Back in the garden after Pearl had left, Alex tried out for himself some of what he’d learned. He tried to change his body into a lion, but was disappointed in the results. He apparently needed to practice focusing better, because although he kind of felt like a lion briefly, the body didn’t look quite right and his body returned to normal almost immediately. Then he tried changing the color of his coat, and with that he was successful. He became a white cat, then an orange cat, and then back to his own color, which he really preferred it turned out.
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| Dexter |
After a while, he decided he would embark on an adventure of his own and decided to go visit another cat, so he went for a walk with the intention of encountering another cat. He walked for a short while before encountering a nice-looking grey tabby cat lounging in the sun next to another cat with the same coloring, who was asleep. Alex ambled up and greeted the cat who was awake, who introduced himself as Dexter and seemed friendly and happy to share his experiences with Alex. Dexter explained that his companion was Jenny, who had been his sister in a recent earth life. “Usually she prefers to be my mother”, confided Dexter. “We’ve had several different lifetimes together, though she doesn’t go back into bodies nearly as often as I do. I like to call myself a ‘recycler’ because I go back more often than most of my friends”
“Do you mean you can go back to earth whenever you want?” asked Alex, who was surprised by this.
“You must be new here, Alex, I guess you haven’t remembered about your other lifetimes yet. Let me explain just a bit. When you go back it’s because you want to have different kinds of experiences, so you’re never the same cat twice. You’d have a different body, a different name, a different personality, which can be just a little different or a lot different, and of course different parents and types of experiences. Some prefer being here and don’t go back much at all, and some never do. I like it, so I go pretty often. But I don’t always stay very long. I have a guide who lets me know when he thinks there’s a good match for me available, and then I see if I feel a pull to accept or not. There’s this feeling that comes, that’s like a magnetic sort of desire where I feel like I’m being drawn toward it. If I feel that feeling, then I go.”
Alex was listening intently. What Dexter was saying stirred a vague memory in him of the magnetic pull he had felt just before entering the body that was to become Alex, but couldn’t remember anything beyond that.
Dexter continued. “I just returned here about 8 months ago from my most recent lifetime, which was pretty short. My main purpose in that lifetime was to bond with and be there for a small human girl who needed me while her parents were splitting up. She was about 5 years old when I left, and I was almost 2 years old. It was fine, because I only meant to be there a short time, and the girl’s mother adopted a puppy who took over my responsibilities to the girl. I was a female in that life, named Minnie, so you can see why I decided to go back to using this body and my name from the life before I was Minnie. In that one, I stayed for 20 years, and it was one of my favorites. Jenny, here, was with me for part of it. Before that, I went through several short lifetimes where I was a shelter cat for most of my life before being put down or getting sick and dying quickly.
Alex was horrified. “Why would you want to go into that kind of an experience? Did you have to go?”
Dexter smiled and said, “No one made me do it. I chose those lifetimes to provide a service to the humans on the earth. It’s time for the humans to learn that all life on earth is connected, that we are all spirits together. Many animals, including pets, farm animals and wild animals take on lives of service to people to touch them with our presence and give them an opportunity to connect on a deeper level. Many of them continue to miss the connection, but sooner or later each person will be touched on a deep level by one or more animals and will, through that one special bond will start to feel the true connectedness that is always there. Although there is much suffering, it is making a difference. You were part of that too, Alex, though you may not remember.”
“I lived with Emily, who was always loving with me. I’m sure she felt the connection, said Alex.
“I’m sure she was one of the better ones, Alex. But I’m sure there was a time, probably in an earlier lifetime, when she learned to see animals as fellow beings because of the efforts of another animal. Did she find you in a shelter this time around, Alex?”
“Well, yes, she did,” Alex had to admit.
“And don’t you think that during your time in the shelter you touched the hearts of many who saw you there, at least in a small way, and that because of those experiences some of those people realized how no life should ever be thrown away or taken for granted and perhaps changed the way they perceived their own responsibility to creatures who aren’t human?”
“I guess I see what you mean, Dexter,” said Alex, “but I don’t think I’d want to live a hard life like that, unless it was just a short time and then I got to be with a good person.”
“Well Alex,” said Dexter, “the choice is yours. We all get to do what we want most to do.”
“What do you do here for fun?” asked Alex.
“Well, my favorite thing to do is to turn myself into light energy, without a body, and shoot through the galaxies at the speed of light. It’s great fun.”
Wow, thought Alex, that does sound like fun. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that. But it’s good to know that it’s possible!
“Hey, Alex, I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine. He’s not a cat, but he’s a real sweetheart and I think you’ll like him.”
“Okay, Dexter, I’ll meet him if you want. Is he a dog?”
“Nope,” said Dexter. “He’s a mule.”
Next time: Alex meets Zeb
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