01/03/92 - 09/11/11
Human family: Katrina
Photo(s) of Poppy (1)

Poppy

I lost my beloved Poppy a few months before her 20th birthday. I became her guardian when she was 6 weeks old, and we were very bonded. She was the most beautiful cat, everybody said so, and she was always happy to be admired. She was generally a quiet, gentle girl, a little shy with strangers. Her wide green eyes were full of wisdom, and she won over everyone who saw her. As a sensitive soul, she was concerned if I or my partner or indeed anyone was upset and would try to comfort them. She was small in stature, though her light grey and white fur was so luxuriant that she appeared bigger. Her tail was especially beautiful, it was like a plume of light grey with dark grey stripes. Her little face was framed in white, like a lion’s mane, and to kiss the top of her smooth grey head meant breathing in her gorgeous Poppy scent. She kept her beauty throughout her life, and although in the last few months or so when chronic kidney failure meant she was no longer able to groom herself and her fur grew thin and lifeless, she looked like a shadow of her former self, but she was still beautiful to me and to my partner Rachel. She has always been a very talkative cat and she would come up to bed and climb up on our chests and talk away to us, her little ‘mow’ was very distinctive and every time we replied in a similar way she would answer – she could keep this conversation up for a long time! One night I came home and her back legs had given way so she could no longer walk. I promised her she would not have to suffer for much longer, and assured her she could go whenever she was ready, that I would not leave her side now. She passed quietly in my arms just before our vet arrived the following afternoon.
I missed her terribly, and I wanted to know she is ok wherever she is now. I could not believe that such a beautiful spirit could just be extinguished. Three weeks after she passed an extraordinary thing happened at 2.30am. I heard my partner’s voice calling my name – “Kat, Kat” and I realised she was still asleep so couldn’t have called. I woke up, or so I thought, and saw a pale red glow on my pillow from the digital display on the clock on the bedside table. I knew something was going to happen, and then I felt a thump at the end of the bed by my feet. I knew it was Poppy. She ran up my legs and along the length of my body just like she used to do, and she felt quick and heavy like when she was younger, not slow and old as in latter years. She settled on the pillow by my head and sat there looking at me. I communicated to her without speaking, “Poppy, you’ve come back!” She didn’t respond, and I wondered if I could touch her or if she would just disappear if I tried. I put out my hand (though I don’t think I actually physically moved as this was probably happening in another dimension) and I touched her – she was solid and real and I could stroke her! She let me stroke her chest too and examine the fur there which I was amazed to find was now gleaming white, soft, thick and luxurious as it had been when she was younger. I leaned over to kiss the top of her head and breathed in her familiar Poppy smell. She allowed me to do this but she didn’t respond much and seemed to need to maintain an emotional distance, as if she was telling me that she had just come to tell me she was ok but she couldn’t stay. Then she disappeared and I opened my eyes – at that point I realised that I had thought my eyes were open but they hadn’t been, I had been seeing all of this as if through my eyelids. I was suddenly wide awake and felt tears of joy and peace, because I knew she was happy and contented where she was now but was still able to see me and communicate with me if she wanted to. I lay awake for 2 hours not quite able to believe this had happened, but knowing it had, and I have never before had an experience like it. In the morning I was left with certainty that I had not imagined this, that I had really seen and touched Poppy in the night and she had seen me too. This has helped me so much and I am hoping our story may help others too.

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