While I’ve been focusing on Reiki for so many years now, it hasn’t been the only thing I’ve been drawn to. Most people in my life know of my deep love for animals. Few know how profoundly the loss of my soul dog, Oreo, back in 2013 affected me.
tw: pet loss
Oreo
Oreo was my best friend. I don’t mean that as a euphemism, I mean it literally. He was that steady presence in my life that I needed so dearly. He came into our lives suddenly, a stray puppy my dad found wandering in the big corn field next to our house. Though my dad tried to catch up to them, his mom and siblings left him behind, and he followed my dad back to our home.
My sister and I came home from school that day, close to the end of the school year, ready to head inside, when a goofy little puppy popped out of the bushes. I was instantly in love. Since he looked like cookies and cream ice cream, I named him Oreo.
Less than a week later, our two black labs, Star and Boots, ran off into the woods as I was putting them back into their kennel for the night. They still had their chains on.
Please note: this was not my choice as I was a child at the time. It was the practice of the family I grew up in.
I took only enough time to put Oreo into the kennel so he would not follow me before I chased after them. But I was too late, too slow. They were missing for over a week. Only Star survived.
Boots, who had been gifted to me in elementary school, passed away. It was the first real loss I experienced, and it devastated me. I felt the weight of it as though he was a person, and had no idea how to handle the grief. It was only through time with Oreo, who my parents had been set on taking to the pound before this tragedy, that I was finally able to make peace with it.
He kept me busy! Chewing through my favorite sandals and any empty milk or orange juice jug during his teething years, and play wrestling with him to keep his sharp baby teeth off me. He would play fetch for hours. It was only a couple years later that we both discovered his love of soccer. Tennis balls are many dogs’ favorite, yet the soccer ball was Oreo’s. I would kick it as far as I could, and he would jet across the yard to grab it and bring it back for more. He was so, so fast.
The crazy eyes and blurry tail of a very excited Oreo waiting for me to kick the ball again!
And one thing we never needed to do was tie him up. He loyally stuck around the house, only visiting the neighbors a handful of times. In his later years, both he and Lily, our Rottweiler (Star had passed away by then), would spend their nights in the garage. Whenever I needed a breather, a moment of peace or quiet companionship, it was to the garage I would go. To Oreo. He would sit next to me on the steps, his bottom next to me, his front legs on the step below or his head in my lap.
It was in that garage he passed away.
He had begun to have occasional difficulty breathing, sometimes choking when he got excited or ran too much. The vet suggested a very expensive surgery, but it was one that may or may not help him live much longer even if we did go through with it. He was 13 by this time. I would always work to calm him down, and had always been successful, until this night.
Beginning with my sister’s then boyfriend, now husband, coming over, and Oreo being outside to greet him, it quickly escalated. I had gone outside the moment I saw the car coming up the driveway, knowing he was still out, but there was little I could do. I brought him inside and did all my normal calming tricks, but none of it worked. All I could do was be there with him while he struggled to breathe. Until he no longer could. Until he let go.
Perhaps this was what was different about his loss, the witnessing.
It fundamentally changed me.
It began the precise series of events that would eventually lead me to Reiki, and now it has lead me to this: Animal Communication.
Thanks to the encouragement of a fellow Karuna Reiki classmate (hi, Wendy!), I’ve decided to finally enroll in a couple of animal communication courses. As of now, mid-September, I’ve completed one by the amazing Kara Daniels, and have started another—Soul Level Animal Communication 101 with Danielle MacKinnon.
It’s early days yet, so not much to say about the SLAC, but with Kara’s class, I’ve connected to not only my own dogs, but the crossed over dog of a friend, and a praying mantis. What I channelled with the praying mantis was wild and so incredibly wise. From what I understand so far, the SLAC course is different than channelling animal spirit, so I’m excited to learn this new technique!
I’m looking forward to eventually sharing this with all you soon.