Reiki and chemotherapy

A month or two ago, I wrote about one of my clients, a sweetheart of a dog, named Kaya. She was going through chemotherapy and her guardian had me giving her reiki treatments as well, to give her the best chance at recovery.

Well, last week, I went to give Kaya a reiki treatment, following her very last round of chemotherapy. The veterinarian had done a battery of tests that week, including a sonogram, and he concluded that Kaya is now cancer free! There is no way to quantify the effects (i.e. if it was the chemotherapy or the reiki or the combination of both that made the cancer go away). All I know is, Kaya's family and I were thrilled with the news and I think Kaya was pretty happy too!

Kaya didn't suffer any of the normal side effects of chemo and her mom and I are confident that it was the reiki that helped with that. The doctors had never seen a dog go through chemo, without nausea and GI problems, lethargy, etc. so they were quite stunned that Kaya never experienced any of those things. I certainly felt them when I would go see her the day after each chemo treatment, but by the end of the treatment, all those symptoms would be gone and she would feel great until her next round of chemo.

When I was with Kaya last week, I explained to her that she was all better now and that she wouldn't have to go to the vet for anymore treatments. I asked her if there was anything she needed and she actually requested a bath. :-) She could still smell the medicine in her skin and fur and she wanted it to be gone. She wanted a fresh start, so to speak. I passed the message along to her mom and she said she'd be more than happy to make sure Kaya got a bath the next day. I think it's the first time an animal ever told me that WANTED a bath, but I could certainly understand her reasoning.

It gives me hope that maybe people and animals who are going through chemotherapy could get some relief from their symptoms with the addition of some reiki. It is definitely worth considering if you or your pet are going through that type of cancer treatment.

While I am going to miss my visits with Kaya, I am actually happy that she doesn't need to see me anymore. At the end of our session last week, she did something she had never done before. She rolled over on her back and let me give her a belly rub. She made all sorts of cute noises and looked as happy and playful as a puppy. I knew she was telling me that she was going to be just fine. It left me with a very good feeling when I drove away from their house for the last time.

Lucky Chance

Lately, I have been getting the sense that Lucky was going to come back into my life again, this time as a male german shepherd. The thought gives me a peaceful feeling . . . since it comes as a quiet "knowing" as opposed to a desperate desire. It's just nice to think about the fact that she may come back again. It hasn't felt like it was going to be anytime soon, so I haven't given it too much thought . . . that is until this week.

The anniversary of Lucky coming into my life was January 12th (It was the day I won the lottery at the SF SPCA fifteen years ago) so my sweet girl was on my mind a lot this past week. The night before that anniversary, I began thinking about the possibility of her coming back and wondered how I would know it was her. I decided to pose the question before I went to sleep to see if I got any answers in my dreams that night. I didn't have high hopes for an answer, because I have posed questions before, and either didn't remember my dreams in the morning, or my dreams were so weird, there was no way to try to pull an "answer" out of the weirdness. ;-)

This time though, I woke up about 3:30am with what I think was an answer to my question. My heart was racing, as I woke with a bit of a startle, and there was a phrase running through my head . . . a german shepherd named Chance. I sat there for a few minutes, contemplating what was happening . . . the name Chance ringing in my head . . . I wasn't sure if I should believe it was an answer to my question, but I don't know why else I would have been startled awake at that hour, with a clear name in my head. Eventually, I fell back asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, on the 12th, I was relieved that I didn't feel sad, like I did last year on our "anniversary," when I felt so overwhelmed with grief, I couldn't leave the house. Instead, I felt light and I felt like I just wanted to honor this special day. I watched the video of the news coverage of her adoption and it made me smile. It felt nice to remember how magically we came together and what a profoundly positive impact she had on my life. I think I will always feel a tremendous amount of gratitude on the 12th of January, because having Lucky come into my life was probably one of the best thing that ever happened to me. It certainly put me on a path I am grateful to be on.

That night, I got home late from my last client appointment of the day. It was about 11pm and even though I knew I should just go to bed, I decided to watch a little TV. I sat down on the couch and started channel surfing. After flipping through quite a few channels, a movie caught my attention. It was on the Hallmark or Lifetime channel and it looked interesting so I put the remote down for a minute to see what the movie was about. Within about two minutes, one of the characters was introducing himself to a pretty blonde lady on the show and he said, "Hi, my name is Chance." My jaw dropped. I thought it was such an odd coincidence. It made me giggle and I wondered if it was a sign that my dream was indeed an answer to my question. After all, Chance is not a very common name.

The next day, I told one of my best friends about how I woke up with the name Chance in my head and then saw a movie with a character named Chance. This kind of stuff is a little "out there" for him but as always, he did his best to be supportive. He said, "Well, it kinda makes sense, Lucky and Chance are similar names with similar meaning." I thought it was pretty cool and decided I would just keep an open mind to any german shepherds I encountered named Chance, although I still didn't feel like it was going to be anytime soon.

The next day, I was out running errands and was waiting to pull into a shopping center parking lot. I had to wait for a car turning in from the other direction and when I pulled in behind the gold sedan, I noticed the personalized license plate. I knew the collection of letters spelled "Luckychance." My mind began swirling as I drove down the aisle and pulled into the first opened space. I looked over at the next aisle, and saw the gold sedan slowing down to pull into a parking space . . . and I noticed my heart was starting to race.

I suddenly felt a sense of urgency to get out of the car, because I wanted to look at the license plate again and I wanted to see exactly how it had been spelled, as I couldn't remember if it was "LKYCHANC" or "LUKYCHNC." I grabbed my purse and my phone, jumped out of the car and quickly walked over to the next aisle, looking at gold sedan's parked in that aisle. Not a single one had a personalized license plate. I started wondering if I was losing my mind, as I began walking up and down that aisle and the next one over, looking at every gold car's license plate. There were probably 15 or more gold sedans and not a single one had a personalized plate. I took a walk up and down the aisles again, thinking maybe I had the color of the car wrong, so I looked at every single license plate on every single car but it was no where to be found. It was as if it had magically disappeared.

I laughed to myself, when I realized I was bordering on being a little crazy, as I walked up and down the aisles of the parking lot, stalking a car that seemed to have disappeared into thin air. I figured I ought to just go into the store and finish what I had come there for, but I couldn't help feeling an odd excitement pulse through my veins. I liked thinking that I was getting messages from the Universe, and I was happy that I was noticing the clues I was being given.

I still don't feel like I am going to be getting a dog anytime soon. It continues to feels like it's a ways off, like maybe next fall, but it still feels good. I like thinking that I may now have the information I need to know it's the "right" dog for me, when I meet him. I guess only time will tell . . . but I have a feeling I will be writing more about this later in the year. Stayed tuned!

Animals can show us our fears

While it is common knowledge that animals pick up on how we feel, what some people may not realize is that animals can even pick up on the uncommunicated feelings that we have. It's why there are cases where a dog guardian is walking their dog and even though they are displaying confidence, their animal still picks up on the concern they feel about an approaching dog or person. When the dog reacts to that dog or person, their first reaction might be, "But I was talking in a happy voice and telling my dog not to be concerned, why did he react that way?" The truth is, it was because the dog was picking up on what their guardian was REALLY feeling.

Over the years, I have had many experiences with my clients where the animal is picking up on feelings their guardian isn't even aware they have, which makes me realize that animals are adept at tapping into our deepest levels of energy, our deepest level of feelings . . . and if we really pay attention, we will realize how much they can help us.

One client in particular owned a store and loved to bring her dog to work with her, but her dog would sometime bark and growl at the customers. Obviously, that wasn't good for business so she asked me if I could help. When I did a session with the dog, I felt the dog was tapping into a fear that the guardian held deep inside her, and that was why she reacted the way she did with certain customers. It didn't resonate with the client at the time, so I didn't push it.

A few weeks later, the guardian called me and was very excited. She said she had just remembered something, from about twenty or more years ago . . . at the time, she was working in her mom's store, and they were robbed at gunpoint. She hadn't thought about it in years and had forgotten it had even happened, but when the memory popped back into her mind, she realized that must have been what her dog was picking up on.

I asked her if she held any fear that it could happen again and she wasn't sure. We decided to do a reiki treatment with her and see if we could help her body release that old memory. During the session, she realized that she DID still hold a fear that it could happen again, in part because she still felt responsible for not being able to stop the robbers. We worked on releasing the responsibility she still felt and helping her feel empowered again. At the end of the session, she felt much better about it, felt much more at peace about what had happened all those years ago.

Since then, her dog has happily been joining her at her store every day and no longer barks and growls at customers. She now believes that if her dog DOES bark or growl, it will be because there really is a person in the store she should be concerned about, not because of an old fear that she held deep inside her. And she is grateful to her dog, for helping her see that there was something from the past that she needed to release.

It is worth considering . . . if your pet is behaving in a way that concerns you . . . they might be reacting to a feeling you have, that isn't even on a conscious level. And maybe they are in your life to help you finally let go of that old feeling.

Happy New Year

A few weeks ago, I had the TV on while I was working on the computer, and my ear caught the first line of an old Roberta Flack song that I used to love . . . "The first time, ever I saw your face" . . . I looked up at the TV and saw the faces of sad, neglected animals and my eyes immediately welled up with tears . . . I felt a deep ache in my heart as I reached for the remote to change the channel. I wanted to keep listening to the song because I have always loved the song, and I didn't want to ignore the message that the animal organization was trying to share, but at the same time, I couldn't think about all the neglected animals in the world. My heart just couldn't handle it.

Every time that commercial has come on since then, I find myself diving for the remote. I can't get the channel changed fast enough, because even if I don't look at the TV, the images of those sad faces are still in my brain and I immediately tear up the second I hear the song. I was disappointed to think that I might not ever be able to listen to that song again, without getting overly emotional.

I looked up the lyrics the other day, and realized that the first part of the song could probably be sung by anyone who has even had and loved an animal . . . "The first time, ever I saw your face, I thought the sun rose in your eyes, and the moon and starts were gifts you gave." It really is a beautiful song, although I had always thought of it more as a wedding song, than a "please help the animals song."

Anyway - it just got me thinking about how many animals out there really need help and I started to feel discouraged, the way I did when I was volunteering for an animal rescue organization . . . . when you realize that no matter how much you do, there are a million more animals you haven't helped yet and your efforts start to feel futile.

I wanted to get out of that discouraged mindset, and focus on something more positive, like the animals who HAVE been helped . . . when all of the sudden an email arrived from one of my clients. She told me that she had been able to donate 57 dogs toys and 44 cat toys, in honor of her dog who passed away this past year. I wrote her back a note saying, "Just think about all the happiness you created at the shelter!" It made me smile all day, thinking about those dogs and cats at the shelter that found joy from having a new toy to play with. I am sure it gave them hope to know that someone cared about them.

Then this morning, I got on the computer to find an email from another one of my clients, with a link to a website in Minnesota that had pictures of German Shepherds frolicking in the snow. It was so fun to scroll through the pictures of happy dogs, having a great time in the aftermath of the blizzard. So, thanks to my clients, I'm staying focused on happy thoughts, in spite of the number of times the commercial with the Roberta Flack song has come on.

If you'd like to see the "snow dogs" here's the link: http://www.sablerockkennels.com/blizzard2010.html

I hope it makes you smile as much as it made me smile. Wishing you all a very happy new years. May you be blessed in 2011 with everything your heart desires!!!