You doubtlessly think that all there is to your cat is a brain containing thoughts that stretch as far as next meal time…. And possibly some fur, muscle and a skeleton included…..

What you didn't know was that we dream (well you may have thought we dreamt about mundane things such as hunting… Or being hugged). When we dream, it's not like a human dream, yours are all fuzzy and hard to recall. You see when we dream we don't just dream as one cat all in his own head; we dream collectively. There can be thousands of cats at any one time dreaming together. And what fabulous dreams they were…

At least, until recently. You see this collective dreaming was a gift given to us by the great Varjack Paw. As he lay on his death bed he used the remainder of his power (that in turn was given to him by Jalal Paw his ancestor) to give the rest of cat-kind this gift. But now those dreams which were so sweet are being poisoned by something dark and malicious. Every night cats' bodies yearn for sleep, for peace but their mind fears it. Every night we have the same dream.

We're in a cavern deep underground, the air is rife with fear the very scent seems to cling to our whiskers. We are all facing one way towards the centre of the cavern. The science is ripped as a screeching yowl echoes round the cavern. The grief in that cry slices through our fear ridden bodies.

This is the dream every cat fears but cannot escape every night around the world cats dream the same dream.

o-O-o

A small dust grey bundle lies close to its mother; a deep thrumming noise comes from within the mother's throat. She surveys her litter proudly, five healthy kittens curled close to her chest sleeping…. She feels her eyes growing heavy, her heart beat quickens as she tries to fight it, and fear grips her insides. She doesn't want to hear the loss in that yowl, and the continued echoes. But sleep has a grasp on her body and soul it pulls her downwards into sleep and then further down into the cavern…..

This time she is at the front, she sees the cat opposite her and can see the fear constricting his face. She glances down and sees a dust grey mound of fur, she sees a dark fleck behind its ear, and she sees but does not want to see the blood seeping from under its body. She runs forward and pushes her face into the cat's cold fur. She raises her head and screams in pain. The grief comes in waves crashing over her head….

The mother wakes with a start. She looks down at her smallest kitten curled up, nose twitching she breathes in his warm, and alive scent. As she settles her head onto her paws she looks again at her litter, four kittens faces screwed up, and the mother knows, knows what they're seeing in their sleep. They see the cavern they hear the scream, but they don't understand, at least not yet they don't. Her gaze returns to the grey kitten the one with the dark fleck behind its ear. She watches it sleep, its face calm and relaxed, untroubled by dark caves and screaming. She feels a slight tinge of jealousy as she watches it sleep. But she quashes it, how can she be jealous of her own kitten?