Ghost

Enjoying some quality time with someone I can't see

So here's a fun and freaky thing that happened to me this morning:  I went out to check the chickens, and as usual, Kit, the cat from next door, came out to meow at me incessantly (which I'm sure she views as "keeping me company") while I checked nesting boxes, water and feed. 

So my back is turned to the cat and I VERY CLEARLY hear a voice say, "Well, hi there."

We have a permit inspection today on an outbuilding being constructed, so I turned around expecting to see either the building inspector or a serial killing standing there.  And I was about to scold both/either for creeping up on me.

Except there was nobody there.  But the cat had stopped meowing completely and was standing there purring, wrapped around thin air like she's the happiest creature on earth.

There are two points to this story, and I may as well come out with them now.  

First, this cat belongs to my neighbors because she lost her owner, a man stricken with cancer, a few years ago. She was given to my neighbors when he died, and apparently they were very close.

Second, I DO NOT believe in ghosts.  I believe the afterlife is so awesomely wonderful that we don't "haunt" places we once lived, although I believe there are spiritual "echoes" of a sort that can linger in certain places.

But I guess I never considered the scenario where someone returns to visit a long-lost loved one ... or a long-lost pet.

I know what I heard, and I heard it as well as if you were standing a couple of feet from me and spoke. Now the cat is out back, laying on the grass and purring contentedly, seemingly wrapped around something I cannot see.

Well alrighty then.  What else can I say? I don't pretend to have all the answers in the universe, and sometimes you just have to admit there may be more than what you are aware of going on.  I'm OK with that.

So "hi there" back at you, whoever you are.