Margot and I correspond about dreams and she says how she likes my writings and finds them inspirational. I found the following story about her Pete the Cat inspirational too, printed with permission of Margot. This is a story about the death of a cat and a dream afterwards that helped her accept his passing. I hope you enjoy.

“Then, there is a story about our cat whom we loved and lost just last week. Amber and I loved him so much like a great jewel of a gift – as he just appeared one day, from where?

I made up a song we sang about him:

Pete the cat, Oh Pete the cat.

He’s white and black.

That’s where he’s at.

A fine little animal, and that’s a fact.

Oh stop and have a chat with Pete the cat.

Pete the cat was a lonesome cat.

He had no family,

And that was that.

‘Till he found our house,

And down he sat.

Oh stop and have a chat with Pete the cat.

Pete the cat is a handsome cat.

With a pretty little Mama

And a great big Dad.

Could be his history,

But it’s a mystery…

So stop and have a chat with Pete the cat.

Then I had to make up a last verse:

Pete the cat, he didn’t come back.

He left one morning

And he didn’t come back.

We are so sad.

We miss that cat.

Oh Pete the Sweet, we hope you’re coming back.

Amber and I were gripped with an unbearable sense of doom as we called and searched in widening circles around the house. While I was up in the woods behind my garden I looked back and saw him following me, picking his way through the fallen trees. Then he disappeared and I couldn’t find any sign of an animal or a place to hide.

Later Amber found his body by the road further west. With Ian, we wrapped him in a beautiful cloth and buried his body. I laid some white wildflowers on his fur. We did a small ceremony.

The next morning I awoke with this dream:

I open the kitchen door and I see Pete sitting on one of the steps. He is nuzzling a white flower. I almost call Amber and then I think, oh no, I buried you yesterday, you’re in spirit.

The burial brought us some relief, and then the dream was a joy. Amber and I discussed how special he seemed, almost to have had a human soul. We only had him for a few months. Then I expressed the feeling that he could have embodied a visit from Vitae, and this might account for the shortness of his stay. Of course, this thought could be pure fantasy, but the effect that it had on us was like lifting a heavy pall of loss. And indeed, isn’t this something like a model for meeting all such moments of loss: we were visited by a beautiful guest who stayed as long as he could before stepping out of his cat suit in order to return to his greater being! There’s a big learning in there somewhere.

Violets hiding under leaves

I think that the cat I saw in the woods was Pete’s ghost, probably before he realized he was dead. He heard me calling and was just following along.

love, margot.

I put flowers and mandalas here for Pete the Cat. The real picture of Pete the Cat can be found on Margot Bergman’s Face Book Pages. Love from Rose.