What do you think your cat dreams about? What would make her happy? Sure, she lives a charmed life. Without you she’d be on the streets, still at the shelter, with someone who wouldn’t appreciate her idiosyncrasies, in a dangerous household, or, heaven forbid, dead by now, right? I’ll bet you just had a choking-up moment thinking about that.
(This is a picture of my mother’s cat, Smokey, using a patch of alysum as a pillow while he dreams–probably of chasing lizards and mice.)
Lily, for example, may not have had the opportunity to be diagnosed with kidney disease at
a young age. Who would expect that? And I’m pretty sure that if our team of veterinarians hadn’t caught the illness when they did, she would either be seriously ill by now or worse. As it is, she thrives and she’s adored and safe. (Choking up here.)
But what does Lily want that she doesn’t have—that is if cats had the capacity to dream or to wish on a falling star or to yearn? Knowing Lily as I do and if she had the capacity, she’d dream of more catnip, more food more often, and, bring on the water—
maybe a water fountain in each room. She would also wish for me to always be in the home—never venturing out—just in case she wants something to eat or a lap to curl up in. She would also wish that there is no such thing as thunder. She’s okay with fireworks, but thunder puts her under—the covers that is.
Our tortie, Sophie, might dream of an hour or a week outside in a grassy field. She often begs for grass. We have trouble explaining to her that we no longer have a lawn—we’re in drought here. We will occasionally bring her a piece of devils grass (weed) that has popped up in the yard and we buy the cats grass in those little boxes sometimes.
She’d love it if I’d open a nursery in the living room—bring in all kinds of plants for her to 
chew on. As it is, I grow African violets in the garden window and she leaves those along—I guess she doesn’t like the fuzzy leaves. I have an indoor orchid and she avoids that (whew!), but the philodendron someone gave me as a gift—oh my, she’s constantly pruning that thing—but never when we’re around. Yeah, she knows the rules, so breaks them when we turn our back.
Some cats openly yearn to go outside, like Rags in my Klepto Cat Mysteries. Others might wish their humans would remove the furniture coverings so they can dig their claws into the delicious fabric—it feels oh, so good.
Okay your turn. Go ask your cat what he or she dreams of and let’s tell the world about it.
