A Dream About Cats and My Film Professor

Somehow extra cats were getting inside our house. I counted them… 1…2…3…9? How did 9 cats get in our house? And a raccoon?

They were sleeping under the couch, reclining in chairs, and staring out windows. They slept on the floor, wandered around for food, and played with toys.

I told my husband there were more cats in our house than we owned. He told me: “When Melissa came to our house with the Republicans, they opened a window, and the animals came inside.” I’m not sure who was Melissa, maybe our photographer friend. Why we hadn’t put the cats outside was a mystery. And who were these Republicans that came into my house?

I was worried the cats would attack each other, but they didn’t. I was concerned that I couldn’t smell anything with so many cats inside. Surely, they had an odor.

At some point in the dream, I was sleeping in a bed with a nice quilt. I faced a window. Everything was pleasant. My screenwriting professor entered the house, perhaps through a window. I told her “Writing was more like climbing mountains. It’s not as easy as people think. Each mountain has its own challenges. Not every mountain has the same height.”

Then I said, “I’m sorry you’ve gone through what you’ve been through. I assume you escaped home because someone was hurting you. You’ve come to me for refuge.” She admitted that was the case.

My husband was shocked that I knew what had happened to the professor. He asked me how I could know she was abused, and I said “I have very good intuition. I predict things all the time. I’m very good at figuring things out.” I went on like this, blabbing about my supposed ability to pick out patterns. I was very proud of my intuition.

Our home was like our real one, but bigger and in a more secluded part of the country. We were by a lake and woods.

I wandered around the house looking for Melissa. I tried to help my professor get used to the house.

I was concerned about all the cats. They were in different colors: white, tan, black, calico. They had different body shapes: long, skinny, plump, short.

This isn’t the first time I’ve dreamed of multiple cats in my home. They usually zen out. They normally don’t fight. They normally don’t smell bad.

My cats were in the house too. They seemed more special with their collars. The other cats seemed aloof, not as elegant, their faces more forlorn and shaggy. The stray cats are obvious; they’ve had less care, and they have sad stories to them. They wander the streets in hopes of food. They brave the cold.

My house was made of wood. The rooms were spacious. My husband was there, and he projected a kind persona.

I’m not sure why things were coming in through the windows or a window. It seems something isn’t closed, so certain things are entering my home.

When I woke up, I tried to remember the name of the town where my professor lived when I was in college. I went to her house a couple of times to do school projects. She cooked meals for me. It was a long travel from the heart of the metro to her house. She was off the beaten trail for sure. She eventually moved south to another state… she got tired of the heat and moved north to a very cold state.

She recently broke her arm, so perhaps my mind is concerned about her pain.

I never could remember the name of that town. I think it starts with the letter “M”. She had a farm, horses, ducks, chickens, cows… everything.