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Pets In Dreams

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RainyOcean

Gone But Not Forgotten
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May 19, 2004
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This may just seem stupid, but I would be interested in hearing what people think and some other threads have reminded me of it.

When our golden retriever was 6 years old she died of lymphoma. For years after I would have dreams that she had come back to life somehow. Our cat died this past Summer of FIP and ever since I have been having dreams that he is still around our house, but as a ghost and that we can see him sometimes and treat him just as we did when he was alive.

Is this just me having trouble coping with their deaths? Or is it something else? Opinions?
 
I don't have an opinion, but I have an experience. I don't know if it was a dream or not. I think I was in-between sleep and waking when it happened:

Years and years ago, we had to put our beloved labrador to sleep. He was an old, sick dog by then, so technically, it wasn't a great tragedy or anything, but he was our beloved labrador. Anyhoo . . . about a month after he'd left us, I was dozing on the sofa and I heard the tags on his collar tinkling and his footsteps as he came over to see me. I felt his presence as strongly as if he were physically there and I knew if I opened my eyes, it would all be gone . . . . so I kept them closed, and enjoyed being with him for awhile. When I finally did open them, of course there was no beloved dog and the feeling of presence had dissipated just as quickly.

~ I just remembered that after our labrador passed on, I did have the occasional dream where he would have miraculously ressurrected, and I'd be soooo happy, and we'd play and play. I also remember that at the time, I told myself these dreams were nothing more than wishing. Over a decade past now, and mostly I remember my hearts version of events, which is that the dog and I loved each other so much that we still hung out after he'd died. I don't dream about him anymore, but now I have two other (relatively ;) ) new dogs. Pet reincarnation? Or simple pet replacement . . . . . ?
 
I've always thought that animals can hold a huge physical and mental bond with their owners/carers. And dreaming of playing and being happy can only be a good thing :)

With their being more to it I could only say I would agree.

I had a very strange bond with a dog (chocolate labrador) I'd never seen before until the day after I dreamt that I'd been playing with her in my hallway.
:err: (sorry this may be a long one)
The day after my dream I decided I was going to take my son for a bike ride and we found this old labrador walking down the middle of quite a busy road, I thought it was strange as she looked the same as the one I had dreamt about. I checked her for a collar, there wasn't one so I took her to the Police station, so hopefully her owner would find her. Everyone in there kept saying are you sure it isn't your dog as she kept leaning on me and staring into my eyes wagging her tail and generally being a really chilled out animal (I also noticed she had a very prominent birth mark on her left side).

Anyway about 2 weeks later I was off to my Mums and I told my partner at the time I didn't want to go straight there I wanted to go the long way round as a very strong feeling came across me that I would find her again. We had to go down a quiet road to get there and as we came over the rise of the hill there she was sitting in the middle of our side of the road staring straight at us, so we stopped the car opened the door and in she jumped, same dog, same birth mark. We called at everywhere we could (small hamlet) to see if her owner was around no-one had ever seen the dog before! but luckily this time she had a collar on, (she was called Tess) so we took her straight home. Unfortunately we never got to meet her owners as they were out, so we put her in the back garden to wait their return with them been probably non the wiser of her escapades.

Sorry to go on, I definately believe that you can have very
strong psychic ties with your pets (and other animals). :D and find it very reassuring.
 
So strange....
As I was reading your replies I got a strange feeling about my cat and I turned around and she was sitting right next to my chair. :shock:
 
RainyOcean said:
So strange....
As I was reading your replies I got a strange feeling about my cat and I turned around and she was sitting right next to my chair. :shock:
Click to expand...

Is your cat alive or dead, RainyOcean?
 
RainyOcean said:
So strange....
As I was reading your replies I got a strange feeling about my cat and I turned around and she was sitting right next to my chair. :shock:
Click to expand...

Wow! Beautiful . . . . I'm so happy for you RainyOcean (and your cat too).
:D
 
The following is from 'example's' post but I can't retro-fit the "quote" to zap into the beginnig and not the end...sorry)

"Years and years ago, we had to put our beloved labrador to sleep. He was an old, sick dog by then, so technically, it wasn't a great tragedy or anything, but he was our beloved labrador. Anyhoo . . . about a month after he'd left us, I was dozing on the sofa and I heard the tags on his collar tinkling and his footsteps as he came over to see me. I felt his presence as strongly as if he were physically there..."


-----

The same thing happened to me after our much loved, wonderful dog, Sadie died. I had fallen asleep on a (futon) couch one morning very early. I "saw" Sadie come into the room and she jumped onto the futon. I couldn't believe she was there. Everything was as it is in waking life. The furniture, objects in the room and the morning light were all "normal." I could actually feel every bump on her head as I petted her and kept saying, "...it's really you!" But still in amazement, because I knew she was dead. After a few moments the morning paper was thrown against the front door. Sadie jumped down to run down the stairs to bark, even though she hadn't come up the stairs for a couple of years before her death because of her arthritis.

I knew she had visited me.

I really woke up at that point. The newspaper actually had been just delivered, too.

I still miss her terribly, even 8 years later.
 
I once had a terrible dream where I was compelled to strangle and break the neck of my pet cat. I can remember the sickening crunch of the vertebrae as they snapped even to this day. It was a horrific dream.

I had another dream, previous to this. There was a man, possibly a traveller/hitchhiker who was sitting against a stone wall at the side of a country road. He was wearing a necklace of somesort and his head was being twisted upwards to his left. I could see a cherub pulling the necklace and strangling the poor bloke. Another cherub was near his right foot and was tugging on his trouser leg. It was as if the two cherubs were in conflict for the man but in the process they were killing him.

Very strange dreams...
 
my ghost cat

i had to put my cat of seven years and many moves down at the beginning of this year due to feline asthma. while i have had many dreams since about Vince, some are happy, some are disturbing etc....but my wife can testify that for an amount of time after he died, we still would feel SOMETHING laying at our feet in the bed....then gradually, there were no more ghost/pressure experiences.

my mom told me about a dog she had growing up that would always sleep in her dad's chair when no one was home, but would often get caught and get in trouble when they got back. it eventually learned to jump out of the chair at the first hint of arrival and come to greet them (to apologize in advance or distract from the chair infraction)...but when it died there were several instances where they would come home, get a draft and whiff of dog, and the chair would be warm, or indented (i can't remember which, i don't think both.)

my sister who is into all things fortean, ancient, and mystical, had a beloved cat disappear one day. after about a week, she had a dream(?) that the cat came back, climbed on her chest (with ghostly aura glowing around it) and explained -telepathically, i imagine- that it was ok and it enjoyed its time with her but had to go.
THEN,about a month or two later, a stray kitten of approximate age to when the first had died, wandered into her yard and has stayed ever since. the strange thing is i knew the first cat and this one has the exact same personality,although female this time around.
 
rjm said:
I once had a terrible dream where I was compelled to strangle and break the neck of my pet cat. I can remember the sickening crunch of the vertebrae as they snapped even to this day. It was a horrific dream.
Click to expand...

Ditto for me . . . and quite recently. You know how some people think pets can read their owners minds? I was so worried my dogs would pick up on some of those dream images in the days that followed. The dreams had been so intense that if I even looked at one of my dogs, I'd start thinking about what I had done to him or her in my dreams. Our pets probably dream about gnawing on our bones every once in awhile too, though.
 
We have/had a couple of 'animal ghosts' threads so there's a good place to start.

My daughter (not Escette, t'other one) is a professional clairvoyante and often 'sees' defunct animals with their owners. It's a happy experience. Most of the time. :shock:
 
Just a quick one.

My father sometimes used to sleep with our cat (now deceased), and I do remember one day him telling me a story about how one night he was sleeping with the cat nearby and he had dreamt about a cosy warm little nest of baby mice and how delighted he had felt upon stumbling upon this. He awoke and though it was a rather odd thing to be dreaming about and put it down to picking something from the cat.

Just my little addition!

:)
 
My cat died recently, and since then I've frequently had dreams of her as a kitten. I don't put these down as being supernatural in nature. Though I do find them a little puzzling as I never actually knew her as a kitten.


In the month or so after she died, we'd frequently hear her washing, breathing, walking around. Though again I suspect that was due to our brains hearing expected patterns in the household 'white noise' rather than a geniune presence.
 
I have recurring nightmares about the aviary I used to have. I had the birds rehomed somewhere better, but I dream that they're still in the disused aviary, or have flown back, and I haven't noticed till they were starving and dirty. Or sometimes I'll find a cage of budgies in a dark unused room, all covered up and starving, I must have forgotten they were there in the dream.
Last night I had an attic full of chickens who were in a terrible state. I don't remember ever having fed them, and they were all in individual boxes. I was very distressed in the dream, and pretty upset when I woke up too.
I've never ill treated animals, well not in this life anyway ;) I obviously feel guilty about something!
 
Beak, you may like to learn that our cockatiels are better looked-after than they were before I 'met' you as I have followed your past advice to the letter. So even birds who've never met you are benefiting from your interest in boid welfare. :D

One night, I was woken by a horrible stench, which I'd been dreaming came from an open sewer.
It was the big dog under the bed breaking wind. :cry:
 
escargot said:
Beak, you may like to learn that our cockatiels are better looked-after than they were before I 'met' you as I have followed your past advice to the letter. So even birds who've never met you are benefiting from your interest in boid welfare. :D
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's encouraging. On reflection I think my dreams are more a fear of responsibility rather than guilt.
 
I very often have dreams that I have forgotten to feed my fish for days or that I came across a hermit crab I thought had died a while ago. I have never forgotten to feed my fish (except when I was a little kid) and I know exactly how many hermit crabs, and which hermit crabs, I have at all times(even though they are usually sleeping).
 
My 10 month old cat Malachy was knocked over by a car earlier this year and had to be put down. I was devastated, but had a dream the night after in which he was a "ghost" but I could still see and touch him. I think that was more my subconscious trying to comfort me, but who knows?

I keep his collar on the windowsill where he liked to sit, so his spirit can look out of the window.
 
Our beloved family border collie died on October the 13th 1988 and I buried him in the rain at 03:30. As you can imagine, it was terribly cold and depressing.
Never a week goes by ever since that day, that I don't have a dream featuring him. Sometimes I get even more depressed about it as I know he's already died and now it's going to happen again. He's never a ghost in the dreams though. My father often dreams about him too, but in his dreams...the dog actually speaks!
I think it's just a natural thing to do..nothing supernatural at all. Pets do contribute a lot of feelings and happiness. I think also, a pet can be the focus of all a family's affection...where they can't emote to each other, they express it to the pet. So when a pet passes away, so does all that affection. I think that's where the dreams come in.

Shut up now! Happy Xmas mates :_pished: :yeay: :spinning
 
I sometimes dream about my budgie, which died about ten years ago. It'll be fluttering around outside and will land on my shoulder to say hello. I hope it has gone to a better place, budgie heaven maybe?
 
I sometimes wonder, in the more irrational hours of the night, what sort of mayhem will ensue if and when I get to heaven. All the people I've loved should be there to greet me on my arrival. Unfortunately this will include a canary, several cats and a collie cross. Perhaps the humans present will keep them all from eating each other, or perhaps in heaven "the cat will lie down with the canary".
 
Last night I dreamed I saw our dearly-loved and missed late black cat Jeffrey.

I said 'Oh look, it's Jeffrey!' and went to greet her. Closer to though I noticed that it was actually a white and brown cat.

'Of course, it can't be Jeffrey! She's long gone. It's a different cat.'

This is partly because I'd been looking at missing cats online and partly after watching The Missing on TV last thing.
 
I NEVER dream of my much adored late Big Dog, Dylan. I wish I could, I'd love to see him one more time.. sniff. I do frequently dream of our old terrier, Tiggy, who has been gone nearly two years now, for some reason. I was closer to Dylan, he's been gone for four years, and apparently the children dream of him often, but I never do...

I also rarely dream of my current terrier, Teal. So why do I dream of one dog in particular? It's very odd. I also rarely dream of the cats.

My spookiest 'animal related' happening is when I was working in a school and found a dog wandering in the car park. I took her inside and we phoned her owner from the number on her collar, they'd been looking for her for hours and were very grateful to be reunited with her.

The odd part? From the moment I found her I started calling her Poppy. She just 'looked' like a Poppy, if you know what I mean. There was no name on her collar, no way to know what she was called (and she was a lurcher, so didn't really answer to anything...!) When her owners turned up to claim her, they told me her name was Polly...
 
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