by Allen and Linda Anderson
One of the most prevalent golden bridges that people experience is to dream of an animal who has died. The animal appears in 3-D, living color, and in great detail. Invariably the person says the dream was as real as anything that happens to him or her in daily life.
Prior to a pet’s death, people often have dreams to prepare them for the event. Carrie wrote to us about her dog Francesco, whom she named after Saint Francis. Unfortunately, Francesco contracted autoimmune liver disease. One night, when the dog was near death, he slept on Carrie’s chest for 10-minute intervals. Carrie wrote, During one of those short sleeps that I took with Francesco, I dreamed of a large body of water and a shore on either side of it. A very large ship was approaching the shore on the right. In the dream, I wondered what this meant. The knowledge came that the dream images represented Life. The left shore was the earth and all who live on it; the right shore, our final destination, was heaven. The water was the journey. Our goal, I realized in the dream, was to help those we love to make it safely to the final destination. The ship represented each of us helping our loved ones make the journey.
This dream became tremendously helpful to Carrie during the next week when she had to say a final goodbye to her dear Francesco.
Margaret Neylon, a dream interpreter, wrote to us about a dream she had of her deceased cat, Zaggy. Margaret wrote, My other cat, Ziggy, sleeps on the bed with me. I woke in the middle of the night with the feeling of a cat jumping lightly onto me. The thing that really woke me was the loud purr. It was loud! When I looked, I saw Zaggy. She was well and so happy. She and her living sister Ziggy were rubbing against each other and purring. I said, ‘Zaggy, I thought you were dead!’ Zaggy came and rubbed her face against me as though she was smiling and she just purred. I know this was more than a dream. I was so grateful for her visit. Although it still hurts to lose her, I know for certain that Zaggy is still around. And even better, that she is happy and well.
Not only have people had dreams in which the deceased pet’s spirit returned to reassure them that they were fine, but animals often appear in the dream with important information. Nory McCluskey wrote to us about a dream she had of her lovely harlequin Great Dane, Kiera. Many years after Kiera’s death, Nory saw Kiera in a dream. The dog urged Nory to tell her sister, whom Kiera had adored, to immediately have an exam on her right breast. The next day, Nory called and left Kiera’s dream message on her sister’s voice mail. A couple of days later, her sister called to say that she had been putting off having a breast exam. But because of Kiera’s dream message, she had had a lump on her right breast biopsied. The lump had been worrying her, and she was relieved to have just found out that the growth was benign. Nory’s sister said, I didn’t tell anybody about the biopsy because I didn’t want people to panic. Tell Kiera thanks for the nudge!
Nory ended her letter by saying, Listen to your dreams. So what if the still, small voice used to be a bark!
Try this Exercise:
Keep a journal of your dreams. If you have been recording your dreams, read back through the journal to see if you have had any dreams with animal companions who have died. What messages might they have been trying to deliver?
Based on the book, Saying Goodbye to Your Angel Animals, Copyright 2005, 2008 by Allen and Linda Anderson. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato CA, 800/972-6657 ext. 52.
Allen and Linda Anderson are the founders of the Angel Animals Network, inspirational speakers, and bestselling authors of Angel Cats, Angel Dogs, Angel Dogs with a Mission, Rescued, and Angel Animals. They share their home in Minneapolis with a family of animals and donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their books to animal welfare organizations. For more information on their work, check out their website, angelanimals.net.