Hans Was Here

If you're animal lover, you'll love this true story. I know it's true because it happened to me.

In 1992, some close family members in California gave my sister and brother-in-law, Christine and Dick, a miniature schnauzer puppy. Dick and Christine named him Hans, and we loved him as much as we loved our human family members.

As most of you probably know, Dick died last October, and I went back to New York to help Christine through her own transition.

Two days before I came back home to Wyoming, I awoke at 4:30 the morning of January 10. As I lie there, deciding whether to get up or go back to sleep, I heard a car door slam at a nearby neighbor's house. Then I heard Hans' loud, familiar bark in the living room directly below my bedroom.

Oh well, I thought, he's just barking because he also heard the car door slam.

Then I did a mental double-take. Almost exactly a year ago, on January 17, 2005, Hans had died! I was there when he died, and the memory of that day is permanently etched on my memory.

But I knew his bark, and I felt his energy in the house. What was going on here?

The next morning, I said to Christine, "Something strange happened last night. Hans was here."

So I decided to ask Chief Joseph about it.

Chief Joseph

Those of you who are animal lovers, as John is, know your animal family live beyond the veil of death, just as you do.

Those who love you, whether they were human or animal in their physical form, never leave you. They often have a desire, beyond the grave, to help you and to continue loving you. That is often why you see, or feel, or hear what you might call "ghosts."

Animals, especially your domestic pets (as you call them) -- and especially dogs and cats -- are more often than not your teachers. They have little to learn from you. But you have much to learn from them.

Dogs and cats do not incarnate (or reincarnate) with the same "life plan," if you will, as humans do.

If there is one major lesson your pets have to teach you, it is this: Live in the moment! And this: Love unconditionally.

Your pets find joy, passion, and pleasure in every moment of their physical lives. Even when they appear to you to be suffering from some physical illness or injury.

Pets -- and all animals, in fact -- have no fear of illness or death. And, more importantly, they have no fear of life. Hence they immerse themselves in all the pleasures of physical existence. And they do it without hesitation and without guilt.

They are fully alive in every moment. Not a bad role model for you to follow!

Animals do not live with the same "agendas" you humans do. They have no desire to control or manipulate their fellow creatures, human or animal. Their intent is to simply live freely and joyously.

They see little difference between life and death.

No matter how awful (or peaceful) their transition from life to death appears to you, those transitions are always easy and effortless to them.

And when they arrive "on the other side," they continue their joyful, exuberant, and happy lives, romping and playing with abandon.

They often return to visit you. As do your human loved ones. But most of you are not open, at least not fully open, to that happening for you.

When you do not believe, you cannot see. You often say, "When I see it, I'll believe it." But it's always the other way around -- when you believe it, you'll see it.

John, obviously, believes in life after death, as most of you do. But he also believes in, and often experiences, "visits" from loved ones, animals and human, who have "died."

It's all a matter of vibration. If you believe, you vibrate in a positive way. And then you open the "doorway" to those beings who, on the "other side," are vibrating at that same high level.

You never lose those you love. If you remain open to them, "alive" or "dead," you will always be comforted by them. You will feel their presence, their energy.

And you will know you are loved.

About the Author

Since 1992, John Cali has been communicating with a spirit called Joseph. In one of his many physical lifetimes, this spirit was incarnated as the legendary Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe in what is now Oregon.