Tigers, Camels, and Soldiers

I dreamed last night that I lived as a teenage boy in a house with my parents on a rural piece of property. We had a full grown female tiger that we had raised, and she had a cub. In the dream I had to move the mother and cub to a location some distance away from the house so she wouldn't threaten friends and family when they came to visit. So I put her cub in  a blanket and carried it, with mother following to see where I was taking her cub, yet trusting me enough to let me do so.

When we reached the edge of a clearing I stopped to let the mother go ahead to make sure it was safe for her cub, which I understood she would do instinctively. After she scouted the clearing and looked back at me to let me know it was all clear I came out with her cub. In the distance I could see a larger clearing on the side of a hill with a house-sized jumble of dirt and piled up dead trees that some farmers had left when they cleared the field. But, it was on the other side of a fenced in high-way.

I pointed to the pile of dead trees and said, "There," to the mother, knowing her well enough to know she would understand that that was where I was taking her cub, and her new home. She consented by heading in the direction I pointed.

We followed a razor-wire topped chain-link fence until we reached a place where a tree grew close enough to the fence that we could use it to climb over, cross the high-way, and then over the fence on the other side, which put us in the field with the pile of dead trees.

I stayed with the mother and cub, keeping an eye on the cub while mother explored the area and inspected the pile of dead trees to see if it would make a suitable den. While she explored I saw a man riding a horse along the top - yes, top - of the chain-link fence on the far side of the road. He was a curiosity at first, but then I saw several more men on horses also riding atop the same fence behind him.

Shortly these men were followed by a band of soldiers on foot walking on the highway, accompanied by their commanders on horseback. One of the commanders saw me in the field and approached. From his horse, and without saying anything, he reached down to offer me a 38 special snub-nose revolver. He indicated that I should take it and shoot one of his soldiers, which I did not do. In the dream I remember thinking it was a test to see if I were friend or foe.

After I refused to take the proffered gun the commander ordered some of his men to commandeer the mother, who for some bizarre dream-reason had become a camel instead of a tiger. But, I pleaded with the commander to leave her (for her baby's sake) and take my prize cow instead. He agreed. So I said a tearful goodbye to my cow, then woke up as she was lead away by the soldiers and I watch the mother, as a tiger again, run off across the field with her cub.

After I woke up, rather late in the day actually, I decided to turn on the T.V. and see if there was anything on to watch while I sipped some coffee to "wake up". On T.V. was a program ("Crime Watch") that I normally don't watch, but it had an interesting story about a 5-year-old boy, Nathan O'Brien, who was kidnapped and murdered along with his grandparents who were caring for him at the time. The story caught my interest because of the similarities to my own crimes. Then, in the story, it turned out that the culprit (Doug Garland) lived alone with his parents on a rural piece of property (in Canada) that looked a lot like the area I had just dreamed about. And the police also found a 38 special snub-nose revolver in the killer's belongings.

I only mention these "coincidents" because it is common for me to see such things on T.V. that I had just dreamed about the night before, implying some sort of conscious connection with myself across a short distance of time. (I say with "myself" because the incidents on T.V. programs are things that may or may not have occurred in reality at all, so it seems it is my conscious witnessing of it on T.V. that somehow bleeds over into my dreams the night before.)

It's just... something peculiar to think about.

[J.D. March 11, 2020]