I dreamed about Seshat for months after her death. Her loss was the hardest I have ever had to endure, and that is saying something. For the first 24 hours after her death, I thought I was losing my mind - the fact that I had been up for 3 days straight, working by day and treating her at night wouldn't have helped. Several months after her death, I again dreamed that she was sitting in her chair looking at me as though waiting for me to come and pick her up, but this time, all the time looking at me, she slowly dissolved as a body would over time. In my dream, she was saying that she was no longer there for me to touch, she was urging me to let her go, and when I woke up I knew I had to leave that past behind. I never dreamed of her again. I was about 50 when I had those dreams and so my mind was mature enough to heal itself.

At fifteen, as you know, your daughter is both facing the harsh realities of adult life and escaping into her own world, both at the same time. If she is truly having these dreams so often, she is clinging to an old life, a more child-like life, that is no longer hers.

How do you know she is having these dreams? Can you be sure she is not telling you that she is having them because she knows that it worries you? I only ask that because you said she had some behavior issues.

How much time has she spent at shelters? Can you suggest that you both volunteer at one? Or volunteer to foster? She may need to come face-to-face on a frequent basis with cats who are desperate to live, let alone find a home, before she realizes that she is not replacing Gigi but simply giving her heart and home to a cat in need.