The idea that each individual being has a spiritual animal, one in which you share your spirit, isn't anything new. Native Americans have held to their reality for centuries, and preached that each of us will find our own spiritual animal when it's ready to reveal itself.
I was aware of this idea but didn't think much about it until my spiritual animal made itself known. I was out hiking one day when suddenly right in front of me in the middle of the trail was a dead coyote. I looked it over but could not find any wounds of any kind and it was still limp, meaning it had just died. Perhaps it had been poisoned (people have been known to do that to coyotes), or it died of a heart attack (all mammals have these) or something else.
As I was looking it over, I had a strong feeling that this coyote had picked me to die in front of for a reason. It was as though its spirit was speaking to me, which it probably was. By and by I finally realized what I think it wanted. To fulfill what I felt was its wish, I sat the coyote beside the trail in some bushes so it wouldn't be seen, drove home to get some tools, then drove back and buried the coyote in a proper grave. Since that occasion I've come across coyotes on hikes many times, and every time they at least look at me in a non-threatening manner and sometimes walk along with me for a while at a distance beside the trail. It is as if they are saying to me: "Thanks brother for giving our brother a proper burial."