Recurring Nightmare: Animal Injury

[Bewildebeest]

The dream's details aren't the same every time, but the theme is always the same: I do something to an animal that is intended to help it, or which I feel I'm supposed to do, and then I wind up hurting or killing it. The first time, I clearly remember, it was a fox that my father had me lure to me, stroke into calmness and submission and trusting me, and then he snapped its neck and it turned into my pet cat. The time after that it was a squirrel sort of thing that had been hit by a car, etc., etc...

The thing is, I haven't had these dreams since high school, and now they're recurring. Last night it was about my cat, Gizmo, who I love dearly. I dreamt that for some reason I had been told I had to cut off one of her legs; it was to keep her safe somehow. So, after much agonizing, I did; no sedatives, no anesthesia, just a big pair of dull scissors and a nasty crack. I felt horrible, bandaged her leg and tried to stop the bleeding (and crying), and was just succeeding in convincing myself that it was for her own good when someone stepped in and said "You didn't need to do that."

"What?"

"It wasn't necessary. They did a study. All you have to do these days is put a collar on her." So here was my cat, in pain, fearing me, permanently damaged, for nothing.


I woke up miserable and guilt-ridden. Instantly found my cat, counted her legs (all four present), and cuddled with her.

I'm tired of these dreams. What's going on?

[jendreams]

A reoccurring dream is something that is trying to help you with your waking life. Your subconscious will keep repeating it until you resolve the issue. The dream sounds like there is some sort of guilt you are hanging on to in your waking life. It is time to figure out what that is and forgive yourself for it. I wish you the best of luck. It seems like you already have some understanding of the dream and I think you will figure it out soon!

[slimslowslider]

Its funny, I have a semi-reocurring dream (maybe once every several months) in which I realize I have a pet (usually a small rodent pet in a glass aquarium but once it was a dog) I'd completely forgotten about. I will come across it, usually in an attic or basement room, and feel absolutely horrible that I had neglected it and try to feed it, clean the cage, etc. The glass side of the cage will be caked with filth and the animal is starving and barely alive! Something keeps preventing me from getting this done, though, so the anxiety and guilt continues throughout the dream...I remember as a teenager reading a steven king book (might have been the Stand?) where a guy has a childhood memory of this exact thing happening, but in reality, with a pet rabbit, which he remembers and finds in a hutch out back, starved to death. I remember wondering at the time if Steven King had been plagued with the same dream!