What are your thoughts on pets and the afterlife?
 

Just recently, on 1-11-11, I had to make the painful decision to end my best friends life. She had been the most wonderful cat that you can imagine, and she came into my life around 10 years ago, during its lowest point.

I was there the day she was born, and I was there as she took her last breath and her heart stopped at 5:43pm and 21 seconds. I had looked at my watch when the vet told me that she was now gone. She had feline leukemia and was suffering. They said that there was nothing they could do for her and that she would only get worse. It was the worst day of my life.

I know some would say that it is just an animal, and I have lost pets before, but nothing compares to this for me. At the time she was born, I was very depressed and battling thought of suicide. She somehow could see my pain and formed a bond with me that is hard to explain. Her unconditional love is what helped me to heal and turn my life around. She literally saved my life, and became my best friend and companion.

I'd like to think that she is in a better place, and that I'll see her again, but I just don't know what to think. It's been 3 weeks and I still get emotional and teary-eyed when I think of her. I have not have any dreams of her yet, nor any signs from her that I noticed. I also have had experiences in the past with spirits of people who have passed, but nothing concerning animals. I would appreciate any thoughts anyone here might have on pets and what happens when they pass over. Thank you.

Dear daver,

I am with you, and I perfectly understand what you feel.

Even though I am not an expert, I noticed that beliefs about the existence of a pet "spirit" or "soul" strongly depends on each person.

But it doesn't matter indeed. It truly matters what she was for you, how she helped heal your life, and all unconditional love she gave you during her life.

Such sweet memories and her love won't disappear with her death. I am sure that when the time goes by, and you feel a little bit more calm in your grief, you will receive a projection of her love in many ways. Maybe in your dreams, or looking at her picture, or perhaps remembering her purrs when she was pleased.

Please, take our opinions here as a mere reference and not as a law, and hopefully you will go ahead on your own path of spiritual evolution keeping her as the guide of compasion she truly was.

Receive my hug. :hug2:

:hug: Daver


It is totally understandable to feel as u do after the loss of your pet, i too have had to make the same decission on a few occasions, your pet will live on some same the animals go to play over the rainbow bridge,
i have felt my own pets since having to make the painful desicion to put them to sleep.
and have heard my dog barking its his way of letting me know hes ok, your pets live on after all there is no such thing as death only life after life.
your cat is well ,

Namaste

Mybe you know it, but just in case.... It's to read with an open mind. I personally don't believe in heaven as a place to go but time ago, I strongly decided to abandon rigid thoughts and to take the best of each world, and I am able to take good things from it.
:smile:

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

:hug3:

Very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I had two cats die this past year. Both have visited me in dreams. The last one took four months to show up but there she was just about a week ago. I picked her up and we smiled at one another. I'm certain she stopped by to say "hi". The other one has shown up several times in dreams and the last time she showed me the new color of her fur coat she'd be coming back in! Now that was cool!

They are by no means in the most beautiful place you could ever imagine.

I've been lucky enough to have 3 animals visit after they left, but only my wolf/hybrid showed me what it looked like in her land. she couldn't walk that well because of the arthritis in her back hips. She had to be lifted up and down the three steps that led to the out side and back in again. She was my baby since I was 4 and I was then 18.....I got a lifetime with her. But, in a dream as many come she came (of all the dogs we had, I was always surprised the wolf came).

It was BEAUTIFUL! she was running......running FAST! she was showing me her legs worked again and there was no more pain. She was in a beautiful green field, with a forest behind her for as far as the eye could see. Everything was ok with her again.

She was my first favorite, I named her at 4, Pinky because her nose was all Pink. I still love her.

Does that help a little? :hug2:

animals have an afterlife too...i am often visited by several of the cats i once had...can hear them jump off the counter and land on the floor (a distinctive sound for any cat owner) as well as feel it walk by and rub against my calves as it always did when alive....i have no cats now, so im not mistaking these things...sometimes it hops on the bed next tome and cuddles and sleeps...pay attention, your friend my well come back to hang around from time to time...

It's difficult to grieve for an animal companion when there are some who say 'It's just an animal'. Well to my mind, that's their loss, because they never experienced the love you and your cat have had.

Perhaps you are trying too hard to sense her... my communications with my pets have included one jumping up on the bed and purring, another meowing outside the window, another rubbing against my legs. Often, we can dismiss such events as imagination or a need... but they're not.

Our dog died suddenly in December and we were in shreds over his death. We still miss him. At first, I kept seeing him in his usual spots and dismissed it as an echo, a memory. It wasn't until one morning I 'saw' him getting excited about me going out to work that I spoke to him. Bingo. All he needed was that acknowledgement and I count myself lucky that he seems to be helping me with healing now.

Focus on allowing yourself time to grieve and be open to good memories and her presence. When the time is right, you'll re-connect. xxx

Pets are people, too...
 

Very sorry for your loss. Our cat died this January as well after 18 years and we knew she was leaving a month or so before she passed. "Oscar" (yes, Oscar was a she) stopped eating and although she didn't appear to be in pain, she progressively got weaker.
The day before she died she went downstairs to my daughter's room. I have no idea how she made it as she was only crawling at that point. I believe she went down there for the last time to say goodbye to that room as she had slept there quite often. I carried her back upstairs and later that night she died.
I believe that all creatures have a soul. :angel10: Oscar is buried in the woods behind our home on a small hill facing a ravine. I placed her as if she was laying and looking out over that scene. I believe she is in heaven waiting for us, just as people are. :hug:
There are many areas with more information on the internet regarding pets and heaven. Try some of those and perhaps you will be able to accept and believe in something that will bring you comfort. Good luck.

Laughter and love,

Richinside

Thanks everyone for your warm and comforting posts.

I had talked to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago about this, and she relayed a story to me that had happened to her a number of years ago. She went on to say that she had been rushed to the hospital and ended up dying on the operating table. She had been 'dead' for a few minutes before doctors were able to revive her.

During that time, she had an experience of leaving her body and looking at it as if she just had shed off an old pair of heavy clothes. She proceded to watch the doctors before losing interest and then wandered throughout the hospital and floated up and above it. She next found herself in a field with her childhood dog greeting her just like he had always had done before. She used to take him on long walks and they would play in a grassy field, except the colors in this field were so much more vivid!

After playing and greeting with her dog for awhile, he then led her to a place where others were waiting for her. She remembers having a life review, but little of anything else at this point other than being given a choice to go back. When she made her choice, she found herself awake on the operating table with a team of doctors and nurses surrounding her. As they were all happy and relieved to have brought her back to life, all she could feel was saddness and longing to go back to that state of pure joy. The doctors had told her that she had been dead for a couple of minutes, but her experience on the 'other side' seemed to have been nearly an hour.

It gives me comfort to hear stories like this, believing that my beloved pet is ok and that I'll see her again someday.

yup. I would be the last to make a flowery feel good statement about something i had not experienced. they continue on... sometimes stick around for a few weeks after they pass, sometimes return..sometimes stay in fluxuating intensity. in experiencing my own, and other animal spirits really puts things into perspective, or lack thereof. Bonds and love never die. they just change form.

daver
i myself have just went through pretty much the exact same thing and I extend my deepest sympathies to you. on january 19th i also found out that our pussy cat had leukemia, she was extremely anemic and her kidneys were failing. for about two months i had noticed a significant drop in her weight, and her increased thirst for water. in reasearching online i had came to my own conclusion that she was perhaps diabetic or had a thyroid problem. so you can imagine the complete shock when the vet came out and told my daughter and I that there was no hope for our wee Sunshine. we took her home and for a week we allowed her to eat all the treats she could handle and loved her all up. on january 26th I had made the appointment to lay her to rest and end her suffering. it was the absolute most horrible thing i have ever had to do. i close my eyes sometimes and the thought of watching her pass haunts me. and still haunts my dreams. here is my little experience that happened just 3 days after we put her to rest.
in my living room, i have a fairly large entertainment stand. on top of it lay a christmas card that I had forgotten about from my sister. that night i was sitting on the couch watching television and all of a sudden the card FLEW off the stand. right then and there i absolutely knew it was her saying "hey mom i'm here". it was her thing to crawl all over everything in our home. she certainly had a love for the top of the stand and would always "cat nap" there. i had to giggle out loud and thanked her for coming to see me. my daughter who was very attached to her has sworn she has seen the little streak of orange lightening out of the corner of her eye several times since her passing. like human spirit, i do believe that pets stick around for a while before crossing over to make sure that their loved ones are ok, and when they feel that everyone is done grieving, they find thier wings and fly :)
warmest of hugs to you and may the memory of your wee friend always be a constant reminder of what true unconditional love is. do take care.
~loriann

Sorry for your losses bornagain and Richinside. My loss was totally unexpected and very quick. Within 3 days she went from being seemingly perfectly healthy to the vet telling me that she was suffering and there was nothing they could do for her. It's almost been a month now and I still get teary-eyed when I think of her, which is everyday.

I think pets do have a place in the after life.

i have had my cat run over 3 years ago which broke my heart and i went on a site called gone too soon which helped me, i have just found this site and i am going to suggest it to my mum as she lost her labrador two weeks ago to cancer and she had to have her retreiver put to sleep today because she was 13 and stopped eating so ime feeling for her at the moment

Sorry for you and your mum's loss suexylady. :hug2:

When I was a kid, probably about 11 or 12, I had pet birds, one day one of the mothers in a nest threw all the babies out, by the time I realised, they were all dead (about 4 or 5 of them) except one, that was still on the ground in the cage, seemingly unharmed. I went in and got him out, I saved this one baby budgerigar.
Then over probably a month or so (with my parents help) I raised him. We eventually put him back out in the cage, but he never seemed happy or 'social' like this breed of bird normally is. Probably 2 weeks after he reached adulthood and was put in the cage, he died.
So I guess maybe him and his siblings where unwell?

I remember the last couple of times I saw him in the cage he would fly away from you like the other birds, normally he would'nt be scared and would even let you touch him, and if you had food he would go to you, it was like he forgot who I was.

Anyway, to answer your question I'm not so sure about an animal heaven or life after death for animals, I've never sensed the spirit of my pet bird, or any other pets me or my family has had. Anything's possible though I guess.

I guess we wonder if our pets will be waiting in the after life??? Some of us think not, because we tend to think of ourselves as in some way superior. let me tell you this is NOT the case! We have a lot to learn from our furry friends.

Have you ever seen an animal cruely story??? I am always amazed, that even when so poorly treated, animals will give there trust to a new owner. You would think they would never trust a human again. However, animals are extremely forgiving, very loving and loyal. Hence, they have a higher vibration, that allows them to share the same realms as us.

And althought they are in a physical body, there senses are far more acute than ours!!!

Myer

In my time, I must have euthanized at least a thousand dogs. And because of that have spent a great deal contemplating animal "afterlife", and animal death. They are subject to the same energetic rules that we are, and as we meet people and animals "for a reason" at times- so do they.

think about this when my dog was sick couple of years ago i was going to put him on medication...but then his Spirit moved on in towards me and said he wanted to move on meaning have a body to look after, as the baby was nearly due i decided to let him go ...euthanized, he was 13 years old
i reckon 99.999+% sure of this that say you have a cat/s and or dog/s that died years earlier and that you seen them in the astral planes one or many animals at the same time you'll find it is just the work of their Spirits that have moved on, just letting you know they are still thinking of ya!!!

good luck

love all

""

On spiritual plane, all living beings are absolutely same having the same sort of soul but just with a different level of purity. Whenever we think of a someone, who has gone out leaving the body, we call him back to appear in the same body which is against the law of nature. So, it is a little painfull.
SumitPandit.in

I can assure you that animals do exist in spirit. I have seen both of my dogs that have been gone for years and I am confident that they have taught my newest dogs their habits and movements. There is nothing that will ever convince me otherwise and I love it!

Daver,

I know what kinda of losses you battling with. I just lost my cat recently too. he was truly my best friend ever. like you i was with him at birth. he almost didnt make it. i had to bust the sack and rub his chest to get him breathing. i felt so attached right away. i babied him right away. I named him mouse cause thats what he looked like. right after he was born i got realy sick. I died three times. and was put in bed and on the couch for years. we became really close. really close. I cry even to this day that i lost him.

not to mention when i lost him i was at the hardest part in my life. i was being diagnosed with schitophrena, hearing all kinds of stuff, having my soul riped out. my energy taken. then i let him out during this and the next morning i was waiting for him to come to the door. he never came. i found him by the street. I still feel to this day the spirits that were tormenting me at the time killed him.

any ways ever scene this has happened to me i become very attached to the spiritual world. so attached my cat came to me in spirit while i was awake. it scared me. after i calmed down he told me everything. we both cried together for a few hours. and then the creator came to me and he left. I asked the creator if i could take him home with me (to heaven) because of his importance to my life. actually he looked at me and said yes. explained that most the time animals rebirth to a new life. right away. but the special ones that create stay in the heart of the owner.

i cried so hard to hear this. I believed what i heared. he told me he is waiting for me. and i get him back when i go home. I cant wait. I miss him so much. i still cant look at his picture. i see him some times around my feet.

just know he will be there waiting for you. its not what you believed. the afterlife is a place of great magnitude and the envierment her self will give you your greatest desires. if you want your cat by your side there it shale be all you have to do is ask if hes not waiting. trust me. iv seen the other side. through death. anything is possible over there.

(while im writing this to you crying thinking about him this song came on, Miss you, by aaliyah. this could be for you)

I also have a story to add:

I as well had to put down my dog Monty about 1 month ago and it has been hard for my family & especially our other dog Gypsy who is really going through the morning process and cries when we mention his name. Monty came into our life because he decided to leave his original family and move into ours about 8 years ago. His family loved & wanted him and initially we did not. But Monty was stubborn & would escape his place and break into our house so eventually we all gave up. Quickly my family grew to love him and nicknamed him our 'Four legged guardian angel'.

Tonight I attempted to do a creative visualization to meet one of my guardian angels . I felt a strong presence but could not see or hear anyone. Then I was directed to look at Gypsy sleeping and saw Monty lying next to her. At the same time she woke up and also looked at Monty. I was so happy to see him, I gave him the biggest hug and scratched him behind the ears where he loved it. Then he went back and lay next to Gypsy, which I knew was to comfort her. This made me realize that he still chooses to be with my family who he loves & cares for so strongly, he is still our 'Four legged guardian angel'. :angel5:

Great stories everyone. Thanks so much for sharing! While I still feel a sense of deep loss for myself and become teary-eyed and emotional when I see my kitties picture or think of her, I have come to the realization that this may be a blessing in disguise.

You see, when she was born, I was at the lowest point in my life. I was having suicidal thoughts and felt totally lost and alone in this world. My life seemed to have no purpose nor direction. I felt stuck in a material world surrounded by people with screwed up thoughts and priorities. I longed for something meaningful and wonderful. Something which did not seem possible here.

Then Dancer was born. She came into my life and helped me to heal and transform myself. Her unconditional love, playful nature, and constant companionship was what I needed. I began to see the universe and everything in a different light. I felt like I awakened onto a spiritual path and became a seeker of inner wisdom and truth. I felt joy.

Now that she is gone, I feel that she left because her mission here was accomplished. She had helped me in life as much as she could, and now with her passing she has given me yet another gift which I am having trouble to express into words at this time. I am very thankful for my time with her, even though this sense of loss right now has been difficult.