STAR

Being able to work with so many animals at Remus has been a privledge and an honour. Recently, with the help of many other Reiki practitioners we were able to help a shetland pony called Star. She is a beautiful pony who I have worked with for over three years, with such an out going character. She would often get me into trouble when I would be offering herbs to the other ponies, she’d sneak up behind me, catch me un-awares, cause me to drop the  bowls, so she could munch merrily on her favourite herbs. She caught me out every time, how ever well prepared I thought I was. Bless her little cotton hooves.

Just after Christmas she became very poorly with acute Laminitis, it was so painful she found it very difficult to walk, she’d spend most of her day in her stable lying down. During this time, I have been very fortunate to have other Reiki Practitioners join my team of healers, each week there are about two or three of us available to the animals to offer group healing. Star was one of the ponies that we always spent a  lot of time with. She loved the Reiki and soaked it up like a sponge, she would lie flat out on her stable floor, mouth open, eyes glazed taking in as much Reiki as she could. Offering Reiki to Star was always a pleasure, there is something so satisfying when watching an animal enjoy reiki.

Over the weeks it became obvious that her quality of life was very limited. She had become too ill to leave her stable, too ill to interact with other ponies and too ill to move around. Yet she was a fighter, her eyes always so bright, her character always so defiant, she was a pony who truly had a love of life, even though it was so compromised . After the Reiki sessions, we would see improvements where she would stand up and walk around, she would eat and drink and seemed very positive but she would then settle back to lying on the floor. During this time, she had been diagnosed with an abscess on her pedal bone, which added to her pain. This however healed very quickly due to the Reiki sessions. The Remus vet had been very amazed at how quickly it had healed, considering how poorly she was.

As the months passed, her health carried on deteriorating , the vet came one Thursday to see her a few weeks ago and it was decided that she would have to be put to sleep on the Monday. We were all so upset as we had all grown so attatched to her and could not imagine going to Remus without seeing our beautiful Star. Sue put a message that evening on Facebook to ask Reiki healers to send healing to her, every Reiki healer I knew wanted to save Star,  with special thanks to Brenda for sending so much Reiki to her.  A Reiki healer called  Alison also spent over two hours offering Reiki to her on the Saturday. I went to say my goodbyes too with great sadness and a heavy heart, Alison and myself both feared that this would be the last time we would see her.

On the Monday I received a text from Sue to say that the vet had not put Star to sleep as she had been far too well! We were all so happy that our beautiful Star was OK and was able to fight another day. I truly believe that something very special happened that weekend. Star had been surrounded by Reiki, she had been  caressed and had  been able to bathe in the beautiful energy that had been sent or offered to her. She has continued to improve week by week and is now able to spend time with her pair bond Tango from whom she had been separated. She has her mojo back and is taking the world by storm, Star is back shining brightly, brightly, brightly…..

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a sweet, white Staffordshire Terrier puppy with a unique (and very fitting) heart-shaped spot on her nose was rescued from the ravaged region. We don’t know the story of her previous family, but luckily she found her way to Best Friends Animal Society’s sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. But five years later, she’s still there, waiting for her forever home.

We couldn’t believe it as we played and snuggled with her in our cottage on the sanctuary’s grounds. Kathleen Prasad and Leah D’Ambrosio, directors of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association, had just spent the weekend training the staff at Best Friends how to use Reiki, a Japanese holistic healing modality, to help the animals and boost adoption rates at the shelter. When we picked China up at the end of the day for our overnight, we didn’t know what to expect, as we had been told she was dog-aggressive. What we got was an angel—in fact, we all kept calling her “Angel” by accident during our brief visit together.

As expected, China was initially a little shy when we first picked her up. But on her walk she really began to open up. We strolled in the last rays of sunlight over by the potbellied pigs in Piggy Paradise and admired the beauty of the landscape around us. China, whose age is estimated at about 6 years, fit right in and had a great time smelling everything, wagging her tail, showing her sense of humor, happily obeying our commands and having lots of fun.

She even joined us for dinner in town at Rocking V Café. Despite the fact that we had probably six other dogs on the patio near us (including a precious little Australian Shepherd puppy), she obeyed Leah’s orders (she had already picked Leah as her favorite!) and rested on the ground with her back to the dogs. Sometimes she wanted to look at them, but she exhibited no signs of aggression and did not beg from the table. (China has some food allergies and must follow a careful diet.) Still, she would do best in a home without small children or another dog. The owner at Rocking V knew her well—China always goes on overnights because she has such a sweet and easygoing disposition.

She remained calm even as we discovered an enormous hairy spider on the ceiling of our cottage after dinner. Kathleen bravely placed it outside as China watched us with curious eyes and expressive, floppy pink ears that look just like pig ears. Later, as the three of us curled up in blankets and chatted about the weekend’s amazing experiences and events, she fell into a deep, contented sleep on the bed while listening to our voices.

After China snuggled at the foot of Leah’s bed all night, the inevitable happened the following morning: We had to drop her off at Dogtown. She’s been through this many times before, and we witnessed firsthand the resignation as she prepared internally to go back. The volunteers and staff at Best Friends are absolutely wonderful, but China is ready to find a real home and meet her soul mate, best friend and lifelong companion. We believe that person is out there, somewhere.

We couldn’t leave without promising her we’d do our best to find her the perfect home. Maybe our visit to Best Friends—and the serendipitous way we were placed with her for the overnight (we let the staff make the selection, as the dogs we had offered Reiki to that day were not the right fit)—was timed just right so we can now tap into our global network to help China finally take the next step in what has been a long and solitary journey. She’s survived the largest natural disaster to hit the U.S. in more than a century, but she hasn’t let it break her spirit or dampen her hope or ability to love. Finding her forever home should be easy by comparison.

If you’d like to adopt China, a home inspection will need to be scheduled. You can also meet her in person at Best Friends in Kanab, a four-hour drive from Las Vegas. More info can be found in her official bio on the Best Friends site. Please forward this article to anyone you know who might be interested, and definitely keep us posted!

For more information on China, contact:
Tamara Dormer, CPDT KA, AKC CGC, APDT
Dog Trainer, Best Friends Animal Society
5001 Angel Canyon Rd.
Kanab, UT 84741
(435) 644-2001, ext. 4489
tamarad (at) bestfriends (dot) org

Charlotte Jensen

..posted by John Sawyer

One of the many wonderful things about Reiki is its ability to heal the healer, so to speak. As we offer Reiki to others, the energy flowing through us benefits us, as well. This is one aspect of Reiki that makes it ideal for shelters and rescue organizations.

As I mentioned in my last post, when we offer Reiki to the animals in the shelters in which we volunteer, it is equally important to be mindful of the staff and volunteers who care for the animals. As anyone who has worked with animal rescues knows, it is a never-ending task. There are always more animals in need than resources available. As a result, overwhelm and burnout are very common among rescue workers. This is one reason SARA is dedicated to teaching Reiki to shelter workers.

Reiki is as much a way of living as a healing technique. The Reiki Precepts guide us to balance in our lives on many levels while the Reiki energy we offer to other beings helps to balance our physical bodies. Balance is very important for rescue workers as it is easy to lose perspective when faced with the grim circumstances that are all too common in shelter and rescue work.

SARA’s mission is to bring Reiki to animals in shelters and rescues for their highest good. An important part of that is helping the caregivers do the best job they can as they care for the animals on a daily basis. Ultimately, supporting the caregivers supports the animals, which is what SARA is all about.

As SARA defines its teaching curriculum, emphasis is placed upon techniques that shelter workers may use to help themselves stay grounded and to maintain a healthy balance physically and emotionally. Traditional Reiki teachings are the basis of this curriculum with additional resources added specifically for that purpose.

For example, meditation is a wonderful way to quiet the mind and bring it back into balance. Teaching shelter workers specific grounding meditations gives them an important and powerful tool for maintaining their equilibrium.

Teaching shelter workers to recognize signs of burnout in themselves and their co-workers is important, as well. It is easy to get so caught up in the daily details that we don’t notice the imbalance until it becomes a real problem. Even something as simple as taking 5 minutes prior to each shift to get grounded can make a huge difference!

Expectations and intentions play major roles in our daily lives. Taking a few minutes at the beginning of the day to set our intentions can make all the difference between a “good” day and a “bad” day. In the case of shelter staff, simply setting the intention to do the best they can be of significant benefit.

Finally, following up with students after their intial Reiki training is vital. It’s not enough to hold classes and leave students on their own afterward. Many will have questions and encounter situations they don’t know how to handle. Making a point of asking how they are doing with their Reiki practice and being open and available for questions and just listening to their experiences will help them become better practitioners more quickly.