When a Feline’s Behavior Speaks
Recently a feline friend began showing up in places that required acknowledgement before she would move beyond the spot. Let me add some context, her human, a family friend was in hospice at home when she began sharing where he was, what he was trying to say when the words were not forthcoming and what she wanted him to know when he asked a key question.
His feline friend of nearly fifteen years, she began climbing to the highest point in his home, atop the kitchen cupboards where she had a direct view of where he laid. Why the highest point and better yet, why wouldn’t she come down?
She was sharing a message that he was going in and out of states of consciousness while he napped. In those moments that she wouldn’t come down, it was a message that he was ascending through the different levels and although our human eyes showed him on his bed, he very much was above it doing some higher-level work in preparation.
Later when we, my mom and I both went up to see him and his feline the next day she was back down and he asked clearly the question does he continue to fight and as we answered that to the best of our ability stating that was truly up to him as he had taken care of his wife for the past six years when she was in an off-site memory care center and had recently passed. His cat had for the first time walked into the bathroom sitting near the shower then as I watched her, moved to sitting in front of the toilet, but not moving until I acknowledged what she was communicating.
He had made sure she would be taken care of in the event something happened to him with pre-arrangements. Now she shared as I relayed her words via her symbols to him that she would be okay, and it was okay for him to choose renewal and to release (or let go). Once I spoke her words aloud, she returned to the room with us.
In his next breath, he was asking for something but couldn’t get the words to come and we weren’t sure what he was trying to say until said kitty wouldn’t allow my mom to move beyond her until she closed the blinds a bit which is what he was trying to communicate. Then and only then did she move.
She continued sharing messages of things occurring underneath or below the surface of his body when she began going under the covers and laying at his feet. In other words that is where he was in his journey home. The next day as she sat beside him on the bed, he transitioned.
Other animal friends have shared this message of things occurring beneath the surface by positioning themselves under a table. Most often this is a rare space for he or she to lay…so we begin to question why now mostly when they themselves are getting closer to crossing over. Those sharing this message will make certain we are seeing or noticing what they are doing or where they are at – this in itself is a communication from them.
Sometimes it is believed that the animal companions that we have around us do not understand us or that of life in general or what is coming – and yet in my personal experience with them they understand way more than is often perceived of our journey forward through this life.
It’s been a heart-heavy walk mixed with a lot of love and support. Hard to see the sad, somewhat lost look in her eyes and feel it as she walked about the too quiet apartment. The music gone not only from her person, but also physically gone by the tv service being disconnected. If you are someone that leaves music or the tv on for your animal family while you are away from the house, this is something to add to an unexpected plan for the period the pets are at the home. The key is to keep it as normal as can be and bring as much comfort as possible in an unusual experience.
In the end, it felt like she was more ready than we were for her next journey. As I write this it is with fond memories of the friendship with her parents when I first met them in 2010 while visiting with my parents after they moved into the complex. Then getting to know her dad, this feline, and her sister even more in 2018 when I began doing vacation visits with his girls through 11/11/2021. I walked with them in that capacity through the many changes in their lives and since then as friends.
Her father was a sweet, soft-spoken gentleman who was very much open to the ways animals speak with us and the threads of their lives that are intertwined with ours over a lifetime. With this feline, I will remember the journey together along with her commandeering a chair at the gatherings her dad hosted – she was always ready to socialize and be one of the gang in spite of her seemingly quiet nature! With her sister, I was honored to see her walk from quiet, hidden, and insecure to visible, loving, and interacting before her death in 2020.
We do not ever really know what our walk with people, clients, and the animal beings will be like – how long we are meant to be in each other’s lives or which twists and turns will take us out of walking together. I can say it is always much bigger than what is on the perceived surface.
