Chippie - Very interesting! Thank you for taking the time to post this. Wonderfully informative post.
Some further insight - While I do own a solid black cat (I pretty much have the spectrum covered), this was not my cat. While there was a feeling of concern on my part, there was absolutely no fright, panic, foreboding, danger aura, on my part or that of the cat. It was almost as if the injury was to get my attention. The blood clearly was the cat's and was mostly near 1 side of head/ear. There was no indication whatsoever about what caused the injury. Also, there was no sound - the cat did not cry and I did not speak. It was striking that the cat did not act injured at all, almost like the blood/injury was not real.
From a prior real life experience, I do associate 1717 with animal injury/loss, but not sure if this translates to dream world.
The mention of problems with work - internet access out intermittently for days, screwed up my work royally and actually got me into a little hot water. Again, not my fault per se, but still my responsibility in the end.
Trusting my intuition -- always a welcome reminder. When I turned the final time to get the cat and he had disappeared, I remember thinking that I did not know where he could possibly have gone or how I would possibly find him.
Jake