Solomon's Kitten (21 page)

I watched lots of dogs come over the rainbow bridge, and none of them were remotely like Amber. No other dog had such a coat of bright gold, and a tail that wagged so fast and shone so
silver.

On one occasion, I did see a dog the same colour, but she was old and droopy. Her tail hung down like a rope, her eyes were dull, as if she could hardly see, and even from a distance, I sensed
the tiredness, the weight of her, and the pain.

It couldn’t possibly be Amber.

Yet something compelled me to watch this pathetic old creature staring up at the rainbow bridge as if it was a mountain. She was moving, but only just, crawling, dragging herself up through the
deep blue side of the rainbow.

No, it couldn’t possibly be Amber. Or could it?

I sat up. My fur was tingling, and there was a longing in my heart. And why was I purring? Such a powerful purr, like never before, a purr that sent ripples right over the rainbow bridge.

The poor old lump of a dog was moving faster. Her eyes were brighter, her legs straighter, her coat more golden. It was as if she suddenly realised she was free, she was not in that old body any
more.

The transformation happened smoothly as the dog reached the highest point of the rainbow bridge. Her fur glowed, her silver tail began to wave like a plume, her soft nose lifted and her face
shone with joy. It WAS Amber! As she crossed the bridge, she became young again, a magnificent silky goddess of a dog.

I ran towards her with my tail streaming and sparks flying from my fur. We collided in a whirling, squirming, tail-wagging galaxy of pure joy. It went on and on, and when at last we flopped down
and curled around each other, Amber looked puzzled.

‘How did I get here?’ she asked.

‘You must have died,’ I replied.

‘I don’t remember dying,’ Amber said. ‘TammyLee and Max took me to the vet . . . and Diana came in her wheelchair. It was SO humiliating. I couldn’t walk, I was so
old, and it hurt all along my back. I couldn’t even wag my tail, and THAT made me so sad. I was the saddest, most useless dog. The vet said I had to be put down, whatever that means. They let
me lie on my blanket. Max just stood there, with his cheek twitching, but TammyLee and Diana cuddled me, and Diana said, ‘Thank you for being our dog,’ and then I woke up next to this
rainbow. I saw some other dogs going over, and I knew I had to try . . . and look at me.’

I listened, spellbound.

‘You’ve come home, Amber,’ I said, ‘This is the spirit world . . . don’t you remember?

‘But I’ll miss Diana.’

‘You can wait for her, we both will, but time is different here,’ I told her. ‘Things don’t take so long . . . not years and years like they do on earth. And you’ve
got me.’

Our time together passed in a haze of contentment. It didn’t seem like years, but it was obvious from the glimpses I had of TammyLee that numerous earth years had passed. She had two
little girls now, and her own home with a tiny square of garden. When I managed to look at her eyes, there was still that shadow in them, the shadow of Rocky. I began to wonder if I would have to
go back, and start over, and be her cat again. Until, one day, my angel called my name.

The sudden blaze of her flight startled Amber and me as we lay dreaming and sleeping. I was in the middle of an impressive purring session, which stopped abruptly as I heard the angel call my
name, It echoed across the universe.

‘Tallulah! Talloo . . . LAHHHH . . .’

The angel swept her cloak of stars around us like a blizzard of glitter.

‘Come quickly,’ she cried, ‘quickly, Tallulah . . . it’s TammyLee. Come quickly.’

She scooped me up and whisked me through the landscape, and Amber came lolloping and wagging, her ears flying, her face radiant with excitement.

‘You HAVE to see this, Tallulah!’ The angel parted the veils of light at a thin place. We all gazed through into TammyLee’s square of garden.

Her white front door was shut, and a man was walking towards it with long strides. I could see the back of his neck, and the tattered rucksack that hung from his wide shoulders.

‘Watch . . . just watch,’ my angel whispered, and we fixed our eyes on the young man’s straight back as he stood at the door. His hand hesitated as he lifted it to ring the
doorbell, and I saw an arm covered in tattoos, and a bracelet of black and silver.

He rang the bell.

He waited, nervously, a piece of paper in his hand.

The door opened and TammyLee stood there, her eyes startled.

‘Excuse me calling on you like this,’ said the young man in a deep husky voice that sounded both confident and scared. ‘But . . . I . . . have reason to believe that you are my
mother. My name is Rocky.’ He held out the piece of paper. ‘And this is the letter you wrote to me – you said you wanted me to know you – so here I am!’

TammyLee gasped and flung her hands over her mouth. She peered at Rocky and, in that moment, I watched the shadow leaving her eyes, the light flooding in until they sparkled with hope.

Rocky held out his hand to her. ‘I’d so like to get to know you,’ he said quietly, ‘spend some time with you . . . if . . . if you’d like that. It would be
cool.’

TammyLee could hardly speak. She gazed at her son’s face, her eyes burning with questions, with one big question, that was like a fire she had to step through.

‘It’s OK,’ Rocky said, sensing it. ‘I understand . . . about you abandoning me . . . and I’ve forgiven you, long ago.’

‘Oh, Rocky! Rocky . . . thank you!’ TammyLee opened her arms wide and they hugged. ‘Every day of my life I’ve thought of you,’ she said passionately. ‘I
never, ever stopped loving you . . . I dreamed that one day you would find me.’

The hug went on for ages, and the angels wound ribbons of light round and round the two of them. At last, Rocky straightened his arms and stood with his hands on her shoulders, a wide grin on
his young face. He hesitated, then added what seemed to be two magic words.

‘Hi, Mum!’

They laughed with joy, and I was so entranced that I found myself moving ever closer, until I was sitting on the garden path like an earth cat. TammyLee peeped over Rocky’s shoulder, and
stared at me.

‘The CAT!’ she cried. ‘Did you bring her?’

‘What cat?’ Rocky turned to look, and for one eternal, exquisite moment, I kept perfectly still in my shining halo of light, my eyes glistening with love.

I suppose you could say that I ‘vanished’ then . . . melted back into the light, like spirit visitors do. But not before I heard the whisper I’d so longed to hear again.

‘Tallulah . . . I SAW you! Magic puss cat.’

Thank you to my two friends, Barbara Allen and Joan Thomas, who taught me so much about animal healing, to my writers group for their support, to my agent Judith Murdoch for
her guidance, and, last but not least, my wonderful Twitter friends.