Newsletter Article

By John Sawyer

I met Lacey several years ago, a few weeks after she'd been rescued by Animals in Distress in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. A black-and-white cattle dog mix, she'd been found as a stray with a rusty chain collar embedded in her neck. By the time I was introduced to her, her fur was growing back and she was recovering well.

Lacey enjoyed playing with toys and getting treats more than anything. She was not gentle with either. One had to be a bit cautious about which toys she was allowed to have as well as how to give her treats. Tossing treats on the floor in front of her was the accepted method, and I think she rather enjoyed the chase.

Aside from her excessive exuberance, Lacey was a sweet girl and eager to please. She wasn't quite sure what I wanted with her, but we had several sessions on an irregular basis over the next few months. Mainly, they consisted of her investigating the toys in the room and bugging me for treats!

Because Lacey was doing so well, and there were several other dogs at AID that needed healing, I didn't see Lacey again for a year or so. Then, one day last year, Lori, the kennel manager, asked me to work with Lacey again as she was showing signs of arthritis.

When Lacey walked out from the kennel wing, I could see she was having a bit of difficulty. Her gait was stiffer than it had been, and she had aged quite a bit. I took her into the introduction room where we typically had our Reiki sessions.

I'd learned by that time that treats and Reiki don't mix very well. This was something I'd been taught in Kathleen Prasad's Animal Reiki class, but had forgotten until some time before I started seeing Lacey again. Dogs who are food driven (which is most of them!) tend to focus on the treats to the exclusion of everything else. It's difficult to create a healing space when the dog's nose is searching your pockets.

Lacey hadn't forgotten that I was the "treat guy" and was a bit miffed when I told her there weren't any. It took a few sessions before she gave up looking for them and accepted that there weren't going to be any treats.

Lacey began to accept Reiki for short periods, which became incrementally longer with each session. She preferred to accept Reiki from a distance of a few feet. After five to 10 minutes of investigating the room and its contents, she would lay down with her head between her paws for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes and pull Reiki energy from me.

When she had finished, she was very clear about it. She would pop up on her feet and go to the door. I'd put her leash on, and we'd find someone to take her back to her kennel run.

As the months passed, this pattern stayed pretty much the same while her physical condition deteriorated. She had more difficulty walking, becoming very stiff in her front legs and shoulders. After each session, however, she walked noticeably better, and I got the impression she looked forward to her time with me each week.

All this time, Lacey had lain upright while she soaked up Reiki. At one point during a session a few months ago, she flopped over on her side for a few minutes toward the end of the session. After that, she typically spent more of each session lying flat, always on her left side. She would still get up to signal the end of the session, but our sessions began to get longer.

While our sessions got longer, the time it took her to settle into the Reiki energy grew shorter and shorter. Ultimately, she would no sooner get into the room than she would lie down and within a few minutes be flat on her side.

I noticed, too, that she would lay down closer to me. Because she was obviously in some discomfort, we began putting a comforter on the floor for her, and she enjoyed that a great deal.

During one session, she was a couple of feet away from me, lying on her side, when she raised her head to look at me. I got the sense that she was asking me to move closer and give her hands-on Reiki. I moved onto the comforter with her and placed my hands on her, and she lay back down and soaked up the energy.

Our last four or five sessions were hands-on and I actually had to end the sessions because I had to get back to work! She would have lain there all day if I'd been able to stay with her. It was clear to me she was preparing for her transition to non-physical.

One day I came in, and Lori told me she'd consulted with the staff, and everyone agreed it was time to assist Lacey in making her transition. She was going to schedule the vet to come out to AID that Saturday, so Lacey and I had one more session together. The introduction room happened to be in use so we found a corner in the hospitality center lobby and spread Lacey's comforter on the floor. She lay down on it and immediately pulled Reiki energy from my hands.

During this session, I told her what a good girl she was and that in two moons she would be free of her physical burden. She was lying on her side facing away from me as usual. She raised her head back toward me, gave me a kiss and lay back down. After about 45 minutes, she sat up and indicated she was done and ready to go back to her run.

Lacey is now in pure positive energy and joy, no longer hampered by her arthritic physical being. She was one of my greatest teachers, showing me that she was in control of her own energy and that she knew what she needed much better than I did. I learned a great deal about body language from her and how to accommodate her wishes. I am honored to have been her student.

 

About the Author:  John Sawyer is a Reiki master/teacher specializing in animal Reiki. He lives in the Lehigh Valley area of Eastern Pennsylvania. He may be contacted via his website at www.critterreiki.com.

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