Maybe It Runs In the Family

My 4 year old daughter Alice came home from Grandmas today and told me right away about a dream she had about her cat Pickle. It never occurred to me until I started blogging, yesterday (sheesh), that we both seem to have nightmares quite a bit, more often then good dreams at least. I thought maybe I would write about hers as well, the ones she has for a 4 year old would be pretty disturbing I think, if I am remembering age 4 that is. They obviously won't be as detailed as mine, but I think I would like to have a record of hers as well. The fact that I only dreamt of my cat giving birth to her kittens last night may have something to do with why I want to blog her nightmare, who knows.

She came right up to me and said,

"you know what I dreamt about last night mom? I dreamt that Pickle had an oxygen mask on his mouth because he couldn't meow, so he went to the vet and they put a string on his mask, that connected Pickle to me and magically connected me to Pickle, but I gave Pickle my sickness and his mask got pulled off from the string and blood was gushing out of his mouth and all over both of us."

She later went to get Pickle and sat hugging him on the couch talking about how worried she was about him. I have never in all of my life seen a relationship between a child and a cat like the one that exists with Alice and Pickle. She has loved that cat into submission, from the time he was a tiny kitten she has lugged him around with her little arm underneath his front paws, him just swinging to and fro. She would sit on the couch and hold him the same way and he would lay with her and fall asleep in the exact same position he started out in, and would let her change his position multiple times without ever complaining. Over the last year and a half he has gotten MUCH bigger, while she has stayed pretty much the same, and he still lets her lug him around the same way he did as a kitten, it takes both of her arms now.

I write that only to help you understand a little better why a dream such as hers would be so terrifying, not only is it scary in an impersonal, that would suck type experience, but terrifying for her emotionally as well. She never wakes up screaming or anything though, just comes downstairs in the morning and relates her dreams to me.