Is Your Canine Best Friend a Therapist?

When I adopted Tito, never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate he would become the type of dog suited to support others in transitions, challenges and personal journeys. But slowly, after he out grew his puppy, teenage and young adult stages and matured, his true inner beauty and kind heart emerged. Now, looking at my dogs Aine and Tucker I can see their inner healers boldly shining. Aine, the gentle soul, was born ready to be a Pet Therapist and will be able to officially wear her vest by the end of August 2010, whereas Tucker will take a few years to mature before stepping into this roll. But I’m patient!

When you look at your dog, do see “just” a dog or do you see a healer? If you want to spread some happiness through your friendly and loving pet, then it truly begins with you. Your intention and attitude toward your dogs will empower them to expose this healing side sooner rather than later (or, sadly, never).

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Interaction with Your Animal Totems

As a young child I always loved animals; dogs of course were my favorite, but any animal really fascinated me. This didn’t mean I wasn’t cautious or timid of certain animals, but I did have a healthy respect for them. There were times I thought I could understand them, but I always wrote it off as my being silly. Over time, though, I’ve come to realize that actually each interaction held a special gift—and if I was open enough to receiving it, I would. During my personal growth journey I’ve learned a little about animal totems and how they can be wonderful guides in your journey toward spiritual enlightenment. The following are six different approaches to learning how animals can support us and how we can, in turn, actually seek their guidance when we know how to interact with them. In previous blogs I’ve shared my experience of learning how to discern which animals are part of your totem, so this blog will focus on the available modalities we can use.

Totem Oracle Cards
There are several oracle cards available on the market to help you communicate with your totems. In most such decks each card has a picture of an animal and a small description of what the card means. The decks usually come with a booklet that contains detailed descriptions as well as spread suggestions.

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Psychic Pets?

We’ve all heard stories about the psychic and even telepathic powers of pets. The most recent and well-known situation reported in The Register on July 26, 2007, by Lester Haines was the cat predicting the deaths of over 25 senior citizens in a nursing home. (Read about that here.) In most cases we hear through the web of conversations of the more common ones of pets having premonitions of accidents or illnesses involving their owners, knowing when their owners are on their way home, acting strangely before natural disasters, finding their way home despite getting lost miles away, etc. There has been a lot of debate whether such stories about pets are indicators of their psychic powers or are simply the result of their sensitivity and exaggerated claims by doting owners.

Skeptics explain pets’ telepathic connections with their owners by pointing to the sharp observation skills animals possess. The slightest twitch of a muscle or the subtle change of their owner’s body odor could alert pets to a sudden attack or fit. This argument, however, doesn’t explain stories of pets having premonitions about accidents or other untoward events involving their owners.

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Animals and Dreams

As a third segment in our dream blogs sequence, we want to focus on animals and how they impact our dreams as well as their possible interpretations. Animals play a large role in our lives. Whether they are pets or visit us from the wild, seeing animals in our dreams is nothing unusual; in fact, almost all of us have animal dreams at some point or the other. While some dreams focus on a single animal, there are others in which animals make a sort of “guest appearance.” Regardless of which animals appear in our dreams, they carry messages. To decode the message you need to remember the animal you saw, what it was doing in your dream and the context of its appearance.

The Animal
Animals in our dreams are actually symbols of the characteristics we associate with them. For instance, the fox generally stands for cunning and stealth, lions for ferocity and bravery, dogs for loyalty and faithfulness, etc.

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