# nightmares about animal neglect and irresponsible pet ownership



## curlflooffan (Mar 27, 2020)

Have you had the experience of when you are having some stressful days and you start to have stress dreams? Like you dream that you are travelling and are about to miss your plane, stuff like that?

Well lately I have started to have stress dreams where I either accidentally neglect pets or get a pet that is inappropriate for my skills and lifestyle and I am struggling to accommodate them.

I had a particularly vivid dream recently which was very stressful because it combined with real memories. I travelled recently and I hired a petsitter to come and feed my hamster while I was away.
In the dream I suddenly realise that I have a bunch of cats that I had seemingly forgotten about. I come to the horrifying realization that I have no memory of ever feeding the cats and that I had not asked the petsitter to put out cat food. I couldn’t comprehend why I had been so stupid to only get a petsitter for the hamster and not for the cats! Realising that the cats would have gone an entire week without food as a consequence (in reality I didn’t ask the petsitter to put out cat food because I don’t have any cats!).

I didn’t even know how many cats I had so I start to try and count them. In the process I ‘remembered’ in the dream that I had apparently bought two Bengal cats for my SO before we got Evra and then I had completely forgotten about them. To my horror I realise that I haven’t taken any of these cats to the vet either and that they weren’t neutered! And then I just start finding kittens everywhere…

It was such a realistic dream that I had to take a moment when I woke up to remind myself that I DON’T HAVE ANY CATS!

In another dream I had adopted a St Bernard and German Shepherd mix, took him with me to a restaurant where he proceeded to take a giant **** in the middle of the dining area…

When I wake up now I have a little mantra:
Poodle, gerbils, hamster that is all I have
Poodle, gerbils and a hamster, everyone has been fed
Poodle, gerbils and a hamster and nothing else!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

That’s really scary. I haven’t had any nightmares in quite awhile and luckily I tend to forget them quickly. I hope you can move past these quickly too.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

With me it is usually a human baby - sometimes a baby animal - that I am responsible for and somehow mislay and forget. Often the baby gets smaller and smaller until it would fit in a matchbox, and is therefore ever easier to lose. But the guilty shock at remembering that I should have been cuddling and feeding it is just the same!


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## EJStevenP (Oct 27, 2021)

I have a recurring dream that I have a bunny. It lives outside in a hutch and I can't bring it inside, I can't get to it to feed it, and it's a long weekend. I know that the bunny needs care but I can't get in touch with anyone to take care of it. 

I always, ALWAYS wake up from that dream in a panic about this bunny. I have to remind myself that the last time I had a rabbit was ten years ago and that bunny was an inside bun that lived a happy life.


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## Heartland2022 (8 mo ago)

I dream about war unfortunately blood oil and sand. Sand so much sand that gets into everything. I also dream about the dogs that help fight it. None of it ever turns out good either 😑. Sleep is overrated in my opinion.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

YEP. I used to have a recurring dream about neglecting my rat, but that one finally came to a satisfying conclusion. Such a relief.

But I’ve had a recurring dream for _decades_ about my parents going away and leaving me to care for our family pets. I do a terrible job and forget to feed the cats for an entire week. It’s a horrible dream.

And recently I’ve started having a recurring dream about losing Gracie in a crowd. I hate that dream so much. I used to have a different recurring nightmare about her, but I’d have the relief of waking up to a perfectly safe little dog. That relief is elusive since she died.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

In dreams I lose Sophy - always in a city where I rarely go, always seeing her repeatedly in the distance but not wanting to call her back across a busy road. I wonder just what our minds are processing when these are our anxiety dreams...


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## I_love_dogs (May 30, 2021)

Right before I got Loki, I dreamed that he was in the backyard and went out under these huge gaps under our fence and went into the wooded area behind our house. I was hunting for him when I woke up in a panic. It took minute to realize
We don't have any large gaps under our fence. There is no dense wooded area behind our house.
We didn't have our puppy yet. 
I do know a neighbor who does have the large gaps from my dream. They had a giant dog that kept getting out and harassing people. I am guessing that is what triggered the dream.


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## PennyDog (Dec 23, 2021)

I had a dream once where I was going about my life…and then realized I forgot about the box of kittens and baby lizards under the bed! It turned into this horrible guilty dream where I had forgotten to feed them for weeks and when I found them they were all starving and shriveled but somehow still squirming and wanting food. Worst dream ever.

I also had a dream once where I never logged into my online math class for the entire semester, so I failed every assignment and ruined my academic career for good. I think our brains take our mild anxieties and take them to their worst possible conclusion. Worried about missing an assignment? How about you miss ALL of them!!!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I'm lucky that I don't wake up remembering a lot of nightmares lately. What's more of a problem is that, as I'm falling asleep, I tend to think over events of the day and plan for the next day. I'm often not fully awake or asleep as I'm doing it; I'm just kind of in a stage where my subconscious is poking at all kinds of things without much voluntary control. This rumination can easily turn into a ridiculous amount of guilty circling around things I goofed up and unproductive worry about things that haven't happened. For example, after Snarky died in winter 2020 I kept thinking about all the walks I had skipped in during the last few weeks of his life because I hadn't felt like going out in the cold and dark. Several times during the past few years I've needed to do my own version of counting sheep, which is to name colors on a color wheel. I usually start with one color and mentally list every single word I can think of related to that color. If I'm thinking of blue that night, for instance, I will list cobalt, turquoise, indigo, cerulean, slate, teal, cyan, cornflower, chicory, and so forth. I find that forcing myself to concentrate that way helps to keep me from spiraling onto other unwanted thoughts.


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## Dianaleez (Dec 14, 2019)

I can't remember the combination for my college mailbox. Then I discover that I have a final in a course that I didn't know I was taking. At least I'm clothed.


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## JasMom (7 mo ago)

Ugh glad I’m not the only one! I vividly remember a nightmare where I was responsible for caring for all the rabbits attending the national show but I had forgotten to do it for a month! The rabbits were all alive but I felt awful. Before we got the Poodle puppy, I had regular nightmares that our Greyhounds were injured (such realistic imagery that I would wake the dogs up to check on them) or that we were in a car accident and the dogs were hurt and ran away.

Thankfully more often I dream about forgetting tasks for work that have an immediate deadline or that I’m back in high school or college and have never attended class so I have to do a lot of extra credit. 🙄😂


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## Heartland2022 (8 mo ago)

Well I hope you all have better dreams. I'm surprised nobody dreams of Jeannie😃. I couldn't help but laugh when the show came on TV. I want to have good dreams 🤠


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