I used to have a recurring dream that someone was backing a tractor over
my dog and wouldn't stop, even though my dog was crying in pain.  Then my
dog died suddenly of kidney failure.  If it had been detected earlier, it
might not have taken him so soon.
 
Last year I had a recurring dream that something horrible happened
to Alfalfa, one of my ferrets (I won't repeat the dream, it was too
horrible).  Al, as it turned out, had a life-threatening tumor on his
spleen, which, fortunately, was detected by his terrific vet during Al's
anual exam and successfully removed.  But I had no idea Al was developing
a tumor, he seemed perfectly normal.  With the tumor in him, according to
my vet, Al had only a month or two before the tumor would have burst and
killed him with internal bleeding.
 
I really think that these dreams were warnings, which may not be the case
for everyone, but I now have learned to pay attention to them (at least
recurring dreams).  How to interpret them is a challenge for me, though.
[Posted in FML issue 3559]