Stories of Animal Reiki Treatments

The following are a few of Elizabeth's stories from Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in your Life (Ulysses Press, 2006). They illustrate what happens during an Animal Reiki treatment and the results that Reiki can bring about:

Oscar Releases His Emotional Burden

I work with many extraordinary animals, but some animals truly stand out, inspire me with their courage, and leave an indelible print on my memory. One such animal was Oscar, a Russian Blue cat, whom I met at the local shelter in 2003.

Oscar arrived at the shelter in early June; he was severely depressed from the outset; for several weeks he rarely ate and lay with his eyes closed on top of his excrement in his litter box as though making a metaphorical statement about his idea of his place in the universe. He was unresponsive to touch or any overtures from the staff and appeared to have totally given up hope that anything could go well for him. Although I did not know the specific details of his life, what I could see indicated that he had had a particularly rough time. Among other things much of his beautiful tail had been cut off, leaving him with a somewhat ragged two inch stump. The staff was very concerned about him and asked me to begin treating him.

Oscar began to receive Reiki treatments and a daily dose of the Anaflora flower essence, Return to Joy. In the first treatment the only sign of progress was that he opened his eyes once and fleetingly looked at me. Within days, however, he began to improve. First he started to purr so quietly after a treatment that we had to turn off the music in the cat area to hear him. He began to open his eyes and make occasional eye contact. He became steadily more engaged, making eye contact, then holding people's gazes, and pushing against the volunteers' hands when they stroked him. He started to sit up and groom himself. Soon he was coming to the front of the cage looking for attention, batting at toys, and coming out onto volunteers' laps.

He was always exceptionally sweet and loving. When he wanted to tell someone to stop doing something, he would slowly and gently open his mouth and put it around a hand or finger so as not to upset or startle anyone. It was as though he knew from sad experience what it feels like to receive harsh feedback. After three weeks of treatment, he was alert, healthy, and fully engaged in his life, and a few days later he was adopted to a good home.

I have since reflected on the tremendous courage it took for Oscar to open himself to hope and to interactions with people again despite his previous negative experiences. But Reiki and the flower essences have the ability to reach deeply into a being to restore health and balance, and, in this case, they were aided by the love of the volunteers who took Oscar into their hearts and helped coax him back to life as he improved. When I am faced with such deep suffering-whether it is on the physical, emotional or spiritual level-I am always grateful to know that I have the wonderful healing capabilities of Reiki and the flower essences on my side.

Where is Cedric?

Cedric was a young male cat with beautiful orange and white coloring who was picked up and brought into the local shelter as a stray. His first two days at the shelter were memorable for everyone. He cried and yowled constantly, clawed at his cage door, lay down in his cage and shook, fell over and pawed at the air with his legs, and even got into his water bowl and made swimming motions. He was taken to the vet twice in two days because the staff feared that this behavior was the result of seizures. No one could figure out what was going on with him, but his presence was very strongly felt in the cat area. The staff requested that I offer him a Reiki treatment. He took quite a lot of energy and became quiet and relaxed during the treatment. Afterwards he seemed a little more contained.

The next day, when I stopped by the shelter, I looked in Cedric's cage and saw a quiet, relaxed orange and white cat. I asked one of the staff, "Where is Cedric?" She laughed and said that I was one of many people who had said the same thing that morning, but that was, indeed, Cedric! Cedric stayed at the shelter for another three weeks before he found a home, but he was quiet and mellow the entire time with no sign of his former wild behavior.

Zoe Shows Me How to Give her Reiki

When I first learned Level 1 Reiki, I didn't have much success in treating my dog, Zoe. She was then about twelve and had begun to develop symptoms of kidney disease. When I placed my hands directly on her, or even six to twelve inches away form her, she moved away after only a minute or so, as though Reiki felt too intense for her. Eventually, I concluded that she just did not like it and stopped offering her Reiki. Meanwhile, her kidney symptoms increased.

One day when I was standing at the kitchen sink, I suddenly felt my hands heat up and tingle. When I looked around, there was Zoe about four feet away, looking intently at me. I put aside what I was doing and stood with my hands out, Reiki pouring through them. Soon Zoe lay down on the hardwood floor, which was unusual for her since the hard surface was uncomfortable for her elderly body. But she stayed there for thirty minutes, lightly dozing.

The next day she drank less, needed to go out less frequently, and looked happier and more comfortable. When we went to the vet, her lab tests showed that her urine was more concentrated. Now when she comes to me and lies down nearby with a certain look on her face, I know that she wants Reiki, generally at a distance of three to four feet. With treatments when she seeks them out, her kidney disease has shown very little progression.

Reiki Eases Tammy's Transition

Steve and Sandra were normally a close couple who agreed about the important matters in their lives. But when they contacted me they were at odds about their terrier, Tammy, who had a number of serious health problems and seemed to be at the end of her life. Tammy was a strong, intelligent, exceptionally personable dog who delighted in watching the animal shows on TV with Sandra and barked excitedly when her favorite shows and animals came on. Sandra and Tammy had been best friends for nearly fifteen years, and Sandra had been nursing Tammy through increasingly difficult symptoms for several months.

When I first talked with Steve and Sandra they were divided about whether it was time to assist Tammy to pass on. Sandra was exhausted, and it was painful for her to be unable to cure Tammy and to see her suffering at times. Steve felt that there was still a lot of life in Tammy and could not bear to end her life at what seemed to him to be a premature point. They asked me to send Reiki to Tammy to see if it would help her and to help them with their decision-making process.

I sent a series of treatments to Tammy, Steve, and Sandra. Tammy’s symptoms improved, and she was almost her old self for about a week. During that time Steve and Sandra got a little rest and had a chance to talk about their feelings regarding Tammy without the high level of stress that they had been experiencing. In the third week after her treatments Tammy began to be uncomfortable again, and this time Steve and Sandra agreed that it was time to help Tammy with her transition. Tammy passed on peacefully with her family, and Steve and Sandra were grateful for the extra time they had with her and the peace Reiki brought them in helping her to leave when the time came.

Rose's Reiki Miracle

At the height of kitten season, when the shelter was already more than full, a very old, very sweet female cat, Rose, was brought in as a stray. Rose had a number of serious health problems but was bright-eyed, seemed comfortable, and still clearly enjoyed life quite a lot. She was bedraggled and matted but appeared to be quite a lady and not a cat that had been on the streets for long. Because they were so full, with more kittens coming in every day, and because of Rose's health problems, the decision was made to euthanize her. This happens rarely at this shelter and only when circumstances become really dire. One of the volunteers asked me to send her Reiki for her transition. I did so and also asked for the highest good for her situation, secretly hoping for a miracle.
 

The next day I was afraid to ask what had happened to her. It turned out that the person who was to give her the injection got sick at the last minute and had to go home. The following morning, someone who normally was not involved with the paperwork at the shelter noticed that the legally required holding period had not been met, giving Rose a several day reprieve. Two days later a very old woman came in looking for her lost cat, and, sure enough, it was Rose! The two of them went happily home together, where hopefully Rose was able to live out her days in peace. When you send Reiki you never know what the outcome will be, but sometimes it really seems that there are miracles!

Merlin

One day near the beginning of my experiences with the deer, I noticed that one of the young stags was limping. When I got a closer look at his right hind leg, I could see a large swollen infected area above the hock and extending down below it. There were several long, open, festering wounds there, similar to the kind of lacerations animals sometimes get from being tangled in barbed wire. It looked as though it had been there for some time.

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