One of my clients has had some difficult things to deal with this year. In addition to one of her dog having some serious health issues, her mom, who had been living with her, was having a problem with alcohol. She had to make the difficult decision earlier this year to have her mom move out, because she feared that her drinking was causing a safety issue at her home and with her animals.
Her mom has been working hard to turn things around and has been making great strides. My client decided it was time to give her another chance and has started allowing her to visit with her animals when she is at work during the day.
Note: I don't usually use my client's names because I want to respect their privacy, but in this case, I'm having a difficult time telling the story without names. My client has given me permission to share this and I promised her I wouldn't use names, so I am just going to make them up. :-) I am going to call my client Amanda, her dog is going to be June and her mom is going to be Sandra.
While Amanda is very bonded to all of her animals, she has a particularly strong connection with June. Their bond is so intense that they feel each other's pain - literally. I have arrived for an appointment before and she'll say "I've been having pain and numbness in my shoulder and I think that is where June is having trouble" and sure enough, that will be the exact spot that I pick up something on June. June is also very protective of Amanda and will do anything she can to help her. She demonstrates this in many ways. One example is when Amanda's ex boyfriend calls and is not being nice to Amanda, June will start barking and carrying on until Amanda gets off the phone. Clearly, June is always looking out for her "mom" and wants to do anything she can to help.
So the other day when I went over there to give June a Reiki treatment, Amanda told me that her mom, Sandra, had told her something interesting. Since she has started to go over to the house to visit the dogs when Amanda is at work, if she has a drink in her hand, June will bark and bark at her until she lets her sniff what she is drinking. Once she smells it (whether it's coffee or iced tea or water or soda), she instantly calms down. If Sandra makes herself a new drink, June's barking resumes until she gets to sniff what Sandra is drinking.
Amanda and Sandra both suspected that she was checking to make sure there wasn't any alcohol in her drink and they were tickled by the thought of it. As soon as Amanda started to tell me the story, I could feel June confirming they were right. I was able to share with Amanda that June really likes having Sandra around and wants her to be successful in staying away from alcohol so that she can keep visiting. June feels it is her job to make sure that Sandra stays on track, especially when she is at their house. She knows Amanda doesn't worry about the animals as much when someone goes over to see them mid-day, so she wants Sandra to be able to continue to do that, so that her mom can be more relaxed. As I said, June is always looking out for Amanda.
Many people might say animals aren't smart enough to understand that a family member has an issue with alcohol or that they aren't smart enough to check their glass to see if they smell alcohol but Amanda, Sandra and I know better than that.
Last week I wrote about a client of mine whose cat seemed sickly until I arrived to see him, and that upon further discussion, the woman found out that I worked on people as well and started having appointments with me herself. When I was at her house last weekend, I shared with her that I thought her cat had a plan to get me there so that the door to her own healing could be opened. Just then the cat jumped up on the table next to us and sat there as if he were 5 feet tall. She looked at me and said "Oh my gosh, that feels totally right" He continued to sit there looking so proud of himself, and I could feel from him how pleased he was that we had "noticed" what he had done. She wrote me the next morning to tell me that he had been downright spunky since I left. She didn't need any further confirmation that he had orchestrated our re-connection.
So here I am writing about all these amazing things I have witnessed with animals this week and yet at my own home, I can't say that I experienced much of that, unless you find it amazing when a dog is willful and stubborn. :-) Lucky and I had a tough week, mostly because we didn't seem to be on the same page at all for days. When I wanted her to go left, she'd go right. When I wanted her to go outside to go potty and made her go outside, she refused to go potty. (but when it was HER idea to go outside, she had no problem going potty.) :-) I kept saying to her "Lucky, we need to work together!" "We do so much better when we are working as a team!" "Please work me with!" but my pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears.
When we got to water therapy on Wednesday, instead of walking from the car to the gate like we always do, she yanked me in the complete opposite direction. It about sent me over the edge. I was struggling to hold her back end up so that her toes didn't scrape on the ground and I had no way to "steer her" towards the gate. I kept telling her we needed to work together, that she was hurting my back by yanking me the other direction and in a moment of frustration, I heard myself utter an old corporate phrase that used to bug the heck out of me . . . yet, it still flew out of my mouth . . . I said "Lucky, there is no "I" in team!" Then I had to stop and giggle to myself over what I had just said to her.
I have no idea what was going on with her for all those days. You'd think I'd have some insight, given that I am an animal communicator but as I have mentioned before, sometimes it's not so easy to read your own animal because your own thoughts and feelings get in the way and it clouds the messages. Fortunately, whatever was going on has subsided and we're working as a team again.
It is much easier for us to get through the day when we're on the same page, heading in the same direction, have the same goals. The last day and a half have definitely been more peaceful for us. Yet I keep having this sinking feeling that our days together are numbered. I don't know if it is intuition or fear but the thought keeps coming into my head. I guess that's why it is so important to me that we are working together because I would hate for our last day together to be one where we butted heads and struggled to get through the day. I have a vision of Lucky passing quietly in my arms, with us both feeling nothing but peace and love and gratitude for the time we got to be together. I would hate for her to pass on a day where I am yelling "There's no "I" in team!" so I am going to do my best to keep that phrase from slipping out of my mouth again and hope that whatever time we have left can truly be spent with us feeling peaceful and loving and grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment