by Julia Lu

        Five days after Erfie (the boy twin Westie Neil had for 10 years, at age 14 years and 3 months) passed away of old age, I saw him in my dream. He was healthy and strong, looking like the Erfie two years ago.  I was so happy to see him, but he only said three words: “I pick Six.”

        Before I had chance to ask what he meant by that, he ran away. Puzzled by the meaning of these words, I woke up at 3:00 am. Noticing Neil was awake, I immediately told him about my dream and asked him if he knew what does “I pick Six” means. Neil said “pick Six is a lottery game.”

        When I got up in the morning, I did a Google search for “I pick six” or something else with similar pronunciation. Yes, there is a lottery game called pick six. I also found that Epic Six is a brand of cutting and embossing machine which cuts dies.  Neither made any sense to me at all.

        The next day we picked up Erfie’s ashes from the hospital. Neil suggested that we try the pick six and see what happens.  Neil and I, with Chloe (Erfie's twin sister who lived another week only, then joined her brother exactly 14 days later) and with ashes Erfie’s box, went to a neighborhood grocery store to pick six Pick-6 tickets. Only one of them contained winner numbers and we won $3.00.  Neil told me that he played the game before, but never won anything. Perhaps the winning, no matter how small, indicated that Erfie did say pick six. At the same time, however, it told us that Erfie’s message had nothing to do with winning the lottery jackpot.

        I could not forget Erfie’s words. I made a painting (shown above).

        In the following months, I returned to the same question several times, but still could not figure out why he said that. I knew I heard him clearly and that it must mean something significant. 

        Meanwhile, Neil was convinced, after some study and research, that Erfie and Chloe were coming back. From clues from two friends, he believed they would re-incarnate, in six months. This connection with his dogs was so strong, not even death could keep them apart for long. One friend told him directly that they would come back soon, the other friend, Dave, told him the exact name of the person who would know where his dogs would be found. Incredibly, Dave had a dream in which a man named "Peterson" would know where Neil should go.       

        When Neil heard Dave name "Peterson" he was completely floored: Neil had originally adopted Erfie and Chloe from Paul and Laurie Peterson of Westie Rescue, and Dave had no knowledge of this, nor even of the existence of the group.

        Neil decided to actively search for them.  He looked all the relevant places in Denver and then, through Laura Peterson of Denver Westie Rescue. To his dismay, there were no twins nor puppies available anywhere in the extensive group's regional connections. But something told Neil to call back again, and no small miracle, within two days, the Peterson's connected Neil with  a Westie owner named Joyce in Wyoming, remarkably, who had three pregnant Westies, who were expecting very shortly.

        Like Neil, the woman did not have a kennel, but rather, raised all of her dogs in her home, just like members of her family.

        After talking with her at length and checking her website, Neil was totally convinced he had found the connection he had been searching for., and thoroughly believed that our puppies would be born to her dogs.  He wanted to visit her, hoping to choose the parents of our puppies.

        I did not know anything about dog reincarnation theory nor was convinced that Erfie and Chloe would be back soon.  Several years ago, I was interested in the hypothesis of human reincarnation and read some research reports by Dr. Stevenson, the head of Division of Perceptual Studies at Virginia University, which investigate the paranormal, including reincarnation cases.  Some cases were amazing and seem to support the hypothesis.  To me, however, reincarnation is only a hypothesis, one of many hypotheses which are intended to explain the paranormal.

        Although skeptical, I went to Wyoming with Neil on May 17, 2011.  It was 450 miles drive, one way. I focused my camera on the sky and got many good shot of cloud formations.

        We decided to stay in Green River for the night and go to see the dogs next morning.  After checking into the hotel, we met a couple at the door of the elevator.  To our surprise, during the next two hours we met the same couple 5 more times ---- one time on the hallway, one time in the dinning room, one time at the bottom of the rock formation outside the hotel and twice at the door of the elevator!  Except in the dinning room, where were a few other people, all the meetings we had were exclusive four of us.  No one else was around.  It was strange because it was a big hotel and the parking lot was full of cars and trucks. They must have felt odd too, because when we met at the door of the elevator the last time all of us laughed.  We introduced one another and talked for a while.

        I began to think that perhaps we meant to meet them and that perhaps one of them was an art dealer.  I told Neil that if we see them again, I will give them my card.  But we did not see them again.  As leaving the hotel, Neil said: “Maybe this has nothing to do with who they are. May be it is just the Universe letting us know that things are being arranged for us in ways beyond our own making, beyond our own comprehension- and conscious choice."  Perhaps.

        The colossal challenge appeared to be "How do we know which dog will have Erfie and Chloe?"  Which father, and which mother?

        We went to see the dogs. Walking into Joyce’s house, we were immediately surrounded by five friendly Westies.  Joyce told us that Maria, Tulip and Dolly were pregnant and that Max was the father of the babies of both Tulip and Dolly. 

        We both immediately felt that this eliminated the other father, who lived in Idaho, and one of the female dogs.

        Okay, so we were down to two moms.

        We sit on the floor to get to know the dogs. Within two minutes, Tulip walked to me and sit on my lap.  I held her and she began to kiss me --- only once and then stopped and looked at me.  She acted like Chloe.

        When Chloe tried to kiss me and knew I did not like to be kissed, she always stopped and looked at me. Looking in Tulip’s eyes, I saw Chloe. They had the same very beautiful dark brown eyes.  Suddenly I felt so warm and my eyes were full of tears.

        I put down tulip and walked to the sofa.  Tulip followed me.  When I sat down on the sofa, Tulip jumped on the sofa and sat against my leg, as Chloe used to do.  Neil took photos and short films of the dogs and noticed that Dolly had already left the room, and did not return even when we called her.  She did not return until Joyce brought her back.

        On our way to Joyce’s house, we were wondering how on earth we could choose which dog would be the mother of our puppies.  It turned out that we did not even need to choose. Tulip chose us. Perhaps Neil was right that the universe is helping us.

        Driving back to Denver we could not stop talking about the dogs. I told Neil that while he was busy talking photos, I asked Joyce a few questions about Tulip. Joyce told me that Tulip was two years old and this would be her first pregnancy.  Her due day could be any day from today to the end of the month. Westies can have one to eight puppies.  The puppies could be all girls, all boys or both.   Neil said. “If Tulip does not have a girl, we may have to choose Dolly because our two puppies should be liter mates.” 

        I said without thinking: “That would never happen.  Tulip will have five puppies.  Two boys and three girls.”

        Later, I told Neil, “I think Tulip will give birth on May 24^th.”  “Why you said that?”  “Because it is the only day 6 in the days from May 18^th  to May 31^st.”  “Day 6?”  “In Numerology, 5/24/2011 is day 6 because 5+2+4+2+0+1+1 = 15 and 1+5 =6.”  “Why 6?”  “Because Erfie said …”   Neil finished the sentence-

           “..I pick 6.”

        Over the next few days, I could not get the idea out of my head that perhaps Erfie did choose the day to return, and indicated this in my dream of six months earlier. I kept reminding Neil my predictions: Tulip’s babies will be born on May 24^th, she will have 5 puppies, and three girls and two boys. 

        Finally, it was May 24^th.  By 11:00 am, I urged Neil to check email.  Neil scanned the computer and said : “Sorry, no dog news.”  20 minutes later, he told me: “I got an email from Joyce.”  “What did she say?”  My heart beat so fast.  “Tulip gave birth this morning. Two boys and three girls.”  I jumped and shouted: “Long live, Erfie and Chloe!!”

        Some may say it is pure coincidence.  Perhaps. The odd against my predictions, however, is not too small to be ignored.  The chance to get all three – the birth day, the number of puppies, the number of girls right is 1/14 x 1/8 x 1/6 = 1/672.  One in six hundreds seventy two.  It shocked me.  The trouble is I do not know how I got it right. I made the predictions when I was not thinking.  What I said was my wish.  After I said that, I gradually convinced myself that Tulip will give birth to three girls and two boys on May 24, 2011. 

        And she did.

Julia Lu's Painting From Another Dimension

      
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