Midnite Dreams

  I admit it, I'm an animal lover -- dogs, cats, deer -- if it's got 4 legs, I cherish being in their presence.

  I had a cat named Midnite (from the CATS musical song).  I was "adopted" by him when his owners moved away and abandoned him and his mother to fend for themselves.

  At first, he was scared of me.  But in three weeks time, he finally let me pet him.  That's all it took.  He started purring and the next thing I knew I had a 16 pound lap cat.

  Midnite was with me through "thick and thin" -- through a divorce, a move across country, several job changes -- you know the drill.

All the time he remained the faithful black and white fur ball on my lap.

  One day he became ill.  The vets couldn't pin down what was wrong.

Midnite finally stopped eating one day and about three days later he passed over to the Rainbow Bridge while lying in my arms late at night.

The date was January 28th.

  I'll never forget the experience.  As he took his last breaths, he reached out his front paw, grasped tightly around one finger of my hand, lifted his head and looked at me with his golden eyes for one last time as if to say good-bye.  Then he took his last breath and relaxed in my arms, his paw still holding on to my finger.

  It took several years for me to get "past" that date on the calendar.  I would always remember Midnite's passing on the 28th.

I now have just fond memories of him to keep me company.

  My current pet is Micki, a "chick magnet" of a dog.  Well, he is dying too.  So we play the waiting game.  I was concerned that he, like Midnite, would pass on the 28th of January.  I became almost convinced that he would.  It affected my life as that date approached this year.

  But the 28th came and went, and Micki is still with me.

  Overnight on the 28th, I had a visitor while I slept.

  Midnite came to me in a dream.  I was at a friend's house and went outside to call their dog.  Instead, Midnite came bounding up to me.

I knelt down and started petting him behind the ears where he loved it.

He immediately closed his eyes, started purring and then he raised his left front paw and wrapped it around my arm, putting his head into my hand.  He stayed like that the whole time I was able to visit with him in my dream.

  I continued to pet him and talk to him until I woke up.

  I interpret that dream as a message from a lost -- no, not lost -- just separated for a while, love between a human and a cat.  He's okay, happy, and well -- just waiting for me to join him at the Rainbow Bridge some day.

  Maybe we'll see each other again on the 28th of January in a future year... we'll see.

  -- Richard Jones <bc747 at roadrunner.com>

Richard says, "I'm just a normal 50-something guy who loves animals." He resides in a suburb of Buffalo, New York.

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