Little Visits: The Cardinal and a Found Feather

August 3, 2025 Bernadette

“A found feather means an angel has visited.” And so I found one today. “When you see a cardinal, a departed loved one is near.” And I saw a cardinal from across the yard, bright red on the turquoise wicker loveseat. I knew they were visits from one or more of my felines, and most likely one in particular.

Cutting the grass Saturday I happened to see a feather on a leaf just in front of one of the legs of the turquoise wicker bench.

Looking more closely I could see it was likely a secondary feather from a mourning dove with just a blush of warm color toward the top and a couple of soft black spots. Just a small feather with a lot of down at the base, but even in all those leaves and grass and the bench itself it stood out to me as clearly as if it was calling me, from a species known to symbolize hope and remembrance.

I collect these, and put it in my pocket so I wouldn’t accidentally suck it up in the mower or blow it away, then finished cutting the rest of the yard. I brought it back out later to take a good photo of it; unfortunately I could see a little split in the spine of the feather from its ride in my pocket. It’s now tucked in with some small rocks on my kitchen windowsill.

The turquoise wicker loveseat

That loveseat was the scene of a lot of memories, and is now the scene of a lot of communication especially from cardinals, seen in another experience a few weeks earlier.

I’ve always had a special feeling toward seeing a cardinal because they remind me of my mother who loved to see them at the bird feeder in the backyard, and I think of her each time I see one. Which in my yard is frequent because I apparently have all their favorite foods and places.

But when I see one in a place significant to cats who have left us, I see that as a visit from one of them.

I cropped the photo above out of the photo below, where if you really look hard you can see a tiny red dot atop the turquoise wicker loveseat all the way across the yard. But he too stood out to me like a beacon.

July 5, the day before the first Farmers Market, I had set up my tent in the driveway and was building what would be my new merchandise and art display at vendor shows this year, figuring it out before we’d be setting up at top speed the next morning. Rather than using the back yard I saved myself more carrying of bins with just carrying them to the driveway for the setup test, then I could repack the contents and put the bins right in my car.

Back and forth I went, carrying my handmade goods out of the basement and around through the gate and back. On one of those trips I saw a dot of bright red on the turquoise wicker loveseat that Mimi and Mewsette and I had spent so much time on, and Mimi and I were also joined for a few months by Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe; I also took Jelly Bean out there for his only tour out in the back yard, so it’s a place of many memories and a known place for visitations.

I tried to see whose presence I sensed since so many cats had had a memory with that wicker, but I knew immediately it was Mimi. Many reasons aside from my intuition made her the most likely. For one thing the cardinal was moving around as she did on the wicker, from one favorite spot back and forth atop the back of the loveseat to another on the arm, then finally down to the seat. Mimi was small and moved with with agility, and quickly, and that was usually her path of enjoying that wicker loveseat as she stopped for observations and a quick scratch and maybe a face rub in each spot.

The other reason I knew it was her was that Mimi would have been totally with me, trotting back and forth and racing me out to the driveway, which was her favorite warm concrete place to roll around and also a change from the back yard. In fact, if she had been there with me, I would not have chosen the driveway unless I confined her indoors because it would be difficult to keep an eye on her as I worked out there. In the back yard she would have been up walking around on the table and rubbing her face on all the merchandise and also all the bins in the grass.

Below, Mimi and Mewsette inspect my setup as I get ready for an open house in the back yard in 2021.

Mimi and Mewsette inspect my setup for my upcoming open house.

I only had my cell phone but took the best photos I could. I was sure the cardinal was ready to flit back into the trees but I was surprised how long he stayed, as if he wanted to be certain I noticed him, but still not long enough to run for my DSLR. But was good enough to record the memory for me to keep, and share.

~~~

Another new category: Little Visits

And yet another new category: “Little Visits.” This is the title of a little anthology I’d put together of experiences of my cats visiting me after death decades ago. Certainly I’ve been sharing visits from Mimi and the siblings and Basil too, and I want to both share with you, and help me organize my thoughts. I’m considering what I’ll write about them, and other things I’ll write about pet loss, and recording the stories of these visits in real time is valuable for a full actual book of “Little Visits.” I’ll be tagging older posts into this category, and some of the visits I’ve added into other posts, like daily photo posts, I’ll republish separately so I have them easy to find. That way you, too, can find them more easily and enjoy them, and consider your own little visits.

Thank you for following our grief journey after losing six members of our feline family.

I hope sharing our experiences have helped you in some way, as sharing my experiences with you helps me.

You can read all the articles related to their loss by tapping one of these images in the side bar and in articles.

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