Do animals reincarnate? Of course they do! Sometimes, animals remember their previous lifetimes, and sometimes they don’t. Other times, they remember but don’t want to discuss it; they’d rather put all that behind them and start fresh.
Humans often worry that they won’t be able to find their animal companion once they’ve reincarnated. But there’s no need to worry; some meddling intelligence in the Universe engineers the happy reunion without fail, every time. Often, the human in the equation doesn’t even recognize their animal in its new form, at least, not until later, when coincidences start piling up:
Your new kitten Max keeps biting your toes, the same way Cookie used to do.
Your husband keeps accidentally calling your new dog by your old dog’s name.
You feel compelled to meet, then pet, then bring home a puppy you see at an adoption event, and you have no idea why. You weren’t in the market for a new dog, but there’s something about her…. You know that if you leave her behind, you’ll always regret it and you’ll never be able to forget her.
That last scenario is the way we ended up with our dog Kailani. As with most reincarnation reunions, it took a convergence of several random events and decisions to make it happen. My youngest daughter had helped my husband plan a special weekend for his birthday, which happened to be on Thanksgiving weekend that year. The three of us drove a couple of hours to the north end of the island, where we stayed in a B&B. We went horse-riding one day and snorkeling the next. We had some time to kill before the snorkeling trip, so we stopped at a Farmer’s Market and noodled around a while.
Getting another dog was the last thing on my mind. We already had three, and though Pearl surely needed a little sister to rip and snort with because the other two were old and grumpy, I had no desire to obtain a fourth dog. But it just so happened that several volunteers from a rescue organization were there that Saturday, leading fluffy puppies around on leashes embroidered with big block letters: ADOPT ME!
I resisted as long as I could (and we were there for hours). One by one, the other puppies went home with their new families, but the one I couldn’t look away from remained. Eventually my willpower crumbled, and I stooped to pet her. She was—and still is—the softest dog I’ve ever touched, and I was sunk.
I told my husband (whose birthday it was) that I didn’t know why, but I felt compelled to adopt that dog, and asked what he thought about the idea. He said, “I don’t know why you’re asking me. You’re going to do what you want anyway.” (True.) I took that to mean, “I’ve always wanted a dog just like her!” So, I paid the adoption fee, signed on the dotted line, and arranged to pick her up from her foster family on our way home the next day. We named her Kailani.
Over the next few weeks, I began to notice ways in which she reminded me of a dog I’d had in years past. Her soft white fur began to show little black spots emerging on the skin beneath—just like Truman, our tortured, anxiety-ridden Catahoula who came to us totally deaf, partially blind, and traumatized by abuse he’d suffered as a puppy. (Classic foster failure. We were the only people on the planet who could tolerate his strangeness, but we loved him, so we were happy to do it.)
When Truman got old and his eyesight deteriorated further, he became more anxious, and so reactive that he’d snap at anyone who came too close. (And God help anyone who bumped him by mistake.) We finally had to help him cross the Rainbow Bridge when his bad days outnumbered the good ones, and I told him then that I hoped he would come back as a puppy who hadn’t been abused, so he could enjoy a fully happy, stress-free life with us.
But it wasn’t just the physical resemblance that made me think Kailani might be Truman’s reincarnation. I’d always said that Truman was pure love, sweetness through and through, loving and trusting despite the abuse he’d suffered. Kailani is so sweet, so loving, so affectionate that she’d happily lie with her head in my lap 24/7 if we had that kind of time.
Of course, all our animals are sweet and affectionate (except when they’re not) but they all have their limits. Georgia says hands off the mouth, the feet, the tail, or TBH any part of her body that she isn’t currently offering up for petting. Pearl hates to be picked up and isn’t wild about having her belly touched. Jed’s okay with being petted just about anywhere, but don’t mess with the feet (especially his too-long toenails) and don’t bother the ears either. Our dogs love loving, but only on their terms.
Kalaini ‘s terms are anytime, anywhere, on any part of her body. This dog LIVES to be petted. She’ll toss herself onto the floor and expose her belly for petting to anyone who walks past. She even knows how to hug by sitting beside you, putting her head over your shoulder, then leaning in close and squeezing the back of your neck with her chin.
I had thought Kailani was mostly border collie, but we did DNA testing, and it turns out she’s got plenty of Catahoula and Aussie in her too. I started thinking about the Aussies we’ve had in the past, and dug up an old photo of Carmen, whose face markings were almost identical to Kailani’s even down to the small brown “beauty mark” beside one eye.
Could Kailani be the reincarnation of not-just one dog but two, or even more? She is also part “pibble” (aka pit-bull), and God knows just about every dog in Alabama is at least part pibble. Jack was part pibble, pure white with black skin spots that showed through when his fur was wet. All three of those dogs were mistreated by humans but learned to love and trust again, and I asked each of them to come back when they were ready, without the embedded trauma of abuse. Kailani could be the reincarnation of these three dogs all rolled into one super-soft, endlessly affectionate multiple bloodline mutt.
While all that is fun to speculate about, none of it really matters, because this time around, she’s just one dog, with her own personality, her own quirks, and her own mission in life. This time around, it’s all about love. Pure love, pure affection, pure trust unadulterated by a traumatic past. This time around, it’s all about Kailani, enjoying a fully happy, stress-free life with us. And maybe it’s also just a little bit about me, wanting to do better for a dog than I was able to do for the ones who came to me already damaged, often beyond repair.
While we’re on the subject of reincarnation, I should add that while physical resemblance might be a clue, it isn’t always a requirement. Animals (and people!) don’t always come back as the same species they were before. I’ve met horses and dogs who were humans in a past life, and dogs who plan to come back as humans, cats, or fish.
Cats always seem to come back as cats. Maybe they’ve got a secret that only cats know. Maybe we should all decide to come back as a cat one of these lifetimes and see what it’s all about.
We’ll be talking about reincarnation in the next Animal Communication Zoom. I’d love to hear your stories!
