12

A Bridging Story

To take us from the first half of this book into the second half, which will focus on coping with grief, I am honoured to share this special story. This was written and kindly shared by Hildreth Grace Rinehart, who lives and works with her equine and other animal friends in the state of Vermont in the United States:

Each story is unique and special, but Raja the cat is the first to teach me communication from beyond physical form.

Raja was one of a litter of six deposited in an outbuilding on the property we shared with friends—an old Amish village of about 130 acres.

He was the loud one—black, long-haired with clear green eyes. He came to join our family, sort of by default. When we moved back up north, I tried to leave him with friends since we were up to seven cats then! However, he joined us for the move and grew to the age of 15 before he was to become the only animal in our family to be so sick that he needed to be put to sleep. So, here we are, over 15 years of caring for as many of these beloved creatures as we could, and now—for the first time—we must help one of them to die.

It was an aggressive lymphatic cancer, and medicines were not reversing it nor providing enough comfort. It was a clear choice, and we had the assistance of a professional animal communicator, Irene Lane, to find the timing, and a lovely sensitive veterinarian to come to the house when the time was right.

It was a full turnaround for me—from helping him to live and thrive all those years to telling him it was time to go.

In his last week, Raja made his rounds of each dog and cat in the family, having a bedtime snuggle with each in turn.

He stopped eating and could not walk well. He then gave me the message, as Irene said he would, “I’m ready”. It was unmistakeable.

His passing was beautiful and brimming with love and support from his humans. It was like dropping off to sleep and then his body gradually shut down over about ten minutes. I held him and felt his essence swirl around his body as he worked out that things were winding down. I then got a gentle message to break physical contact.

I let him go and immediately felt what I can only describe as his essence jumping from his body and then saw a brief glimpse into this beautiful pattern of pulsing, thriving energy, just like a portal opened up and he flew in.

He was gone, and I felt the thread that connects our hearts stretch out with him into this life force, and with it came the knowing that one gift of death is that it joins these heart threads across time and space, connecting us all unconsciously to the very stuff that life is made of, creating a web that is part of the life force itself.

It was stunning to discover how much presence Raja had been to our family until then—a quietly noble heart of the family.

The next part of this beautiful story continues later, when we discuss the phenomena of pet bereavement (see here). In the chapters that follow meanwhile, together, we’ll look at coping with grief and how to gently but surely find a way through the many twists and turns that this journey can present.