I am currently in the first 72 hours of grieving my new companion. His name is Bagheera, he was just over 7 months old and passed away on the road in the night of Tuesday 2nd July or early morning of Wednesday 3rd July. It has been a big shock and I am absolutely devastated and going through a lot of emotions,

I adopted Bagheera about 6 months after my best friend passed from kidney disease on September 10th 2018. He was a black and white Tuxedo named Ernie and was nearly 15 years old. He is the love of my life. I am sure I will see him again. I know we are destined to be together forever.

Bagheera was a beautiful black oriental shorthair. Named after the black panther in Jungle Book. On the day of Bagheera's adoption, I looked up at my bedroom shelf and there sat my dear Ernie. I had Ernie cremated as I could not bear the thought of ever being without him. I could not bring myself to bury him as I always dreamt we would have our first home together. Well, now one day his ashes will be buried with me. So, there sat his Urn on my shelf. His Urn is a wooden black cat curled up in a sleeping pose. The face of the cat looks strikingly oriental. That is when I noticed the profound resemblance. The Urn looked just like Bagheera. I could not believe it! It was a sign, it was meant to be!

I told my mother as we were getting in to the car to travel up north to Hope Valley, where Bagheera resided with his mother and siblings. It was about a 2 hour drive or so.

Days before our trip to Hope Valley, I had been discussing an old church that I used to see as a child when visiting my great grandmother with my grandparents. I have always longed to be able to see her one more time and I always think of the church with the crooked spire in the distance from our trips to see her when I was a child.

Well on our return from Hope Valley after a successful adoption with Bagheera, I looked out our car window and there stood the church, only I was the closest I had ever been to it that I had to look upwards into the sky. We were right outside it! I couldn't believe it! First the the name of Bagheera's residence was Hope Valley, secondly Ernie's Urn looked just like Bagheera and thirdly I just crossed paths with the church I had wanted to see after nearly 20 years. What were the chances?

I think I took some pictures and video footage on my phone as we were passing.

Finally we arrived home and settled Bagheera in.

Bagheera brought me and my family months of love and joy. He was the most amazing boy. The best boy, like all of our boys and all of our girls. Just the absolute best. He was so loving and playful. He always wanted to play chase and be carried around all the time. He loved to lay on his back, or be held like a baby and get his cute little kitten tummy rubbed and he would spread his beautiful webbed paw pads open and enjoy having them petted. He was just everything. I could go on and on and on.

I am blessed to have had him as my baby. Beyond blessed. I am at some comfort to know that we will be together forever, and I want you to be at some comfort too. So I will tell you a personal family story that I was only told just over 24 hours ago as I write this.

Yesterday night (just over 24 hours in to Bagheera's passing) I was sat by my mother in the living room. As you can imagine our topic of discussion was Bagheera and how we felt and what happened to him. Well I got to the topic of spirits, some how.

When my mother's brother was 17, he passed away in a tragedy. My grandmother losing her son was very traumatic for her and during her grieving process, one of the things she did to cope was research mediums (I think that is the correct term) and eventually she was having meetings with a medium/spirit guide. There were many things that the medium could not have known, including the pregnancy of me (they found out my mother was pregnant with a girl through the medium speaking with my grandmother's son/my uncle). She would have many meetings and during one meeting my grandpa attended with my grandma. He was very skeptical. During this meeting she would once again reveal things that no one could know. My grandpa still being skeptical decided to ask the medium a question. His question was "what about Nicky, is Nicky there?" and without hesitation the medium said "Oh! Yes, Nicky is fine, he has just jumped up on my lap and licked my face".
Now.. Nicky was a beautiful (Very human) dog my grandparents owned that passed away before I was born. The medium knew absolutely nothing about this dog, there was no way the medium could have known or obtained the information. Keeping in mind this was in the mid-late 80s and they did not have the internet or social media. How did the medium know that "Nicky" was not a human being? How did the medium known that Nicky was specifically an animal? A dog? A male dog? How? There was no way. It was them. Nicky was there and so was my grandparent's son, communicating with the medium.

Now I know that Ernie, Bagheera and all of my beloved pets are over there with all of my family members and ancestors that have passed on too. There really is a rainbow bridge.

Not only that but Bagheera has shown me the meaning of life. I have suffered from anxiety and depression for many years and am going through a depressive wave at the moment, so his passing this past three days has not helped - just as I was getting back on track too. Though when I get negative, I do get frustrated with life and question what the whole "point" of life is.

My experience through Bagheera may be the start of my healing.

Through him I have been shown that the point of life is to create these bonds with others and with our pets. Because when we love them and they love us back, they are connected directly to us. When they pass over, they are there waiting for us. When we pass over, we will be with them in a better place and we will have them forever. Not for 15 years, 20 years, 5 years, or 7 months. Forever.

So continue to love.. continue to adopt, continue to bond. Don't let the passing of your loved one get you down. You have met them for a reason, you have bonded to them for a reason. This world is our hub, where we meet over souls and we fall in love. Life is short and we don't have forever here. So make the most of loving.. adopt a new friend and experience life with them and don't be so disheartened when they pass over. Don't let it consume you for too long. Just know that they are over there, they are healthy and happy and experiencing pure joy. You are in this world to create your forever family and soon you will be experiencing your forever with them.

Furthermore, I do know that despite the experiences my grandparents had with a medium, some can say it could be deception from negative energy/bad spirits being channelled and posing as our loved ones. I am open minded and so I am aware that it could well be the case. However, if the bad can exist, so can our loved ones. So even if the bad are faking and deceiving us in our most vulnerable time, it's still our solid proof that our loved ones have passed on and will be waiting for us on the other side. As if such bad exists, so does the good. I just want you to rest assured.

RIP BAGHEERA OUR SWEET BABY ANGEL, LITTLE BABY POPPABEAR, MOMMA, AUNTY AND GWANDMA'S BEST BOY. WE LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN PURR, MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. WE ARE SO LOST WITHOUT YOU RIGHT NOW BUT WE WILL SEE YOU SOON AND WE WILL LOVE MORE FOREVER SIBLINGS FOR YOU TO LOVE WITH US ONE DAY OVER THERE. SEE YOU SOON ANGEL, I LOVE YOU. LOVE FROM MOMMAS. I MISS YOU.

ALL THE KISSES AND MORE.

LAUREN XXXXX