Supernatural Cat
Well, kind of a ghost story.
On April 17th 2000 (remember that), my cat Tigger died at 2:30pm. I didn't find out until that night, but it was the holidays so I was home alone. And I remember checking the clock at around 2:30pm because it was in the middle of Oprah. Anyway, I remember it because I noticed that there was a cat outside, walking down the driveway next-door. They don't have any pets, so this was really weird. Plus, my Mum later told me that at 2:30pm she had glanced up at her screensave on her computer at work, and had seen a tiny white flashing square on the top left hand side of that 'flying past stars' screensaver.
So anyway, once I found out Tigger had died, I was obviously overcome with grief. So I decided to dedicate a song I was currently learning on the piano. It was called 'Dreams to Dream' by Linda Ronsdadt and it was from the album 'An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West'. So I finished learning the song, and then went crazy trying to find the album. I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. In the WORLD. Every website I went to said it was not available any more. After all, at the time it was a 9 year old album, not very popular either. But every time I went into a record store, I'd flick through the A's under Soundtrack just in case. I did this every single time, and soon it became second nature to me, I didn't even realise I was doing it.
One day, not TO long after Tigger died, I had that 'farewell' dream people always talk about. It was Tigger and me, out the back of our house, and I bent down and pet him. I still remember stroking the hair down his back. Then, he trotted off towards the side of my house, but being a dream the house wasn't there any more. Instead, there was like a gold mining area, with people scoping the rivers for gold, and water-mills nearby, etc. I woke up and thought "Weird..." but then shrugged it off, because dreams are always weird to me.
On April the 17th 2001, I went with a friend to see a movie, about an hour's drive away from my home. We had some time to kill beforehand, so we went looking around, and we wound up in a record store. Naturally, I went for the A's under Soundtrack, but this time... I found it. I found the album I had been looking for madly all this time, which had Tigger's song on it.I was so at peace that day, and still sort of am, because the odds of finding that album not just ever, but exactly one year after his death, was amazing. I always thought that maybe I was guided to it. Then, I realised I probably was. The town I found it in was an old gold digging place from the 1800's! Like where Tigger was walking to in my dream.
That's weird, right? Thought you'd like to know my story.
Oh and on one occassion I was sure I felt him press up against my when I was in bed. I felt something alright, and I told myself: "You're awake, you're awake, you ARE awake..." because in all the movies later on they wonder if they were awake or not.
Thankyou for reading,
Alastair McLellan