Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Do cats dream of tigers?

We adopted a four-month-old kitten from the shelter last weekend. The general view is that he is a Norwegian forest cat, or at least has some of that in his genes. He is very handsome, with tufted ears, white socks, tiger stripes on his legs, ocelot spots on his body, and a great black stripe down his back, culminating in a long bushy tail, that knowing cat lovers tell me is called a "panache."
     I was playing with the kitten in the middle of the night. When I went back to bed in the early hours and closed my eyes, I found myself looking, very vividly and clearly, into his eyes. 

    Ah, now I can dream like the cat, I thought. Or with the
cat, using his eyes as the portal. I gave it a try, and came out in a forest of tigers. This was not a new locale for me, but I was surprised by how I came upon it this time..
    It's been said that all cats belong to the Tribe of Tiger. 
   "For I will consider my cat Jeoffrey," wrote the eighteenth-century English poet
Christopher Smart. "For he is of the tribe of tiger."
    Do cats also dream of tigers? 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This interested me since I have had many dreams with my cat in them. I have mostly related them to my own anxiety about her safety (they often occur when I am away from her). Or that she is somehow the carrier of a deeper personal anxiety I have yet to shift. But occasionally I've wondered if I am dreaming with her or she is dreaming of or with me. The bond with this cat is strong. Your post inspires me to review those dreams with a different eye.

Unknown said...

A very good point.