Recently, Mrs Balthis had a dream. Her cat Satie appeared on her bed, green eyes staring down at her owner. “It was clear that she had a message,” Balthis says. “She told me she knew I had done the best that I could to protect her.” The large calico had just died a month earlier.
“I felt very guilty about her death,” Balthis recalls. “In her later years, she wasn’t able to defend herself as well as when she was younger. I had secured the porch from other animals by installing gates, but it wasn’t enough.” One night, while Balthis and her family were away, raccoons broke into the barriers and killed Satie. Upon awakening from her dream, Balthis felt instantly that Satie had absolved her from blame. “I didn’t cry, even though I was on the verge of tears, because the dream allowed me to understand that she was in a safe place.” Companion animals bring us comfort and love, but are they also spiritual messengers who understand more than what seems possible?
“An angel cat would be a messenger who would help you to know that love is all around you and that miracles are possible,” explains Linda Anderson, co-editor of Angel Animals, Exploring Our Spiritual Connection with Animals. Bernard Ward says in his book Angels: They’re All Around and They’re Watching Over Us, “Angels are here to guide us, warn us, comfort us, teach us or just be a friend and companion.”
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Many near-death survivors have reported feeling a sensation of leaving their bodies—or travelling through tunnels of light. Some people report encounters with relatives or even family pets. During a down-and-out period, reports Anderson, Debi Reimann, a legal secretary from Lacey, Washington, felt herself floating through a gray mist. She recalled seeing light and feeling an overwhelming sense of love. She saw a vision that appeared old and wise. Even though the “being” told Reimann that it wasn’t time to die, she didn’t want to go back to her painful existence in life. The “being” turned her around, directing her toward the tunnel that would take her back to life. At the other end she saw her cat, Missey Kitten, waiting for her. “The cat was the one being on earth that could touch her heart, and Debi made a decision to come back,” recalls Anderson.
Eventually, Missey Kitten, the cat who’d given her owner the will to live, died. About a year after her death, Reimann was in her car and stopped at the traffic light. “Suddenly,” Anderson explains, “she heard purring next to her in the passenger seat. Turning to look, she saw Missey sitting on the seat. Mesmerized by this vision, she just stared, ignoring her green light. Seconds later, a drunk driver ploughed through the red light on the other side. Reimann, who was too preoccupied to enter the intersection, never came in contact with the out-of-control car, and drove away with a memorable vision and her life. Some would say Missey Kitten used her angelic powers not once, but twice to save her owner.