Once I was having a freaky dream where I was on a raft in the ocean
and there were nasty sea creatures trying to get on the raft.  I was
partially awake to see a black shape jump onto the raft.  I yelled and
kicked it off, but in doing so I woke up.  Imp, my black kitty, was on
the ground looking at me, "You KICKED me!"   He had jumped up onto the
bed to cuddle and I had rudely kicked him.  I had to get up and cuddle
him and tell him I was sorry.

I did the same thing to Mischief when I had a dream about spiders.  I
woke up and went back to sleep, but just as I was falling asleep I
felt a tickling on my arm.  I jolted awake, thinking it was a spider,
but it was Mischief and her whiskers had brushed my arm.  sheesh!

Kristi

Aww, too bad. My cats are pretty much like that, too, not really very
tuned into my emotional states.

Back in 1979, though, I had a cat, a stray with kittens that my
sister had found but couldn't keep, and she had called begging me
to take them, which had predictable results. :) This mother cat was
absolutely exceptional. One time I woke up in the dead of night in a
panic. Maybe I had a nightmare, though I didn't remember anything,
but in any case I was in an intense state of anxiety. I was so scared
I didn't even have the nerve to reach my hand out from under the
covers to turn on the bedside lamp. I just lay there, silently,
wishing I didn't live alone, because sometimes it's just creepy to
wake up in an apartment all by yourself.

Anyway, this cat suddenly jumped on the bed and walked along my body
up to my face and stood over me, purring. She then proceeded to lick
my cheeks and neck, and did this for what seemed like 45 minutes! (I
don't know how long it actually was.) It was so incredibly sweet that
I was very moved by it, and calmed down completely.

I'd had this cat a few weeks at this point, and she had never done
this before. I think that if she'd licked my face while I was asleep,
I would have woken up. She also never did it again - but then, I
never woke up in a panic like that again while I had her. The only
explanation I could ever think of was that she smelled the anxiety
on me and came to calm me down. I certainly hadn't made any noises
or otherwise indicated that I was even awake.

Later I told that story to a friend and she said, "You cat people
absolutely amaze me!" And I'm thinking, what? I didn't do anything
amazing - it was the cat who was amazing!!

Joyce