Candy Menagerie

My dreams continue to be a source of intrigue, delight and puzzlement. Last night confirmed that once more. Those who know me are aware of my love for animals, and my fierce desire to love and protect them. I also have a collection of stuffed animals, both for myself, and my cats and dogs over the course of now 31 years of taking in shelter animals. In the dream I was living in this spacious modern house, and apparently I had a room dedicated to just stuffed animals... the thought makes me both cringe and smile. I have always and continue to go through great lenghts to take good care of our animal friends and it is therefore a bit unnerving that in my dreams about them I often am dealing with anxiety because of noticing they are in need of more water and food. Now, this dream was doubly strange, because I had apparently forgotten to feed my stuffed animals... and apparently their diet was candy. The sticky, hard candy kind, that as a kid you were told is terrible for your teeth. And my stuffed animals loved that kind of candy. One blue stuffed little elephant jumped up in delight of anticipating lemon drops. I even remember the sound of squeeky delight he made... I had candy strewn all over the plush carpets, with stuffed animals laughing and munching loudly on their very dubious meals which I was putting out as fast as I could in small shiny metallic bowls. It all sounds like the dream would be uproariously, ridiculous fun. But there was an undercurrent of concern and dismay on my part at having forgotten to feed them. This from a person who gets up at the crack of dawn to cook fresh meat for our kitty Tigger, who had always had a very delicate digestive system and who is thriving now with a largely protein diet of lean meat, which he prefers hot. I know, but after losing him almost to a very bad cold a few winters back, seeing him now shine in a thick, furry healthy coat makes the effort  well worth it. So, you would think I would be allowed to relax with my animals when I dream about them. No such luck. Most of the time, the dreams with them are full of worry and concern and the perpetual struggle to make sure I feed and water them on time.I told my husband about the dream, and he thought it was very entertaining. That made me feel better. I thought of when I read Sigmund Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams" a revolutionary work in psycho analysis. It was a revelation to me, and has guided me through more than one complex dream. But I do not think that the father of psycho analysis would have been very pleased to hear about my stuffed animals dream and their clamor for candy. It might have stretched his sophisticated sense of humour beyond tolerance. However, it might also have encouraged the master to scratch beyond the surface. The surface of the hard candy and the surface of the soft stuffed animals as well.