Animals From Their Point of View

It has been a long time since I have made a post.  My New Year resolution is to get back to writing.

Living in Georgia is good.  Has taken some time to adjust to a very different environment, so most of my energy went to settling in and I am enjoying warmer and moister.

In the fall I started doing morning walks and on these walks I noticed trees that had lost their leaves and had round ball shaped groups of green leaves still on the tree.  I was curious so I asked a friend what kind of tree did this.

I was told it was not a type of tree.  These trees had mistletoe growing on them and the mistletoe was the green leave balls and the mistletoe would eventually kill the tree.  My friend went on to say how sad it was and that the mistletoe is a nasty parasite.  I let myself get sucked into what a terrible thing this is.

The next morning on my walk I passed one of the trees with the mistletoe growing on it.  I started to do my pity thing and the tree showed me it did not want my pity and it was fine with the mistletoe growing on it.

The animals have been very adamant with me on the pity thing and you would imagine by now I would think before I felt pity for anything!

I stood looking up at the tree and then the mistletoe showed me it had a job to do.  It did not take hold on strong trees and the mistletoe is part of nature’s pruning system.

The tree was ok with the mistletoe taking of its’ life force.  It was a slow process of leaving and that it was fine and the lesson is surrender.  The mistletoe’s lesson is how much to take.  I began to see it is about balance and coexistence.  The tree is not a victim and the mistletoe is not the bad guy.  I thanked them both for setting me straight.

It helped me remember, the Universe knows what it is doing and no one needs my pity and sad thoughts.

Now when I walk by the tree I have a light heart and know all is well in the world.

Quick update on Rey.  I realized it is all well and good he thinks he wants to be my horse.  Then there is the real side of it.  I decided to start training work with him showing him this is what it will be like to be my horse.  Most of his 3 years has been spent living out with the geldings, being a horse, with no one asking much of him.  We’ll see if he changes his mind when he understands there is work involved and that he does not get to do whatever he wants.

I am being nudged to continue writing about animals and dying.  One of the things I see over and over when working with an animal who is in the dying rhythm movement is they are clear they want to die in their own rhythm.  Which means not to be euthanized.

I want to be clear here.  I am relaying what the animals show me and this is not me saying animals should not be euthanized.  I do not want to hear of anyone saying “Sandy says on her blog animals should not be euthanized”.  You want to see me really angry just let someone say that.  What I am doing is giving the animal’s point of view on dying.

They are teaching me their end of life is a very rich time for them to work on what they came to learn in this particular life time.

I am working with a cat now.  He can’t get up on his own anymore; he eats and drinks, purrs and is clear he is very alive.  A couple of weeks ago the question of euthanasia came up.  The human was torn so she called me.  In working with him he showed me the lesson he is working on is his will.  He has a very strong will.  All his life he has been able to will his way through challenges.

Now he is discovering his will is not working the way it did.  He is learning acceptance and surrender for what his will can’t change.  He is also seeing there is a bigger movement then his will is.  He had never seen this before.  The bigger movement is the Divine that moves through everything.

This is a huge discovery for him.  At the end of the session his human agreed to let him follow his own dying rhythm movement.  One of the things he wanted his human to know was, don’t get stuck in what it looks like and she listened.  She realized there is something big going on here and she wants to give him the chance to have his own movement and discovery.  She is willing to put herself aside so he can do what he needs to do.  To me this is a beautiful loving gift.

What I am passing on here is an example of what I am being shown by an animal moving toward the end of his life.   There is no blanket statement being made here.  I am simply sharing a story of a cat and his human and their journey together.

My work with dying animals is such an eye opener for me.  I am doing a lot of rethinking how I look at death.  Is it always comfortable?  No.  I am being taken out of my comfort zone and being asked to see someone else’s point of view on the end of life.

The phone just rang and it is this cat’s human, which blew me away as here I sit writing about them, reporting he is still here and she and he are having a very special time.  She wanted me to know how wonderful it is to be a part of his journey.

The animals are simply asking us to take a look at their point of view.