Messing With Mother: AL the Cat
 

Last week This month we revisit the story of Al the Cat. Al, as you will recall, recycled and after uncharacteristically leaping the six foot fence, threw himself under the wheels of a car passing through the neighborhood. He returned as he said he would albeit in more dramatic fashion than had been planned as Caron and I were erranding in Pet Smart.

Caron heard him in her head and said to me from the front of the store, “Al is here.” We went to the refugee section of the store and discovered a tiny white kitten standing on his hind legs pounding on his enclosure and meowing loudly as we came into view. Our delight at his return was unbounded and he happily rejoined his cat clan—the two four year old Bengals--after being redeemed by the coin of the realm at the Pet Smart check out line.

Except there was a problem.

Rescued from a shelter before winding up at Pet Smart, he was flea and worm-ridden by the time we got to him and not particularly strong. During the last four months since his return, his health was an ongoing challenge. Many trips to the vet and countless doses of this and that, prescription, herbal and holistic, failed to eliminate his diarrhea. While we met a large number of nice people in the process of pursuing his health and well-being, most recently we decided to end the process.

His check up revealed that his internal condition had reached a point so as to compromise his longevity and decrease his quality of life. So, having exhausted all known avenues in the physical plane, Al has again passed into the realm of Spirit. Aside from the discomfort he was in, he was also displaying signs of disorientation, lapses in vision and loss of appetite. When he began to eliminate and defecate on the carpet having previously had no difficulty relating to his litter box, we knew it was time to take action.

So, Al, having grown to the age of 6 months and six and a half pounds will now have an interlude in the spirit world. I expect to see him again sometime after the first of February. The exact time and circumstances remain a mystery. Consult the March issue of Just Breathe! for the update.

It appears as if his “problem” stemmed from the trauma of his prior physical death. Plainly speaking, he came back too soon. We have requested he wait to reappear until after he has resolved those issues and can happily occupy and support a healthy body.

It is my hope that he will be even more communicative than in the past and can tell us of his time in the spirit realm. I’d like to have Caron and I write a book on the past lives of pets—told from the joint perspective of the pet and the people with whom he incarnates. In the meantime, we are saddened for ourselves at the loss of his physical presence and encouraged that he is now out of discomfort and resting peacefully.

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