Cat Reincarnation?

 When I was a little girl, all I ever wanted was a cat. Finally, when I was eleven years old, my parents decided I could finally get a cat, I was overcome with happiness. Apparently, my mother already had a kitten picked out, all I had to do was meet him. So after school one day early in the fall of 1994, my mom took me to our local pet shop to meet said kitten. As soon as I saw him I fell in love, I dropped down and crouched next to his cage, he immediately stuck his paw out and started meowing. Granted, he probably did this for everyone who came in and paid him any attention, but he immediately grabbed my heartstrings. Of course, he came home with us, and he instantly became my best friend. We decided to name him Taz, since at the time, that was my favorite cartoon character.

He slept in my bedroom every night, first starting out with a bed of his own next to mine, and once he could jump high enough, he graduated to sleeping in my bed. He followed me everywhere I went and sat and watched whatever I did. While he loved everyone in the family, he was definitely devoted to me. He was probably one of the most laid back cats I'd ever met. When we got a new puppy two years after he joined our family, he quite simply welcomed him into the family but quietly checking him out and sniffing him and sitting on top of his puppy crate that he stayed in at night. He was like a protector for the puppy.

As he and the puppy grew up together, they respected each other's spaces, but time to time, you could find them napping together, they too became best friends. During his years with us, we also owned a parrot (which I still have to this day, Paco) and this bird who has disliked every dog he's come in contact with, instantly fell in love with Taz. Now, a normal cat / bird experience might involve the cat chasing the bird around looking for dinner. In this instance, Taz sat around and let the bird walk right up to him and preen him ans snuggle on him, he even sprawled out from time to time to let the bird preen his belly fur. Taz never tried to harm Paco, never extracted his claws, never tried to bite him, never meant him any harm. If Taz started walking out of a room, Paco would follow.

Not so long ago, I decided to bring a miniature hamster home. Again, a typical cat's reaction to a rat in essence would be to eat it. Not so much with Taz. I would let my little hamster out of her cage and run around my room, Taz would sit on the floor and just watch her scurry around, again never trying to harm her, just watching with interest. He even allowed her to crawl into his fur and fall asleep, it was simply amazing.

In the eleventh year of his life, Taz developed stomach cancer. He went downhill fairly quickly, he stopped eating, and started losing weight. He was always very social and wanted to be around the family, but during his last few weeks, he laid underneath the couch in our front room by himself. What was amazing was our dog, who has separation anxiety, he doesn't even want to be in a room by himself, would disappear and we would find him sitting next to the couch in the front room because he knew the cat was underneath there.

A few weeks later, I had to make the heart wrenching decision to either hold on to my best friend for a couple more weeks, or be humane and let him go to sleep. After hearing what the vet had to say about the tests they had run on him, and mulling it over all day, it was my decision to put him to sleep. He had spent the night at the vet's office, and had been there the entire next day. I had asked them to wait until I got out of work so I could come see him one more time and be with him, thankfully they complied.

They let me take him into one of the exam rooms and be alone with him. I looked at his white, shaved belly from getting ultrasounds, and thought, that hair would grow back in a couple weeks if it were allowed to. I looked into his bright green eyes and I felt like I was making a mistake. He didn't look sick, looking into his loving face, he didn't look sick. I sat with him in my lap petting him and telling him how much I loved him, and it had occurred to me just to take him out of that room and bring him home, but I knew his quality of life was gone. Eventually the vet and her assistant came in to do their deed, and I decided to stay there in the room. I just didn't want my pal to be alone with a couple of strangers in his last moments. The entire time they were prepping him, he looked at me, almost stared through me, like he knew I was trying to do the right thing. I had held myself together until they injected him then I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out, my best friend was gone.

When I had come across Leopold in an online newspaper two years, he had one of the most interesting faces I'd ever seen on a cat. I felt like I needed to meet him. I went down to a Petco where his rescue service was holding an adoption event and sought him out. When I came into his view, he wouldn't take his eyes off me, he seemed curious. I went over and looked at a couple of kittens and played with them, looking back at him to see if he was still watching me, and he was. I felt like he and I shared some sort of connection, at the time, I wasn't sure what it was. After he and I had our meet and greet, I decided to adopt him.

A few weeks after he settled into our home, he began exhibiting behavior which seemed familiar to me. He loved these cheap little fifty cent mice which Taz loved as well. No matter what elaborate fun toy I found for either one of them, it was always the cheap mice. Leopold started playing fetch with the mouse just like Taz had done, he'd go back and forth, back and forth for as long as I'd throw the mouse. He showed a certain laid back personality about himself. My bird was immediately interested in the new furry critter in his house, and wanted another playmate, so when their meet and greet time came, he reacted just as Taz had, it was amazing. Leopold would also stare at me like he'd known me for a long time, it was as if he knew something.

In the times that I've been sick since I've had Leopold, he's always been directly at my side like Taz always was when I was sick. It's like he knows that his presence comforts me when I'm not feeling well. I look into Leopold's face, and sometimes I feel like I'm looking into Taz's face. Leopold has even developed the super long whiskers that Taz had.

Leopold is two and a half years old now, and his personality has grown in abundance. While I still see a lot of Taz's traits in him, he's also got his own unique characteristics which makes him impossible not to love. He's entered my heart just as Taz did, and he's become my new best friend.

Do I think that cat reincarnation is a bunch of nonsense? Well, it does sound a little iffy, but I can't deny the feelings and the presence I have about this. I've had a total of four dogs in my life (the fourth being my current one), each of them with completely different, unique personalities, they are in essence, their own dog, but with Leopold, I'm almost certain a little piece of Taz is in him, and I came across Leopold for a reason, like Taz like was trying to reconnect with me. So now, I have this wonderful cat and a little bit of my old pal to boot.