Reiki with the Cats at Bideawee: Oneness and Eternal Love

I always love my time with animals, and have meaningful connections with them every day.  But at times there are those special moments that sneak up on you and surprise you in the most beautiful way.

Ashanti

Last week, towards the end of my afternoon working with the cats at Bideawee, I decided to go into the main cat room to work with Ashanti, one of my long-time kitty friends there.  The cats in this room generally are cats who prefer to be only cats, so they reside in cages but are let out to roam freely in the room in shifts, so they all have time out.  There are two adjacent cat rooms which each house 4-5 cats, and one can see the cats in this room through the glass walls.

Ashanti was having his time out.  As it was a quiet time of day, I decided to sit on the floor in the middle of the room and offer Reiki to him.

Ashanti first came up to me, looked at me, and then climbed to an upper area in the room, where he loves to be, and laid down, squinting his eyes, absorbing the energy.

As the energy began to flow, it expanded through the room and I felt it connecting with the other cats in the room as well.  The radio was playing quietly.  I felt such a peacefulness come over the room.

Coral

I felt the energy become stronger and stronger, and felt the connections with all the cats in the room, as well as those in the adjacent rooms.  I felt the history of my connections with these cats, some of whom I have known for a good while.  The strength and beauty of that shared history.

Buddy

I felt a huge energy of love filling up the room.  This feeling of an eternal kind of love, a love beyond the boundaries of time and space.  Boundless joy and infinite connection with the cats and with the universe.

Bandit

I felt such happiness and gratitude for the animals for this time with them, for all the time I have had with them, for their openness with me, for all that they give to me and teach me, and for all the love they share with me.

Rocky

I felt suspended in time, connected with these beautiful animals with the energy and connection of love and gratitude.  Connected with them all and connected with the eternal feeling of love.  Love that goes beyond time and space.  Feeling like I am exactly where I need to be, that we were all exactly where we needed to be in this moment. 

Jax and Jayne

All the cats in the room, and in the adjacent rooms, were peaceful and calm.  A few cats were eating or grooming, others were just resting peacefully.

Jo

It was such a beautiful way to end my day with them. When the time was right, I slowly ended the session, thanking Reiki, and thanking the cats.  I looked around the room at all of them, and told them to have a wonderful night.  I can't wait to see them again! xxooo

Jungle

TTouch and Reiki at Bideawee: Ashanti - The Power of Patience

Ashanti is a lovely young black and white male cat with light green eyes that stare right into your heart.

I am sure he has touched the hearts of all who have met him at Bideawee.

He arrived at Bideawee in bad shape with a very badly injured paw.  They gave him great medical care, so he is doing much better now.  However, he seems fearful in a way that has led us to suspect he may have been abused.  He is extremely afraid of hands.

The wonderful Bideawee keepers of the cats (Jon and Kerrie) have been working with him to help him to feel safe and to encourage him to play, and he has gradually become more confident and less reactive.

I have been working with him with Reiki from a short distance, with TTouches using various tools, and with clicker training to help him feel at ease.  I also made a custom Bach Flower remedy for him.

Clicker training is something I have recently incorporated into the work I do.  I am finding that it can benefit so many different personality types - it can help bring a shy cat out of its shell, can help to focus a hyperactive cat, and it Ashanti's case, it seems to help both his confidence and his focus, and it is a way of connecting with him that does not need to involve direct touch.  He is in a larger cage with shelves, and I have had him jumping across the cage from shelf to shelf in the process of the training.  I will describe more about that in a separate post.

I particularly wanted to a recent TTouch session with him, because I think it is a good example of just how important patience is when working with with any animal, but especially an animal who is fearful.

As he is so scared of a hand coming towards him, his reaction to anything coming towards his face can be to bite.  So before even beginning the TTouch session, I usually sit quietly by him and share Reiki energy with him for a few moments (in this case, he was in his cage, though he is let out of the cage on a regular basis).  This gives me a chance to establish a quiet energy and connection with him.

Then I started working with him a bit with a fan-shaped brush (the brush part is smallish, maybe an inch wide at the widest part).  His initial reaction was to bite at the brush.  I tried this a few times, and he still bit at the brush, instead of allowing me to stroke him with it.

At this point, one could easily give up or think that the biting is what he is going to do every time.  However, I wanted to see what would happen if I gave him a break and tried again.  So I sat calmly by his cage a bit longer, and he began to get into a calmer energy.  Next time I tried it, he may have pawed a little bit at it.  So I paused again, continuing to send him energy and saying (silently) to him that everything was all right.

Ashanti had been moving around a bit, and at this point he started to settle.  So I tried again.  This time he did not bite or paw at the brush.  I began to do TTouch circles with the fan brush on his forehead, and he began to relax into them.  He laid his head down and became completely relaxed as I worked with him.

He was in such a snoozy mode that I decided to carefully try touching him a bit with my hand.  The first thing I did was to just use the back of one finger (actually just the flat part of my fingernail) to do some TTouches on his forehead.  He was very comfortable with that, so I continued for a while.  Gradually I found that he was comfortable with me gently stroking and doing circular TTouches with the back of the top part of several fingers on his head.  It was truly lovely to feel that direct connection with him, to feel him totally at ease with it, to feel that trust.

I know that this may not happen every day with him, but I do think with time and patience, he will feel more and more comfortable connecting with people.  I feel his soulfulness in his sweet eyes, and know that the personality behind his fear is coming forward more and more every day.

Below is a photo of me TTouching him with a paintbrush when he is out of the cage - it was great that he felt comfortable doing this :)

Thank you to all the dear Bideawee people for helping Ashanti and all the animals there :)