KateUK – Your dream describes a strange double conflict in you.
Remember please that you cat does not signify your cat, for all the people, animals, places you see in your dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images.
Remember also that your cat – dream cat – was also silently killing the eagle. But you were terribly influenced by seeing the same thing done to your pet.
You describe your cat as “my high achieving drive and ambition (punching above my weight). I feel that I am disconnected with that drive nowadays yet I'm conscious that that same ambition led to some stress problems, poor health.”
You seem to me to be so attached to that image of yourself – for that is what your cat in the dream is – and it left you feeling bad to have it killed out in you.
The eagle represents the ability to achieve a much more inclusive view of your life, ambition and actions – and of course this view allows you to see or feel the outcomes. To me is seems a much better possiblity than the “high achieving drive and ambition (punching above my weight.” That attitude I can see leads many people to burn out, depression, a sense of failure and even suicide. See
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/mountain-path/Strange that it was the 'cat' you that had brought down the much better 'eagle' you.
Tony