It's not unusual that animals in spirit will share specific details of their lives on earth, sometimes even showing me vivid images relating to the circumstances of their deaths, particularly when their demise was a violent one. 

 

More often, though, they tend to recount happier events and pastimes, and occasionally even let me hear words, phrases, and nicknames that invariably bring a smile to their people when they hear them reverberate from a dimension beyond.

 

So when a black lab named Dawson proided information about events that had occurred after he died, I realized that something very special had happened.

 

I was first introduced to Dawson in late December, when his "Mom," Charlotte, had contacted me on an emergency basis because her lovely boy had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  At that time, Dawson was in pain, and his prognosis seemed grim. 

 

As it turned out, Dawson's veterinarian was able to prescribe medication that both alleviated his pain, and may even have shrunk his tumor.  Dawson responded remarkably well to this regimen, and was able to enjoy several carefree months, with no curtailment of his energy or his activities.

 

By late April, though, Dawson's reserves were depleted, and he began a rather rapid decline.  Loving him too much to allow him to suffer, Charlotte and her husband made the terrible decision to release his spirit from his wracked body.  And that's when their sadness truly set in.

 

Charlotte asked me to communicate with Dawson again, this time hoping that he might tell her something that would bring solace and understanding in her time of grief.  And as Charlotte had hoped, Dawson reassured her that she had indeed made the right decision, and he let her know that he had accepted it with a sense of love and peace, and even with gratitude.

 

But we weren't prepared for Dawson's seeming awareness of events that had transpired in the weeks since his passing.  He showed me an image of a locket which, when it opened, revealed photographs of two young girls.  Knowing that Charlotte and her husband did not have any children, I couldn't imagine who these girls might be, until Charlotte confessed that she had been obsessively looking for lockets after Dawson's death, wanting to hold a picture of him close to her heart.  Even more amazingly, she had ordered one that she had found online, and it arrived on the very day she received the transcript of my session with Dawson.  Inside, were photographs of two young girls, exactly as he had described.

 

As if that weren't enough, Dawson also showed me a black lab puppy, suggesting that it would be coming into the lives of Charlotte and her husband.  That was odd, I thought, because Charlotte had tole me that they had decided not to adopt another dog right away.  I distinctly heard the name, "Troy," in association with this unknown black puppy, and thought that Dawson might be expressing his preference for the new dog's name.

 

It turned out that it was even better than that.  A few days later, Charlotte contacted me excitedly to say that she had been checking out Labrador Retriever breeders online, and had found one whose dogs looked very much like Dawson.  The breeder lived just 30 minutes away, and Charlotte decided that when she was ready for a new puppy, this would be the person she would call.  And then she noticed something uncanny on the breeder's website:  the kennel's foundation sire, a ruggedly handsome champion lab, had a name that seemed to be more than a mere coincidence.  Believe it or not, it was "Troy."