Do Cats Dream?

If you watch closely, you might be able to work out what scenario is being enacted or re-enacted in your cat's dream. Those little movements are all clues to what is going on inside that cute furry head. That twitching tail could mean 'stalking prey', 'poised to pounce' or 'seen something interesting'. When followed by a paw-twitch, a whisker twitch and a raised lip (maybe even exposing the canine) the dream prey has been dispatched. Sometimes Aphrodite even licks her lips afterwards, other times she seems to be playing with her catch. Teeth chattering and tail lashing probably means the dream prey got away.

Other experiences surely feature in feline dreams. For some months after being adopted, my ex-stray, Scrapper, had violent dreams with much snarling, hind-leg thrashing and yowling as he fought some imaginary opponent. His dreams were often so violent that he showed signs of very real distress and I took to gently waking him up.

When Sappho's owner died, unfeeling relatives wrenched the cat from her owner's body (she was trying to wake the dead owner) and threw her outdoors to fend for herself. Traumatic incident often stick in our minds and no doubt in feline minds as well. Sappho still has occasional nightmares, waking up whimpering piteously before frantically trying to wake me up. I can only assume she has relived the death of her owner.

My bumbling, inept Aphrodite, must become 'Rambo' in her dreams. When asleep in my arms she mumbles, sighs, chatters, clasps my arm, nuzzles, sucks or licks me and has even delivered a killing-bite. Her tail twitches and thrashes, her whiskers twitch and her hind legs kick against me as I get used as a springboard in some dream assault upon aerial prey. Sometimes she has even raked me with fore- or hind-legs in the course of her dream.

Other pleasurable experiences such as dinner-time, kitten hood, being gently groomed, rambling-in-the-garden, rolling belly-up in sunbeams or tormenting the family dog probably feature in feline dreams. How often do you accidentally wake your cat and get rewarded by that expression which says 'I was having such a lovely dream'? Like people, some cats must dream more vividly or imaginatively than others.

During sleep, our brain releases inhibiting substances to prevent us from acting out our dreams fully, although we may toss, turn and even talk in our sleep. The feline brain works similarly. In laboratory experiments where unfortunate feline subjects have had their brains tampered with so that those substances aren't released, the cats act out their dreams in full. Even laboratory-bred cats which have never hunted, or even seen prey, have been observed to 'catch birds', 'chase mice' and 'bat prey' in the course of their dreams.

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