I am sure that there have been many times as a pet caretaker, you wished that you could talk to your pet. There might be times that you wish you could turn to your most trusted friend for advice or just carry on a safe conversation, knowing that you would not be judged. Many of my clients, while facing serious pet health issues, lament, “If I only knew what she wants, then I would know what I should do.”
There is a reason why they weren’t given a voice. So, that there would be no chance of miscommunication. We humans, use words as our major source of communication. Words are concepts. This means that they just get us in the ballpark, no closer. Just think back of the many times over your lifetime where a word or sentence was the source of suffering.
Every word that we speak or hear comes with a story that we created and that story is personal. I like to use the story of the little girl seeing her first Robin. She sees this little fascinating creature, hopping around pulling worms out of the ground. Then, it flies off into the blue sky. She is awe stricken. Let’s expand on the story a bit. Imagine that she is with her mother and her mother is witnessing this event and her heart is open while seeing the delight in her child’s eyes. She holds her daughter and says, “Honey, that was a Robin. Wasn’t it wonderful.” Now, imagine that while the daughter is looking at the bird, the mother is on the phone with someone and having an argument. She hangs up the phone in disgust and turns to her daughter as the bird flies away. The daughter turns and says, “Mommy. Did you see that?” The mother, still angry about the phone call, turns and says, “Yes. That was a Robin.” The daughter senses her mother’s frustration and attaches that feeling to the experience.
Years later, every time the girl sees a Robin, she feels a bit depressed. She doesn’t even know why. Her partner can’t understand why she feels this way. it was just a Robin. You can just imagine the diversity in reactions with abstract words like love and happiness.
When two people talk, they are essentially just using words that reflect their experiences. There is very little objectivity in the words. This leads to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. I am sure that wars have been started in just such a manner.
It was wise of the Creator to give us pets without a voice. It eliminates the possibility of concepts being formed and a continual source of miscommunication. Our pets communicate to us intuitively, with feelings. There is little opportunity for miscommunication when our true feelings are affected. Sure, our pets learn words and react to those words. If I say to my dogs, “You want to go to the park?” I better get out of the way. I have noticed many times that I don’t even have to say the words. They just know. Without relying on words for communication, they are in tune with other subtle methods. In this manner of communication, they miss very little.
In my personal dealings with thousands of pet caretakers and their pets over the many years I have been in practice, I have learned a lot about communication from pet to person. It is a lot easier when I see their connection objectively. Often, pets use themselves in order to communicate with their people. Without words or an intellectual mind that relies on deductive reasoning, they turn to their intuitiveness in order to communicate. Often, they reflect our thoughts and feelings instead of giving their verbal opinions. This might be in an expression of emotions, behavioral patterns or even physical illness.
It came to me years ago that many pets with chronic illnesses are using their illness (without intellectual knowingness) to communicate to their caretaker. Some people refer to this as a “mirror effect.” I have seen the physical manifestation of this many times and I suspect that about 1/3 of my clients have the exact physical illness as their pet. This is not a coincidence.
There appears to be more to it that just a reflection of a physical illness. I have found that a physical illness in a pet will often reflect a long-standing emotional problem in the caretaker. Using a Chinese medicine perspective makes it easier to understand. In Chinese medicine, each organ system has an emotion that is a component of that system. The emotion associated with the liver is anger. The emotion associated with the lungs is grief and so on. So, if you work backwards, the physical disease will often suggest the possible emotional upset that is the underlying problem.
I have seen many cats that have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. The emotion associated with the kidneys is fear. Chronic fear will often lead to kidney disease in the individual. Since everything is energy, all emotions have an energetic profile, like a fingerprint. If a caretaker has a close relationship to a pet, the fearful energy will entrain with the pet’s energy and become a component of its overall energetic profile. This becomes a permanent part of the pet’s energy. In time, the fearful energy will express itself as a negative influence on the kidneys and kidney disease will appear.
Wood element pets are under the influence of the liver and their emotion is anger or frustration. They are particularly sensitive to emotional stress in the household. When there is a lot of stress in the pet’s environment, wood element pets will often become anxious or agitated and in time it will manifest as a chronic disease or even cancer.
All pets fall into one of the five element categories and all have emotions that will often lead to physical disease. Energy has its own universal laws and they cannot be denied. It is the ultimate means of communication.
Does this mean that every pet with a chronic disease has a caretaker that is emotionally imbalanced? No. Well, maybe no. But, it certainly is worth knowing that it is a potential.
