Paws to Heal

When people know what I do for a living they always want to hear stories. I cannot usually remember them on the spot but I will recall some nice experiences that I have had over recent times.

This posting is for all those who ask me for stories.
In essence I am extremely fortunate to have the opportunities I do to interact with animals in the way I do and truth be told, I often don’t understand what happens in some cases myself.
As an instrument of healing I need to be fully surrendered to the fact that whether an animal responds or not to what I am doing is not wholly within my control.  My responsibility starts and ends with offering a service that may or may not be accepted by the animal or the owner. Most patients, however, who seek holistic treatments are receptive.

I have had cases where I haven’t even had to touch the animal before the shift required for healing has occurred. Once the animal senses that it is safe, it is able to begin healing.
The case like this I remember best, except for the exact details of the conversation that caused the shift, was a dog that a women had been having trouble liking because he smelled so bad.
As all of my cases deserve the respect of privacy it may be just as well that the details are forgotten because they are not strictly our business to discuss, but here is the essence of the story.

A middle aged women brought her kelpie crossbred dog in to see me because she could not tolerate his smell. She was nauseated by the stench this dog would exude from his skin.
As with all of my cases, I chat with the person in charge before formally introducing myself to the animals. In effect the animals already know me and  most of them value the space I give them to acclimatise to the room or circumstances. I let them come to me when they are ready.
So too with this dog who we will call Buddy. The lady and I were communicating the nature of Buddys offensiveness and I was trying to identify possible reasons or locations for the source of the odour. We effectively ruled out anal glands which are most common causes along with halitosis/bad teeth/breath. She believed that it was emanating directly from his skin. It seemed like it was always there and did not come and go but had been there constantly for a week or more. She had to drive to the clinic with the window of the car down.

Even though I remember being very aware of emotional and psychological reasons for why this could be happening to Buddy and was thinking of them, during the course of our discussion, the dog himself was able to project me a clue to unlocking the case, although I did not recognise it as such at the time.
What would have happened is that during my concentration on his issue he was able to show me what to say to create the opening for him to rid himself of the force that was causing his smell and her distress. As I said, the details themselves are blurred and that is because they are not for us to recall. Suffice to say that when I came to examine Buddy physically, which is usually the final stage of my examination, I noted to myself how fragrant he smelled.  I mean this dog smelled really nice! Like a baby.
I was confused and a little abashed having to ask the owner whether he was smelly at present, explaining that we all have different sensitivities. I was wondering if what I was smelling was what she was concerned about because I thought he smelled pretty good.
She bent down to check him and was herself quite surprised and confused. I joked about whether she had the correct dog but she was too amazed to register my query. She just kept sniffing him and asking me what I had done.
Truth be told I didn’t know except I had consciously given him permission to discharge his bad energy and had provided a safe place for him to do so.
I didn’t recognise that at the time so I suggested she take him for a walk around the block to make sure that it didn’t return or recur since it had been constant for quite a while.
I recall spotting her half an hour or so later on my own afternoon walk, still out with Buddy, stopping to sniff him intermittently and still looking as confused.  I smiled.

The smell didn’t return.

In hindsight I now better recognise when these experiences occur even though I am still not able to explain them to most. More often these days my clients do understand the principles behind energetic healing and are able to play active and important roles in the healing cycle of their pets. Once the permission is given for an event to occur, it can. Similarly acknowledgement is a large part of healing.

In quite a few cases there can be a testing period. I call this the leap of faith when the animal needs the owner to commit to the healing proposal; to decide to push ahead with a plan that is different and often contradictory to conventional methods.
A wonderful example of this is a dog who inexplicably and suddenly acquired a bleeding disorder diagnosed as immune mediated thrombocytopaenia, or platelet destruction.  If platelet numbers are not maintained in the circulation then clotting disorders occur with haemorrhage and bruising. It is a serious disease calling for ‘big gun’ therapeutics in conventional circumstances.
This dog was already a patient of mine but away from home when alerted to this condition so the therapeutic program had already begun along with conventional prognoses; weeks to months of chemotherapy and high dose steroids with reasonably high rate of recurrence and relapse.
I distinctly recall this test of faith because it was the shift that was required in this case for a pretty dramatic turn around.
Two owners, one sick dog and an homeopathic practitioner. A triangle that fortunately became immediately congruent in a leap of faith that resulted in a complete cure in three days with a homeopathic remedy.
There has been no recurrence in three years.

Another similar case where the test of faith became a little more arduous was when an ultimatum has been issued to a horse owner to either enucleate (remove an eye) or lose the horse. Fortunately there was another choice that required strength from all quarters.
Once conventional medical practices are well underway it can be more difficult to turn healing around because the healing force has come to rely upon a system that has been learned and manifest through dependency. In acute cases of injury or trauma these can often be unlearned better, as in this case.
Our horse had so much capacity to be sensible that she was an excellent candidate. She was strong and patient and resilient. She had coped thus far with much well -intentioned intervention in an attempt to save a badly damaged globe (eyeball). Most people know that eye injuries in horses are very serious owing to the position of their eyes and their natural prey instinct. With only one functioning eye they are more prone to fear and injury and can become dangerous to themselves and others. It is not a situation any horse wants to find itself confronting or any owner/rider encountering.
We had a good candidate in this horse for coping with one eye but the eyeball does a lot more than provide an aperture of vision. It facilitates expression, aids in balance and perception and provides strength to the facial area. It was decided that it would be better to keep the eye despite predictions of incurable infection and further disease risks.
She was certainly not getting better. Plus she was still experiencing quite a bit of pain and discomfort and was getting worn down by it. Despite all that, it still required a leap of faith to take her off medication that was impeding healing but was all that was known up to that time.
The leap was made.
Then followed an adaptation period or unlearning, relearning, putting the horse back in charge of her condition after her reliance on pharmaceuticals.
This was a 24-48hr period with some angst as both the owner and the horse had to relive some of the trauma to effect the turn around required to change hands; to relearn.
This is like the withdrawal that addicts experience and it is arduous.
It requires strength of conviction and courage in the face of uncertainty and discomfort.
Both the owner and the horse passed the test and the rest is history.
There has been excellent return to normal eyeball function albeit markedly diminished vision, so far, on that side from scarring.  Healing is an ongoing process so may not even yet be complete.

Of course everyone knows that we only hear about the good ones. That’s true and not every case has a happy outcome but when people ask me for stories they are eager to hear about inspiring individuals and situations that can give them a good reason to continue to strive for perfection and joy in their own lives.
Who can say that is a bad thing?