Glad I didn't know for sure...

colourful autumn

On an especially hot night during July 1973. I was sleeping at my Aunt's house and I awoke in a sweat. For a moment, I didn't know where I was but the dream I had just experienced was all too clear...

My first pet was a gray and white long haired kitten that I named Jasper. He was my everything. My mom had allowed me to get him in May and I had really been missing him while visiting my Aunt!
My dream took place on the dead end street where I lived. I was walking along the road...I remember it was a cool day and the trees were in full Fall color.
A disturbance arose and a crowd of neighbors gathered looking into the wooded road's edge.
That is when I realized that it was my Jasper, lying lifeless, that they had gathered around.
I never saw his body...my mind couldn't bear that image. The place and the circumstance were very clear. He had been hit by a vehicle.

Now, covered in sweat and in the dark at my Aunt's house, I felt the pang of nausea that would have accompanied the event...had it really happened?
IT DIDN'T...whew.
I calmed myself and "chalked up" the ugly dream as a manifestation of my loneliness for my "baby'. Still rattled, I was able to fall asleep again.


That October,Friday the thirteenth, my Jasper was hit by a vehicle. Our attempts to save him did not work.
The place on my road was the same from that July dream...need I say more?