The following year a new fur baby came into my life. One of my husband's employees took the kitten from a young girl at a convenience store, she was trying to find a home for it; he was trying to impress her but really had no desire for a kitten. As soon as I laid eyes on him the words "It's a little Max!" spilled out of me. He looked just like my Max did when he was a kitten, that same pale buff-orange color, semi-long hair and fluffy tail - well he had to grow into that but I digress. My husband and his rag-tag construction crew just laughed at me for squealing over this little ball of fur. Ben, the employee who half-heartedly adopted the cat from the girl he was trying to impress, told me that he thought there was something wrong with the kitten's leg because it seemed to have a limp. I scooped him up and took him into the house, gave him some food and water and showed him where the litter box was (I still had all these things because we always had two cats, one was never enough). He ate a bite, drank a bit and hopped right back out of the litter box. I took him outside and placed him in the grass that seemed too tall for his little body. As he maneuvered the blades I did notice that he seemed to hobble a little as he walked, but nothing that would make one overly concerned. My husband and I sat outside with him that evening and watched as he played and chased a butterfly, we talked about how much he reminded us of Max. Then my husband said something that, honestly, was quite bizarre coming from him... "His bum leg is the same leg that was broken on Max", I just looked at him and then a thought struck me. I jumped up and ran into the house and went to the calendar that I always kept hanging in the kitchen, I looked at the date and thought back to the day when Max died the year before; it was the exact date. Whoa! Could it be, could this kitten be a reincarnation of Max? Do such things really happen? Am I the kind of person who even believes in this type of thing? We decided to name him Benji, after Ben (Benjamin) who brought him into our lives. A couple of weeks later I took little Benji to the vet to get him checked over, I told the veterinarian that he favored the one leg, she felt around on him and told me that she did feel that his leg had been fractured but was healing and there was really nothing we could do but keep an eye on it, but he would probably be just fine. She examined him more thoroughly to see if there were any other injuries or issues and when she turned him over there was a scar going down his belly. Whoa! I was speechless for what felt like forever and then I told her about Max and how he died and his injuries and how he looked just like this kitten. We just stared at each other and then stared at the kitten.
Benji