Cat

The cat is a useful symbol precisely because of its ambiguity, and interpreters generally treat that ambiguity as the meaning rather than as an obstacle to finding one.

A cat lives in the house without belonging to it in the way a dog does. It accepts affection selectively and leaves when it chooses. Traditions across very different cultures pick up the same quality and read the cat as a person or a situation that is close but not governed — a friend whose choices cannot be predicted, or an arrangement that holds only as long as it suits the other party.

That produces a reading with no default valence. A cat that approaches willingly is generally read as goodwill that is genuine precisely because it was not obliged. A cat that keeps its distance is read as something withheld rather than something hostile, and interpreters tend to note that distance from a cat is normal behaviour rather than rejection.

A scratching or biting cat is the variant most often reported with unease, and it is usually read as a consequence of pressing something that was not ready. That reading places responsibility with the dreamer more often than with the animal, which is unusual and is worth noticing.

Black cats require care, because the association is regional rather than universal. In parts of Europe and North America a black cat is read as misfortune; in Britain and Japan the same animal is conventionally lucky. An interpretation that treats the colour as inherently ominous is reporting one local tradition as though it were general.

Folk traditions in a number of regions associate cats with the household's fortune, particularly a cat that arrives uninvited and stays, which is read as a decision the animal made about the house.

A kitten is treated as a different symbol from an adult cat, closer to the readings for dependence than to those for independence.