Ghostly visits of the pet kind

My pets visit me after they're gone.  At first, I thought it was just my dog, Smokey, but after Millie visited me yesterday, I realized they all paid a visit to me from over the Rainbow Bridge.

Timothy, my and my husband's first cat, visited me one day a few weeks after he left us. One day, out of the blue, the doorbell rang. When I went to see who it was, there was no one there, no package left, and no person or vehicle in sight.  This might not seem eerie, except for the fact that, years before, Tim had discovered he could walk along a ledge by the front door and ring the bell when he wanted to come in.

Smokey came in the middle of the night, a month or so after he passed on to alert me to a problem he saw. I woke up hearing Smokey's tags jingle as he entered the bedroom, and felt his nose nudge my hand. (Note: I felt his nose; I heard his tags. I did.) Waking more fully, I sadly remembered Smokey was gone, but then I saw a faint light coming from down the hall. I got up and walked slowly down the hall and saw . . . the refrigerator door had somehow been left open! I closed it and went back to bed, thanking my ever faithful dog for his vigilance.

Jasmine, my Siamese mix cat, never really showed herself, but although after she died, I picked up all the furry mice she loved to play with, saved a couple and disposed of the others, I found furry mice all over the house for years. Every one had it's leather tail chewed off - which was the first thing she did when she got a new one.

Millie, my last cat, passed away about 6 months ago. I am still in the phase of thinking I see her out of the corner of my eye, but have been passing it off as normal. Last night was more than just thinking I saw her. I felt her.  I'd gone to bed and was just drifting off when I felt Millie jump onto the bed in the same spot she always did, and then felt her two front feet standing on my leg, as she always did, waiting for me to reach down and pull her up to snuggle near my face.  I lay there, still feeling her feet on me, my head telling me she was not there, my heart aching to reach out to her as I always had, but afraid and unable to do it. I hope she understood why I couldn't do it this time.

There you have them.  A series of events, probably easily explained things to doubters, but real visits from beloved pets to me.  Pets who, maybe, needed to come back once more to say goodbye or let me know of something that needed my attention.