front of our Cubitis carport (after deliberately “stepping into” the stabilized hypnagogic “portal” rendered as the unlit carport area), seemingly only about three-thirty to four o'clock in the morning, and walking in a northwesterly direction towards our neighbor’s orange grove, I maintain my lucidity.

Even though I am lucid, I feel somewhat vulnerable when I find myself walking into the opening of a fictional feature. It is a hallway in which the walls are seemingly made of fog, yet with a suggestion of at least partial solidity. This eerie hallway starts from between the middle area of the driveway and the neighbor’s orange grove, and runs from east to west towards Highway Seventeen (and is perpendicular to it). I do not perceive the potential length of this hallway or clearly discern a door or doorway on the opposite side, which makes me hesitant in continuing.

From here, I see various domestic cats (at least fifteen) in various positions throughout the hallway ahead. Some cats are sitting or standing on tables (one near a vase on a table) and some are sitting or standing on the implied hallway’s floor. One cat jumps down from a table (or simple platform) on the left side in this scene and walks toward me though never gets very close or attacks. An unknown male narrator’s voice (seeming to come from above and to my left and as if from a loudspeaker with slightly fuzzy audio) only says “cats” in a very informal way and without emotion. I feel that he may not be speaking to me as it may be a voice that was recorded years ago. There is also the vague idea that I may not be fully in the setting but looking at a realistic three-dimensional movie scene either superimposed or bilocated into the front yard area. Despite my lucidity, I feel somewhat wary, uncertain, and passive to what I am seeing even though there is no discernible threat. Soon, with deliberate intent (lucid choice), I fade from my dream with a soft awakening. (The liminal space transition is also softer than usual.)

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Following is an extensive and highly revelatory explanation of the most likely factors and personal history responsible for this dream along with their related meanings. I have recorded this dream as of the doorway waking symbolism type.

It was obvious to me at the time (despite being only eight years old), that my dream was trying to fill in missing details from “Cat People” even though that was not my original dream entry intent (which was to visit my younger neighbor and friend, Brenda, who lived north of me). However, my dream was completely unrelated to the movie’s plot as my distorted memory implied that the movie was about an older woman with a fear of domestic cats.

The otherwise ambiguous hallway setting is modeled after two common real-life locations and progressions, one, walking through the hallway in my Cubitis home, and two, walking down our Cubitis driveway (as the fictional hallway was rendered as just north of it and parallel to it) to wait for the school bus on week day mornings. The possibly implied exit of the fictional foggy hallway would be at the east wayside of Highway Seventeen and it should also be mentioned that while waiting for the bus on week days in this time period, there was sometimes dense fog. Fog was far more common as a dream feature during the time periods there was fog in the mornings in real life, although fog also seems to be a factor of the dream state itself, possibly influenced by dream scenes in movies that include fog (to represent that it is a dream), though is also a natural association with dreaming.

There is also an association with Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog”; the line “The fog comes on little cat feet” (which was silently integrated into my dream near the last moments). The poem was first published in 1916 and my mother was born in 1916. This seems to be the association with the “old woman” (my mother) with a supposed fear of domestic cats (again, not what 1942’s “Cat People” was about). However, neither my mother nor I had any trepidation relating to cats. In fact, my mother had a pet gray tabby named Dewey at this time. The mild trepidation in my dream was more about my lucidity being intruded upon by the absentminded association with the movie that I had not even seen much of, based on my earlier wondering about it (but not consciously intending for it to be carried into the dream state as it was).

There is one more relevant commonly recurring factor I should include here. The doorway waking symbolism and other types that sometimes include the liminal space cat symbolism (in addition to the term “putting the cat out for the night” as subliminally relating to shifts in unconsciousness and waking symbolism itself) curiously was validated to have come from having seen the ending credits of “The Flintstones” (an animated television series) so many times. A domesticated saber-toothed cat is seen throwing Fred out of his house (after Fred firstly put the cat out) during the end credits, resulting in Fred pounding on his front door and yelling “Wilma!”, waking the whole neighborhood. This also established not only the relevant waking symbolism but additionally established this symbolism as a more influential dream state end marker in many examples throughout my fifty years of dream journaling. There are additional reasons for liminal space cat symbolism, one being an influence from the 1962 animated movie “Gay Purr-ee”, another with my childhood association of a cat sitting on a fence as existing between dreaming and waking (that is, a fence as the liminal space divider between dreaming and waking). Additionally, I think of cats as being more active at night or while people are sleeping and dreaming, thus a natural symbol of the dream state itself.

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Morning of January 1, 1975. Wednesday. (New Year’s Day.)



Summary: Two cats quickly going in opposite directions meet on our Cubitis carport and their movement ceases as they stare at each other until my dream ends. This dream was possibly at least partially influenced by the limerick “There once were two cats of Kilkenny“, as the term “Kilkenny cats” did seem to be in the back of my mind at one point in-dream but was not spoken aloud (though the cats do not fight or even move as in the limerick). A younger neighbor and friend I waited with at the school bus stop on weekday mornings had the first name of Kenny, which may have added to the associations.

It is early morning in Cubitis just prior to the time I would be going out to wait for the school bus on a normal school day and the sun has not fully risen. I become aware that I am going onto our carport at the start of my dream for this reason.

Seemingly out of nowhere, two (unfamiliar to me) cats suddenly approach each other and both assume a stand-off position in our carport near the front entrance of our house, facing north and south. Immediately before I actually see them, I get an uneasy sense of a loud two-layered human-male-like “Ugh!” as if both of the cats had somehow “said” or “exclaimed” it simultaneously, each with a sense of implied disgust at the other, immediately prior to their near-collision.

Time seems “frozen” for seemingly several minutes as the cats stand completely motionless, facing each other from only about an inch apart (nose to nose). I get an eerie feeling that they may somehow have additional human-like attributes (though there is no real evidence for that other than the unvalidated assumption that they spoke).

Soon, at least a dozen (unknown) reporters, both male and female, having donned primarily early 1960s dress styles, appear on our carport as if out of nowhere. They are evenly gathered around, both standing and crouched in a semicircle (open to the driveway), with cameras (a male near the main door seemingly using a Polaroid 185 Land Camera) and yellow notepads with pens (though I briefly notice one female making continuous cursive loops rather than words or sentences). The reporters are gathering around the cats (though not that closely - about a yard or more away) and appear to be ready to plan or begin some sort of television or radio broadcast on the event. The cats do not make any other sounds and continue to remain motionless throughout the rest of my dream. I still feel a growing and somewhat unpleasant eeriness that they are “more than cats” and I almost expect something else to happen but nothing else does. There is a strange mythical awareness that neither cat will ever move again.

Analysis from my primary standpoint: This seems to be a play on the “old year” meeting the “new year” face to face or “blocking” potential progress into the new year with any issues of the previous year, almost in a mythical sense; thus, the in-dream uneasiness and “waiting for something to happen” even though a new year is basically just a continuation of the prior day. My family did not have a Polaroid 185 Land Camera but the camera has a feature that resembles the bellows of an accordion, which my father was well-known for playing and writing popular polkas and waltzes for. The reporters had a very vague association with cartoon characters on “The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour” though they did not really appear cartoon-like in any way in my dream. The “reporters” are there perhaps to “record” my progress in my path into the new year and my otherwise blocked passage into the new day, one cat being “of me”, the other a potential rival with opposite opinions, perhaps; likely a classmate I have conflict with.

Analysis from my secondary standpoint: What people have seemingly failed to see throughout the entire history of so-called dream “interpretation” (as I have never seen much evidence of it in commercial publications) is that certain types of dream events often reflect the dreaming process itself. In this case, it would be my dream self being “blocked” from the knowledge of the holiday, part of me wanting to wake up in thinking I have to get up for school (though I do not) and another area of my (dream-self’s) mind saying “Hey, you can sleep longer today, what’s your hurry?”. Of course, dreams are typically multilayered, sometimes with so many layers, it sometimes takes years for certain facets to reveal themselves.