07/19/03
Thank You, Katchoo! AKA Guardian Rat

This dream is from my nap.

I'm not sure how it started. Perhaps it was with me in the living room, sitting on the couch with Dad; maybe Ma and I had just gotten home from shopping. (Which we did, in real life.) It was still light outside, but evening, and I think we were watching TV and talking. I had a can of mixed fruit and I was eating it but it was giving me trouble. I think I kept dropping pieces of it or getting pieces I didn't want or something. At first it was all raspberries in syrup and I remember thinking, "Oh, I like raspberries!" But something was bugging me about it.

I think something else happened first in here but I can't recall it; I think it had to do with the porch. In real life a few days ago I spotted two raccoons out there at night, and I have never seen a real raccoon before. I think in my dream I heard noises outside (as I had in real life) and crept over there to turn on the porch light (now it was dark), and again, there was at least one raccoon, grumbling. (The real-life ones grumbled; that was what got my attention.) I believe I thought of a comment someone made to me online in real life, to be careful, that raccoons often have rabies (as if I would be playing with them anyway :P ), and I felt a little anxious; maybe it/they turned around and wanted to come in? It/they seemed a little pushy, so perhaps that's why I was anxious; I didn't want to be bitten.

Anyway, back to the couch--all of a sudden my pet rat, Katchoo, was on my lap and she was scrabbling furiously for the fruit. In reality, Katchoo died over a year ago after suffering from an illness for a few months; I only had her about a year and a half or so. :( Still, she had been an adorable rat, my very first (and so far only) one ever. I was surprised by her sudden appearance here in my dream, but it was not quite like most such dreams, where I suddenly have a pet rodent which I realize I have forgotten or neglected for days or even weeks; I HAD forgotten about her, but I knew I hadn't been neglecting her so it was okay. But now here she was on my lap, trying her damnedest to get my fruit. I think she may have taken the place of the raccoon(s) as she was being so pushy. I lowered the can and I think she pulled out a raspberry and gobbled it down, then another. I was ready to just set the can down and let her at it but then I got up for some reason and left the couch, asking myself, "Is it okay for her to even eat this stuff?"

You see, in real life (again), a long time ago I had a hamster named Hamm-Bamm. (Yeah, I know... >_< ) Once I had finished off a tin of oysters and for some reason held the tin down to her nose and she started licking up all the oil left behind. She LOVED it, so I let her do it. Well...not long after she suffered, and died, and I blame myself for that, as well I should, because I should have been smart enough to know that something like oyster oil would not be good for a hamster to consume. :*( A lesson hard learned, I guess. It was just that she was enjoying it so much, I figured it couldn't hurt. *sigh* So, in the dream, when Katchoo showed this interest in the raspberries in syrup, I felt concern--were they safe for her to eat? Sure, they were just fruit, I told myself; they must be safe. But still, they had that sugary syrup, and preservatives; you never know what's good or bad. Even lettuce can be bad for a rodent if they're given too much of it. So instead of just giving Katchoo the can, I walked away with it, leaving her on the couch, and tried to make up my mind whether it was healthy for her or not.

I went into the kitchen, then leaned back out to call to Dad, "Do you think this is okay for her to eat?" I think I was interrupted. The dream gets fuzzy here because the theme changed; now for some reason I had to put Katchoo in something while I cleaned something for her to live in. I think I suddenly realized she didn't have a proper cage or whatever to house her, so I needed to clean her tank. (She had an aquarium.) First I think I noticed something I had kept her in sitting in the kitchen, on the floor in front of the stove (the light was on). It was a small mesh container with a sturdy wooden frame; I think it had shavings and/or cotton inside it, and maybe some sort of exercise device, but it was too small for a rat's residence; maybe it was just a carrier. I knew she had been held in this thing for a while earlier, maybe in this same dream, and I thought of putting her back in it, maybe just temporarily while I cleaned her tank; but then I saw that while in it, she had chewed almost through one corner of the wooden frame (the front right corner). "Ohhhhhh," I moaned in frustration. I had really wanted to put her in there, but it was too easy for her to escape, plus I felt the cage was not safe for her now.

I also now noticed a bunch of little INSECTS crawling and hopping around in it! I think I was now holding Katchoo too, as she was squirming and I was having trouble focusing on one thing at a time. I called out to somebody (Ma or Dad) that something had to be done about this little cage--I'm not sure what, maybe I said it needed to be fixed or cleaned or thrown away?--"Because it has fleas all over in it!" The bugs looked more like those little thin beetles that get in sugar and flour, rather than fleas, but they did hop around a little all over the wooden contraption (wheel?) inside (it was on the left, which equaled the back of the cage, I think). I felt bad because Katchoo must have put them there; that meant she had FLEAS! I hadn't known she was infested. She seemed okay now, but I was still bothered. I could not put her back in there with those things and let her suffer more.

So I abandoned that cage and think I went to get her tank. I'm not sure where I put Katchoo while I picked it up and went to clean it. I think I went to the bathtub; I had to take out some wads of cotton bedding and woodshavings which had been inside it. I remembered that it had housed a flying squirrel last (which in real life is true--I captured a flying squirrel and kept it in the cage for a few hours until daytime, when it was relocated in the wild--though in real life the only material the tank contains now is dry grass which my cat chews on--I cleaned out Katchoo's old bedding a few months ago), and I was afraid of Katchoo catching some kind of bacteria or something from it. (In real life I refrained from tossing the shavings outside, in case she had died of mycoplasma--she had respiratory problems, I think, even if not that disease. I didn't like the thought of other wild rodents catching it, so dumped it in a garbage bag.) So I disposed of the bedding somehow and then went to the tub to clean out the tank with soap and hot water. I remember feeling rushed and impatient, meaning that Katchoo probably needed my immediate attention; I think I may have yelled for somebody to keep an eye on her until I was done, as I was doing it as fast as I could.

The dream shifted again, so I was back on the couch with Katchoo (if this is in fact the order it went in). I had my can of fruit again and now it was mixed, rather than just raspberries, and Katchoo was still trying to get to it even as I ate it. I was picky about it now, ignoring some types of fruit in favor of others; I came across a HUGE, long grape and was going to eat it, but I think Katchoo put her paws on it and might have knocked it off my fork/spoon. I managed to catch it and I think I ate it. I was not annoyed with her--I thought she was cute--though I did still feel flustered and unpleasant. Katchoo seemed to crawl off of me or something and I poked at the fruit while I talked to Dad (?--or Ma?).

That was when I noticed...a mushroom in my mixed fruit!! YUCK! I couldn't believe it at first, and started yelling. "There's a MUSHROOM in here!" I tried picking it out with my utensil--it took a few tries. I think I got Ma or Dad to look at it to verify if it was in fact what it looked to be. EEWWWW! "It's a mushroom!!" I exclaimed. Then, "Like the kind you use in salads!!" For some reason I wanted to clarify that it was not cooked, as if that mattered. (In real life I love uncooked mushrooms used on salad, but I HATE cooked mushrooms; they're too slimy for me.)

Growing even more disgusted, I tossed it away and looked into my can. I think I saw the stem of ANOTHER slice of mushroom, and then a third. EW GROSS! My canned fruit had somehow been mixed in with MUSHROOMS!

I got up from the couch, angered and nearly freaking out. I was so pissed off. I started ranting and raving--"What sort of company is this that mixed up fruits and mushrooms? Do you think I can keep the can and send it to them, and demand a rebate or something? Somebody should have to reimburse me for this! This is so disgusting!" There were so many mushrooms mixed in there now, this was INCREDIBLY negligent.

Then something hit me--Katchoo! The entire time I'd been eating the mixed fruit, she'd been poking at it, and pushing it off of my fork/spoon, and overall just getting in my way and being a nuisance. I got the distinct feeling now that she had been trying to distract me from eating the contaminated fruit. As if she knew! I genuinely began to feel that my pet rat had known the fruit was "bad," and had tried to prevent me from eating it. This realization stunned me.

I believe I went to the couch and scooped Katchoo back up. "Thank you, Katchoo!" I exclaimed; then said to my parents, "She tried to stop me from eating it. I would've eaten the mushrooms if she hadn't kept bothering me." I didn't gush over her like one normally gushes over a pet that's done something smart; instead I spoke to her like an adult, respectfully, as if she could really understand me. I was, in effect, treating her like an equal.

This dream leaves me feeling somewhat touched. Given what happened in real life with Hamm-Bamm, it just seems odd that in my dream, Katchoo would save me from a similar fate (the mushrooms were not poisonous, but eating them would have been incredibly disgusting). In addition to this there was the angle of me saving her from infestation from the fleas, and from possible bacteria from her dirty cage; it was as if she were paying me back for that. I almost got the feeling that she was "watching over" me somehow, even if she was just a rat, and even if it was just a dream. :/

---

Soylent MASH

I don't remember this dream from my nap quite so clearly but it had to do with the TV show MASH. I was watching it on TV, possibly with a family member, and I think I wasn't much interested in it at first as I'm not a fan of the show. But they were watching it so I had to, too. It was about Klinger (Jamie Farr), I think, and I believe some members of his family were coming to visit him at the MASH unit. For some reason Klinger wasn't happy about this and he was very evasive about letting the other guys see them. In this scene they seemed to be gathering on a beach on the right side of the screen (water was to the left), and I think Klinger's relatives were arriving. Probably by boat. *shrug* I think Harry Morgan's character (Col. Potter) was present, but I'm not sure who else. Klinger showed up on the beach just as his parents (I think) were getting off the boat(?), only he was unclothed and...covered in thick brown fur! Dark brown, all over his body except his face. He might have had a bandanna/kerchief on his head or something but I was too focused on his furry body to notice. In addition he walked kind of apelike, with his arms hanging and knuckles close to the ground. o_O I'm not sure if his parents were in a similar state but now I either thought or murmured aloud, "Oh, that must be why Klinger didn't want the others to meet his family. He's related to monkeys." Gah!!

I'm just not sure if Klinger WAS a monkey or if he was merely PART monkey. His parents seemed human, even if they were hairy (I'm not sure if they were); it was more of an anthropomorphic-type thing. I think Potter and the others were mildly surprised to see all of this (nobody stated anything up front), but not upset or anything. More of an "Oh, what do you know" reaction. Klinger acted kind of neutral though hurried throughout the entire thing; I felt he was tense, though not really anxious or upset, about anyone finding out. Very odd situation, considering, but they handled it well.

The plot of the show shifted and it gets foggier here; I think real life (Monk was airing) cut in a bit. I can't remember much of it by now. :/ All I know is the tension kept growing, and I knew a climactic moment was coming and now that I was interested in the show I was waiting anxiously to see it. It just kept going on and on though. I remember a woman said something...maybe something like, "They all want to sleep with me," in a casual voice. I believe it was something about sleeping with her; she sounded unconcerned, like she was used to it. I think she was a pretty woman, maybe Asian; perhaps she was used to sleeping with men to get what she wanted and that was what she was talking about. More was said from other various characters but I don't recall what.

The music started building and the scene cut to one of the dirt "roads" through the MASH camp, kind of from above, and people were walking along. Maybe now Maj. Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) or the character who came before him--Maj. Burns (Larry Linville)--was walking along this "street." The music kept getting louder and louder and more dramatic and I KNEW already what was going to be revealed: They were making HUMAN BEINGS into food somewhere around here! I was just waiting for the scene to cut to inside one of the tents or something and they'd show them grinding up human meat into this red mass--but I awoke to my alarm before that could happen, and I think the music on Monk was loud and dramatic at that point.

I don't know HOW I knew what was going to happen--perhaps I had seen the show in my dream, before. I didn't envision any gore or dismembered bodies but the mere thought of what they were doing in the MASH unit was bizarre enough in itself, and I had wanted to see what the outcome would be once everybody found out. Fooey. :/



2003 Dreams
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