May 8, 2005

• Dream Cats

  I recently had a dream about the house being attacked by lions.

  It started with Rocky, Cathy's little dog, barking frantically at something outside. When he gets excited, he often takes off when I open the door, so I was very careful not to allow him to get past me while I checked. What I saw in the front yard was a male African lion and five female lions, all adult. Two of the females were lying down just inside the block wall in front. The remaining four cats were walking around until Rocky caught their attention. Three lionesses jumped up on the roof over the master bedroom and started trying to dig through. The big lion started toward the front door.

  I shut and locked the front door. Then I told Delia to lock herself in our bedroom, spray lots of perfume around and remain quiet. I told Cathy to lock Rocky and herself in the bathroom, light all of the candles there, spray any perfume she could find on Rocky, then call 911 to report we had six lions in front of the house.

  I had planned to light a couple of sticks of incense, to further confuse any scents the cats might pick up. Before I could do so, though, the lion broke down the front door and two of the lionesses jumped down from the attic. Actually, the first one fell down when the attic access door gave way under her weight.

  I had no place to go, so I sat down in one of the living room chairs, the one I watch television from. The lion came over and sniffed my leg while one lioness checked out the kitchen and the other poked her head in the two open bedrooms. The lion started rubbing against my chair, like smaller cats do when they want to be petted. I slowly reached up and started to pet him. He settled down on the floor next to my chair in a position for me to scratch his left ear.

  A Sheriff's car drove up and parked in front of the wall. Seeing nothing more than the open front door, he jumped over the wall. He landed on one of the cats. The two lionesses quickly killed him and began to eat. The three animals from inside the house joined them, leaving one lion in the attic.

  Without getting up, I used the house phone to call 911 and report what had happened. In a short time, a number of police cars and a S.W.A.T. van parked in front. This time, armed and armored, they brought the cats down.

  One of the armored riflemen came into the house. I told him there was still a cat in the attic. He got two others to join him. They were starting down the hallway when Rocky started barking again. The remaining lioness stuck her head out of the access door to see what was making the noise. All three riflemen started shooting. The cat fell to the carpet below. The assault was over.

  Delia and Cathy were safe, as was Rocky. The house and car were full of bullet holes. There was a large hole in the roof and the front door was shattered. Cleanup started. Investigators measured and photographed everything. I called the insurance company to report what had happened.

  In my dream, as happens so often in the real world, they told me that my policy didn't cover this kind of damages.

  At this point, a real cat let out a scream that woke me from my sleep. There are a number of feral cats in the area that sometimes scream, especially at night. This one just happened to have really bad timing. The catcall came at a moment that caused to dream to be deeply imprinted on my memory.

  • 18:54
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