I will mention, also, that she was an indoor cat her entire life. So, for me to picture her in this kind of setting, in a rural field, in a kind of place I have never lived, seems important to me. She does what she wants now, and lives where she likes.

Seagull,

I fully believe that your experience was a real visit from your cat.  I've had so many visits from pets!  One of them was even a visit in a dream where one of my cats who had passed came through with a message delivered by of my dogs who had passed!  So you have me on your side as far as belief goes.  I no longer question why and how things happen the way that they do because it simply doesn't matter.  The real importance is on the visit, the message, the emotion...these are the things of the heart and spirit that matter more than anything else. 

I think the reason why Eli (my deceased dog) came to me in a dream to relay the message from Tristan (my deceased cat) was because I was having just too difficult of a time dealing with Tristan's death.  I can't help crying even now just typing this.  Tristan was so special to me.  It's too long of a story to share here, but he was a dear friend in spirit who happened to be a cat in this lifetime.  I'm not going to waste time wondering why he was a cat and not a human, it's just what was. 

So when Tristan (the cat) passed it was unbearable.  Eli was an English Pointer so when he stood up on his back legs he was as tall as me and I'm 5 feet 2.  Eli could always sense when I was emotional and upset.  He could also sense when my husband was being mean (he was very abusive in our marriage) and Eli would literally step in between us, stand on his hind legs, and wrap his front legs around me in a hug.  He would literally put himself between us to protect me, and of course the hug was just so sweet (a human gesture from a dog!)  He often did diffuse the situation because of this because my husband was never mean to our animals.   

So, in the dream Eli came to me, stood up on his back legs and hugged me.  Then he pulled his head back and looked me right in the eyes, then pressed his forehead to mine.  There was instant mind-to-mind communication where he said, "This message is for you.  It's from Tristan.  He wants you to know this.    I'm here.  I'm still with you.  I love you."  This dream was so real and vivid, and the emotion felt was incredible.  In life, both Eli and Tristan had experiences where they were able to relay information to me telepathically (more long stories). 

Anyway, sorry to digress.  I just really feel so passionate about my own (however unbelievable) experiences with my pets!

What I want to ask you about your experience is, what did seeing the neighbor's cat on the front porch have to do with your cat's visit?  Was that really the neighbor's cat or were you seeing your own cat nonphysically??  You mentioned the extra light around the porch, so I wasn't sure if that was indicating a spiritual experience.

Vicky

In my experience, cats are exceedingly complex beings and I don't put anything above them. While I'm completely fluent in cat, I'm reasonably fluent in dog as well. I've not noticed any of the family pet dogs in my landscape for a very long time, though. Perhaps part of it is one of those dogs barked his fool head off when a younger version of me rolled in from the lemonade stand at 2:43 am.

And to the important part: it's beyond time for human equity with the animal kingdom. Humans have been all "we're the greatest thing ever created" for quite a long while and non-humans ("animals", offensive as that may be) are none too pleased as a whole from what I observe. Even the old paradigms often seen in text such as "meanings of your spirit animal" or "connecting with your animal totem" are in my experience totally outdated, and massively incorrect on most levels. Nothing more (or less) than direct communication is necessary, and it's pretty easy for me.

Presently recalling telling a fellow about a conversation with a horse. And he (the human) was most incredulous. The misunderstanding (on his part) was we were talking like Wilbur and Mr. Ed. Nothing further from the truth! It's a non-verbal - or perhaps, pre-verbal? - communication not all that different from other non-verbal communication such as illustrated in the wooo-ah recounting.

Do you speak star language? a friend asks. "Likely I do," I reply, and off we go. That was three (?) years ago. Cat, dog, horse, porcupine languages, all feels the same to me.