Ultimate Council of all Beings

In 1995, my then-husband and I went to a meeting for new volunteers at the Tacoma/Pierce County Humane Society. I headed for the meeting but he turned the other way – towards the cattery! When he joined me a short while later, he spoke words that would change my life. As I recall, he said, “There's this little Siamese kitten you've got to come see.”

The upshot was that we left that night as newly-minted volunteers for the Pet Behavior Hotline and the happy “owners” of another cat to join the two we already had. A few days later, tiny bundle of white fur with red-orange highlights was christened Lea Kattke – a tribute to one of our favorite musicians. A journey began for me that night which ended on October 29, 2010.

In my previous blog, I shared the final steps of that journey as Lea and I moved towards letting go of the final threads that held her to this manifested form and releasing her to her next role as one of what I have come to call the Ultimate Spiritual Council of All Beings. (Thanks to Joanna Macy for that format.) Here is the vision that was given to me gradually over this past year as more and more friends spoke of the passing of their elderly cats and dogs.

Early in the 1990s, Beings began to manifest on a troubled Earth. Each found its way to the household of humans who had begun to awaken. Over the years, these beings have observed their companions and learned how they viewed the world. They have likely subtly guided their human charges along the path to enlightenment as far as the person was able to go.

But times are dire on this planet and the human species as a whole has resisted the wake-up call of the Universe. While many move forwards towards realizing the potential of Homo divinus, the evolutionary transformation to enlightened humankind, the backlash has also grown in strength. It has reached a new crisis point in this year of 2010. Decisive action was needed and the Universe took a necessary step. She called the Council home.

One by one, they have gotten the message that their time with us was done and they were needed on the other side of the veil. They have reluctantly wrapped up their missions, bid us goodbye, shed their manifested forms and taken their places on the Spiritual Council of All Beings tasked with nothing less than “saving the world”. Though all Beings are represented on this Council, those who have shared our homes have an unprecedented role on this current council. The humans they have grown to know and love over the last decade or two have had good hearts and have struggled to make the world a better, safer, more peaceful place where all beings could thrive. And the lessons and insight that these non-human spirits have gleaned are now needed to attempt to awaken the rest of humanity.

It is my humble opinion that this is the reason that so many dearly beloved “pets” are departing this life this year. So many of my friends have lost animal companions – especially elder cats and dogs – that I became convinced that we were seeing the fruition of a planned intervention or fact-finding mission by the Universe – a mission of last resort to find a solution to the species which had run amok and was threatening to cause its own extinction as well as that of many others throughout the earth.

I was one of the humans who had been blessed with the friendship of one of these gentle beings for over fifteen years. I am grateful for the love and companionship of the one I knew as Lea Kattke. I wish I could recall all of the others who have reported the transitions of their friends. I am going to add the couple that I remember off the top of my head. If you who have read this offering have a name you'd like to add to the roster, please send the details and I will update the list. This is my way of honoring these precious souls who have graced us for all these years and are now in service to all creation on this Ultimate Council to save us from ourselves.

The Ultimate Spiritual Council of All Beings

Human-companion contingent

Name	Species	Age	Transition Day	Human Companion
Lea Kattke	Cat	15 ½	October 29, 2010	Patricia Menzies
Mellilot	Cat			Mark Smythe
Nestabear	Dog	13+	September 8, 2010	Marisha Auerbach
Sunkissed aka LoveSkunk	Cat	18	2010	Elizabeth Elza Clark
Spirit	Dog	15	November 21, 2010	Chatara Hajje Ontiveros
Batcat	Cat	18	August 14, 2010 (?)	Michael
Phoebe	Cat	22	March 2010	Deanna & Rich Parker
Kitten	Cat	15	2010	Bill Riley
Rigley	Dog	15	2010	Bill Riley

- All My Relations -

Dancing with Death

As you can probably tell by the title, I'm not going to be writing a humorous blog.  I might come up with a funny remark from time to time.  Some folks think I'm fairly witty.  Others say I have no sense of humor at all.  Usually I hear that when I don't laugh at their jokes!

But I find myself in a serious phase in my life situation right now.  That is what I will ponder in this and probably a few following blogs.  So get a cup of tea (or your beverage of choice) and get comfy if you choose to take this ride with me.  I can't promise you will enjoy it, but if you read with an open heart the same way that I write it, you may find some diamonds amidst the muck.  If you decide to bail out now, go with my blessings and gratitude for stopping by.  For the rest of you, here we go!

My cat is dying.  She has had a long life (15 1/2 years) and has been well-loved by her human friends since she was adopted from the Human Society at the barely-legal age of 6-8 weeks.  She was named after a wonderful guitar master much admired by my ex-husband and myself.  The guitarist’s name is Leo Kottke.  Her's is Lea Kattke!  She has also been called other names by humans who have met her.  Princess (though she was NOT named for Princess Leah).  Creamsicle Kitty because she is vanilla colored with orange highlights.  She has been my special child - living most of the time in her reptilian brain.  "Fight" was never an option for her.  "Flight" was automatic even from her human companions if we moved too fast and startled her.

Her raison d’être, however, was to love.  I've come to understand over the years that that is true for all beings, but most of us don't realize it.  Lea embodied it.  Here in her dwindling remaining days, she still does.  And she is presenting me with the opportunity to explore my own relationship with life and death.  I have resisted facing this lesson, but it is here nonetheless.  She is dying and the question I am facing is what I do about that.

In the grand scheme of things, the life and death of a small cat is not terribly momentous.  Billions of life forms are born and die every day.  So why does this one matter?  The answer is obvious, of course.  It matters because I love her.  I have formed an attachment to her over this past quarter of my life.  She is an integral part of my life.  I CHOSE to bring her into my life.  She didn't, like my other two cats, join the household because they were abandoned and there was no one else to take them.  I love and appreciate those two also, but I have to admit that they don't live deep in my heart like this one.  There are two other cats with whom I DO have a heart connection but they have lived with my ex-husband for over five years and no longer know me.  Lea is the last link to my former family.  Her passing will close that chapter in a way that only dawned on me during this dance with the end of her life.

I have come to view the world from a Buddhist perspective and the tools I have acquired from those teachings are being put to the test.  The main one, of course, is Non-Attachment.  As the Buddha taught, it is attachment and aversion (both symptoms of wanting life to be other than it is) that cause suffering.  We become attached to those things that we view as positive and suffer when we lose them.  Or we try to push away things or situations which we see as negative and suffer when they hang around!  Learning that everything must - by its very nature - change is disconcerting when we work so hard to create the conditions that we want in our lives.  I KNOW that resisting change causes suffering, but I'm really not ready for THIS particular change.

Lea has been an old kitty for some time now.  She sleeps most of the time and walks slowly.  Heck, that sounds like a lot of older folks I know!  But she took a hard turn for the worse on October 15th.  Stopped eating or drinking and I thought she would die that weekend.  (The 15th was, of course, a Friday and I couldn't get her in to see her regular vet before Monday.  I could have taken her to the Emergency Pet Clinic but what would they be able to do?  I figured they'd tell me I had an old, sick cat who was dying!  I knew that!  She didn't seem to be in pain, though, so I decided to just wait it out.)  I posted on Facebook and got support from friends who said, "She'll tell you when she's ready to go".  My other two cats who I had to have euthanized did just that.  It was very clear that they were ready to go.  It was still hard, but there was no question in my mind that I was doing the right thing FOR THE SAKE OF THE CAT!



Last week, when I was confronting the choice, I called my ex-husband and he met me at the clinic.  Nick had found Lea when we were at the Humane Society all those years ago so she is as much his cat as mine.  He helped me to work through the painful decision.  One of his comments was especially helpful.  When I pointed out that she keeps trying, he said, "That's what Life does.  Life wants to continue.  It's programmed to expend every effort to survive."  She may keep "surviving" and it may be up to me to choose when to end her struggle.  I keep hoping for clarity, but it hasn't come yet.

This weekend I will observe the pagan holiday of Samhain on which Halloween is based.  Twenty years ago October 31, 1990, my older sister died after a battle with breast cancer.  For years, I hated Halloween.  But then a met friends who were pagan and Wiccan and they told me about Samhain, when the veil between the worlds of living and dead were so porous that spirits could cross over.  That belief has helped me to heal my relationship with my sister even though she is no longer living.  Same with my father who died four years later.  This year, I’m asking them to come get my sweet little cat and take her to the spirit world.  That would be a nice, convenient and elegant resolution to this situation.  If it happens, I will be deeply grateful. If not, I will know when the time is right.  I feel that in my heart and I’m reaching peace.

I will take Lea’s spirit as well as those of my family who have passed on before me to the Samhain ritual on Sunday.  I will share my love with them and honor their lives and their effect on mine.  These lessons are hard but must be learned if I’m to walk the path of peace and let go of suffering.  I am grateful to all my friends who have sent their prayers and blessings in so many different forms.  Energetically, they are all the same and they warm my heart and strengthen my spirit to face this challenge.  Yes, she is “just” a small cat, but the lessons will apply to other situations I have yet to face.  She has been a blessing in my life.  Thank you for witnessing these steps of my journey.  My hope is that some of my words may resonate with you and bring you some peace.