Dream of being a leopard in a war

I have another dream for you all! I don't remember the entire dream, but I will write what I can remember right off.
Once again, in this dream my mom and dad were there, although my dad was being represented by a different person. We lived in a small, maze-like, run down house with extension cords and wires all over the place. It wasn't a safe place to live at all, but we still felt comfortable in it. This house was situated on the edge of a desert, just where the cities and beaches give way to desert, and on the other side of the desert was a warlord. I'm not sure if my dad was a part of some military operation in the dream or if he just had a personal beef with this warlord, but in the dream my dad and his small army of a few supportive friends were preparing to go confront the warlord. I was going with them, and mon wasn't happy about it so she went to go boating with friends.
In this dream, I was a white leopard instead of myself, and in preparing to go confront the warlord I was fitted with this harness and then a rat was placed on the harness. The rat and I could communicate, and it seemed as though we were good friends. Since I have had rats as pets in the past, I'm not sure if the rat in my dream is supposed to symbolize the typical theif or traitor, or if it's supposed to represent things and people I care about. Anyways, everyone is ready and then we set off. I go ahead of the group because as a leopard I was faster and more powerful. I was making sure to take down any soldiers who might be in the way, and then, once we reached the warlord, he came out of his house to greet us eagerly. He was one of those really friendly but still villainous characters. He invited us in and offered everyone brownies, but as we were eating the brownies, he started laughing and saying how the fuses in the brownies were going to make a good show. I immediately spit mine put, but nobody else did, and seconds later their heads exploded, including my dad's. The warlord turned to me and gave me a message, though I can't remember what he said, and then he sent me on my way. I ran all the way home, by that time it was night in the dream, and mom was just getting back. I collapsed on the floor and started hyperventilating because my dad was gone, and mom looked at me and seemed to know what had happened and started to cry. That was when I woke up.
I'm not really sure what to make of this dream. Some parts were familiar, about the unsafe house as the plave we live in now is pretty old and a lot of stuff breaks in it, as well as where my mom was upset at my dad and I for going, as she usually disagrees with us on various decisions and it winds up in an argument. What are you guys' thoughts?