The Cat That Never Died

I had a cat once named Buddy. He was black and white, what about my age, and I had had him since I was 5 years old. Although the saying goes "a dog is a man's best friend," my cat Buddy was my best friend.

For some reason he always knew when I was sad and would come to comfort me. As he got older he became my alarm clock, often times waking me up too early at 5 o'clock in the morning.

With age came more and more difficulties for him, such as struggling to get up the stairs, staggering about, and other such normal signs of ageing.

One day in October during Thanksgiving Break, I woke up to my dad telling me that he was dead. At first this did not effect me because I was half asleep and I had been preparing myself for that day for a while. But when I came downstairs and saw his body my eyes started bleeding tears. And not only was there the pain...but it was a spooky site.

His body was in a relaxed position, like he was laying down...but his eyes were wide open and his jaw draped down like he was in the midst of meowing, or trying to gasp for breathe. I bent down to touch his body and it was stiff as a board.

The rest of that day I spent in mourning. I found a shoe box for him to be buried in, made a cross with his name on it to mark his burial site, and even said a few little prayers for him.

Ever since that day, every now and then while I'm trying to fall asleep, I can feel his little paws jump up onto my bed and walk across me like he used to. As first I think it's just my mind playing games on me...but it continues and I cannot deny the fact that he is haunting me.

Most people when they think of a haunting they think of horrible ghosts jumping out from behind a door to scare the pants off some poor person. They think hauntings are a bad thing...but I think this is an example that hauntings can be good. It's comforting to know that Buddy's still with me in a way.