It happened when we had just gotten started. I was sitting on the floor cross legged and the cat had settled down in my lap, stretched across my left thigh. His guardian was seated on the couch in front of me and his dog sibling was sitting on the floor next to us, waiting for her turn. I was just tuning into his body, getting a sense of how he was feeling physically, when the dog got a tickle in her ear and shook her head. The sound of her ears flapping against the sides of her head startled the cat with such intensity that his fight or flight instinct kicked in. It all happened in a matter of seconds, but in some ways, it felt like it was happening in slow motion.
In a few rapid seconds, I felt claws simultaneously digging into various parts of my body, as he attempted to spring off my lap to safety . . . a couple of swear words sprung from my lips as I felt a searing pain from one of his claws puncturing one of my fingers . . . the dog jumped to her feet, in a panic . . . and the guardian yelled "Oh no!"
We went from peacefulness to total chaos in a split second. My first thought was to apologize for the stream of swear words that flew out of my mouth, I was really embarrassed about that, but the guardian interrupted me with a wave of her hand and said "I would have said worse."
Then she said, "We've got to get your cleaned up and you should check your clothes, it sounded like they got ripped somewhere." As she walked towards the bathroom to get bandaids and neosporin, I looked down at my hand and realized that there was blood everywhere. I think every one of his claws must have made contact with my hand as he was making his get away. I checked my pants and didn't see any rips, which surprised both of us.
I went into the bathroom and started cleaning up my hand, when I felt a tickle on my ankle. I pulled up my pant leg to look and realized it was blood running down my leg from cuts on my shin. We laughed when we realized the 'ripping' sound we heard was probably my skin ripping, not my clothing. It took a few minutes, but eventually we got everything bandaged up and went back in the front room to resume the reiki treatment.
I sat back down on the floor, the dog sat down next to me, the guardian sat back on the couch, but the cat was afraid to come back on my lap. It surprised me at first. In all the chaos, we were so focused on just stopping the bleeding, I wasn't thinking about how the cat felt. Once I tuned into him, I could tell how bad he felt about what happened. I assured him that I wasn't mad at him at all, that I knew it was an accident and that I was sure I was going to be fine. He walked across my lap a few times but seemed afraid to sit back down. I admitted to him that I was a little nervous too and suggested he sit in between my legs, rather than on them. He liked that idea and immediately settled into the space between my legs.
He asked me a few times if I was sure I wasn't upset with him and each time, I assured him that I wasn't. Finally, I realized that each time he asked, it was right after I had been thinking about how that one finger was still throbbing, so I explained to him that while I was aware of how my finger felt, I wasn't concerned with how it had happened. I told him I could never be mad at him, that I adored him too much.
Several hours passed, as I worked with his dog sibling and then his guardian. I had forgotten about it completely by the time I was getting ready to leave the house. As I was standing by the front door, fishing my keys out of my purse, and saying goodbye to the guardian, I felt paws against my knee, and I'll confess, I did tense a bit when I felt a couple little faint pricks of a cats claw coming through my pants, but when I looked down and saw his sweet face, all the tension faded immediately.
His guardian looked at me with a surprised look on her face and said, "He never does that," and I had to admit, I had never seen him do that either, but he was intent on getting my attention. He stretched his little body up as high as he could, inching his paws up over my knee and it made me think that if he could have, he would have found a way to look me in the eye. I looked down at him and made eye contact, and he told me again how sorry he was that I had gotten injured. It was the sweetest gesture. He really didn't want me to leave until he was sure that I wasn't upset with him. I assured him again that I was not upset at all and told him how touched I was that he wanted to make sure everything was OK before I left.
On the drive home, I kept thinking about him and how touching it was that he wanted me to know how sorry he was and that he wanted to make sure we were OK. I know humans who would be less concerned if they hurt me. :-) So once again, I was given the opportunity to savor the sweetness that exists in our relationships with animal companions and to be in awe of them, for their depth of feelings and their capacity to express themselves. I believe we really are lucky to be able to experience animals and the breadth of their compassion. I also believe they have a lot to teach us if we're willing to listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment