I had a dream there was a blackout and I was supposed to get ready and go to my parents' house for some sort of dinner. I was late, so my Dad came over here. I ran downstairs to talk to him and tried to keep the cats from getting out as I went out the door, but I could feel them at my feet and could see that Opie had followed me as I got downstairs. The power came back on. I was heading back up the stairs with a man -- the cab driver? -- and I noticed that Opie was acting a little off. Then I realized why: part of his tail was missing. I must have caught it in the door. We raced back upstairs -- I found blankets to wrap Opie in, asked the cab driver did he know where the Veterinary Emergency Clinic was, and had him help me look for the missing section of Opie's tail. I finished getting dressed, went to go check on Jacob and Tino before we left. There was another woman there, who had said she would stay with the cats while we went. Found her sitting in the bedroom (where the rat room is), two twin beds, Jacob and Tino were each under a separate bed. Tino was OK; Jacob was not. He was standing in a weird posture, looking ill. He was sitting on a mat so I pulled the whole mat out and could see that he was missing skin in a lot of places and looked gravely ill. The woman commented that he didn't look good. I ran back to the kitchen, Jacob and the mat in my arms. The cab driver had found Opie's tail and was putting it in a bag of ice. I told him to take the tail and Opie downstairs; I was going to slide Jacob and the mat into a carrier and come after him.

And more crazy dreams:

I was at my parents' house and the phone rang. My mother was getting ready for work or something and told me to answer it. It was a man with some sort of British accent asking about the bed & breakfast. I guess my mother had turned the house into a bed & breakfast. But she was busy so she told me to deal with the call. The guy was drunk, and, as I learned in the course of the call, was calling from a pay phone in Japan. He said he was some sort of a teacher and would be bringing a group. My mother let me know that she could handle up to 100 people. I told him we were on a quiet, residential street, then thought better of it and talked about Pittsburgh in general -- the Carnegie, the Warhol, etc. His change was running out, I suppose, and, in the end, he said "You know what you are?" then slurred something about my being a cheerful cheery happy something.