Companion Animal Wisdom

here is absolutely no doubt that animals are in our world for a purpose that goes far beyond our human comprehension. It is my belief that they are natural teachers and healing agents here to show us much about living, loving and dying. But, we must drop our alleged superiority in order to learn any thing from them. Can say, every companion animal I have either selected or has selected me has brought invaluable teachings into my life. Just as my healing practice has reflected them to be very special healing agents when it comes to taking on and carrying some of what is going on for their caretakers. There are numerous times when a human has brought their pet to me for some work only to learn that their pet has some of the same physical, mental and emotional symptoms that they have. However, the following story is a first for me. It clearly reflects a two-part gift that came from one little fur ball. The first part of my gift helped with a recent pet loss. The second part provided me with an opportunity to gain much more insight for just how innate wisdom and knowledge, which supersedes the limited scope of our human understanding actually works.

Two days after my last companion animal’s death, a Siamese cat with crossed blue-eyes showed up right outside my front door. "Neemon" was the name on his ID tag. It was as if he had been sent to comfort me, which he did do. Like clockwork, he began to come first thing in the morning, and would hang out with me all day long – even took naps with me. One morning, I was not downstairs to open the door when he arrived and just like my other cats, he instinctively knew where I was in the house. How they know still amazes me! Unlike all other days, he did not meow on this particular day. He instead climbed the well-traveled black walnut tree right next to my house. He then walked around the house and called loudly into each open window. I was feeling a bit lazy and was still resting in my bed. Other than breathing, I was not making a sound. I lay there listening to him and wondered what he would do if I pretended to be asleep – would he stay or would he leave? Once he reached the right window and spotted me, he let out a soft meow. I ignored him and did not move one muscle. Each meow grew louder and louder until he was screaming. It quickly became apparent that he had no intentions of leaving. I also think he might have known I was faking it because he took things to another level and almost busted the screen out of my window, which is when I decided I best get up and remove the screen to let him in. This cat had clearly adopted me and considered my home to be his home – at least during the day anyway, because I had no clue where he went at night.

About 4-6 weeks later, I received an email story about a dog that was going to a neighbor’s house to sleep each day. The neighbor finally attached a note to the dog’s collar to inform the dog’s caretaker that the dog must be tired because it was showing up at his house to nap. The dog’s caretaker attached a response note for the man, which confirmed that the dog was tired due to the children living in their home, and she wanted to know if she could come take naps at his house too. The timing for this story was perfect and it inspired me to do the same. A note with my phone number was attached to Neemon’s collar before he left one afternoon to inform his caretakers that he was coming to visit me every day, and was even taking naps with me. I got a phone call early that evening from a boy and was given some news that had some pieces of this Neemon puzzle flying together.

This boy informed me that his mother had been in a very serious car accident. Her release from the hospital corresponded with Neemon’s very first visit to my house. The doctors had done their best to realign her brain and mend her broken bones, but had not offered much hope for a full recovery. However, she was allegedly proving them wrong and making better progress than predicted. A chill shot through me after hearing this news. I had been giving Neemon healing sessions on a daily basis. He seemed to need energy for the left side of his body, but he continued to pull and overfill his little body even after his physical needs were met. In my experience, only very sick animals could handle large amounts of energy and he really had me wondering. My energy work is normally a 24-72 hour process for humans and this little cat was leaving here full each night and showing back up empty and asking for more the following day. I could not get a clear read and had no clue why this healthy cat required as much as healing energy as a human. This mystery was finally solved during my conversation with this boy.

Apparently, Neemon was home by a certain hour and curled up in bed with the boy’s mother every night. The time-frame listed was soon after he left my house, which indicated he was carrying the extra healing energy straight home to his loved one. Furthermore, there is no sign out there for any human or animal to read but this cat clearly knew what house to visit to get what he needed. Not to mention, he had not missed one day since his person's release from the hospital, which was 2 days after Fairmount's death. This additional insight had my little mind spinning even more than it already was! If what I was beginning to formulate was correct then it meant Fairmount must have known she had to leave in order for Neemon to come to get what he needed. Had she not died then there is no way Neemon would have been allowed to enter our house to receive the healing energy to carry home to his family member. In retrospect, the circumstances surrounding the last three critters in my life have been uncanny to say the least, and coincidence does not exist in my little world. Fairmount obviously showed up to teach me about a natural feline leukemia treatment and because of my senior cat Asher she was not allowed to live in our home. Therefore, Asher must have decided to leave in order to open up the space for Fairmount to continue her teaching work with me. Just as, Fairmount must have opted to leave to make room for Neemon, and then Neemon suddenly stopped coming every day when a goose gosling had some work to do with me. I wonder what’s next?

In any event, it was decided that a more direct approach might be a better way to go and I went to visit the mother shortly after my conversation with her son. A six year-old German Shepard greeted me at the door. Her appearance along with her size was a bit intimidating but she was all over me with licks and nips. She had a bad case of hip dysplasia and demanded some healing energy, which she received within minutes after entering their home. Experiencing the environment first hand helped me to better understand why Neemon needed to rest when he came to my house. There was a lot going on for this little guy to tackle on his own, and even had me feeling a little tired after a couple hours. Soon after my initial visit, the mother requested some additional help and I began to visit each day for a couple months. During one visit, our conversation led to a particular circumstance surrounding Neemon that not only caused a chill to shoot right through me but also raised the hairs on the back of my neck and goose bumps on my arms because it shed some light on an incident that had occurred years earlier.

What follows is a little background before I relay the specifics. We had a feral cat that I named “Thunder” who relied on Frog Hollow for food and my neighbor’s porch for shelter. Several years ago, our resident fox awakened me in the middle of the night. S/he was going after a critter sounding much like a cat. I had always been concerned that Thunder and the fox might get into it, so I crawled out of bed and went to the window to yell at the fox. This was usually enough to send him/her running off. However, this was one of those rare nights – the fox was very determined and I wrapped myself in a blanket and headed outside. I walked towards the screams coming from the woods. The fox backed off. I had just gotten comfortable in my bed when the fox returned. Outside into the night I went again. This time I followed the sounds deeper into the woods while yelling at the fox, and telling the cornered critter to run. Several minutes passed. Then I heard the fox call out on my right and something moving away on my left. I had succeeded in breaking up whatever was going on and headed back to my bed to get some sleep. The next day I was on the lookout for Thunder, and became worried when he did not show up, but was relieved to see no battle wounds when he came the following day.

Now, for the twist. According to Neemon’s caretaker, Neemon almost died from a very bad fight one night around the same time frame. He had been found one morning lying semi-conscious outside his front door with his left hindquarters all torn up. As is stated above, Neemon needed healing energy for the left side of his body, and I clearly remembered hearing the fox on my right and a critter moving away on my left. Neemon’s house is to the left of my house. Was he the cat I heard fighting with my fox - was it his life that was saved that night?