Visits From the Fur Side

I know this will be a controversial entry. But I think that no matter what anyone’s belief system is, we all want the same thing; a visit from our departed fur-children. I am someone who respects all beliefs and opinions. I myself believe that energy does not die, it simply transforms into something else. Where the energy goes, no one knows for sure until it’s our time. But for the most part many of us have come to accept the idea of the Rainbow Bridge. Whether we really believe in it or whether we accept it to help us through a difficult mourning process is different for everyone. But no one wants to believe their pet simply disappears after they pass.

We all see the Rainbow Bridge differently. I used to think it was silly and never wanted to let myself imagine it. Now it helps me deal with Alex’s passing; even four years later. Before I took Alex in, I had a cat named Patches for 20 years. She was not the love bug that Alex was by any means but I loved her very much and accepted her rough personality for what it was. When she passed away I had the most wonderful dream. It was incredibly vivid and helped me greatly to heal. I dreamed that an angel came to me and told me that our souls were connected (mine and Patches). We were now separated by her physical death but our souls would meet again. The angel was gorgeous and so bright, even in my dream my eyes had trouble adjusting. It was just a dream but it carried me through some dark days.

I did not have any dreams like that after Alex died but she passed in my car on the way to the ER as opposed to Patches, who passed peacefully at the vet. The way Alex passed affected me deeply and I became shut off to everything. I was incredibly angry and traumatized. It took months for me to even open my mind to the possibility of a dream or visit from her. I was convinced it was never going to happen. Finally one morning I woke up very suddenly to the feeling of a cat jumping onto my bed. I only had Finnegan at that point but he was not in the room with me and the door was closed to him, so it was not him. I sat up and believed it was my imagination until I saw imprinted paw prints on my blankets. I very carefully got out of bed, trying not to disturb the prints and ran to get my mom, who lives downstairs. She came upstairs and the prints were still there, she saw them too, clear as day. It took almost 20 minutes for those prints to fade. Since then I’ve had more visits. I’ve seen Finney and Lacey playing together but acting strangely at the same time, like someone else their size was there playing with them. They’ve both been completely hypnotized for as long as 10 minutes at a time staring at her picture so intently, nothing I do breaks the stare. We’ve all heard a meow here inside my apartment when both of my kits were sound asleep and the tv isn’t even on. Several times it’s happened loud enough to wake them up.

There are more happenings and whether or not anyone believes these things happened doesn’t matter to me. I believe it and it’s made a big difference in my healing process. If you’ve had experiences and visits from your pets that have passed, but are not sure what to think or make of it; my answer to that is to think and feel whatever you want! Don’t talk yourself out of it because you’re afraid of what others will think or because you think it’s not real. Let yourself have the experience and heal from it, never mind if it’s real or not. Go with it and allow yourself to see or feel your baby again. Perception of reality is different for each person and what you perceive to be real and true, is all that matters.