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Missing Animals, when they don’t return home

By 20th July 2021Missing Animals

Not all missing or lost animals make it back home safe. I realise I often share stories of reuniting people with their beloved animals, because we all love a happy outcome, but I would also like to present a balance between the happy endings and the sad ones.

In July 2020 I had to deliver the news no animal communicator wants to share. I needed to explain to my client I felt her cat had passed over. It’s one of the hardest elements of being an animal communicator and needs to be approached sensitively. As an animal guardian myself I try to imagine what it would be like if I was in their shoes listening.

This email came from Sue, the guardian of Skipper, and is an insight into her side of the experience. I’ve spoken with Sue and she gave her blessing to share this with you in the hope it could help.

Sue’s email

“Dear Pea,

It’s almost a year since I asked for your help in contacting my dear cat Skipper who had been missing for over 6 weeks.

Skipper was a bold, young, adventurous cat who had been with me for almost eighteen months since he left his mum cat, along with his brother, Scaramoose.

The two of them had been let out at around 6am on 13 May 2020 but Skip failed to return for his breakfast as was his daily routine – usually plus or minus a small mammal, dead or alive.

By 9am I knew that something was wrong and that sinking feeling in my stomach began. As anyone who has had a dearly loved feline friend vanish into thin air will recognise, then began the whole raft of emotions, frantic worries, theories and panics.

Although I have loved and lost more than 10 cat companions throughout my life, this was the first time one had simply disappeared like this, leaving no trace.

No amount of searching road verges, paths, hedges and fields, posters on trees, anxious chats with regular passers-by or desperate pleas for information through lost and found media channels turned up a single lead. Not only did I explore the countryside around our home, I explored every possible explanation I could think of, but none seemed to make any sense.

You were very gentle with me and I shall be forever grateful for that. Of course, you told me the one thing I didn’t want to hear – that Skip was no longer in this world – but you also told me that the answer was the one that, in my heart, I had felt was the only possible explanation, yet I dismissed it as too unlikely.

Drowning? During a drought? In the streams near here? Surely the odds were against that?

But you relayed to me the tragic circumstances of his quick death described by Skip himself – a sudden rush of water from ‘a round tunnel’, being knocked off balance, and tumbling …. It made no sense at first but, as I searched for meaning, all became clearer.

A few fields above our house is a small reservoir and a farm, both of which release water down a narrow channel which disappears underground and re-emerges in various places before it joins a bigger stream in a narrow gorge. I knew Skip often played and hunted in these fields; in fact I clearly remember Moose and I searching these fields on the day he disappeared and being perplexed by the fact that the vegetation either side of this watercourse had been laid flat, as if squashed down by the wind.

It seemed irrelevant at the time but now I can see how this must have been the gush of water that caught our dear Skipper off guard. He must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time as water suddenly flooded from an outlet before descending into another hole in the ground. I longed to have him back but that was not to be.

Although painful at the time, your contact with Skip gave me closure and helped me to move past my grief, regret and guilt, to a stage where I could simply be thankful for the joy he brought to our lives in the short time he was with us.

His passing also made space in our world for two more special feline souls to share our home and our lives: two kittens I rescued from a place very close to where dear Skipper lost his life.

Now young Scout and Badger romp around with Uncle Moose and, although he plays it cool, I sense that Moose is reminded of his own kitten-play with Skip.

It’s taken me a year to write to you to thank you, Pea, but I wanted you to know how much it helped me to deal with the loss of our dearest Skipper.

It was the ‘not knowing’ that was most difficult to deal with. You (and he) helped me to ‘know’, so that I don’t need to live in the dark for the rest of my life.” – Sue

What You Can Do

Very sadly, not all of the animals are able to make it back home safely. My heart goes out to you if your own animal is missing. While you take practical steps please also remember to include your intuition. You have the strongest heart connection with your beloved animal and this is what I advise.

  • I want to encourage you to trust your own gut feelings.
  • Listen to what you feel or know.
  • Be open to any nudges you receive in your dreams, your animal may be connecting.
  • Follow through on your instincts and see where they take you.

Animal communication can help us understand a missing animal’s experience and it’s that understanding that can bring some peace. Hearing from them can be very comforting.

Animal communicators are not always able to locate a missing animal and that is something to consider. A reputable professional will give you impressions that reveal something about your animal like their character or what they like, giving you confidence they are connected with them, and then details of their experience. They will offer a guaranteed refund if they are unable to make that connection.

Free Guide: How To Find Your Missing Animal

For guidance and helpful visualisations to connect with your missing animal, click here for my free guide How To Find Your Missing Animal.

 

Pea Horsley is the Founder of the Conversations with Nature World Summit and creator of online learning, Animal Communication Made Easy, a proven 5-step method to learn how to communicate with all species of animals. Pea is the UK’s most highly regarded animal communicator, TEDx speaker, teacher, wild animal retreat facilitator and best-selling author. In 2020 Pea founded The Pride membership as an answer to the global pandemic where each month a different species communicates, guides and advises humanity.