Why Pets Are Good for Health by Janet Ridgeway

Of course, we all know that animals can certainly have genetic problems or illnesses that are unrelated to the physical and emotional health of those in their household, however, their environment is equally important. Examples I have witnessed of how animals mirror back and absorb our issues vary from the mundane to the incredible. A client who injured her leg reported that her cat started limping on the same leg immediately afterwards. Another client had anxiety about leaving his dog home alone when he went back to work full time; not surprisingly, the dog started tearing the house apart every time he left. Animals who have recurring urinary tract infections, bladder infections, or inappropriate urination often have people in the household with urinary or bladder issues, blood sugar or diabetes issues, or alcoholism. On a behavioral level, cats who have urinary issues may be upset about something and this is their way of bringing it to a human’s attention.

One client I will never forget had a dog who had been having seizures for two years and was not improving with medication. She made an appointment for a Reiki treatment and asked me to communicate with him to gain some insight. When I asked the dog if he could tell me when these seizures began, he sent me an image of the mother and son screaming at each other on a daily basis. On this particular day, he began shaking uncontrollably while they were fighting because of the intensity of their energy. Both mother and son immediately stopped fighting and rushed to the dog’s side with love and concern. The dog sent me a telepathic message that it was his “job” to absorb and transmute their energy to help keep balance in the home, and because of the intensity that day (and how constant the fighting had become), the emotions he had been absorbing for so long finally manifested physically. The dog was smart enough to realize that this was the first thing that worked to get the mother and son to stop fighting; not only that, but he got all the attention. What a fabulous turn of events! Amazingly, the dog literally started creating seizures at will because of the resulting attention, which kept the people focused on him and off of their own drama, at least temporarily. In this case, once the dog’s human companions had an awareness of why this was happening, they were forced to become conscious of and responsible for their toxic emotional energy. They had to make the choice to shift their behavior and emotions if they wanted their animal (and themselves!) to be healthy. By teaching them a series of relaxation and visualization techniques, the individuals shifted their energy and the dog finally stopped having seizures altogether. When people work to discover the underlying cause of an animal’s illness or behavior, both animal and human benefit.

So the good news and the bad news is that human companions are often the cause of their animal’s illness. Luckily, since we are the cause, we can also become the solution.