The universe sent me a Time-Traveling Cat, the spitting image of Georgie in Weather Menders, on Christmas Eve.
Can fiction predict or create reality?
My neighbor posted a picture of a lost short-haired gray cat in her back yard on Christmas Eve morning. I woke up to a phone message from a friend asking if my Dorjee, a long-haired gray, was safe inside. Because I live in a semi-rural subdivision outside Santa Fe that is rich with wildlife, Dorjee and his Himalayan brother Yeshe only go outside with me under close supervision. I said a quick prayer that the lost kitty would find his or her way home before the snow flew that night.
I’d been putting the finishing touches on editing the manuscript for Weather Menders, and had gray cats on my mind. The day after Christmas, I saw the cat in my own back yard. When I called out to him, he turned around and looked at me and cried a few times before running away through the thin layer of snow that had fallen on Christmas Eve.
I rushed inside and told my good friend and fellow cat-lover Lisa, who was visiting me for the holidays, that I’d seen the lost cat. Just then the phone rang—a neighbor telling me a coyote was walking towards my land. We immediately went into action. I grabbed a plastic container full of dry kibble, and we went outside.
I’d seen little pawprints in the snow in both the walled backyard and the wild land at the front of the house, and wasn’t sure where to look. “If I were a cat, I’d be on the sunny side,” said Lisa, so we went out front and shook the container of kibble. I started meowing and Lisa called “kitty, kitty.” Then we heard a meow that wasn’t me. One more shake of the container, and a gray streak shot out from under a juniper tree and onto the brick walkway, hungrily eating the dry food we scattered.
From there it was easy. I handed Lisa a towel and she quickly and gently scooped the cat up and brought him into the house. I marveled that here was the (quite literally) spitting image of Georgie the Time Traveling Cat in Weather Menders.
The cat was scared and confused, but clearly used to humans. Because of my house is open plan, we put him in the garage that night with a couple of space heaters and a nest of blankets. He was hungry, but not starving, and was grateful for food, water, a bit of warmth, and a dry litter box.
I reasoned that he must have gotten out on a house sitter, and his humans must be away for the holidays. The next morning, we took him to a neighborhood vet to see if he had a chip. Oddly, it was a dead end. The people who answered the registered phone number said they’d never had a cat in their lives.
It was cold in the garage, so we set up a heavy folding screen in front of my healing room door and put the kitty in there. He cried plaintively, whether for his human family or because he wanted to be with us we weren’t sure.
Meanwhile, Dorjee and Yeshe were being less than welcoming. Dorjee was doing an excellent imitation of a demon cat, while Yeshe growled and sulked. Never mind, I was sure that the cat’s humans would soon contact us. We put up flyers, and I put his picture on every website I could think of.
Kitty was lonely in the healing room, so we rotated cats. I put Dorjee and Yeshe in the bedroom, where Dorjee made fiercesome pounding noises on the door. Gray kitty settled on the sofa and watched movies with me and Lisa, and cried when we put him in the healing room at night. He was clearly used to human companionship, and nosed his way between me and my laptop as I was working. He had excellent litter box habits, ate politely, and was extremely affectionate, putting his arms around us and licking our noses and nuzzling our ears.
I started falling in love with him after a few days and petted his sleek fur, saying I’d be sad to see him go but that we were doing everything possible to find his humans.
Days went by and no one called. No one answered the e-mails sent out by the chip company. On day 5, we heard a commotion and saw that kitty had climbed the heavy dividing screen and was teetering on top of it while Dorjee and Yeshe ran terrified to the back of the house. I cleaned up my office, since that room had a door, and brought in a litter box, food, water, and a cat bed borrowed from my resentful boys. The temperature plummeted, and we were grateful he was safe inside, away from cold, coyotes, and bobcats.
How could I not love a cat who looked just like Georgie in the book and was super-affectionate? But surely someone was coming for him, and I’d better not get attached.
At the end of the third week, two things became apparent. No one was coming for this incredibly sweet cat, and I wanted to keep him. One day, an out-of-state client came over for an energy healing session. By then I’d slipped into naming him, Samadhi Timewalker, Sammy for short, after a friend’s kind and wise cat who had graced her and her dog’s life all too briefly. That day, Sammy jumped on the massage table the minute my client lay down. He purred and stared into my client’s face, and put his paws on her aching heart. Right then I knew he was meant to be part of our family.
So that night I just put down three bowls of cat food in a circle. All three formerly growling cats just crouched and ate together, peacefully.
I had thought of naming the cat Georgie, after the time-traveling cat in the book, but decided that Dorjee and Georgie would be too confusing for everyone. So Sammy he became, and Sammy he is, the mysterious Timewalking cat. Maybe he really is from 2050, I think sometimes, as he stares at me with intelligent, inquiring eyes.
Tonight, he knows I’m writing about him. As I sat down to write, he crawled into my lap, paws on the keyboard, and finally settled down on my stomach.
In a way, his appearance renewed my faith. If Spirit could send me a cat like Georgie, maybe the rest of the book can be true as well. Maybe Time Travel will be real, maybe we can really find a way to reverse climate change.
Looking at my peacefully snoozing Time-Traveling cat one day, I realized I really needed to go to Findhorn, just like the characters of Tara and Xander in the book. I needed to listen to Guidance, and I needed to participate in Experience Week.
Just like Tara, I ended up working in Park Kitchen. I did not meet Xander, yet, but being there enriched my understanding of the Findhorn principles that inform my characters’ lives. Guided by my personal angel of Sisterhood Brotherhood for the week, I embraced the experience, my newfound sisters and brothers, and my refound sense of trust in the universe.
Cats can be teachers and muses. I’m proud of Dorjee and Yeshe for accepting Sammy, and grateful for all three of them and the way they make me laugh, comfort me with their purrs, and renew my faith in magic and synchronicity.
Weather Menders 