The Forgotten
Throughout the centuries animals have either been misunderstood, mistreated, feared or ignored. How many of us have been subjected to at least one, if not two of these actions throughout our own lives. Something needs to shift and soon or we risk losing a part of our humanity that could never be recovered.
In my experience I have come to understand that some of our companions are in fact a mirror of us. If our energy is imbalanced in some shape or form, then they will let us know by changing their own behaviour towards us. They are what I like to call, the antennae to our emotions, the sensory that we may lack during a change in our lives. If we look deeper than the eye sees, pay more attention than just what the surface offers us, we may just solve half the issues faced with our lovely soul friends. Change our vibration and they shall follow.
I have always had a great respect and love towards every kind of species living among us, be it those that crawl, fly, swim or walk, all held importance to me. As a child I only felt a connection to animals. My first experience and contact with them was a one day visit to a farm. I will never forget how natural it felt to be around nature and a big shaggy dog. This was when my love for these beings came to exist. I even remember a time when my encounter with a Great Dane would forever be forged in my mind, with a picture of me and this beautiful creature taken who stood taller than I was. And I wasn’t afraid, in fact I was thrilled.
The need to share my companionship with them, was innate so, my first friends were two budgies. One blue, female and one green, male. I never grew tired of their singing but one sunny day gone bad, a sudden change of weather caused their cage to fall unlocking the door and, these cuties were lost to me forever. See I had placed their cage outside thinking I was doing them a favour to be outdoors but unbeknown to me, it was a huge mistake. I was saddened by their departure but I prayed for their safety as I knew even at a young age that birds should not be caged. They have wings for a reason and, we all know why. Nothing calls freedom like that of a bird flapping its wings against the sky. My one regret is that I wasn’t there to say goodbye.
A few years after the incident, I decided it was time to save an animal from the SPCA. So I went in search of my new friend. Rocky, was an older cat with white and brown spotted fur that captured my heart the second I saw him in his kennel. He was with me for only six months but I enjoyed every moment with him. While on vacation and in the care of my neighbours, Rocky stepped out for his daily stroll but never returned home. I was deeply hurt by the loss and once again I wasn’t there to say goodbye. A long time later, I found out that a nearby neighbour poisoned him because he found him to be a nuisance in his back yard. This was the beginning of my lack of respect for man, who seemed to not share this love I had for animals, and at the time I couldn’t understand why they didn’t share this sentiment.
Three years later my mom gave me the best birthday gift ever. A tiny grey short hair feline who, popped out of a shoe box as I jumped for joy. I bonded very deeply with this cat. Frisco loved being outdoors just as Rocky did but one whistle and he would run straight home. He loved to cuddle and slept with me under the covers. He often found great comfort in sitting on top of my back while I watched tv. Unfortunately, fours years later he passed away on the highway where we lived. My brother was the one who found him near a sidewalk, destroyed beyond recognition. He couldn’t tell me until I was ready to hear it. But what I will never forget is the night Frisco went out to have his evening stroll, he turned his head around and looked at me very intensely with his yellow intense eyes as if trying to say something to me. I felt very strange but at the time I could not pinpoint why I did so. He then descended the steps outback and never returned home. Turns out he did have something to say, it was goodbye.
This was a huge blow, bigger than that of my previous losses. I was devastated, heartbroken and I could not find anyone around me who could understand what I felt. All I got from friends was, “It was just a cat, get over it.” Some even ridiculed my situation. The fact that humans could be so cold and apathetic to my pain made me loose hope. It may not have been a person I lost but a broken heart is a broken heart nonetheless. I was now convinced that the animals gave me the unconditional love that people never could. However, now I am aware that at the time it was their loss, as those who didn’t share my love of these beings didn’t know what kind of love they could experience with them. I felt privileged to have known this. A year later news came to me that my cat was not accidentally killed but purposely so. Another neighbour lacked appreciation towards cats and so decided it would be no big deal to run over my pet with his red corvette. It took me a long time to get over this one and only took in another furry friend, five years later.
So here I was bringing the forever lovely Noah, home to my parents without their consent. But when a grey, green eyed kitten jumped out of a box and on the living room floor, how could they have resisted. My father’s first words were, ”Why don’t you bring us a dog?” But almost as soon as he said that he chuckled when Noah began bitting on his fingers. Fifteen years later our precious member of the family departed. This time I did get the chance to say goodbye but having to put an animal to sleep cannot console one’s heart when seeing the light leave their eyes.
Today I have the honour of sharing my space with my present cat Leah, who I adore in every sense of the word. She is very in tuned with me. My bond with her is truly a magical one. In a spiritual connotation, a channeller once told me, “Do not ask how many lives she has had with you, instead ask how many lives you have shared with her.” I laughed so hard knowing how poetic this answer was.
So this was and, still is my experience with animals but my love for them goes further than what we can have as household pets. It carries over to those that roam in the wild, or crawl underneath the earth, those that live beneath the sea, and those that soar in the sky. Most of these beings may not speak our language but they do have a voice of their own. Let us not forget that, let us not forget that we share this world with them and that they have to tolerate us, not the other way around. Let us remember that they are here for us, and that we need them. They are just as important as we are and if we think that we are their master, we are wrong. They have a lot to teach us so, give them the freedom and respect they deserve, give them what we as humans have craved since the beginning of time, the unconditional love that they give willingly.