Alex,
Dreams speak in a language of symbol and metaphor and use personal life events not only as material in dreams but also are a reflection of the emotional energies in the dreamer's life. Your dream of a blank and white cat was likely prompted by the dead cat you saw the day before. But its reference is to an emotional conflict within your psyche. Cats are from the feline family and most often are symbolic of the feminine aspects of the human psyche. Emotions are one prevalent trait women possess {more so than men} and I dare say your dream cats has to do with your emotions. Black and white can have several possible meanings. Right and wrong, day and night, conscious and unconscious, and with your fear of people close to you dying, life and death. The narrative of the dream is what becomes important in understanding what the cat image represents.

The old woman in your dream very possibly is related to your experience with your grandmother. The unknown man would be an aspect of yourself {any unknown person, man or woman, represents an aspect of the dreamer} and would suggest unknown or unconscious aspects about yourself you have yet to realize or understand. The actions thereafter define something about yourself that needs to be examined and understood. Your dream sequence seems to be a positive response to an emotional aspect within your psyche.

In the light of a smiling cat my sense is the dream, a positive sign, the dream may be attempting to get you let go of your fears of death and accept the realities in life. Do you tend to give too much thought to family members dying and have a real fear of death? The black and white talking cat could be symbolic of your your unconscious self {black} trying to communicate with your conscious self {white}. The message would be you need to let go of your fears and be happy with life as it is. The emotional energies that lead you to have a fear of loved ones dying would be a deterrent to a balanced psyche. And because dreams attempt to help the dreamer understand the emotional conflicts that can/do cause an out of balanced psyche, your talking cat is your unconscious mind attempting to inform you of the unrealistic fears you possess. By portraying the cat as, and these are your words from the dream, 'a real, flesh and blood, talking cat!', the cat is a part of you. The talking is a communication to your waking mind that it is OK to be worried about loved ones but not to the extent it makes you overly emotional. In other words, when it comes to life and death do as the cat did in your dream; don't worry, be happy. There is nothing you can do to control death so don't dwell on it.

Do you get overly emotional when it comes to death? Your statement '(hopefully not! Oh God please no!)' seems to suggest such a possibility. The positive actions of your inner feminine self {cat} would be a directive to let go of your fears and embrace life as it is. Of course there are deeper implications as to why you are such an emotional person {if in fact true} and in some way the dream is probably addressing those issues also {all dreams have at least two meanings/applications}. But that would require a look at other dreams to have to determine what those might be.

Jerry

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Thanks for your insights Jerry! Now, about the thing you said I am very emotional, I have to say that indeed I am. However, this life and death issue I think it happens to all of us. I believe every person is afraid of death, especially when it comes to close relatives, family or loved ones, or one's own death. Because my family members are now fine again, I think the dream might be portraying the fact that I need to let go the worries as you said, I need to stay calm now that everything is OK again. However, I believe the talking cat could be meaning something else to be honest.
I have to say that my dreams can be prophetic sometimes. Like, for example, some weeks ago, when I was about to quit my previous job as a language teacher, I was kindda worried because there wasn't any substitute teacher that could take my place. So, prior leaving the job I had a dream where a woman teacher named Carolina was taking my place. Though I know this woman from real life (she teaches in another institute where I used to work in the past), the dream was showing something that associated the future with someone from real life. Anyway, days after having this dream and in real life, my boss (well now, ex-boss haha) hired a new teacher named Carolina as well! And though it wasn't the same woman I saw in my dream, the truth is that the dream foretold that a teacher with the same first name as the "dream Carolina" was going to substitute for me. It associated a future event and person with someone I knew in real life, isn't that weird? I don't think it was just a coincidence, and so I have the same belief with the talking cat. Do you think it might be foretelling something?

Also, I would like you to know that in the past two days I had dreams involving telephones. In the first dream I was having a conversation (through telephone)with a phone operator to ask her to confirm a number. I made the phone call(and the operator was a woman because of her womanly voice in the dream). I remember telling her a phone number which was wrong but then I corrected myself and asked to confirm the number 502-462, because I needed to communicate with Alfredo Stroessner (A note here: I’m from Paraguay. Alfredo Stroessner was a dictator that ruled my country until 1989. I NEVER EVER met him in my life, and it was out of my reach because I wasn’t even born when he was ruling my country. He commited a lot of crimes against humanity during his dictatorship). Then I woke up, and couldn’t remember if the conversation had continued or not. But, after waking up, I thought to myself WTF this dream??? In the dream, I was trying to find the correct phone number of a person I had never met in my life, and who has been dead since 2006 (the dictator passed away in 2006, when I was barely 18 years old and didn't know that much about my country's history). BTW, in real life and after waking up, I dialed that number to see if it pertained to someone I know, but the number doesn’t exist at all.
Then, this afternoon after taking a little nap, I woke up suddenly because I heard a phone ringing. I thought the phone was ringing in real life but in fact it wasn't. The phone ring (very loud by the way) was part of a dream. I don't know if it was some sort of wake up call, which I didn't need because I set my alarm before falling asleep... So, I was wondering if you could also provide some insights on the phone dreams? Thanks in advance...

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Alex,
About dreams predicting future events. Jung tells us that dreams seldom predict the future, instead they compensate what we already know. Your comment, "It associated a future event and person with someone I knew in real life, isn't that weird?" Weird yes, but it was compensating knowledge you already possessed. And it was most likely by co-incidence the sub had the same name. Anything that speaks to you in dreams comes from the unconscious {especially talking animals}. The unconscious possesses information and knowledge you have previously experienced or already have knowledge of. Repression is where such knowledge is store in the unconscious but may not be available to the conscious mind until something 'stirs' the emotions or when you reach mid-life and reflection becomes the norm instead of looking forward {as you would as a younger person}. A good example would be the 100s of young boys who had repressed sexual mistreatment as youths by Catholic priests. It was not until mid-life they began to consciously recall the abuse. Yet the unconscious knowledge was always there {and in their dreams}, a controlling agent that led to suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, sexual abnormalities, etc. This is where dreams are so valuable. Instead of hours upon hours of laying on a couch and using Freudian association, Jung always asked his patients to 'get back to their dreams'.

Telephones are another form of communication with the unconscious. The operator is the go between of unconscious to dream conscious. The female voice would be some aspect of your anima trying to communicate an emotional conflict/energy that needs your attention and resolution. The wrong number may suggset there is something wrong in your life. If you examine the number closely {knowing it was a wrong number} and look at your personal life you may discover the right number through associations. There could be mythological associations. I am a firm believer in the number nine which is associated with the feminine power {read Greek mythology} and in Jungian psyche a number for wholeness/completion/balance. The number in your dream when added together equals 19, a wrong number for achieving wholeness {18 would be the right number with 1+8=9}.

The dictator in your dream would be an 'evil' emotional dictator within your psyche. Something at the time of the dream {and the years leading up to that time} were unwanted controlling agents in your life. That would be the proper application of the real dictator in your dream, the dream using previous learned knowledge to paint a picture of an emotional stimulus within your life. To add to coincidence look at the year you 'unconsciously posted' association the real dictator 1989. Add the numbers together and you get 27 which added together equals 9. This may suggest the 'right' application of the dream dictator to the emotional dictator the dream is trying to communicate {telephone}.
Note: Famous and often regular people you know in real life in a dream are included because you identify with some aspect/something they possess.

The person you had never met in your 'conscious life' would have applications to some aspect of yourself. And because all dreams and dream images have at least two meanings/applications it could also represent a real person you had never met {your dreams are full of feminine/female images} and unconsciously wish to/need to meet to help make your life whole {making life whole is a function of dreams}. It could have to do with feminine relationships or even your mother {if she were not the good mother she should have been}. If you go back and look at the year 2006 {two sixes, one short of 18} you may find associations that fit. And you were 18 at the time of the dream. These are not merely coincidences, these are 'psyche' {not psychic which suggests something out of the norm} events the dream uses to help paint a picture of your 'true' emotional life {another function of dreams-your true self and not the perceived ego person you see yourself as}. There is something there the unconscious mind wishes to communicate to you so you can reconcile the emotional conflicts.

Jerry

The nap you took where you heard a loud ringing of a phone. That may suggest there is something you need to understand about your emotional self that is locked away in your unconscious. It could merely be from the fact you are thinking so much about phones as well but the deeper implications are just as real.I suggest to go back to when you were 18 and determine what exactly it was that that year meant emotionally.

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