Twelve years ago, I wrote to Rainbow Bridge about the death of my 15-year-old feline companion, Kitty. When I knew that she was definitely dying but not suffering or in pain, I chose to keep her at home with me instead of subjecting her to a terrifying trip to the vet's office (where she hated to go with a passion). I made a soft bed on the floor and lay beside her, cradling her in my arms, petting her and telling her how much I loved her and that I knew that it was time for her to leave and that it was "OK" for her to pass on to the other side. I had never been present at the death of a pet before and, in her final moments, I mentally tried to "help" direct her in the way that I believe people experience death (the tunnel, the light, etc.). I was mentally projecting these images to her when I was totally blindsided by what really happened when she passed. A huge onrush of cat spirits – large, small, wild, tame – swept in past me, absorbed Kitty into their midst.and carried her away. They had come for one of their own. I would never have imagined that this would be the way it would happen.

I have been blessed in not losing another pet until last week when my beloved 12-year-old Sophie died from sudden kidney failure. This time, the cat spirit experience was quite different. My husband and I had no clue that Sophie was terminally ill until the very end. She was a sweet and loving cat who, when not snuggling or sleeping with us, spent a lot of time alone because she disliked that we had brought in more cats after her. She obviously had wanted to an "only child". A few days before her death, I was bringing the groceries in through our garage and thought I saw a cat in there – just a glimpse from the corner of my eye. I closed the door and searched every inch of the garage but found no cat. A few hours later, my husband entered the house through the garage not knowing what I had experienced, and excitedly told me that he had just seen a strange cat sitting on the seat of our boat in the garage staring at our kitchen door. We both searched again and could not find a cat. For the next few days, we sensed the presence of this cat in our garage and decided that it was there in spirit. We were mystified why a strange cat spirit would choose our garage to inhabit. Iit was clearly not that of any cat we were familiar with. Then Sophie, went from appearing normal to looking deathly ill in one afternoon. I called my vet and arranged to bring her in the next morning. It was then that it hit me that the mysterious cat spirit had been sent to escort Sophie to the other side. I wondered why this process was different from the huge stampede of cats who took my Kitty. I prayed about it and the answer came: Sophie didn't like to be around a lot of other cats, so just one was sent to take her away.

She had a rough night and I really didn't expect her to make it until dawn. Yet, in the morning, she seemed much better. She got up and walked around the house, jumped up into the window to smell the breeze (which she rarely did before), and interacted nicely with the other cats. Shortly before taking her to the vet's office, she did a strange thing. Se walked into the kitchen and sat in front of the door to the garage. She stared intently at it and started to cry and mew as if she wanted to go into the garage (which is a place she had no interest in going into at any point of her life). It was as if she knew the cat spirit was in there and wanted to be with it. The vet examined her and drew blood and it turned out that her kidneys had totally shut down and the vet said that, from the result of the blood tests, it was medically impossible for her to still be alive. She was only hours from death and was starting to suffer, so we had to make the difficult decision to have her euthanized. When we brought her body home, the spirit cat was gone from the garage.

I find it comforting that cats are not alone as they pass into a new realm, that they are accompanied by their own kind, and that the experience can be adapted to individual cat's personalities and preferences. It's only been a week and I am deeply grieving, but I know that my Sophie is in "good paws"