I’m not religious. I’m wouldn’t even call myself spiritual, though I’m not an atheist. But sometimes, things happen that give you a little pause. I know the human brain is wired to extract patterns and meaning from pure coincidences, but even so, it’s hard to resist the temptation to do so.

Today was my first day at the new farm and the hosts held an event for their local customers – harvesting sweet potatoes and then cooking them together. It was a busy day, everyone running around here and there, but at some point the husband came in from outside pulled the wife aside for a serious-looking conversation.

Later, once all the guests left, I saw him digging in the yard. He then called over his son,  who is 4, and brought out the body of a black cat. Turns out he found one of the family cats – Azuki – lying in the road,  run over by a car. The boy clearly didn’t understand what was going on – he kept asking if the cat was sleeping.

The family proceeded to bury the cat in the yard with tears rolling down their faces. I decided it would be best for me to stay away, not wanting to intrude on a personal moment, so I sat nearby and tried to read. When they finished throwing dirt into the grave, I quickly turned away to avoid eye contact – and out of the corner of my eye saw a black cat run under their car.

I called them over – the cat ran over to them and the husband confirmed that this cat was, in fact, Azuki. So where did the other cat come from? They had no idea – they didn’t know of any neighbors with black cats and they had never seen one in the area.

It all feels like something out of a Murakami novel to me – just a little bit of magic mixed into daily life to keep things interesting.

Pictures of the family pets below: Hana, Azuki and Aaron (???).