Pet Pets

Very often depicts our feeling of responsibility or caring; our feelings of affection, such as we might feel for a pet; our natural drives such as procreation, desire to be ‘petted. These feelings may have been ‘house trained’ – meaning perhaps being over disciplined – or caged, or not fed, depending on dream. Therefore the action in the dream will indicate what one is doing with this side of ones nature. sometimes it is feelings of being like a pet – only being able to do what the person you are dependent upon wishes.

But it depends how you have treated pets or animals. Many children and adults torture pets or animals.

An unfed pet: Often has to do with our feelings of responsibility toward caring for someone else, or caring for ones own basic needs. May be the children have grown up and left, and there is no one to spend ones caring and affection on. Or else we are so busy we forget our own needs.

Baby pets: If in a woman’s dream may signify her maternal drive, her desire for children; ones own dependent self and feelings.

If we have kept a pet such as you dream about: What the pet in the dream depicts rests very much on what the dreamer’s relationship with the pet was. For instance a woman whose daughter kept a rat that was well liked, would have completely different associations and feeling responses in connection with rats than many people.

In the dream of a child: Usually refers to the child’s feelings of being dependent. A pet is a creature that depends on humans – perhaps the child – to feed it and care for it. It cannot make any decisions of its own because it is imprisoned in a cage of some sort. So a child often uses the pet to depict its own condition of dependence and inability to make many of its own decisions. The dream may also be a way to child experiments with ways of developing independence. See: animals.

 Example: My pet mouse had babies. I dreamt that the babies had opened their eyes and were running about. Q.C.

This is the dream of a young boy of five. We explored the dream and he said that a pet was something that couldn’t do anything for itself and needed looking after. When asked if he had any feelings about this he said that he sometimes felt like a pet, as he couldn’t do things for himself without his parents consent.

We looked at what it meant that the babies had opened their eyes, and Q. said that when baby mice open their eyes it means they are ready to be independent. This led him to realise that he wanted to be more independent. So from that time on he started doing more things for himself instead of depending upon his parents.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does my dream show any feelings of friendship or affection?

Is dependence on someone else, or someone who is dependent on me shown?

Am I not caring for the dream pet, or my own basic needs?

See Animals – Being the Person or Thing – Conditioned Reflexes