i was noticing this just last night. i wondering just how yours are with ur femelar ?

I believe it pretty strong bond and well connected..I can be walking or doing something else at stop my totem will be there cat or dragonfly,spider one will show up and Pandora my eldest cat always wants to be with me in my
ritual circles and she know how to behave in it! Boths cats sleep with me or want to be where I am.[smile]

I don't have a familiar.

The only time I suspected I might was with my cat Little Bit...she was very in tune to me. Of course, I saved her life as a tiny kitten too. she jumped headfirst into a pint jar when we were trying to rescue her...lol. Her mother had abandoned 2 kittens...the other one we found dead...but Little Bit I bottle fed for awhile. She followed me everywhere. She got hit crossing the road from the field,but i still heard her and felt her wrap around my legs.

Other than that, no. Not everyone has a familiar.

my familiar was a spotted python named jack. i had an extremely strong bond with him. the day he ran away (ok...ok...i was a moron and left his cage open and he got lost in the house)i was devistated...i think i still am.

is Jack gone for good? or did you find him?

I had a strong bond with my familiar, when I lived in virginia my cat got ahold of poisoned mouse from the neighbors putting down rat poisonand he went into renal failure, I tried to everything even doing iv's at home.Then he came to me lay on my lap and I heard in myhead him say let me go it's time for me to go. The next day I had my husband put him to sleep at the vets, I couldn't go that night I felt the familiar push down on the bed where he usually sleeps and he's still around.

first thing.... WhisperinRedd.... its not nice to make one cry so early in the mornin'.... that story touched me. I have had a couple of experiences with cats as familiars. Artemis and Samantha's story comes to mind. I had moved out to the country, thinking I'd like to have a cat. Here comes the mother cat, Kali, all pregnant abandoned and starving. Who can turn that away. I fed Kali and she pretty much took over my home. Had six beautiful kittens. Found homes for everyone, kept two babies and Kali. Kali was pretty much done with me once the boyfriend at the time moved in, and ran off after nursing the kittens. We had Samantha and her brother Artemis. They were pampered pets to be sure. Always laying on my tarot cards, rubbing up on me meditating , taking over the bed. Amazing how a 6 pound cat can turn into a 500 pound tiger just by laying on the bed with you. Oh yes, they were bed hogs. I had moved and couldn't take my kitties with me. During the moving Artemis ran away. I was sad but knew he'd be ok. He was less skittish than Samantha and he was neutered with all his shots. Samantha was still not spayed, yet. Nobody went outside, so I was alright with putting it off for a bit. The now exboyfriend found someone to cat sit for us, but she ended up stealing the cat. I know Samantha and Atremis are alright because they came to me in dreams and such for quite some time until I got a new man and stable place to live, and a "new" cat, the "visits" are less frequent now. That was three years ago. The "new" cat, Momma, has Kali's role, she's wild and we can only admire her from afar, she has given me a couple of litters with one baby so far that has hung around for a bit, her story is for another time. The kittens seem to lean themselves out around here, I've seen some of Momma's babies at the neighbors house from previous generations. We live in a rural farming community now and we end up with one or two babies that hang around but only Momma stays around. We did recently have a male tom cat that hangs around. He just showed up one day and decided ourt place was good and adopted us. We call him Samson, because he is a huge monster cat. lol Momma has a new batch and I think the next generation of Momma kittties has been born. The Momma we have now is a second generation. I always said that I was going to be the weird cat lady in the neighborhood. The one the kids don't want to get the ball off the front lawn because the weird cat lady's a witch and she'll cast a spell on you...lol. my honey started it he was the cat man before I showed up. BTW we got two parakeets and a dog, too.

that's alright because I ended up getting two more cats. The thing is out of the two I got when I moved back to nc one ran away so I got another one and he ran away but the one that's stayed is by my side all the time rituals and all. her name is day, black with one white spot under her neck and the one that ran away was all black I called night. the other one that ran away I thought was a girl, I named luna all black, turned out to be a boy so I just changed it to luda as in ludicris, to think he was a girl, lol, it must have drove him crazy. lol,hahaha

lol I had a gender issue with the parakeets,Jack and Isabel. They were here before me. One day I saw that thier water dish was red. So, I looked up online on what to do. It turned out that they had some canary food instead of the regular parakeet food, but I found out that the genders were mixed up. The people at the pet store told my stepdaughter the wrong way to tell boy and girl parakeets. Poor birdies still get all mixed up. So Luda is not alone with gender confusion. lol I think after all the cat adventures I have had I think my new familiar is my honey's rotweiller, Capone. He's always by me when I'm in the garden, just hanging out, watching.

Shaam...... First let me say, I'm sorry about Little Bit. Perhaps you have moved on, but for me, that story really hit home. We found my cat as a dumped kitten as well, running loose in the woods near where we set up to have a picnic. My parents caught her (I was only three at the time), but her sister ran up a tree. Later, my mom went back for the other kitten, but found her dead (that's how we learned it was a sister).

I named her WhiskerCat, which was slightly ironic, as at the time, she had no whiskers (she was so malnourished that every time she grew whiskers, they would snap and break off). As odd as her name is, she is a wonderful cat. She has always been a bit skittish, and is a small cat overall, but her whiskers now make up for it tenfold, and she is one of the most graceful cats I've ever seen.

When I first became interested in the craft, I didn't realize that she would become so important to my practice. Then one day, as I sat on the floor in the living room with my back against the couch and in criss-cross-applesauce position for meditating, she just came over, and settled down in my lap to rest. We sat there for quite a while - I'm not sure how long - in silence, me meditating and her vibrating (she does purr, but it is so quiet that you can't hear it without shoving your ear right up next to her throat, so we call it vibrating instead, because you sure can feel the vibrations). It was then that I realized just what a gift she is, and I just knew she was my familiar, as weird as that sounds.

When I meditate, she is there. If I set up my altar, she is sure to be sitting just a few feet away, or even right beside me. As a pet, we are close. When she is sick, and about to barf (she has always had a bit of trouble keeping down her food if she eats too fast), she calls for me with something that is very close to 'Mama', but with a more cat-like sound, almost like she's saying 'wawa', but the M is definite. When I am sick, she leaves my room only to relieve herself quickly, or if she's really hungry, but is never gone for more than a few minutes. When I cry, she comes to comfort me, and when I'm scared, she just sits nearby, or in my lap, and vibrates calmly until I relax.

As a familiar, she is always present when I meditate or do rituals, but never interrupts. Instead, she makes herself known, then settles down until I am done.

So, after all that, to answer the question, I have a very strong bond with my familiar, in AND out of the craft.

~Dove

P.S. - Sorry that ended up so long....I didn't mean it to! '^^