Aww this is really beautiful and sensitive. I love the necklace you created. 
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Your totem is pretty and I appreciate you sharing your story. That is a cute necklace as well.
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So sorry for your loss, the necklace is beautiful!
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I’m currently working on my challenge entry, it’s about Magic of course. At the point of describing him and how to interact with him I’m laughing to the point of tears thinking “Damn, he’s a pain in the ass” 
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For this challenge I have a book recommendation!
The Spirit Animal Directory: 100 Spirit Animals for Inner Enlightenment by Dawn Baumann Brunke
This book includes 5 different chapters…
- The Key to Inner World Expressions
- The Key to Relationships and Communications
- The Key to Clear Interpretation
- The Key to Spirit Animals and their Teachings
- The Key to Integration
Chapter 4 breaks down into these sub categories…
- Large Mammals
- Small Mammals
- Birds
- Insects & Arachnids
- Reptiles & Water Animals
Disclaimer: this isn’t a definitive guide because there are millions of species out there
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Challenge Entry
I have to admit this one was harder for me than I initially thought it would be when I first saw it on Wednesday. It’s been awesome & heartwarming & I am so filled with love 
for everyone that has shared the stories of their beloved pets & companions. I completely empathize & understand how everyone feels & the losses incurred. They are all beautiful entries & amazing pictures. 
I have said before within the coven 
that a friend of mine had said that I needed to make my spirit animal the turtle 
when I was at the beginning of a long journey with some physical health things & healing from them. I have read about familiars, spirit animals, & totem animals since then throughout the forum:
→ Familiars and A Pet
→ 
Familiar Spirits and Power Animals: What is the difference?
→ Spirit Animals 
So from that I’m not sure that my friend making my spirit animal the turtle is exactly right. However, at the time & since then I have connected with the turtle in more than a few ways & I always go back to it. I also now have charms on my bracelet, a stuffed animal, & sort of collected (& still do) crystal carvings in the shape of a turtle. I have quite a few now 
Honestly, I still didn’t know how to approach this one, because after reading about them & then trying to think of animals that I come across or that seem to be attracted me & act a bit out of the ordinary (not in a bad way of course or in a way that would mean something was wrong or I could be harmed) I wasn’t sure… since I don’t have much time to really meditate 
on it (my daughter has a long weekend from school 
& a friend over) & clearing my mind with this kind of clogging up the mind & making me feel a bit mentally & physically weighed down 
I decided to look for maybe some quizzes to help me out. 
The first one I decided to take was What’s Your Totem Animal from the How Stuff Works website. My result was:
Ah… can’t say that I really identify with parts of this 
but it’s a quiz from a website on How Stuff Works so really taking this one with a grain of salt. Honestly, the result from @SilverBear’s post on Spirit Animals within the replies makes a whole lot more sense to me. That result was the Snake 
& it resonated a lot more then & now. I also know that according to the Western Zodiac, I was born under the year of the Snake … now that I think about it animals & signs associated with rebirth, transformation, renewal & associated things seem to be a theme for me
So after that, I decided to do another quiz on Spirit Animals & that result kind of surprised me 
The site itself is a Spirit Animal site, but I always have a grain of salt mindset until you can find out more when I do online quizzes
I was kind of shocked 
Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get this result. Plus, what it was saying completely resonated & made sense & clicked in so many ways… So I continued reading:
Now, this site seems to use Spirit Animal & Totem Animal interchangeably. I can’t say that I agree with that, I feel like they are 2 separate things even if very similar. I also feel like I need to research & learn more about the similarities & differences then see if maybe they are or not. That’s my own thing though & my need to know & understand things. 
At any rate, I was shocked that my result was the Turtle & based on what this says, I really connect & resonate with what it has about it as your spirit animal & things about you or that you should remember, know, be aware of, who you are; I’m not sure if I am using the right words for it but hoping that you get the idea of what I’m trying to say … Gotta love word salad 
in the morning.
With that being my result & how close I feel to the explanation… & with most of my family attending to some other commitments, I think I am going to start cleaning my main altar where most of my crystal carvings of turtles are currently.
I want to look into Celtic 
Animals & see what I can find out about those & then how to reach out, know, or find out what (if any) they would be for myself. Kind of gather information about the types of animals whether spirit, totem, or otherwise & see if any of them resonate with me, are with me, or have a connection with me, in my practice & workings that maybe I did or didn’t actually know or realize before now.
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A turtle, how serene. They’re so beautiful and calming when you see them swimming. And the ocean, calm, clear and vast. I can imagine swimming with the turtles to calm the mind after a hectic day.
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I have a little onyx crow just like that one. I love crows and I collect them, (well, I collect everything because I’m a hoarder, lol)! I have all of them on my Morrigan altar. Thank you for sharing!
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Weekly Challenge
I know some of you know this story, because you were there comforting me when it happened. I love you witches and thank you for that.
I found a 3 week old kitten a few years ago. We have a lot of feral cats around and I was walking the dog and we came across her. She couldn’t see because she had eye infections and they were glued closed. Hubby named her Booger because of that. Fast forward two years. She became a house cat, but she still had the feral blood and she thought she was a dog. In March we had a beautiful spring day and hubby opened the door. He did have the screen door shut, but it had a hole in it. Booger escaped. I was so upset that I took a blanket and pillow and slept on the front porch hoping she would come back. I cried for two weeks over my baby. I gave up and thought she may know she’s a cat after all and joined a cat family. Two weeks to the day that she disappeared, I was feeling sick, so I laid on the couch and fell asleep. Hubby woke me up to go to bed, but I stayed on the couch. I woke up around 12 or 1 and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I started reading a book. I heard a meow on the front porch. I opened the door and there was Booger! The dogs started barking and I was worried she would run away. With all the commotion hubby woke up holding the dogs and Booger ran in the house. She was skin and bones. I think she must have been in a tree for two weeks. She is my constant companion now and whenever I am in my witchy room, she is right there beside me. She has also gained all of her weight back.
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Oh that’s lovely news! I’m so happy for you that she’s returned and back to health. You must be sooo happy. Many blessings
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Hear hear!!! I am completely agree with this @Shadeweaver @BryWisteria you are absolutely brilliant and I too look forward to the many things you teach through either your sharing of knowledge or the grace and love of your responses. Thank you for all you do!! 
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I wanted to update you all that after my ritual, I was finally empowered to finish my big memorial project - a shadowbox for Donut with his noseprint, final paw prints, a vial of fur, and his second favorite toy - Purple Mousie.
(Donut proudly bringing Purple Mousie to me from downstairs, yelling the whole time he carried it!)
His first favorite was Robomousie and we buried it with him. My husband said that when Vikings were buried they were sent with their prized weapon to accompany them in Vahalla. This challenge was what I needed to take another step forward.
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Yay, I am glad my post about the Spirit Animals resonated with you!
I like turtles- one of my favourite quotes when things are taking too long is the it is like “turtles stampeding through peanut butter” lol
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What a beautiful necklace!!
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This is great I love how you put the fur 
in a witch bottle and stamped the paws. it’s a beautiful memorial. 
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I wasn’t sure how to approach this challenge, so I’m going to wing it like @Susurrus and go for a quiz. Before I take the quiz, I just want to go on record and say that I feel like my familiar or animal spirit would most likely be a snake or a horse. Or even a wolf… 
I’m very connected to snakes I mean… I have six ball pythons and they’re all my babies – even the snappy one named Firefly 
they’ve always been a source of inspiration for me in one way or another. They go through transformation regularly. They are a source of fear for people. They are connected with the spiritual world, though I didn’t know that early on. They’re a source of growth and inspiration!
Okay, enough rambles. I’m gonna take the quiz now…
Okay, not what I was expecting at all I have to say that I don’t resonate with the message of the turtle at all – now I’m gonna find something else to take and see if I get different answers. I mean, I know these are all fun and games, but I’d like to at least resonate with one of the answers I get!
This quiz is from BuzzFeed and I got the Raven 
I resonate more with this message. I like to learn a lot of different things, but I also don’t like to butt into situations that don’t involve me unless I have to. Hmm… I’m gonna have to think about this one a bit more.
Then I took another quiz and got the bat 
as my animal spirit!
Again, I really resonate with the message in this one, too. Maybe my animal spirits are more flying creatures rather than slithery ones!
Okay, one last quiz because I can’t help myself
I don’t even know what to say to this one… 
Okay, that’s enough for now.
I honestly don’t have a familiar or spiritual companion - not yet, at least! One day I might, but that hasn’t seemed to be necessary yet.
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These are my dogs and best friends Cleo and Bella. Cleo is the Australian shepherd and Bella is the pit bull. Bella isn’t too interested in the craft but Cleo is especially my bone magick can’t seem to stay away from my bone magick!
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CHALLENGE ENTRY
MAGIC’S STORY
Magic came to me through my best friend. She said her sister-in-law had a black kitten but she was about to just put him outside because she found one she liked better and would I take him.
Of course I will. I couldn’t let that happen. I had about ten kitties at the time and I was trying to not take any more. Older males are a nightmare to re-home but a cute little kitten would be easy. Get him altered and vaccinated, let him get used to being loved and find him a good home. Easy.
First problem, she held him out the car window and he was anything but little. She said that he was some kind of special breed that is big and that both parents were very big and both over 20 pounds. Okay not what I expected but I’ll figure it out.
I’ve since confirmed the story but she has a few disabilities and I thought maybe she was confused. A friend of her parents breeds Bombays and he had a runt with a few imperfections and thought a kitten would be just what she needed.
Second problem, as soon as I held him I knew he was mine. He came with the name Midnight and I don’t rename cats but I kept accidently calling him Magic and he didn’t seem to mind so I went with it
Third problem, he was high need from the start. Pregnant, 5 kids, a bunch of cats and an abusive husband I was trying to keep under control and it took 2 days to notice that the kitten refused to eat. He got excited when I opened the cabinet and super excited when I opened the refrigerator.
I had my friend find out what kind of food and what was up with the refrigerator thing. The food was a different flavor of what I was trying to get him to eat and the refrigerator thing was because she would share cookies and milk with him. He absolutely refused to eat so I got him his own food. Sorry kitty, no more milk and cookies.
He was glued to me from the start. I would pick him up and he’d snuggle up on my shoulder and rest his butt on my arm. He thinks he still fits and it’s still one of his favorite places to be.
Fast forward a bit, my entire world was gone inside of a week and Magic never left my side. I remember standing in the middle of the street and all I had was the clothes on my back, no shoes on my feet and Magic. He stayed with me everywhere I went and wouldn’t let anyone near me.
I saw a sign that fits perfectly - In my darkest hour I reached for a hand and found a paw
Everyone thinks I’m joking or crazy when I say that he thinks he’s my Alpha until they see him. He sits in the doorway guarding me when I’m in the kitchen and is with me everywhere else. My husband recently said “The only one more protective of you than him is me. Magic MOVE”
Guarding against anything that might come through the bedroom door
CARE AND FEEDING OF HIS ROYAL KITTYNESS
He requires lots of attention. LOTS of attention.
INTERACTING WITH HIM
When I describe the process of him letting anyone else pet him, I feel like I’m talking about the Hippogriff in Harry Potter.
He requires a lot of attention.
He gets bored easily. He needs something challenging, and his little fuzzy mice. He likes the tan one in the middle of the small package best. He won’t touch the ones from the big package. I keep several packages because he stashes them near his favorite places. I left my night table drawer open one night and he apparently put his mouse in the drawer because he reached in to grab it before we left the bedroom. He also likes to bat things that roll back and forth, particularly little toy cars.
He requires lots of attention.
He talks a lot and has three main sounds, one I would describe as chirping, one sounds like a dove purring and the other one I guess I would call a click. He puts them together in different order depending on what he wants and they are often accompanied by a leap turn combo.
His left ear is crumpled from a recent medical issue but he’s happy and healthy and I think he’s cute with his little crumply ear
He has the beginning stages of Brachycephalic Airway Syndrome and Cardiomyopathy. He is on a strict diet of very expensive food. He is an overeater and he will swear that he is starving.
He is a high maintenance kitty
He needs to drink water a few minutes before you give him his food or it will come back up.
He is a high maintenance kitty
His water dish needs to be cleaned every day, changed first thing in the morning, midday and at night and if even one speck of anything is in his dish it will need to be rinsed and refilled. He’ll watch to make sure you’re doing it right.
He’s a high maintenance kitty.
If he’s hungry he pushes his food dish in the middle of the floor, if he is displeased with his water he tips it over, if he wants to play he pushes his toy box to they middle of the floor
He is a high maintenance kitty
HYGIENE ROUTINE
It’s mostly a Bombay thing but his nose is also a medical thing.
DAILY: Wipe his eyes, ears and nose with slightly warm, damp cotton balls.
TWICE WEEKLY: Flush his ears with his ear solution.
WEEKLY: Massage the pads of his feet with a warm,slightly damp cotton ball. He LOVES having his front feet done, his back feet not so much
He is a high maintenance kitty
Magic is a true Witch’s companion. He comes to me when I’m upset, he is where I keep my calm. The first few days after my concussion my husband had to pick him up from the bed and shut him out of the bedroom so he would eat and use the litter box.
Overview of Bombays
In the late 1950s a woman from Kentucky set out to create a breed of cat that would basically be a house sized big cat.
In her attempt to create a mini black panther, she bred Sable Burmese with British Shorthair and American Shorthair. By the mid 1960s she had succeeded and the Bombay was recognized by The Cat Fancier’s Association in 1970
Her inspiration was a Melanistic Indian Leopard, an all black Indian Leopard also known as a Black Panther. They are also referred to as “The Ghost of the Forest” as they are one of the rarest Big Cats to see in the wild. Photographing one in the wild is every wildlife photographer’s dream.
Characterizations of Bombays
Bombays are all black. Their nose, nails and pads of their feet. They have a shiny black coat, round copper eyes. Everything on a Bombay is round, the tip of their tail and ears, and their muzzle and paws. They have an extra toe that is positioned like a thumb making their front paws look like hands.
Their big swipe, stealth and speed despite their size make them excellent hunters even though they prefer to be inside. And I do mean excellent hunters, imagine a house cat taking down a rabbit.
Bombays are very affectionate and are often referred to as Velcro kitties. They’re playful, cuddly, smart, bossy and needy. When they want something they will tell you. They make a variety of sounds, none of which are the sound of a normal cat.
One of the coolest things about Bombays is that they have many Black Panther traits. The bridge of their nose, the sway in their walk, the body to tail proportion and the long question mark tail.
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@MeganB wow alot of animals want to work with you. 
Maybe stick with the snakes, they’re very soft to hold, I held one in a park and it was cuddly.
@crystal59 Cute dogs. I love them. So pretty.
@Nixi What a gorgeous cat. Such beautiful eyes. She’s definitely your soul mate. You’ve been through so much. Sorry. Thankyou for sharing your story my lovely.
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challenge entry
I finally decided what to do that could fit inyo my current situation and help but also fit the challenge of the theme. I dont have a specific phoenix spirit guide i know of but i do draw alot off the phoenix energy and cycle in my life especially now as i felt an end coming but then now a new beggining starting. So for this challenge i am focysing on the image and animal of the phoenix and imagining one inside me burning away with passion to rebuild this life esp during tge time of a waxing moon i noticed. I didnt realise significance till just now. But thoigh it seems like a small thing, its actually a lot of little things im working on to reclaim my life and health and rebuild tgat will turn into something bigger. So while maybe i dont have a phoenix pet or spirit guide persa that ive identified as connected to me or me to them, i do feel the energy of the phoenix and maybe thats why i connect so much to that animal. No matter how nany times my life seems to go down in flames i have always risen from the ashes and rebuilt my life. And right now i am in a rebyulding stage and i can feel that flame of the phoenix inside me building and that to me is cool.
I found the phoenix oracle card from the spirit animal oracle deck on my phone to share just to share a picture as well
It may not be a companion as in physical pet or spirit guide persa but more the spirit of the animal that i feel is always with me if that makes sense
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