Cats and Chickens

I dreamed that I was walking home from work/school, but not in this town, nor in any town I've lived in. I was walking through the neighborhood streets, looking at houses, when I noticed a sign on a street corner. It was like a "For Rent" sign, but it said "Piano for Sale" at the top in large, black letters. Underneath, however, was a long-ish paragraph of smaller writing. I stopped and read it, but all I can remember now is that the author(s) made a point of saying that they'd "been up for three days straight."

I was intrigued by the piano sale, but I continued on home because I knew that there were visitors waiting for me. A relative (in the dream, no one in real life) and her two small daughters were there: one girl about 6 or 7 and a toddler, about 2. I decided to take the girls on a walk and go back and see about this piano sale. For some reason we decided to take a chicken with us on the walk.

As we arrived at the piano sale house, we found three young, tall, thin guys lounging in the yard, as though resting after working hard. One was a tall black guy with dreadlocks and the other two were white. They nodded as we walked up to the door. An older, rounder, balding white man let us in. As we explained that we were interested in the piano, he showed it to us. It was an electronic, Clavinova-type piano and was, rather than the usual black, a wood-grained brown. I commented, "at least it's not black."

He asked us what we would be willing to pay, and at this point the six-year-old turned out to be a shrewd bargainer. She was signaling to me when to name prices and when to shut up. He mentioned $3000 and I regretfully responded that all I had to spend was $1200, when in fact me and the little girl both knew it was $1500.

During the negotiations, however, I became aware that the chicken had at some point turned into an extremely ill-tempered cat, which was trying to claw and bite everyone within reach. I was trying to hold this cat down by the scruff of its neck while continuing to bargain with the bald guy, but the cat was writhing and growling, clawing at my arms and hands. A few times it slipped from my grasp, but the tall, thin, young guy with dreadlocks would capture it each time and return it to me. It was very distracting, painful, and frustrating.