Animal Dreaming
Do animals dream? Do you ever dream of being an animal?
Dear Dreamers,
Thank you for reading this newsletter and being part of this experimental community of dream-geeks!
I’m making a few changes in how I structure my writing life. I will be merging Dream On with my main writing newsletter, called StoryLife. You don’t have to do anything. You’ll still get a dream story on Fridays but instead of it being sent from Dream On, it will be sent from Michelle McAfee - StoryLife.
Here’s to dreaming the next dream!
— Michelle McAfee
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June 25th, 2013
I was standing on a shiny floor in a science lab lit with bright white lights that hurt my eyes. A very tall wall was stacked with cages full of dogs and cats. I opened the bottom cages and freed them. There were big and little dogs, and different colored cats with long and short hair. The animals I freed, let loose the animals above them until the doors of each cage swung open on the entire wall. I heard someone coming.
I ran with the dogs and cats down a long hallway to a door. The big German Shepherd jumped up on its hind legs and pushed the cross-handle opening the door. We poured out onto the steps then ran for the prickly bushes. When we were safely undercover, one of the dogs ran towards a large house under construction a few blocks down a black asphalt street. We ran into the partially-built house and hid, hearing shouts and voices coming from the lab.
A man yelled and it was loud and close. He found us. We jumped out a window frame in the back of the building and ran as fast as we could. A fence board was missing leaving enough space for us to run underneath into the backyard of a small white house. A Terrier lived there and helped us hide beneath a cherry tree. A woman came out of the house and stood on the steps hollering something, so we ran again, and the Terrier came with us.
We were in a tangle of backyards and houses. The little house dog was chipped so the lady could locate it. She was hot on our tracks. We ran to the last house on the street and crammed onto the covered porch. The walls of that house were blue and a musician lived there. He was single. The hollering lady was talking loudly in front of the house, and the musician helped her grab the Terrier from the porch. He bent down, patted my head, and asked me what I was doing running around with all these critters.
It was then I realized I was one of the animals.
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It’s not the first time I dreamed of myself as an animal. Once, in my thirties, I was running up a snow-covered trail high in the evergreen mountains. Huge snowflakes pelted my face and ice gathered on my paws. The lead wolf pushed on even though a few of us were dragging behind. Nine others ran ahead of me, four of them were pups. There was a seriousness in the air, and we were running for cover.
I noted in my dream journal that I sensed my legs were tired, but the feeling of being light and running on snow with four legs was exhilarating.
Cool, right?
Animals dream too. I wonder if they ever dream of being human? It’s one of those questions we will never have an answer to. Unless of course, we someday learn the language of critters.
Scientists know and have proven1 most mammals go through REM and non-REM sleep stages, and postulate that mammals likely dream. I don’t need a science lab to tell me that.
My cat Shylo is an active dreamer. I mean that cat has some epic adventures in her sleep. One evening, curled up in my lap, she starts making funny sounds and jerking around a little, and I see Rapid Eye Movement. Then her little legs start cranking like she’s running for her life - in mid-air. At one point, her little body jerks then goes still for a moment, and I imagine she just jumped up or down a great height.
Another time, she woke me up in the middle of the night with her verbal dreaming. She was at the foot of the bed, making all kinds of kitty sounds when suddenly her voice dropped and she was growling fiercely. I woke up wondering if a raccoon snuck in the house to steal cat food, but when I flicked on a light, that cat was out cold, sleeping hard.
In one article, Kendra Cherry quotes:
Animals might not experience dreams in the same way as humans. In other words, they may not wake up, remember images, and attach a storyline to it.
I respectfully disagree. My cat remembers her dreams - I’m sure of it (not scientifically sure, just pet-owner sure). During the day this cat is surly. I mean, she bosses the big male cat, the giant rooster, and pretty much any other animal - except for humans. She’s terrified of humans - and for no good reason. I’ve had her since she was a wee baby and she has never been mistreated. In fact, she’s spoiled rotten.
So, I postulate that in her dreams, she might be a lioness who rules the jungle and is hunted by humans, so she spends her nights running from two-legged jerks, jumping off high tree branches and cliffs and such.
She’s certainly a queen of the homestead jungle.
Maybe, some night if I’m lucky, I’ll dream I’m running with her. Lucky that is, if I’m a cat in the dream and not a human.
I’ve never dreamed I was a non-human.