I don’t think they are just dreams, I think in some cases they are visits. And yes I know how that makes me sound. (and I don’t care)

When I lost my cat, Bunny, I dreamt my deceased father came back and took her to heaven.

Are these dreams, are once again a chance to reconnect with loved beings?

My “grandma” had a stroke when I was in high school. She wasn’t actually my grandma by blood, but I worked on a dairy farm for almost five years. It was my best friend’s mom’s small operation and both her mom and grandparents lived on the farm. I spent more time with grandma than anyone else in middle school, as best friend always had boyfriends and I felt more comfortable with grandma than anyone else. She’d drive me home after supper and we’d drive around for hours just talking. We often went to the Dairy Queen together. I loved her so much.

She was an incredibly energetic woman (and gave the best hugs. They’d even hurt a little because she squeezed so hard and meant it so much every time). No one saw it coming.

She was taken to the local hospital and then flown out to a larger one. We had hope that she would come back around, though she probably wouldn’t have all her motor skills.

While she was at the larger hospital, I was the only one left at the farm to do the chores and milking. My friend’s mom’s boyfriend was around, but in the fields. One night I had a dream that Lady, the farm collie, died in her sleep and the very same moment that she died, grandma died. In my dream I knew it was the same moment, but I don’t know how I knew it. In the dream the family and I were all talking about how odd it was that they both died at the same moment.

I woke up and went out to the farm to start milking. Lady didn’t come down to the barn with me, but she had started doing that every once and a while since she was getting a little older. She usually came down while I was herding the cows back up to the barn from the pasture. Or came down sometime while I was in the barn so she could walk me back up to the house.

I checked outside the parlor door for her every couple of minutes. She didn’t come down. After I finished milking, I made her breakfast and walked up to the house, calling her. She didn’t come.

I checked under the steps, where she would normally sleep and she was there. She had died that night I had the dream, in her sleep. That night, my friend called me to tell me that her grandma hadn’t shown any signs of improvement and the doctors didn’t think she’d come back, so if I wanted to see her I needed to drive down there the next morning after milking.

I still think about this a lot. It kind of scared me at the time, but it was also comforting. Now I don’t find it scary at all, just comforting. But definitely a bit odd!

Sometimes I think animals are the only things that really bring me comfort. Your dream is so beautiful. Maybe there’s some sort of stress you have now and Colleen came to tell you she’s still there for you. That may sound weird and creepy to anyone but me… I believe it though.

I reckon too that as long as I remember them, those I’ve loved are with me still.

The last few years, I’ve had some trouble with neurological glitches. Along with the bad bits, though, have come moments of astonishingly vivid recall — among them, of the cats I’ve lived with and loved, some of them gone more than 45 years. A silver lining, indeed.

Yeah, that.

Your story made me cry. In a GOOD way.

:O)