Animals and the Afterlife (38 page)
Everything science has taught me—and continues to teach me—strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace.
—W
ERNHER VON
B
RAUN
“W
HO’S
J
OEY
?” Patty asked as soon as she picked up the phone, before she even said hello. I had scheduled a phone consultation with animal communicator Patty Summers and was now phoning her at the appointed time. We had several new arrivals at the Rat Refuge, and I just wanted to check in with them, as I often did with newcomers.
I had previously given Patty the names of the rats she would be communicating with during our appointment, and Joey
wasn’t
one of them. I had never even
had
a rat with that name. Yet, she told me she had awakened earlier that morning with the name “Joey” in her head, accompanied by the image of a male rat who bore this name and was waiting to speak with me during our appointment. Apparently, he felt it was
very
important that we speak with him first, before we did anything else.
I thought for a moment, and then it occurred to me who Joey was. He had been one of the babies from the big litter of rats that had arrived several years prior. I had called him Owen when he was a baby, but when he was adopted out, his new family had changed his name to Joey. He had been adopted, along with five of the other babies and two of the moms, by a woman named Sarah Mullen. Sarah had driven all the way down from Northern California to adopt the rats and had given them a wonderful home. We had kept in touch ever since and had become long-distance friends.
By this time, the babies had reached old age, and Sarah had just recently left me a message to let me know that Joey had died. And now it seemed that Joey had a message for Sarah, which he wanted
me
to deliver.
According to Patty, Joey said to tell Sarah that he didn’t feel as if he had left her with a full understanding of his appreciation for her, but that he had indeed appreciated her very much. He said she had made him very happy and had touched him deeply, and that he had a special place in his heart for her. He also confessed that he hadn’t been “gushingly affectionate,” but that didn’t mean he didn’t love or appreciate her.
“It was my time,” he said regarding his death, explaining that there was nothing more she could have done. He wanted to assure her that she had taken very good care of him and that it was ludicrous for her to think otherwise. He emphasized that it was
very
important that she hear this. He also wanted her to know that he was happy and he was okay.
Neither Patty nor I knew any of the details of Joey’s death or even of his life and his relationship with Sarah, but he said it was very important to get this message to her, so I did just that. As soon as Patty and I got off the phone, I left a message for Sarah and told her what had just taken place. I told her everything Joey had said, and I described the image of him that Patty had described to me. He had shown her an image of himself relaxing, waiting for her to scratch him; and then an image of a little “smile” on his face to indicate contentment at being rubbed.
Later that same night, Sarah left me a message. She had received
my
message and wanted to share her reaction. She said that, at first, she was somewhat speechless and didn’t know
how
to respond. She had been somewhat skeptical of telepathic animal communication and even of an afterlife, yet his message had been quite accurate—and quite unexpected.
Regarding Joey not being overly affectionate, she said that was true; she could definitely see that. She said Joey had always been somewhat independent, and in fact, it had always been hard for her to get him back in the cage when he didn’t want to go back. (This was a
huge,
multilevel cage that could fit several humans, which Sarah and her friend Mario had built just for the rats.) She said Joey had always been very indignant about going back in the cage after running around, and he seemed to run his own show, so to speak.
She went on to say that, when Joey got older, it was quite clear that he really liked it when she rubbed his head. That seemed consistent with the image of him showing contentment at being rubbed. She also said that, after he died, she wondered if she had done
enough
for him and worried that she hadn’t, so she
really
needed to hear what he had to say.
The other part that really got to her was the fact that she had just recently, within the last few days, been thinking a
lot
about how much she wished Joey could communicate with her from the Other Side and tell her he was all right and that he was happy. So, much to her surprise and mine (and Patty’s, for that matter), he had done just that.
I
NTERESTINGLY, DURING THAT SAME APPOINTMENT
with Patty, after Joey had delivered his message for Sarah, another unscheduled rat began pushing his way in. We were
trying
to communicate with a rat named Patrick, as planned, but Patty said she kept getting the image of a
different
rat trying to get our attention. At first, we thought it was a rat named Luther, as he was the only rat in our household who fit the description: a male rat with a commanding presence.
His message was apparently very important, and he continued interrupting as we continued trying to communicate with other rats. Patty felt somewhat frustrated that the message was unclear yet seemed so important. As she struggled to make sense of the message she was receiving, she said that he seemed to be describing a previous
life.
She said he had been male, had lived with other rats in a
different
household (not mine), and that his name had begun with an “M.” She also said I knew the person he had lived with.
It was then that I first started suspecting that this particular rat who kept interrupting us wasn’t Luther at all. Luther was alive and well, and I got the feeling that this particular rat might very well be making contact from the Other Side, just as Joey had done before him.
Almost ready to give up on this unclear message, Patty then asked me if I had any friends who had rats, and if so, had she ever spoken with any of
their
rats, because this rat told her she had communicated with him before, but he had lived with
someone else
(other than me) when she had done so. Furthermore, she said that I had met this male rat with an “M” name. Patty had no idea what any of this meant, but she said to remember the “M” name, as it seemed to be very important.
I immediately thought of Diane Newburg, a longtime friend in Los Angeles, who also takes in rescues and has a house full of rats. Diane had never had an appointment with Patty. However, Diane had adopted some of her rats from another woman, Celeste, who
had
consulted with Patty before. I had never been to Celeste’s home, but I
had
been to Diane’s. Therefore, it was possible that Patty had communicated with one of Celeste’s rats who was then adopted by Diane, and who I could have then met at Diane’s house. So, I told Patty I’d ask Diane if she had ever had a male rat with a name that started with “M.”
When I asked Diane about this, she told me that she had only had
one
male rat with an “M” name. His name was MacGregor, and he had
just recently died
. Diane confirmed that I had indeed met MacGregor during a past visit to her home (she had so many rats that I hadn’t kept up with all of their names), and that she had gotten MacGregor from
Celeste
. He had been the baby rat who found his way back to Diane via a phone consultation that Celeste had with Patty Summers several years prior (the rat who had said he was trying to get back to the woman with the curly blonde hair and glasses, as described in the previous chapter). Patty did not know that Diane was the woman with the curly blonde hair—or that she had named this rat MacGregor.
And now, several years later, through Patty, MacGregor was contacting
me
from the Other Side. It appeared that he just wanted to say hello and to keep in touch with his beloved human, Diane; and he knew that I would get the message to her. So, it seemed that my appointment with Patty that day had become a “hello from the Other Side” session quite unexpectedly. Needless to say, I was both amazed and honored that the recently departed animal companions of two friends both came to me during that appointment, trusting that I would pass their messages on to their beloved people. And, of course, I did.
As it turned out, that was only the beginning of things to come.
O
VER THE YEARS
as I had researched the subject of life after death for animals—almost as if to convince me of the validity of other people’s experiences, which I might have otherwise doubted—one by one, very similar experiences to those that I was collecting from
others
had begun happening to
me
.
Up until this point, these experiences had always involved my own departed animal companions. But now, just when I thought my research was complete, o
ther people’s
beloved animals began contacting me from the Other Side. From this point on, they no longer even required the assistance of a professional animal communicator; they began coming to me
directly,
with ever-increasing regularity. At first, I didn’t know what was going on, but I certainly knew
something
was.
It seemed that these unexpected and spontaneous contacts from the Other Side, which had originally been initiated by the animals of friends, were now being initiated by the animals of people I had
never even met
, who happened to contact me after the fact, inquiring about the progress of my book. It was almost as if the animals
knew
what I was up to and that they could rely on me to deliver their messages, which I always did.
My first clue that something was going on took place during an afternoon nap. I had been working long hours in front of the computer and was suffering from severe eyestrain, so I decided to lie down for a little while and rest my eyes. Soon I was fast asleep.
I had been sleeping for perhaps twenty minutes when I was suddenly awakened by a very distinctive growl/whine in my left ear. It was as clear as day. I was lying on my right side, and it literally sounded as if a dog had approached me from behind or above and had whined
directly
into my ear, startling me out of a sound sleep. I looked around, and of course, I didn’t see a dog. I don’t
have
a dog, yet I had clearly heard one. To this day, I can remember with crystal clarity the sound I heard that day. It wasn’t an aggressive sound, but rather, the sound a dog might make when trying to get one’s attention without barking.
I immediately sat up and began to wonder
who
was trying to get my attention. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by a woman who said she had begun hearing her recently departed dog’s whine, and she wondered if I had ever heard of such a thing before. Well, not only had I
heard
of such a thing, I had just
experienced it myself
. What she described sounded exactly like what
I
had heard. It was then that I first began to wonder if perhaps
her
dog had contacted
me
so that I could validate her experience.
As it turned out, that was only the first of a number of mysterious “dog experiences.” Early one morning, I awoke to the distinct sound of a dog sniffing, almost as if there was a dog on the bed next to me, sniffing my face. Startled, I instantly opened my eyes and looked around—no dog.
Another of these mysterious events took place when Jameth was out of town on business. I needed to get up early for an important appointment, but I forgot to set the alarm and was still in a deep sleep when it was time to get up. Suddenly, I was startled out of my sleep by one loud, clear, distinct dog bark. It sounded as if there was a dog right next to me, and the tone of the bark was firm and urgent, as if the dog wanted to be sure I awoke.
I instantly opened my eyes, leapt out of bed, and realized there was no dog in the room. All of the windows were closed, so there was no possibility that the bark had come from outside; it had sounded like the dog was
right there with me
. I looked at the clock. It was exactly the time I needed to get up, so I thanked this mysterious, unseen dog for awakening me.