Dear Billy,
I dream of a giant red and black snake in a terrarium in my parents’ yard. I take the snake’s clear shed skin to show my mom, but on the way there I look up and see a giant spiderweb beneath the roof of the carport. Trapped in the web is a cardinal, but it’s a yellow, molted, injured one. It’s being stalked by a yellow cat of the same color. The bird flies out of the web; the cat follows. The bird has a string attached to it. I pull on it to try to get it away from the cat, but it doesn’t work — the cat keeps getting ahold of it. I begin to think it might be better to let the bird die, it’s so mutilated. The cat is now a rabbit, and it swallows the bird whole. I hear a voice saying that once you’re swallowed it’s all over. The bird turns and struggles and calls in the rabbit’s throat.
—Caught
Billy says: Spiderwebs are lies being spread about you. Snakes are enemies or unfaithful friends. Birds stand for success in your present undertaking. Cats are a bad-luck warning to reform. Rabbits stand for money received in a lottery. Immediate proximity to a false friend has stirred up conflicted feelings. You think perhaps this snake has shed her skin and will be trustworthy, but you are still subconsciously worried. The bird is your self-confidence and sense of self: the cardinal is already in bad shape, and you worry for its (your) survival. The rabbit points to a successful outcome, but earned in a way that goes against your sense of self—you are afraid you can survive only by giving in to the reality enforced by said false friend. That you can still hear the voice of self-preservation (even if it’s wounded) inside the rabbit’s throat is a good sign.