mysterious tapping

A few mornings ago I had the strangest experience. Well, experience is probably the wrong word....

It was 6 am and I was minding my own business snoozing away the hour or so I had left before getting up for work when I felt two sharp taps on my left shoulder. I was befuddled (very common at 6 am) and my brain grasped around for possible sources of the tapping. I immediately thought it was my roomie Karisse, but then I realized she had gone off to LA the day before and I was alone in the house. Then who had tapped me?

I cracked open my eyes blearily for half a second (that's all I could manage) and I didn't see anyone in my room. Eventually, a few minutes later when my brain finally put all together (shoulder tapping by non-existent person) I got just enough of a jolt of adrenalin to turn over. It freaked me out a little, this anonymous tapping, but I was completely defenseless in my sleepy state.

A few minutes later after I had drifted off a bit, a cat walked across my chest and snuggled up next to my head. He was purring loudly and rubbing his head on my face. After the mysterious tapping incident he made me feel comforted and reassured. I pet him groggily until he quieted down and then I drifted off again....

And then it was 7 and my alarm went off. But where did the cat go? And then I actually became conscious I realized I don't have a cat.

I don't have a cat. But... he was there. I saw him. I felt him.

And the tapping... that was definitely real too.

It was very, very disconcerting. I dream a lot but current-reality rarely (if ever) intersects with dream-reality. And it must have been a dream. Or maybe I tapped myself, but that would take some pretty serious coordination that I don't think I have at 6 am.

Or maybe there's some other more spiritual reason, like I was supposed to wake up and pray for someone who was in the process of almost dying and my prayers were supposed to save their life. Oops. Sorry to anyone who almost died and, well, probably actually did die because I didn't get the hint and went back to sleep cuddling up to a dream cat.

Dang it. I'm just not good at these things.