Tap tap....

Hmmm, that tapping experience has created some difference of opinion. These range from relief that I wasn't turning into some dotty old lady about to start attending seances involving the cat world, to sterner exhortations to be more open-minded about what happened when the spirit leaves the body, to a bit of eye-rolling from people who put such phenomena down to manifestations of grief, not contact from beyond the grave.

I'm not so sure, and don't want to take a strong position on this; if there is somewhere that cat spirits go to next, I would hope they weren't interrupted in their journey by having to come back to sad owners. And if there isn't, then a dangling zip pull-tab is as good an explanation as any.

But you might like this, a poem that Charlotte sent to comfort me - sorry, whoever wrote it, but it came unattributed. You can take, leave, or substitute the God references according to your own beliefs, but, as Harry always sensed when I was upset or unwell and would stay close to me, I liked the general concept of a considerate cat. In particular, the term "the glorious cat" appealed; Harry was a glorious cat indeed.

Some of my more hard-boiled friends found it difficult to read this without filling up....

And God asked the feline spirit
Are you ready to come home?
Oh, yes, quite so, replied the precious soul
And, as a cat, you know I am most able
To decide anything for myself.

Are you coming then? asked God.
Soon, replied the whiskered angel
But I must come slowly
For my human friends are troubled
For you see, they need me, quite certainly.

But don't they understand? asked God
That you'll never leave them?
That your souls are intertwined.
For all eternity?
That nothing is created or destroyed?
It just is....forever and ever and ever.

Eventually they will understand,
Replied the glorious cat
For I will whisper into their hearts
That I am always with them
I just am....forever and ever and ever.