Advice From a Cat

Over the weekend, I was camping out on the Brazos River with my husband, kids, and in-laws. We left out Saturday morning, canoed down the river, found us a nice big sandbar to camp out at, did a little fishing, and Sunday morning packed it all back up, and canoed farther down river to a small park where one of the vehicles had been left. It was a lot of fun. But I had a dream overnight, and although some of it obviously stems from the trip itself, it was interesting.

In the dream, I was camping with my in-laws, just as I was in real life. But we were in some sort of jungle setting, something you might see in Indiana Jones. I had wandered off alone for a bit, and was just then heading back to camp. I found my in-laws and my husband exploring a cave entrance nearby. The cave itself had been sealed off by some sort of boulder, though I knew it to be a door. There was a large tree nearby, with a trunk system that spread out from the ground and put off thick, low-hanging branches. I would have compared it to a willow, except that it had large, waxy, dark green leaves.

I walk up in time to see a large brown cat jump out of the nearby brush and weave through our feet to get to the large tree. My in-laws tried to reach down and pet it, but it dodged their hands without moving any faster than it was already moving. It jumped up onto one of the low-hanging branches that was right in front of us, and laid down. I walked over and surprisingly the cat allowed me to pet it. It rubbed against my hand, and purred.

Then, it started talking to me. She was giving me life lessons, and advice, and teaching me lots of things that I apparently needed to know. But she wouldn't talk to anyone else, nor would she allow anyone else to touch her.

After she was done passing along her wisdom, she turned her head, facing away from us and the cave, watching the pathway towards us. She seemed to give me a sort of warning without looking at me, then jumped up higher into the tree and casually watched below. Next thing we knew, three male lions walk up to us. They had us cornered against the rock wall, and there was nothing we could do. I tried reasoning with them, but they simply growled and stepped closer. Then I woke up. I hope we lived...