Fisters' Dream World

[Randi]

Floating on a dream?

I have owned (or been owned by) cats that dreamt before, but Fister does it a lot, and he also used to have regular nightmares. Since he sleeps with us in bed so much, we sometimes get involved! He can dream at any time, often just after he has fallen asleep across my stomach and with the TV going full blast. He doesn’t have to be in a deep sleep, sometimes his eyes will be half open, though often slightly clouded. This can be enormously entertaining, I can sometimes almost follow what he’s doing in his dream. He runs and jumps and stalks and fights. Perhaps his dream world is a place where the sun always shines and the mice only have three legs!
Once I followed him as he carefully stalked something, his front paws twitching, carefully placed one at a time, his back legs tightening and then released as he jumped on or over something. His whiskers vibrate wildly, he breathes in short sharp gasps, with back legs flailing, heart pumping, snuffling and spitting until he wakes with a start, looking comically confused. The trouble is, that when this happens and he is sleeping on Randis pillow, he jumps with a start, and can really give us a shock. If it’s a nightmare, he reacts like a coiled spring suddenly released, and almost jumps in the air with the weirdest of cries. He’s woken us up a few times like that!


Under his wardrobe

He has two favourit retreats in our bedroom, one directly under us in bed, and the other under a wardrobe. He likes tiny little holes that he can crawl into. He has under 20cm of headroom, but this seems to suit him just fine. The problem is, that if he has a nightmare he wakes up very suddenly and throws his head in the air. This means that if he’s under our bed, his head hits the bottom of the bed very hard. It’s af if somebody hit the bed frame with a hammer, and is most effective at waking us up in a hurry in the middle of the night!
Once he lay full length beside me, on his back with his backside up under my arm and his head down by my knees. He presumably got involved in something dangerous in his dream world and had a serious nightmare. Suddenly with no warning, he gave out the most peculiar cry, and managed quite incredibly to jump up and rotate 180° and spin round 180° at the same time. I got a terrific shock, cats are so extremely quick it’s almost unbelievable. He then just stood right in front of my nose, totally confused and quite comical, but I do worry a bit about his long claws when he’s in that state, he’s managed to send two humans to hospital already!


Sorry, I didn’t mean it!

Who would have believed that this innocent creature could have such sharp claws and such an active dream world!

Regards from John

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Fister is so lucky to have a dad that can see into his dreams, then write such a great story about it. I can just picture Fister all sprawled out, full length, then suddenly awake, and waking everyone in the process, not to mention scaring the wits out of them.

In the first picture he looks soooo sound asleep. I love it when they sleep like that. In the second picture, I particularly like the fact that he is laying next to the little pillow that was so obviously put there just for him. He's probably wishing you had pinned the cushion to the bottom of the wardrobe so he didn't hurt his head so much when he was awoken so suddenly. And the little glass of water is the perfect finishing touch to see that this is one spoiled cat.

And yes, he looks so innocent in the last picture. As if to say "How did you get here daddy? And what happened to that mousey I was chasing?"

Fister is such a character, and his dad writes such wonderful stories about him. Thanks John.

Tubby used to dream, with the twitching feet and whiskers, but evidently as he has gotten older the mice have gotten very slow because he doesn't have to run after them anymore (meaning his feet don't twitch anymore).

[NoahsMommy]

John, I love how well you introduce topics!

Anyway, Noah is the only one that we've seen actively chasing/running/flinching/growling in his dream world. At first it really scared me...I'd wake him up and hold him...he'd run away and go back to sleep...

Fister is such a cute!! How I love these orangies!!

[Edwina's Secretary]

Debbie, you are so right! The first picture...makes me sleepy. I want to curl with Fister and take a nap. He looks soooo content! And the third photo..."Moi?" as Miss Piggy would say.

Edwina has never been a "physical" dreamer. I think it takes too much energy!

I so enjoy your Fister stories! ( And yes...I giggled at the waterglass as well.)

[krazyaboutkatz]

You sure are a dreamer Fister. I love your pics and the story about you that John wrote. I noticed that Pepper was dreaming the other day. He was on his cat napper which is right beside my computer desk. I was on the computer and I kept hearing a strange noise. I finally figured out that it was coming from Pepper. He was running in his sleep and his back claws were rubbing against the desk. I woke him up and he looked startled at first but then went back to sleep.

[C.C.'s Mom]

That's so sweet. My darling Fister.
My cats don't seem to dream. They usually look like 2 lifeless limps of overweight cat with their mouth wide open, leaving a breeze of fishiness in the bedroom.

[lynnestankard]

wow john - such a great word picture! could see the fister going through his dreams!! and those pics., were something else! soooo sweet.
yep, the water glass caught my attention too!!

lynne

[Vio&Juni]

Juni also dreams sometimes, but her dreams are not so active, or agressive, I suppose it's a suitable word. She has lived with us from the first moment of her life, no worries. Vasea, her father used to live in my parents' yard and neighborhood, he was half wild. So, he also had nightmares and "chasing" dreams like Fister. He scared us a couple of times, but usually, we were making fun of him and we were trying to guess what he's doing in his dream.

[Vi Co Bi]

Back in April, Fuzzy317 and my older son went out of town overnight. The night Fuzzy was gone Jackson spent the entire night in the bed with me sleeping on Fuzzy's pillow. That might not seem strange to some of you, but the animals usually don't sleep with me because I tend to thrash and toss and turn a lot in my sleep. They've been whacked with a pillow a time or two and kicked out of the bed so often they usually don't bother trying to sleep with me.

At that time we had 4 dogs, a temp. dog we were calling Hey Dog, Ginger, who was still a small pup, Sassee, Ginger's mom and Eli in the doggie brigade. Jackson, Rosie, Twidgit and Ashton were the cats-in-residence.

Anyway, the next morning Fuzzy called to let me know they'd survived the night and he told me he had a dream (this from someone who NEVER remembers his dreams). He said in the dream, he and Jackson were carrying on a normal people-style conversation and Jackson told him some things had to change in the house.

First, the pups, Hey Dog & Ginger, had to go. They would never fit in and were a major bother. Now, for the cats, the kittens, Ashton & Twidgit were okay, but we really needed to get rid of Rosie because Rosie doesn't like anyone, especially Scott.

I was laughing so hard while he was telling me this and he didn't understand why I thought it was so funny until I told him about Jackson sleeping on his pillow all night long.

[Randi]

Originally posted by C.C.'s Mom
They usually look like 2 lifeless limps of overweight cat with their mouth wide open, leaving a breeze of fishiness in the bedroom.

Loved that! We also have problems with “bad breath”, we get it really strongly when Fister tries to wash himself next to our pillows!

Fister heard about all your kind comments, so he came out to say hello and thankyou!


Thanx all you quality pet pals, I’ll be back soon to tell you all about my mum!

Regards from John

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

You take such great pictures, John. Fister in action. I love it!