Catnip

"Catnip"

In my dream there were two cats. One was totally black, the other was marble (black and white). In the dream I had journeyed to a pet shop, which unrealistically was in a 6 story terrace in Paddington of all places. I actually went in seeking to buy two new kittens, but the owner of the shop, an old woman, (who funnily enough looked like Mrs Slocombe out of "Are You Being Served" - to which at the time, I thought, "No, I am not being served ....", but that's another story, from another dream, a dream within a dream), said,"I think you would be much better placed going to our "Used Cat" section"..."How odd," I thought, "Used?". In the dream, I actually said to her, as this is very fresh in mind, "What do you mean by used?", to which she replied, "An older cat, who is house-trained, won't poo everywhere and mark it's entire territory with urine"...I said, "Oh, I don't know about that...I've known some older cats that enjoy doing that just for the sake of showing they're in charge of their domain", to which she replied, "Not so, I have the cat you would just love, he's older but not that old, you'll see, but you must come into the cattery where the older cats are kept". I ventured into this dark room and there were all these big old (and I mean Old) cats, sitting on shelves crying out "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me....". I turned to the woman and said, "Which one?", to which she replied, "You will know, keep looking, he will call out to you". So I looked. All the cats were sitting still anxiously meowing in a loud deafening roar, "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me...." but one cat, I noticed was not sitting still, he was moving around in circles in the one spot and then from side to side in quite an agitated state, he was leering straight at me, but he was totally silent. "I've found him! I think", I turned to the woman, but she had gone. I walked up to the cat and started patting him, he bowed his head to me, and began to purr, he was totally black and very warm, I put my head to his head and whispered, "Don't worry, boy, I'll get you out of here" and as I said that, he changed to another cat that was of totally different colour, black and white marble. I was beside myself, where had my cat gone, here was another in it's place and it could talk, "I'm the one who you have to watch. My colours change". He dissolved into thin air. I was left feeling devastated, but in awe, now I had to find him. He was my cat, that much was certain. I had chosen him and now I knew he had special powers. All the more, I wanted him. So as in everything that is me, with strength and determination and tenacity, I continued the search, knowing at some point he would make himself truly known to me again. Perhaps, I thought, his catnip is Trust, I would put together a few packages of trust for him. I turned and left the room, with all the other Used Cats crying, "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me....". Then I woke up, a garbage truck outside was emptying bins.

(c) Leanne Lovejoy-Burton, 2017

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