Live Each Day

 

Her horse is doing fine now, living outside, eating a nutritious diet; he is happy and full of energy. Still, she worries.

Her horse is prone to melanomas. A few years ago, he had a severe patch of them growing under his tail, growing inward as well as outward.

They were removed, at great cost, and with his new diet and lifestyle, he has done well ever since. Still, she worries.

Telling me the story, she begins to cry. This will happen again. The surgery was a temporary measure. What will she do when it happens again? She can’t afford the surgery again. She cannot allow him to suffer. She will have to put him down.

She collapses into grief telling me this.

I remind her that he is completely healthy now, enjoying life, that sweet fall is upon us, cool, bug-free nights. I remind her to enjoy every day she has with him.

Every single day.

 

***

Huggy is dying. This sweet, handsome, black-and-white cat has cancer in his gut. I have been working with him twice a month for about six months. The Reiki sessions have resulted in increased energy and increased appetite. He is thin, hasn’t gained weight, but he has stopped losing weight.

During the sessions, he has explained what food he likes and doesn’t like (or isn’t agreeing with him), his response to certain medications and herbs, his feelings about his surroundings (other cats and so on).

His human does her best to accommodate him while, at the same time, taking care of herself. She does not dwell on the future. She lives each day.

After my last session with Huggy, his human sent me this note:

We had such a lovely moment last week.  I was reclining in bed watching TV.  He came and sat on my chest.  I petted him, and after a while he scooted over to the crook of my arm. He finally  ended up on his back with his head on my shoulder, two good friends hangin’ out. These sweet lovey times do us both good.

***

Chloe was born a wild mustang, captured, mistreated. Her current (and forever) home is at a small private rescue in the mountains of Colorado. Chloe’s kidneys had been damaged from starvation, and she wasn’t given much hope for surviving. The cold spring had Chloe on the edge, shivering uncontrollably, refusing to eat hay, but unable to eat the deeply snow-covered grass.

I shared a Reiki treatment with her weekly for several months. She improved so much, I have now reduced them to every other week. Her human takes her on daily walks along wooded trails, hours-long walks, since she can no longer run free. A trainer successfully introduced Chloe to a blanket; her humans have fenced a larger pasture for her to run in; Chloe has become strong, healthy, balanced.

But there is no way to know if Chloe will survive the winter, the winter that has already come to the mountains of Colorado. The days are still warm, but the nights are very, very cold.

A few weeks ago, Chloe’s human shared her worry over what might happen. Thinking about losing her was almost too much to bear. Thinking about her suffering was even worse.

But when Chloe made clear in a session that she is happy and feeling good, that she is enjoying the sunshine and the long walks and the sweet days in her new pasture, her human relaxed into this sweetness.

I received an email today, after a lovely Reiki session with Chloe. Her human shared that she woke up a few nights ago and was moved to check on Chloe who, even though blanketed, was shivering. It took two more blankets to bring her warmth.

But the heart of her email was this:

How nice to hear that-she is definitely rallying! I take her on walks every day for 2-3 hours looking for yummy grazing spots—she loves it and so do I! And she and I have finally gotten to a good place with blanketing. The silly girl has a full wardrobe of different weights and styles of blankies 🙂 she has even been eating some hay! I love her even more than ever if that is possible-she is so sweet and snugly and silly 🙂

No one can know what the future will bring. All we can do is live each day.

 

 

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