My magical cat, Silver, came to me in a dream. And then he brought Jezibel to me.
When my previous cat, Miss Winters, made the transition, I suffered a lot. My friends kept calling me to say they knew of a cat that needed a home, but I knew she wasn’t ready for another one. If she had taken another cat before ending the duel for Winter, she would have been comparing the new cat to her. That wouldn’t be fair to the new cat.
A couple of years after Winter’s death, I dreamed of a gray cat. It was as if he was lying on the ground and the cat was walking towards me. That’s all. About 15 seconds of a dream, but he stayed with me all that day and the next.
Three days after the gray cat dream, a woman I knew who worked at my vet’s office called me. “We have a cat here from the shelter who is ready to be adopted and I think you should check him out. His name is Silver Cloud.”
When he said his name I was stunned. My first thought was, “He’s here! The gray cat from my dream is here…and I don’t even have cat food or a litter box!” I made arrangements to go see him the next day.
On the way to the vet’s office, I stopped to pick up a friend who wanted to go with me and see this dream cat I had told her about. When we got to the vet’s office, we went inside and were taken to a room with huge cages. The vet assistant took Silver out of a cage and gave him to me to hold. He was so excited I could barely sit still, and he kept moving from my left shoulder to my right and back again and then he’d slump back and look at me, almost like he couldn’t believe I was really there.
While this was going on, my friend was telling the vet and her assistant about a black kitten she had but abandoned because she got married and her husband hated cats. She still missed the cat deeply. The vet assistant turned and took a small black cat out of another cage and gave it to my friend, probably hoping she would fall in love with the cat and adopt it.
Before anyone could say a word, Silver saw the kitten, flung himself back into my arms, stretched his arm around the kitten’s neck, and pulled her to him. He started licking her face as if he was kissing her all over.
Both the vet and her assistant were stunned. “Those two cats have never met,” the vet finally said.
We watched the festival of love for a while and I finally told them that I would take Silver with me and return the next day to pick him up, having bought cat food and other essentials.
The next day I arrived to pick up the cat of my dreams, but I was in for a surprise. “We let Silver and Jezibel, the black kitten, stay out of their cages in the room and they played together, ate together, slept together, and were basically inseparable…and you have to take them both,” he said. the vet announced.
“No. I just want a cat,” I replied.
Well, this discussion went on for a while until finally she said, “Take both of them or you won’t get Silver. I won’t even charge you for Jezibel.”
And that’s how I ended up with two cats.
Fifteen years have passed since that day and every day I have been so grateful that the vet made me take both cats. They have loved each other so much every day since that first day. They still sleep near or next to each other, eat together, have lick fests, and basically love each other terribly.
Or they did, until yesterday. Recently, Jezibel had grown weaker, she was eating less and less and was beginning to have difficulty breathing. She soon got so bad that she couldn’t cross the room without stopping to catch her breath. So she took her to the vet yesterday and her determination was that she had a tumor that was causing fluid to overfill in the area around her heart and lungs making it difficult for her to breathe. There was nothing that could be done to improve it. So my husband and I made the most difficult decision to allow the vet to put her to sleep.
I am very sad that I will not be able to enjoy Jezibel and the special connection we had. Still, I am grateful that they allowed me to enjoy it for so many years. And I am even more grateful to have been able to witness the deep and lasting love that she and Silver had for each other.
I think she and Silver had a communication to the latter about her getting off this plane. At one point he simply sat next to her in silence as they stared into her eyes. He doesn’t seem to miss her, he doesn’t look for her or anything like her. I believe that when beloved pets make the transition, the spirit of her remains for a period of time. It’s almost as if the pet wants to continue sharing the love of her for a while to help those left behind adjust to the loss of her. I think Silver senses that her spirit is still here… and so do I.
Remember… love is forever
As I was writing this article, I was reminded of another one I wrote years ago after the death of a dear friend. One day I was talking to a wise friend about my reaction and my deep grievance at the death of my other friend. I reflected on the fact that we came from love or fear, and since this hurt didn’t feel like love, it must be fear of some kind. But fear of what?
She did not disappoint and instantly gave me the wisdom I was looking for. “The grievance,” she said, “is the fear of lack of love.”
It makes a lot of sense. When someone, or something like a beloved pet that we love, dies, we fear that the love we share with that person will also die. But here’s the truth: once energy is created, it exists for eternity. Love, like all emotions, is energy. This means that when you lose someone or something you loved, the energy of that love still exists. And you can touch it anytime you want so you can enjoy it again.
It is easy. All you have to do is remember an instance or event with that person or thing that created the feeling of love within you. And you will feel it again in an instant, whenever you want. And the best part is that you can never lose a memory that creates the energy of love for you.
So if you feel yourself starting to sink into the sadness of grief, remember that it is a sign to you that you are afraid that you have lost love. Know that you can never lose love because it is eternal. And then remember a moment or an experience that brought you the feeling of love. By doing so, you will feel that love energy once more.