Cats in Heaven: And Other Animals. Heartwarming stories of animals from the other side.

Some names have been changed to protect

the privacy of the story tellers.

HarperTrueFate

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First published by HarperTrueFate 2016

FIRST EDITION

© Jacky Newcomb 2016

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Jacky Newcomb asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

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Sources ISBN: 9780008144470

Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008144463

Version: 2016-07-27

My faithful companions, RIP

Magik – 19 August 2013

Tigger – 16 June 2015

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1: Magik

Chapter 2: Paranormal phenomena

Chapter 3: Saying goodbye

Chapter 4: Connecting in other ways

Chapter 5: Psychic cat and human connections

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter

About the Author

Also by Jacky Newcomb in the HarperTrue series …

More by Jacky Newcomb

About the Publisher

When my cat Magik died I was devastated; I sobbed so hard that the following day I ended up at the doctor’s surgery with two infected eyes. Magik came to us as a rescue kitten. She was being taken care of at an army home in a local barracks. I still remember my visit. I walked into the house and kittens were everywhere. Fluffy white balls with various dots of colour – all males, I was informed.

I was at the house for one reason. I’d had a dream that we were getting a new cat to add to our existing two-year-old ginger tom. This one was black, a kitten, full of life and fun … but female. In my dream the cat was playing with a butterfly and the following morning I began my hunt for the cat in my dreams.

My husband and I had a massive row about it. He’d been reluctant to get Tigger, our tomcat, but my ploy of taking him to the rescue home along with our two daughters worked. He, too, fell in love with the ginger striped cat that we brought home that very day. Tigger had a brother and a sister. Coincidentally the sister was a black female, but there was no way I could persuade my husband that we should take them both.

So there we were, two years later, and the longing for a second cat had always been simmering in the background. The dream had persuaded me; it was out of my control. I clearly remember my husband yelling, ‘We are not having another cat! You have to make a choice … it’s me or the cat!’

Seething, I quietly turned away from him. ‘I’ll miss you …’ I uttered, walking away. I was taking a big risk and I still don’t recall how I had the nerve. ‘I’ll miss you …’ Those words make me roar with laughter now, but at the time it was pretty mean of me. I loved my husband, but I wanted a cat so badly. Anyway, I reasoned, I’d been shown the cat in a dream; it was like destiny had stepped in. I couldn’t help myself. That’s the excuse I came up with.

After making numerous phone calls I finally found a rescue kitten being taken care of by a Cats Protection rescue family. It fitted my description. Now, sitting on the sofa in this home, I’ll be honest I was disappointed when the woman placed a small brown fluffy – and a little bit unattractive – kitten on the sofa next to me. Her brothers, twice the size, looked like the sort you might find in a magazine or television advertisement. This one was clearly the runt of the litter. But then everything changed in a moment. She looked up at me and crawled along the sofa and then climbed onto my lap. I think I loved her from that very moment. We connected and I knew that, yes, this was my cat, even if she didn’t look ‘quite right’ yet.

Magik would be ready for rehoming a couple of weeks later. When I telephoned to make arrangements to pick her up, however, I was told the cats had ear mites. ‘No problem,’ I protested. ‘I can treat her at home.’ But no, there were rules, apparently. The kittens had to be treated before they could be adopted and taken away. Another week passed and I called several times. Each time it felt like I was being fobbed off and I was beginning to panic. I rang my sister. ‘Come with me!’ I begged. ‘I want to go and collect her now!’ We had no appointment, no way of knowing if they’d even be home and it was a good 25-minute drive away. But we did it! I grabbed my cat carrier, a blanket to line the bottom of the hard plastic case and the money we’d agreed for the exchange. We jumped in the car and drove right to the house. Bizarrely, a removal van was sitting outside the house. Unexpectedly the family were being moved to a new location and were surprised to see me. The van was half loaded with boxes and household items. They were moving out that very moment! I was completely shocked. Whether they had changed their minds about having the kitten adopted or not I will never know. Faced with me and my sister standing determinedly at the door with a smile fixed firmly on our faces, cat carrier in hand, we made the transaction and I put my bundle of fur into the basket.