Gila monster
A heavy, venomous desert lizard — slow, brilliantly patterned warning given to anything that comes too close.
A gila monster in a dream is the dream's image of a creature so well marked that the warning is the first thing about it. The gila monster is slow; the patterning is the defence, and the bite is what happens to anything that ignores the patterning. The dream brings the gila monster when something in your life — a person, a written rule, a public policy — is broadcasting its danger clearly and is still being approached by people who choose not to read the markings. A gila monster left alone in the rocks is the dream affirming that the warning was respected. A gila monster locked onto a hand that reached for it anyway is the dream noting that the creature did not surprise anyone, and the harm being done was first refused as a possibility.