Dreaming About Cats

I've gone past trying to figure it out and/or make excuses, but I now dream about these creatures.

It's a bit stressful here because there are one too many alpha beings. Mia is basically spoiled and wants all my attention, so she whines when anyone else gets attention (even Petey the parakeet). Cuddles believes she is the head of the household. Scooter sprays to remind everyone he IS the head of the household and Mr. Whiskers reminds me of a caged lion. He knows he's meant to be the head of a house, but we won't let him off the second floor. He would like nothing better than to follow me around and sit near me, claiming me as "his human." (Actually, I wish he had someone who was just his, but I hold back the search while we try to get him healthy.)

Once in a while the cats meet up and it is not pretty, lots of hissing and some growling--mostly Cuddles--who, as you can tell by her name, we took to be simply a sweet, melt in your lap cat, but no. One time when Mr Whiskers got downstairs, he started to go after Mia. One of the few, perhaps, only time I've seen his hair stand and seen him hissing, bearing teeth. I could not redirect him, he started to follow us, so I got Mia out of the house, my neighbor held her, while I whisked Whiskers upstairs with treats. We have the barrier to the second floor reinforced now.

Anyway, my dream was that I stumbled upon all four cats and they were sleeping together like kittens, all folded in and over each other. I'm going to hold to this vision.

(Cuddles with her kittens in 2007)

I had this dream when I got back from the Embodied Life Retreat with Russell Delman, where we explored Feldenkrais, meditation and version of focusing. It was exquisitely refreshing (no urine smells, ahh, it was is very "green" so there were all natural scents: lemon, verbana, cedar. It was olfactory heaven!)

To digress from the animals a moment, I wonder what the dream means? I was wondering about the possibility of it meaning that all parts of me were coming together, maybe something like body/mind/soul integration. I say this because I have heard it said that all characters in your dreams are a part of the dreamer. Just wondering...

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of my father's death. It is largely because of him that I am here in the family house with my mother and these creatures. Ok, Dad, you did not twist my arm and say take these in, but your example and perhaps, my holding of your memory of love and generosity lead me to this. You are well-loved and remembered tonight.

Update--Feline Hyperesthesia

First the good news: Mr Whiskers teeth look better. I was happily surprised! I think this is also due to his raw food diet because it includes bone (crushed in the food--Oma's). And Mr W and Ms P are getting along really well.

Now the challenging news: Mr Whiskers has something called feline hyperesthesia--we're still learning here. He has rippling skin on his back and belly and his tail twitches. He may start biting his legs or his tail, then he starts to run, like he's running away from invisible enemy. It's very hard to watch, because he looks so uncomfortable. I want to give him something to take it all away. We're working on this with a homeopathic vet, and meanwhile some slides along his body, grounding and following his breath with my hand seem to help, but they do not stop this strange syndrome.

When I brought Mr Whiskers back from the vet, Ms Patches came up to him and started licking him. Gone for such a short time and she missed him.

Here is a link to more detailed information and symptoms.
http://www.purelypets.com/articles/felinehyperesthesia.htm
And here is a link to a few videos, these really helped me to decide that this is what Mr Whiskers is dealing with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTbH9H2j5Ds&feature=related

I'm mentioning this to hopefully save someone else time if they see their cat with strange symptoms and have not heard of this issue. The first vet I saw did not diagnose this, he called it epilepsy, which perhaps by a long stretch it fits in this family and some vets prescribe the same thing, phenobarbital and valium. Since I have been working holistically, I don't want to just mask the symptoms, I would like to get at the root cause. And he is not that well a guy cat, so I worry a bit about the side effects of medicines.

This has been a hard phase, I have to say, because my dog, Mia, has just gone through a bout of incontinency, where I was cleaning up constantly (hormones have done wonders, but also looking to homeopathy), she's still got some irritation, and on top of this we still have Scooter who sprays. So I feel we are being a bit tortured here. I know there are many worse problems in the world, but a house filled with urine seems a perverse variation of water torture.