Dreaming of dead pets

Has this ever happened to you?

I lost a cat a year or two ago. Nobody seemed to like him, but I just had this weird connection to him...he was the only one who let me pet him or even go near him. One day he just disappeared. I think my mother dropped him off at the pound

But anyway, I've been having really vivid dreams lately (this is the first time in my 18 years of life that I've ever not been able to tell the difference between real life and dreams for some reason) many of which include my dead cat, Trout. I just have this feeling he's still alive--like he's contacting me.

Does anyone else out there have dreams of lost or dead pets?

This is an interesting subject to me. because I also have had similar experiences with my old cat. she died like 5 or so years ago and she still pops around in my vivid/lucid dreams every once in awhile. But becide my old pet cat, The most common dream I have about something that has passed that seemed like it was trying to contact me is my grandmother who died around the same time...

I have very vivid and real dreams and almost all of my dreams are nightmares. But every so often I have dreams about things before they happen. So I dont know if that means im sensitive to something because im a water sign (astrology, 'Cancer') or if the brain is still a engma of puzzle pieces we have totally failed to grasp to put together the complete possibilitys of what our minds are capeable of.