I have decided to share my experience just to give anyone grieving their pet and waiting for their return a big boost
of hope! I know how it feels to be surfing the internet for clues, for stories.
So I wanted to give back what hope and information I got from other people online. All I can say is : don’t give up !
Be open and be listening, be willing to receive signs, and always nourish that heart connection with your pet.
My beautiful tuxedo cat Silvestro ( a female cat with a male character, that we believed to be a male, and always
referred to as ‘he’ anyways) died on the 6th of february 2022. This was a 3 years old cat who appeared from nowhere
in my garden as a 20 days old chubby and sassy kitten, forgotten by his mother, screaming in protest and who
became my baby. We were inseparable. The passing was the first strange thing : I was not home, I was on a hike on
that unfortunate day. But I was able to trace back all his movements by reports by my neighbours. At an hour and
minute compatible with the time he was hit by a car, I in the meantime was having one of the strangest experiences I
have ever had. It was a dissociation experience very hard to describe. I think it might be connected to him but also
to what people call a past life memory. I recognized the place I was hiking, with a strong sense of familiarity and at
the same time I felt spacey and very confused.
Of course when I came back and discovered my cat was missing and then, after some investigation, that he was
dead, one of the hardest times of my life begun. I do not need to explain the deep pain, longing, desperation I felt. If
you are here reading, you feel exactly the same. I cried all the time, I was broken into pieces.
I plunged into research. I had already read about cat and pet reincarnation when another cat of mine called Inpiù
died in 2018. This time my pain was so deep, the feeling of being unfairly torn from each other so strong, that I
started to do one thing : I consciously asked him to come back, to please come back.
In my pain, I started to get some signs of his lingering presence. A part from the occasional meowing, or purring and
feeling of paws on the bed at night… there were more original sings and occurrences, that spoke to me specifically. I
started having dreams about him, where ( a part from one occasion) he appeared in all possible versions of tuxedo.
He would pop up in street names, people names ( in Italian Silvestro is used for people also), pictures. I had these
clear feeling of his presence, his location. As in a beautiful reincarnation story I read online, I could feel him being
close to our physical reality or far away, he was located in my chest, purring through my working day, or mixed with
the whole universe.
During this time a symbol started to haunt me. This symbol has its own long story. I had noticed it even before my
cat’s death. I found it so often in the houses near here that some months before I had started to think it could be a
magic symbol, disguised as a simple decoration. And, most of all, there was one the place of the accident. I have very
old memories about this symbol, very unclear. I have half an idea it could be connected with my ancestors story. My
ancestors actually founded the small village I live in at the beginning of the XXth century and the place was full of
magic. Ironically there are many reports ( by actual historians), way too many for a small place like that, of people
who could talk with the dead.
This symbol winked at me, it comforted me somehow. It felt to me as some kind of portal.
In my dreams and meditations, Silvestro sometimes appeared looking like himself except for the tail pattern : it had
a white tip.
During a deep meditation some time in the second half of March 2022, I had this strange vision, which formed
spontaneously. I think I found what I suppose is our local ‘rainbow bridge’. It was a valley, full of small stone
enclosures and houses, looking very much like what was probably here in my region a couple thousand years ago,
according to history. Some places had that architecture even a couple of centuries ago. Every enclosure had a garden
and there every animal lived with their ‘guardian’ on the other side. We stopped near a house and its enclosure, and
a old woman stepped out and smiled at me. She was wearing the traditional local dress and I didn’t know her but she
had something in her face that reminded me of my grandpa lineage. I flinched.She ‘communicated’ to me that she
was keeping my cat and I felt a strong sense of peace. She also told me that her time there was not long and she was
going to ‘die’ to that reality ( whatever it might mean for a person who has already died) and pass to another
dimension and when she did, my cat would return to me. I raised from the meditation and was more peaceful.
Then the ‘angel’ came, as me and my friend have come to call him. During a very rainy and damp day, 18th of March
2022, what looked like a stray cat appeared from nowhere: he was super thin, his fur matted, starved. As I took care
of him, I immediately realized he was acting quite strange . He was black and white as my love, but quite the
opposite in size, proportions etc. I took a picture of him and my friend pointed he had a white spot on his back
looking like a pair of angel wings. Well, what’s the purpose of angels? ‘Angelus’ actually means ‘messenger’,
‘announcing’. This cat peeked at me through the same door where my cat would peek at me, asking to get in. He
jumped from the little wall exactly like he did (except he had less energy than my cat) and asked to be let in. I let him
in, and watched. He sat and waited. He seemed to be listening. He went straight to my bedroom, of the many rooms
he could have gone to, he went to my cat water bowl ( which I still kept, refreshing the water when needed as a
homage to my cat) and drank. He stood as he stood, and drank loudly as he did. I cried. I knew this cat could not be
him, as he was too old. Also he had a totally different feeling and character : it totally felt as if he was ‘acting out’
some script. Then I had an intuition: of all people I texted a neighbor. It turned out to be her cat :he is cared for, but
he has some metabolic and mental problems, can’t be totally healed and that makes him look like a stray. I feel he
was so special, and he conveyed a message to me from my cat.
All along I have been talking to a girl living in my neighborhood who I had never met before. She lost her cat, a male
tabby, in the same week I lost mine. We connected and made friends. She told me she had another female cat left,
and she was pregnant. When the cat mommy gave birth to her babies, she sent me some pictures. And there I saw a
small black and white cat, with the ‘tail pattern’, the white tip. He also had what looked like the symbol on his back,
very blurry . Of course I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. But when I met the black and white I felt absolutely
nothing : this big kitten looked at me with big serene eyes, moved slowly and had nothing of my cat essence or
personality.
I was a little discouraged but I went on with my life.
It was an episode with this neighbor, which unfortunately made us break our friendship, which got things started
again. We saved together a small abandoned tabby, which she lately claimed for herself, breaking my heart, but the
feeling of having a baby cat in my hands again kicked me into action : I felt this urge to act.
I volunteered to raise and adopt baby cats during the end of April 2022 when stray orphaned babies where popping
up everywhere and foster mums, both human and cat, were very needed. But for some strange reason, even if it was
raining kitties, I could get none : people not replying, someone coming before me and taking the cat before me or
the kittens being too young and unfortunately dying before the volunteers could intervene and so on.
Finally a girl contacted me. We made the necessary arrangements and I organized to leave as soon as possible, for a
2 hours drive. At these point there were 5 people all cooperating to save a litter of 4 kittens, through a series of
accidents and a bit of adventure, helping each other – and we are still in contact nowadays .The kittens were born
one day before Easter 2022 and were now in a stone lab. Their mom was a young lady, black and white as my cat
who passed. And she died in a car accident, too. When I first saw a picture of the litter, a black and white kitten
stood out. But he was already claimed. At this point, many doubts filled my mind, but I decided to trust my intuition.
Colors did not matter. Even if I had asked my cat to came back as similar as possible, so that my family could
recognize and have a feel of him too.
So in the end I’ll tell you what was in the box I was handed : a couple of 20-days old, screaming, trembling, dirty
kittens. One silver- gray, semi- tabby and semi-siamese kitten and … a black and white, with a flare on his muzzle.
Here’s what happened : unexpectedly the lady who claimed the black and white one ( we also became acquainted
and we currently exchange information and advice about the little ones) had been to the stone lab that morning, fell
in love with a light gray kitten and decided to take her instead.
In the flare of my tuxedo kitty, clearly visibile, is the symbol. Under his eyes, two little trickles of white, resembling
tear tracks, which for some reason make me emotional every time I look at them. And as about the tail … it doesn’t
have the white tip but … it is not a regular tail. He has an extra long tail, with a slightly bent tip ( you can feel the
bent bone only by holding his tail between your fingers).
On the 5th of May 2022 I was home with my two new cats.
I named them Argento, the silver- gray one ( argento means silver, in Italian) and Cagliostro, the black and white one.
Cagliosto is actually the first name I was thinking to give to my previous cat and I had been indecisive for quite a
while before naming him ( her) Silvestro, in the end. Cagliostro showed signs of being aware of his surroundings and
of my presence before the other one: stood taller, started exploring sooner, started to display signs of a sassy
character, as my previous cat. He likes to cuddle into me and looks into my eyes for long minutes, gently paws at my
face, and actually climbed into bed with me when he was so small I thought it impossible for him to do so. I am often
speechless. The feeling of being with someone I’ve known before comes over me in waves. A couple of friends who
knew the story from the very beginning are positive Cagliostro is the new Silvestro. The awareness comes to me
gently and slowly in time, as well as happiness and relief, as I raise these two little beasts who changed and animated
my life a lot, and I now feel that familiar presence sleeping with me again. It cannot be described or explained easily.
At 50 days old, Cagliostro climbed on my desk where I have my picture album and my poster with myself and
Silvestro, a little bit of a memorial actually. And put himself in a weird position, looking like he’s actually coming off
from Silvestro’s back! It was so tender, so deep, so funny I took a picture of it.
At 3 months old, it became very clear that Cagliostro is also a female. But I don’t know if we will feel like changing his
name.
Then I became aware that also Argento reminded me of someone. He gave me a sense of the first cat I considered
for reincarnation : Inpiù. In those days when I was asking for Silvestro to come back, every day I said hello to all my
lost pets. And when I saw Inpiù’s little face also asked him to come back if he wanted too. It was a big surprise when,
at a closer inspection, I found the symbol on his forehead too.
So this is my story. A bit long, but I think I exposed the main facts.
All I have to say is : listen, listen with your heart, be open. Be inspired by others but follow your path. Ask for what
you want, pray if you have to. Keep the contact alive. Don’t let anybody distract you or tell otherwise. Feel
everything, explain nothing. I think the path your pet takes to come back to you is very personal to your own case.
I hope my story will be of help for all of you grieving. I wish you a joyful reunion!