In your dictionary, it suggests replacing 'cat' with how I feel about the cat in the dream - I find that what I feel about the cat is so many words and so strong that I can't quite narrow it down. Maybe that's the point!
In the dream my cat (real in waking life) is in some way sick or injured - her back legs aren't working properly (some years ago, in waking life, I lost a cat through a thrombus that had this effect. He had to be euthanised after trying all options because his legs were 'dying'. It was really traumatic an devastating).
In the dream, I am trying to get my cat into her basket to get her to the vet. I put her in the basket but it is broken and she escapes through the bottom. I try with a different basket and the same happens. I am exacerbated and distraught; how am I going to get her help? She won't let me catch her again, that's for sure! someone - I can't see him/her in the dream - points out that the cat is walking well now. It's as though the problem comes and goes; even though it's something severe.
It's as though I fear that the 'secret', 'potent' 'cat like' part of me is still broken but it's not - that's just my perception. I try to keep it in the basket because I want it to be healed but it won't stay there. It insists on being free; my method of containing it no longer works. Maybe it can only be healed by being free. Letting the cat out of the basket is scary but I have to let her live and take her risks. I have to realise that 'she' will be fine. Living life is the thing; not preserving life while not living it. Well maybe that's what it's about. Maybe her woundedness frightens me when i reality, it's no longer there; I can be myself, be different and not answer anyone's questions and expectations; like the cat. Or maybe the broken basket indicates that have to find a new way to access healing for the 'cat'.