Our cabin in northern Michigan is surrounded by woods and lots of wildlife.
 

Of special interest have been wild feral cats and their kittens. My wife Julie has put a lot of time and love into capturing them and finding loving homes or neutering the ones that could not be tamed and placing them on farms that provide food and let them be free.
 
She is highly motivated by the understanding that they are otherwise threatened by hard winters, starvation, and predation, particularly by coyotes.
 
Here, just outside our door is a coyote ready to attack one of these feral mothers and her kittens that escaped onto the porch deck. Note the mother on the steps all huffed up ready to try to defend her kittens.

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This is one of the feral kittens caught, domesticated, and all grown up safe and sound at the home of one of my sons and his family. He is a cousin of the feral kitten I will tell you about later.

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​For the past 2-3 years there have been no sightings of any kittens despite putting food out. A few glimpses of adult ferals, but that's all. The raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, skunks, and coyotes just eat it up whatever is put out.
 
So that is our colony of ferals, but now I want to share a story of another kitten recently rescued.
 
At our office and home downstate two hours away, an employee who lives on a farm had a neighbor ask her if she would like a kitten found abandoned in a ditch. Unfortunately, the kitten had bowel problems so we were asked if we could maybe take it in at the office where several cats over the years have enjoyed a nice life or been found homes.
 
So, we took this one in, particularly given its tragic brief history. The kitten turned out to be spectacular in personality and love. She was about three months old and was so beguiling in the way she would warm to you and look you in the eyes to make a real connection.
 
She was named Annie, after Orphan Annie.

Here she is

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This is her in one of her good moments playing in the office rock garden

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​Unfortunately, the bowel problem was not a transient thing. For some reason, she did not have rectal and sphincter control. Stool would either drop out randomly or back up, harden, and be very difficult and painful for her to pass.
 
Everything was tried to relieve the problem. We hoped it would resolve itself as she got older. Instead, she continued to uncontrollably pass stool or be in excruciating pain trying to pass what was backed up.
 
After about a month of constant daily attendance and loving care and worry, it became clear that the problem was not going to resolve. A surgical solution was not possible and any attempt would likely result in even more chronic pain for her. (With animals, although surgically possible, resecting the colon and stitching the opening to the abdomen with an attached catch-bag is not feasible. They would simply tear it off.)
 
For a third veterinary visit, on a day when Annie was in pain with a bowel backup, a more in-depth exam was made requiring sedation and analgesia. (I am no longer in practice and equipped with the necessary drugs to do this.)
 
In the meantime, having an appointment she couldn't skip up north, Julie traveled the two hours from our home to the cabin. Upon arrival, she saw the mother feral cat she had been trying to coax to food every time she was there. But as usual, upon sight of Julie, she vanished in the woods.
 
This was yet another disappointment on top of what she knew had to be with Annie. When she called the doctor, he concurred that it was an unresolvable problem. So, the gut-wrenching decision was made to do the kind thing and end her suffering.
 
Crying, Julie went out in the backyard and sat on a bench at the edge of the woods and, as she says, wailed over the loss of this poor little creature she had fallen in love with. Back at our home downstate, I too could not hold back tears when thinking about ending the life of this special little creature we were gifted with experiencing.
 
In the midst of Julie's sorrow sitting on the bench with her head buried in her hands sobbing with images of Annie persisting in her mind, she hears a faint meeue, meeue. At first, she thought she was in some sort of delirium. But it persisted and got louder and closer. (Thankfully she had the wherewithal to film the following incredible events. Her voiceover was for us back home, not for an anticipated internet audience. That was my idea since this is so remarkable.)

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When she got some food for this skin and bones starving kitten, this was the result.

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​After a few moments, he was picked up and brought inside. No objection. (Trying to pick up feral kittens in the past was almost impossible unless you wanted to get shredded.) He attached to Julie like a barnacle weaving in and out of her legs touching and trying to stay as close to her as possible.

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​Remember, it's been about three years since any feral kittens have been seen there. When they were seen in the past, no way would they approach a human. They were wild and had to be trapped.
 
Not so with this guy. He called to her from the woods and came to her and immediately warmed to her. 
 
He was crawling with fleas driving him nuts with their bites. (Fleas take blood from their hosts further aggravating his cachectic condition.)
 
The fleas were removed with a flea comb and a safe anti-flea powder. All of which he tolerated fine.
 
He slept comfortably inside and then traveled with her back downstate to the office first thing in the morning. No fuss at all. Just trust and contentment during the two-hour trip.

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​At the office, he continued to eat almost nonstop and caught the hearts of the whole staff.
 
He is the same size and age as the tragic Annie female kitten, has the same manner, is as loving, and looks you in the eyes just like she did.
 
These events are so miraculous because:

• He appeared shortly after Annie was being put to sleep in a clinic two hours away.
• He is the first feral kitten to appear in years and was evidently the only remaining kitten from the litter from the feral mother Julie saw when arriving.
• He appeared out of the woods coinciding with Julie's arrival from two hours away.
• In so many ways he is identical to Annie--age, size, look, personality, connection.
• His attachment to Julie is identical to that with Annie.

 
It's also a miracle that the extreme grief Julie was experiencing from the loss and decision about Annie was immediately relieved by him coming out of the woods to her. Although the hurt we all feel when Annie is brought back to mind remains, this little angel avatar (he is now named Angelo, after angel) that emerged from the woods brings us relief like nothing else could.
 
It's as if Annie wanted to relieve us of pain just like we tried to do for her.
 
This is a miracle because it cannot be explained from the materialistic viewpoint that assumes living creatures are just complicated material rocks.
 
It can be explained by understanding that the matter of which all living creatures are composed reflects but a speck in a reality that extends incomprehensibly beyond.
 
Living creatures have an essence that is not of this world and with capabilities beyond comprehension both here and in their spirit form.
 
Given that, it would seem that Annie, upon death, merged her essence, her soul, in some inexplicable way with Angelo. It's as if Annie made the decision upon death to come back to us, and particularly to Julie who cared and worried so much about her. Annie also wanted to relieve us of the pain we were feeling from her loss and, in effect, tell us she is fine now.
 
Angelo, in a matter of a few days of almost nonstop eating, is now free of fleas, putting flesh on his bones, playing, obviously happy, requiring no litter box training, and attached like a barnacle to us.
 
What a love fest we have been given.
 
If you think this explanation is nonsense, go here to see that it most certainly is not. THE REAL REALITY and OUR TRUE NATURE AND DESTINY
 
We and the other creatures that surround us are not mere random consequences of atoms and molecules banging into each other.
 
We are all fundamentally other and love is the underlying truth.