09/18/04
Gentle As A Lion

Vague.

There was part that came before; I think I might have been at school, and on the bus home, because I was then approaching the house from behind the garage as if I'd been walking down the sideroad and then through the property behind the garage. I think it was overcast but it was daytime and nice and green out. I think of my old friend Mya so I feel she was involved in here somewhere; maybe we were playing at some point in the dream, or I was going in to meet her. In any case I came down past the garage--I think through where the sandbox used to be, as I seem to recall walking through sand (there isn't any there anymore), though there seemed to be a sort of obstacle blocking off my view of the pavement...it's like I was walking down the side path with the garage on my right, but also walking down the opposite side with the garage to my left. Can't explain it. In ANY case I seemed to turn the corner of the garage and come walking out onto the pavement and...there was a big cat standing there.

When I say "cat" I do not mean housecat--it was like a cross between a cougar and a lynx, and about the size of the former. A wildcat of some sort. It was a dark tawny reddish color I believe, with tufted ears and maybe a lighter underbelly, yet it had the face and bodily build and short fur and long tail of a mountain lion. It was just standing there on the pavement in front of the garage, facing the house. It turned its head and looked at me and I was right there beside it!! I'd come out onto the pavement so suddenly I'd had no clue this thing was standing there!

In the dream this made more sense. I suppose it's possible to get mountain lions around here, but you don't really hear about it; I think it would be very unusual, at least. I do not exactly know. In the dream, it didn't seem quite as odd, but I still think it was strange. I didn't really care about the odds of ever seeing such a large animal, though--this thing was RIGHT NEAR me--I'd practically stumbled out onto it--and we were staring right at each other! o_o;;;

My eyes went really wide and I FROZE. If I did make eye contact it probably wasn't for very long because I know that if you stare an animal in the eye, it takes it as a challenge, and I did NOT want to piss this animal off. But it just stood there looking at me. I stood very, very still and agonized over what to do. I finally started edging toward the house very, very slowly. I think I was carrying a pack and I might have either started moving faster than I'd intended, or maybe I brushed against the cat, and that made me freeze all over again.

Oh, I just remembered. A housecat was there too--I think it was supposed to be our old cat Pepper, though it might have looked more like our current pet, Cosmas. At least I don't think "she" was black like Pepper was. She was chained up beside the house like we used to do in the summer--she had a harness with a chain and we would hook her up outside for an hour or so on her own so she could relax without running away. Pepper was trustworthy and did not mind the harness too much; Cosmas, on the other hand, can't stand it--he falls over and squirms and tries to get it off--and I would not trust him outside on his own for extended periods of time. So this cat seemed more like Pepper. She was chained up by the house and cowering close to the ground--the large cat frightened her. She might have been whimpering or growling softly. Pepper tended to fight when afraid, so this behavior was more like Cosmas, who is a chicken and always hides. So I think I got the feeling this animal could be REALLY dangerous, if even a mean-tempered cat like Pepper was afraid of it!

I wanted to get to Pepper and unchain her and take her in; maybe that's why I'd been outside. But this big cat stood between us--I had to pass it to get to the house. Eeek!! >_< As I said I might have brushed against it as I tried to hurry too much while still moving slowly and I cringed to myself. The big cat turned now and came toward me. It must have been like three feet tall at the shoulder, around there--its head came up to my waist I think. I just stood here frozen in terror, not wanting to bother it one bit. It started sniffing at my hand or something and I think I very slightly petted it--not sure--and murmured, "Nice kitty!" in this really nervous, placating way. I then stopped petting it in case it didn't like that, and started edging my way toward the house again, ever so slowly. The big cat just stood there watching me. I don't remember specifically doing it, but I know that I at last reached the house, unchained Pepper, and scooted inside safe and sound. WHEW!

And there was more that came after this, involving various different scenes, but I can't recall them. All I remember is that basically I kept trying to tell Ma and Dad about my encounter with what I took to be a mountain lion/cougar, and I was getting very puffed up and self-important in the telling. I was very impressed with myself, how I had reacted accordingly and had not antagonized the animal, and how I had made it past it safe and sound--I felt very proud of my calmness and intelligence in how I'd dealt with the big cat. I kept coming across my parents and remarking about the whole situation--"It was this huge cat--a mountain lion!--and I didn't panic ONCE!"--but I never seemed able to tell the entire story from start to finish, dramatizing it as I would have liked to do, without my parents losing interest or getting distracted by something. So every time I had just gotten into telling my story I'd have to cut myself off and then try again later on. I never got horribly frustrated or offended, but it WAS rather bothersome not to be able to tell my tale uninterrupted. It's like I could never find the time to finish.

I can think of no real-life associations for this dream. All I know is that at first I believe I thought the creature was a lynx because of its tufted ears, but then I seemed to assume it was a mountain lion, which it more closely resembled. (There is actually some other kind of wildcat--a caracal or something--that it looked even more like, but it was much bigger and had a mountain lion's face and build.) It acted very calmly and neutrally throughout the dream and never acted in a threatening manner, not in the slightest, though I really wanted to be careful. In the dream the animal seemed like a normal everyday (even if out of its range) creature, but even shortly after awakening I got a strange feeling about it, almost like it was a "guide" of some sort or something, by virtue of how oddly it acted toward me and how it was just "there," as if it had been sent to see me. But this makes no real sense, as I have never felt any particular kinship toward big cats.



2004 Dreams
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