Ry’s Birthday

Far be it from me to ignore my little darling’s birthday! I don’t know the exact date, sometime in early September, I think, because we brought him home from the pet rescue in late November and he was around 8 weeks old.

Not long after coming home

I can’t believe that was eight years ago. My “baby” is eight years old. He still has a kitten face, although lately he’s been looking a little more mature. He still squeaks like a kitten, though. 

When we brought him home from the shelter, his name was Timba. I thought that was kind of cute, but he blew me a total raspberry. There was no way he was going to be called Timba. He had things to teach me. So I got on the phone with my mentor, Joy Turner, and we discussed his name.

We knew he was an incarnation of a feral cat we had called Harry Potter because of the lightning strike marks in his black fur.  I suggested Harry.

Harry Potter

Another raspberry. “How about Ry?” he asked. (Pronounced Ree, but spelled in a way that most people think he’s named after a bread.) Who was I to tell this being he couldn’t be called Ry (or rye, depending upon how well you knew him)?

So Ry it was. Most often it’s Ry-Ry, which he’s okay with. 

I found out why he wanted to be called Ry instead of Harry one day when my beloved Glenn and I were out walking in our neighborhood. Ry had been with us for maybe six months. He was born after the feral boy, Harry Potter, disappeared never to be seen again. This seemed fairly linear to me, and humans like linear. It’s how we think. It’s how time shows up for us. It’s comforting, and makes sense.

However, in the grasses by the side of the road we saw a black shape. It was - Harry Potter. And he was alive! He stared at us for a few moments, and then the feral part of him (which is pretty much all that was left) panicked and he bolted across the road and into the woods behind our neighbor’s house.

Wait! What? Was I wrong? Was Ry not an incarnation of Harry Potter? How does reincarnation work, anyway? My well-ordered animal communicator world got dumped (once more), on its head. 

Boxes are for cats, not for human minds

Linear is a concept made up by humans. It helps us deal with the chaos that is called life. If we were bouncing around in the timeline our poor mammal brains wouldn’t be able to handle it. On a soul level, we know better. But we spend a lot of time here in Dimension 3, which is linear and helps us cope.

What Harry/Ry showed me is that not only are things not linear, a soul is not a soul is not a soul. It’s many aspects. Harry Potter was feral. He liked being feral. He loved the adventure of finding his own food, sleeping outside, braving the elements and being smarter than the things that wanted to eat him for lunch. He reveled in that life. However, there was also a very large part of him that wanted the comfort of a soft bed, loving humans to wait on him, food that he didn’t have to catch himself, and a warm blanket in winter. So he split his soul, and put that part of himself in a little kitten named Timba, who caught my eye and wouldn’t let go when I was volunteering at the pet rescue.

Timba had a number of brothers and sisters, but HE was the one I wanted. I knew it from the the moment I saw his cute little face in the database. The other kittens held no interest for me, even though there were some that were even prettier than he was - hard to imagine, but they were all gorgeous.

Timba wanted to be in our family. He had history with us, as Harry Potter. I suspect he and I also have a soul contract of some sort, and his part says “I’ll turn your world upside down and you will learn lots of things.” My side says “You’ll go along with whatever Timba/HarryPotter/Ry brings to the table. Open your mind.” It’s been a ride!

So here we are, eight years later, and while I no longer profess to have a favorite family member, Ry has certainly chosen me as his favorite. I’ll go along with that. For many more years, is my hope, because I’m sure he’s not done turning my world upside down! So much to learn, and so many awesome teachers!

What has your animal friend taught you lately?