anniversary of her cat Barney’s passing, she found paw prints on her white living room windowsill, as if a cat had walked in through her window from outdoors. Mind you, Page’s apartment is on the third floor of her building and this was not a window that had a fire escape or any way for an animal to climb up to that window. As Page told me, “I may not be the best housekeeper, but there’s no way I could have had paw prints on my windowsill and not see them for a year!” She knew that her dear little cat had come to pay her a visit and she was very moved by this.
Do our pets reincarnate, like humans do?
God’s got a lot of secrets and that’s not one I’ve been given the answer to, but I can tell you that I have heard some stories that lead me to believe that at the very least, our pets can act somewhat like our guardian angels and human spirits on the Other Side, in that they have a hand in sending a new friend our way. Sometimes they have enough of a connection to us that they are able to let us know what’s going on, when a new pet is coming so we can keep our eyes open.
After my first book came out, I was at the Rockaway Mall and I went into Book World. I always liked to stop in whatever bookstore I’m near and be sure they have it—I’m so proud of it. I saw a guy who worked there and I started to ask, “Do you have Do Dead People… ?” He says, “Stop right there—we just got a shipment in. I’m just opening the box.” I told him, “Oh, that’s okay, I wasn’t looking for it, I just wanted to be sure you had it—that’s my book!” He says, “Oh, my god, you are, like, the most famous person in Boonton!” That cracked me up. But I’ll take it—it might be a small pond, but I’m the big fish! Anyway, we got to chatting a bit and I told him that for the book I was working on, I planned to put in a lot of stories about pets because so many people asked me this kind of question. He said, “Really? Well, I gotta tell you about my cat. My cat was more than just a pet; she was everything to me. But when she was eighteen years old, she got sick and I had to make the very hard decision to have her put down. I just felt terrible about it, but I couldn’t stand to have her suffer. It was just the kindest thing to do, even if it killed me. That night I had a dream that my cat was sitting at the end of my bed. The dream was so real, and in it my cat told me, ‘In six months I’m coming back.’ She said, ‘I’ll be all black, and I’ll be with my brother.’” Well, six months go by and this gentleman is watching his calendar and he knows it’s time for his cat to return to him if this dream is at all true. So what does he do? He begins checking out all the shelters in the area, one after the other. He told me he literally went to ten different shelters, looking for an all black cat with a brother. Finally, in the last shelter, he finds a pair of cats that fit the description, just like his cat had described to him in his dream—a brother and sister, the sister all black. She needed surgery for a hernia, so nobody wanted to adopt them and take on that expense. Well, he did, and the cats have been with him ever since.
Another amazing story: My friend Barbara is a monkey—that is, according to the Chinese zodiac. She’s also part wood nymph (not to mention, she’s more psychic than most). She lives in Queens, very close to Alley Pond Park, which is mostly woods, and for many years has loved nothing better than taking her dogs for walks along the trails there. Barbara has only one human child, her daughter, but she’s had lots of furry-faced, four-legged children, and that’s really how she feels about them. Where another person might have framed photos of their family, Barbara has framed her favorite pictures of her beloved dogs. When one of her pets crosses over, for her it’s just as crushing as losing a child. A good number of years ago, Barbara had a little mixed terrier with
Do our pets reincarnate, like humans do?
God’s got a lot of secrets and that’s not one I’ve been given the answer to, but I can tell you that I have heard some stories that lead me to believe that at the very least, our pets can act somewhat like our guardian angels and human spirits on the Other Side, in that they have a hand in sending a new friend our way. Sometimes they have enough of a connection to us that they are able to let us know what’s going on, when a new pet is coming so we can keep our eyes open.
After my first book came out, I was at the Rockaway Mall and I went into Book World. I always liked to stop in whatever bookstore I’m near and be sure they have it—I’m so proud of it. I saw a guy who worked there and I started to ask, “Do you have Do Dead People… ?” He says, “Stop right there—we just got a shipment in. I’m just opening the box.” I told him, “Oh, that’s okay, I wasn’t looking for it, I just wanted to be sure you had it—that’s my book!” He says, “Oh, my god, you are, like, the most famous person in Boonton!” That cracked me up. But I’ll take it—it might be a small pond, but I’m the big fish! Anyway, we got to chatting a bit and I told him that for the book I was working on, I planned to put in a lot of stories about pets because so many people asked me this kind of question. He said, “Really? Well, I gotta tell you about my cat. My cat was more than just a pet; she was everything to me. But when she was eighteen years old, she got sick and I had to make the very hard decision to have her put down. I just felt terrible about it, but I couldn’t stand to have her suffer. It was just the kindest thing to do, even if it killed me. That night I had a dream that my cat was sitting at the end of my bed. The dream was so real, and in it my cat told me, ‘In six months I’m coming back.’ She said, ‘I’ll be all black, and I’ll be with my brother.’” Well, six months go by and this gentleman is watching his calendar and he knows it’s time for his cat to return to him if this dream is at all true. So what does he do? He begins checking out all the shelters in the area, one after the other. He told me he literally went to ten different shelters, looking for an all black cat with a brother. Finally, in the last shelter, he finds a pair of cats that fit the description, just like his cat had described to him in his dream—a brother and sister, the sister all black. She needed surgery for a hernia, so nobody wanted to adopt them and take on that expense. Well, he did, and the cats have been with him ever since.
Another amazing story: My friend Barbara is a monkey—that is, according to the Chinese zodiac. She’s also part wood nymph (not to mention, she’s more psychic than most). She lives in Queens, very close to Alley Pond Park, which is mostly woods, and for many years has loved nothing better than taking her dogs for walks along the trails there. Barbara has only one human child, her daughter, but she’s had lots of furry-faced, four-legged children, and that’s really how she feels about them. Where another person might have framed photos of their family, Barbara has framed her favorite pictures of her beloved dogs. When one of her pets crosses over, for her it’s just as crushing as losing a child. A good number of years ago, Barbara had a little mixed terrier with
Similar Books
