I have just found your website, and would like to share my cat's healing experience with you.

We had to take - Loki, our 8-year old neutered male brown tabby to the vet's last week. He was not eating or drinking much at all, hardly moving from the chair he chose to remain curled up on, meowing painfully and looking most unhappy. He is slightly overweight, but we noticed that in the previous week he seemed to grow larger, almost like he was pregnant.

The vet did a physical exam and found not surprisingly that he was dehydrated, and when he felt his abdomen he was unable to feel the individual organs and found what appeared later on x-ray as a "large fatty mass" which was pushing his internal organs down and to the side of his little body. It was something our vet had never encountered before. They kept Loki all day Thursday trying to re-hydrate him and get him to eat a little bit.

When we brought him home Thursday night, I decided to see if I could help him with my Reiki training. I only have my first level, and haven't used it consistently, but I felt moved to do this for Loki. My initial contact with him was holding my hands about an inch over either side of his abdomen. I immediately felt a large, hot energy area coming from him, particularly on the right side - I could feel it push back at me, if that makes any sense. I let my hands remain still for a few minutes as I felt that familiar Reiki energy flowing in and through Loki. I told him he was going to heal and that this energy would be used by his body to heal this "mass". I did about four small sessions on him that evening.

There wasn't a huge difference in him by Friday morning - and the vet had asked that if he wasn't at least 75% better - to bring him back in for the day. However, when the vet rechecked his abdomen, he was able to feel his organs a little easier...they kept him in again to make sure he was drinking and eating a bit more. Friday evening saw him a lot better. I continued his sessions when we got home, about half a dozen short ones throughout the course of the evening. He enjoyed the treatments, reaching back to lick my hand on a couple of occasions.

It seemed after each session, he responded in a positive way. Today, just a week after we were pretty sure we were losing him, he's back to his old self - eating, drinking, moving freely - no painful meowing, running up and downstairs, and playing with our other cat "Q". The vet was surprised to hear of such a dramatic reversal of his condition when I talked to him last Saturday morning , only two days after we brought him in, figuring we were going to lose him!

What I did notice was as Loki got better, that large energy surge from his side disappeared, and I felt a more normal energy/aura outline of his body...does that make sense to you? I hope I haven't rambled on too long in this email - but this was exciting - and even though we're total strangers - I know you'll understand how much be a part of this success means to me! My family have said that I "healed" him - but I know that I was only the one to channel or share the Reiki energy - this healing energy with Loki - it didn't come from me, but through me... Thanks for an opportunity to share!

Update: 01/16/2002

Unfortunately, the time comes when our animal companions move on from this world to the next. Such is the case of Loki. I recently heard from one of Loki's humans, Pat, as she shared the news of his passing. I have put together a compilation of the notes Pat sent me about Loki and what he meant to his family and I thought it important to share it here. We have all had to face the loss of a beloved pet and I hope that you may find some comfort in sharing the story of Loki and his family.

There are times, when what is the highest healing good is for someone to cross over. It always leaves an empty space in the lives and hearts of those of us left behind. But what is also left behind are the memories, the love, and the joy an animal brought into our lives while they were here with us. Loki filled the lives of his family with love and laughter and, even after his passing, he gave them one final gift. I have done very little editing to what Pat shared with me about Loki; it seemed only right that it be her words that you read.

01/16/2002 From Pat

I was just rereading the story I sent to you about "Loki" our beautiful tabby and this morning I have sad news of his passing. He was beyond Reiki or even any conventional medicine this morning, from an apparent stroke in the early hours of the day. My husband and I were with him at the emergency vet clinic at four a.m. Calgary time. He was unresponsive; his sight had been taken from him... he was basically near comatose. We both shed our tears and decided the most loving thing we could do would be to let him leave us in peace and end his suffering. Ours has just begun - this was so unexpected.

He was fine last night and no one could have known it was his last night in our family. If I can share anything with you about this it would be to encourage those of us who love our animals to take that extra minute to throw their ball, scratch their tummies for them, pick them up and hug them. Because no one knows what morning we will wake up and find it is the last one together. We know we made the right decision for Loki, but our hearts are very heavy right now. I know in time the pain will fade, but life will never be quite the same in our household.

Thanks so much for your kind words and understanding. This loss was so incredibly shocking for all of us. Last night, not even twenty-four hours ago, he was with us and playing with my brother's dog, wrestling with the carpet in the hall - something important that he just had to jump on! So full of life - sitting at the window watching the birds at the feeder outside, alert and well. I had held him and he purred and licked my ear, the way he always did and then we wake up to a day without Loki in our lives in the same way ever again.

He came to us as an orphan kitten, barely five weeks old... none of us can remember life before Loki, and none of us will ever forget him. Our other pets (Shadow my poodle, who is going on 11, and our other cat "Q", who is 6) are a great comfort at this time, but like losing a best friend, no one else can ever take his place in our hearts.

When we celebrated the new year, who could have known before it's first month was out we'd be feeling these painful emotions once again even before the loss of our 13 year old Collie had faded. Holly went to the Rainbow Bridge in July, 2001... at least now the two of them can be together until we are all reunited!

You said if there was anything you could do, don't hesitate to ask. I guess the only thing I would ask you, is to do what you're doing as you read this just knowing someone else out there understands how this feels perhaps including the guilt and horrible second-guessing I'm feeling right now.

Our healing is certainly a slow process, isn't it? I sat with my daughter Maeghan last night while she cried about Loki. She's 17 and Loki has been part of her life for half of her life... she feels so bad because she never got to say good-bye... I was with him and I still feel that way. Part of me wishes our own vet could have seen him first... but the emergency vet was a very caring person, and told Gerry (my husband) and I that if Loki were her cat, that would be her decision for him - the most loving and humane one to make.

The hardest part was that the poor love's veins had started to collapse on him. I suppose that in itself is not a good indicator, is it - and we finally had to put him to sleep with the gas and then complete his injection... it really was awful... my stomach still gets in knots when I think about it. I know the answer is "Don't think about it", but it's like a bad movie that keeps replaying...

A good thing I wanted to share with you - and maybe you'll concur with my thoughts. Maeg told me she had a dream about Loki on Wednesday night... she went into our living room and saw him curled up on the afghan on my grandma's chair - and when she knelt down to see him - he kissed her on the cheek. Right away I said that that wasn't a dream - and she should consider that Loki actually came to her in to let her know - and I guess, let all of us know - that he was alright, that he loves us and that he's still with us. What do you think? I have a picture of Loki taken when we lived in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He always loved to look at the world up-side down - rolling on his back and stretching - waiting for us to notice how beautiful he was... he had the most beautiful, soft amber colored fur on his tummy...

Yes, it would be good of you to share his passing with friends who visit your website. God gave us an incredible gift when we picked up this scrawny little guy from the vet clinic in Scarborough, Ontario! We had nine wonderful years with Loki... we don't know his exact birth date - the vet figured it was in the first two weeks of July, 1993... he came to us on August 26, 1993 - a birthday gift for my oldest son Connor - now 19! One of my favorite songs is Diamond Rio's "One More Day" since Wednesday, January 16, 2002 it has a very different meaning for all of us.

Our whole family my husband Gerry, son Connor, Maeghan and my youngest (16 yrs old), Michael and me have each shared a very special relationship with Loki. He had the most wonderful habit of snuggling into your neck when you picked him up, then he would nearly always turn his head and lick your earlobe, or your cheek or chin. Quite often with Connor and Gerry, because they were taller, he would climb up and sit on their shoulders, or drape himself around their neck.

The day I brought Loki home, which was for Connor's birthday, Gerry was out of town on a business trip. When he came through the door, I put this little guy in his hands and said, "Look what I found! Can we keep him?"... with that, Loki promptly climbed up his arm and perched on Gerry's shoulder. This little wee fellow completely melted Gerry in an instant! He used to jump up into the VCR cabinet when he was still tiny, or jump into the middle of the vacuum hose when it was coiled up and watch the dogs play. When he wanted to be tough as a small kitten he'd puff himself up and jump sideways across the floor in front of the dogs, that tiny tail sticking up like a miniature bottlebrush!!

He loved to bat at our collie, Holly's tail whenever she would walk past him- the two of them were very close. You could ask Holly "Where's Loki?", and she would walk over and lick his face, or just look over at her buddy and then back at you, as if to say "He's right here - what's your problem!" Loki established a lifelong wrestling routine with my poodle Shadow - often sitting up on his hind legs and smacking Shadow on the muzzle... then they would literally tumble and roll around the floor together! Or else he'd hide and then ambush Shadow as he walked past his secret hiding places!

I could go on forever... I just needed to share those memories with you... it's easy to look at an animal's picture and appreciate the beauty and such, but I wanted to give you a sense of who Loki was to our family. The weekend was a bit better for us. Actually a very interesting moment happened while we were watching TV in bed last night - bad habit - go to bed early then stay up late anyway! Shadow was already curled up by my feet and I knew that Q was on his blanket on the floor in the closet. I felt him jump up and walk up between Gerry and I, which he does quite often... however, when I turned to see him and say hi - no one was there... but I distinctly felt the movement onto the bed, and the footsteps walking carefully towards us. Obviously, Loki is very nearby... and it is reassuring to me. Thank you for doing this for me, for our family. I hope reading our story will help others who are going through this same painful process. Life does go on and that's what they would want us to do. Perhaps as you said, Loki will send another orphan our way to love when we are ready.

by Pat Slade, Calgary, Alberta, Canada