They Made It Across

 

A dream, a memory, and a quiet kind of return

Last night, I had a dream about two cats I used to love.

They both passed decades years ago—young, too soon, and not in ways that felt fair. They died from neglect I couldn’t stop. One left behind a weight I never quite let go of.

But in the dream, they weren’t gone.

I was standing outside a house—one that felt familiar but didn’t belong to me. Across the street, a busy road buzzed with traffic. I called to them from the car I was in, and they came.

But they didn’t rush.
They walked with purpose to the edge of the road and waited.
They looked. Listened. Trusted the timing.
And when the moment was right, they ran—smooth, sure, and together—across that road.
Then they climbed into the backseat like they had always belonged there.

That’s when I knew: they made it.
Not just in the dream, but somewhere deeper.

For decades, I’ve carried guilt about what happened to them—especially the youngest, who was all fire and energy and barely here before he was gone. The female (with a regal name) was grace and calm. The young one (named after race car drivers) was a comet. I thought I’d never get closure.

Maybe this dream was their way of giving it to me.

They returned not as ghosts, but as passengers.
Not to be mourned—but to ride along.
And in the dream, I was the one driving now.

I’m sharing this because I have friends here who lose cats regularly because they work in rescue. One of my friends lost a cat recently, and it reminded me how quiet and painful that kind of loss can be. How it sits in the corners of your home and the folds of your heart.

So maybe this story is for anyone who’s missing a pet right now.
Maybe it’s a reminder that even when we think we’ve lost them, they find their way back.
Sometimes in dreams.
Sometimes in memory.
Sometimes in the gentle calm that returns when the ache starts to lift.

Sometimes they just need us to call.
And they’ll come—carefully, bravely, in their own time.
Even across a busy road.
Even after all these years.

And this time, they’ll make it.