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Over time, I taught her words and concepts in a simple way rather like Ebonics, so that I could actually communicate with her even tho she couldn’t talk, and she could feel secure in her surroundings.

One day I was standing across our wide 4-lane street talking with a neighbor, and she heard me and came out of the front door, down the steps and approached the curb. Knowing that cars rush by here, I turned and said, “Sara, no! Sara — Sara house!” At which point she meowed and went back up the steps to the front door.

The wind had pushed the door so it was almost closed, resting in the jamb but not latched. She looked at the door, looked back at me and meowed. I called out, “Bump!” and she pushed the door with her head and went inside.

The neighbor was just astonished.

As you can tell, I didn’t use her to do circus tricks, but rather to communicate with her in a practical way so she could be a family participant.

She was very shy and fearful ordinarily because she had been a stray at birth and was found under a porch with her mother and littermates. She hid when people would come to our house—except when my small prayer group would come and sit in the living room with chairs in a circle. Then she would come out and actually jump into someone’s lap. This was remarkable, because she usually wouldn’t even sit in my lap unless I had an afghan over my lap.

She also would come sit near me when I studied the Bible in bed in the morning, sometimes putting her paw on the page. I’m not claiming she was a knowledgeable Christian. I believe, however, that animals are sensitive to our brain waves and feel most at ease when humans emit alpha brainwaves of peace and joy. So she wanted to be around that. Sometimes she would jump into an empty chair at the dinner table when my family and I were saying our typically long prayers before meals, and get down when the praying was over to go eat her own food.

There are many other examples. I miss her so much.