Missing, Now Gone, letting go of hope Options

[Mink&WillowsMom]

I started this topic on the Missing and Lost thread, but now that I have come to believe my precious Twitchit is dead, I am moving my story over here. When I still had hope, I couldn't bear to read the stories with sad endings -- I needed to see the "he came home!" ones.

I found this website a year ago after losing my precious baby Mink kitty to a car.
(A soul-rending loss I'm still not over.)
Three months ago my dad died, and I inherited his wonderful cat Twitchit (see avatar photo). We've adored each other for all of his six years, and I was sooo looking forward to having him in my home. The transition from his house (across the street) to mine was going slowly but smoothly. He's been able to roam at will with his cat-door, and my plan was to get him used to a new cat door at my house, then work toward locking him in at night. (I have three other kitties, one of whom has outdoor privileges when I'm home, and the two youngest -- adopted after Mink's death -- have never been outside.) Twitchit likes all three of my kids, and they like him back.

I let him back out Saturday evening, 6/30, and haven't seen him since. Very odd. Neutered, he didn't tend to roam, and has never stayed away more than a couple nights. Now that six days have gone by, I've been losing hope rapidly.

At first, I heard Dad in my head saying, "it's okay, he's fine."
Then it changed to, "he's fine, he's with me."
I didn't want to believe it as a truth, but it rang deeply in me.

Following a link I found here, I ended up hiring an Animal Communicator psychic. I'm not religious, and I've been trained as an empiricist, but I also know there's far more to the mystic side of things if we just still ourselves and listen. Experiences since Mink's death, and around my father's death have opened me up to trusting my intuitive, instinctual side, and recognizing souls have paths far beyond this physical pit-stop we call a lifespan.

Anyway, the Animal Communicator had quite tried to discourage me from purchasing her service after looking at the sketched map I sent her. There are so many woods, she was concerned that if the message was "I see trees and brush" it would be next to useless. But I hired her anyway.

If you wish to see specifically what she told me, go to the Missing & Lost section, and find my post there today, under the "72 hours gone, starting to freak out" posting. But the upshot is that he was killed by a predator animal. I've been knowing this in my heart of hearts, and now there's nothing else rational left to cling to. I desperately hope I'm wrong, and Hilary said she hopes she's wrong, but Twitch would be home by now if we were. Miracles can happen, and I will gladly celebrate if he returns.

So here I am mourning my third major death in a year. Right now, as I write this, I am numb. Then the grief rears up and slams me again. I've been in various stages of grief for the last 12 months and 25 days, first over Mink, then Dad, now Twitch. I am a strong woman, and make appointments with my therapist when I need to (I suspect I'll be calling her shortly), but how many deaths is a person supposed to be hit with in a year? I said goodbye to elderly kitties in 2002 and 2003, and adopted two beautiful healthy baby boys. When Mink was killed he was only 3 years old.

Right now I'm starting to fear that this run of deaths is never going to end. I'm generally an optimist, but Willow still goes outside (I go back and forth on this, but revoking his outdoor privileges after four years seems cruel, yet maybe I need to do this), and my nephew is being deployed to Iraq soon. I'm starting to feel jinxed?
Kimberly

[Mink&WillowsMom]

This morning I woke to the sound of tumbling, scrambling -- and saw all three chasing each other. Every time Will caught Roh, he took him to the ground, so I guess he does want to be dominant over Rohan. That's good to see him standing up for himself.

Will is due for his shots. Normally, I give them myself, but I think I'll take him to the vet for a checkup instead. He could have some parasitic thing going, or ear mites or some such -- those would sure make me grouchy.

Has anyone tried the product Feliway spray? It's supposed to calm stressed cats by mimicking friendly facial pheromones. Curious if anybody's had good results.
Kimberly