From: whatever@twixtntween.com   
      
   On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 12:47:42 -0800, Crowfoot  wrote:   
      
   >> >>My cat will be 15 in August, and is showing signs that that choice   
   >> >>could   
   >> >>come any time, so this has been on my mind lately . . .   
   >> >>   
   >> >>C.   
   >> >   
   >> >I wish you and your cat good luck.  For me it was a very difficult   
   >>   
   >> "Wrenching" and "devastating" would be better words.  And I miss her   
   >> painfully - which is one of the reasons I have so much anxiety that I   
   >> must get to see her when I die.  I want intensely for us to meet again   
   >> as we were in this lifetime, even if only for a little while (although   
   >> I'd love for us to be together eternally).   
   >>   
   >> >time   
   >>   
   >> Again, I wish the best to you and your cat.   
   >   
   >Thanks; for general information, a friend of mine who is a scholar of   
   >shamanism and its techniques went journeying after his beloved cat   
   >died, aiming specifically for the realm of the recently dead, where he   
   >found the cat waiting for him so that he could say his farewells and   
   >bid it head onward across a high, thin bridge to a brightly-lit shore   
   >on (literally!) the other side.  He's a hardheaded guy, too, not what   
   >I would call a sentimental one or someone given to reassuring fantasy.   
   >   
   >C.   
      
   I wish I'd known how to do that.  I did, though, receive a   
   hello/goodbye message from my cat in the form of an auditory   
   visitation a few days after her passing.  I believed I would receive a   
   visual apparition*, but unfortunately that never happened.  I'm   
   grateful for what I did receive, though.  But I'd have loved to be   
   able to contact her in the way your friend was able to contact his   
   cat.  I still hope intensely that I'll be reunited with her after my   
   death.   
      
   * When I was much younger, there was a stray cat that I fed a few   
   times, who was badly tattered from fights, etc.  At that time, I had   
   two cats of my own, one of which was my beloved cat who passed away   
   five years ago.  Anyway, I didn't see the stray for a few weeks until   
   one day when I opened my door onto the fire escape and saw him/her run   
   inside my apartment.  I was concerned about a fight ensuing between   
   the stray and my own two cats so I searched my apartment, including   
   the closets, to find the stray.  There was no sign of him/her.  Later,   
   I asked neighbors if they'd seen the stray, and I was told s/he had   
   passed away a couple of weeks before I saw him/her come into my   
   apartment.  So, I was kind of hoping for the same luck when my cat   
   passed away.  Unfortunately I haven't seen her, but at least I did   
   hear her.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)