The REIKIDOGS Blog

I was in PetsMart the other day browsing collars for my dogs, two pretty strong Irish Water Spaniels. As I was looking for heavier nylon martingale collars, a pink flash yanked me upward to a delicate ribbon of a collar perhaps half an inch wide decorated with sewed-on multicolor rosettes. I touched the collar and thought, " I'd have bought Gracie this one" and surrendered to insistent tears. Gracie left us a few months ago and still, nightly when I shut the overhead kitchen light, I turn on the small utility stove light for her, as I did every night when she was alive, and announce to the spaniels, "Let's leave the light on for Gracie." Then the three of us exit the dimly lit room and go upstairs. I once bought her a pink rhinestone collar and told her they were diamonds. She believed me. Then about four years ago the great folks at Bark Avenue Mall gifted us with a beautiful crocheted pink collar and leash set adorned with large plastic "gemstones....

What is our human responsibility to the earth and its non-human inhabitants? Traditional Biblical scholars would say one of master-servant and ecologists would say one of caretaker. However, using either frame, neither movement has responded in full view of the evidence presented throughout the Bible that God clearly included animals in covenantal relationships with Biblical scholars neglecting the sanctity of animals and secular environmentalists neglecting God. A closer look at the Old Testament reveals that God designed humankind’s role in relation to the animals as one of stewardship rather than domination. Traditionally religious people often cite Scripure justify a master/servant relationship between humans and animals rather than one of partnership, but deeper investigation invites us to see texts rich with references, both literal and figurative, to the partnership between humankind and the animal world. From Genesis through Prophets and Wisdom Literature, the writers of the Ol...

It was time. She knew so, the vet said so, I thought so. I drew Reiki symbols over her head, stroked her side as the valium lured her out of anxious pacing into peaceful slumber, willing and needing to depart (it was time, it was ), and now I celebrate the life of this once feisty little Schnauzer who came to me like an angel 15 years ago and led me through crisis into clarity with her zest, her verve, her love. Ciao, Grazia. You were aptly named.

When? I'm living with two ailing senior dogs for whom special care is routine. I cook bland, grain-free poultry dishes for Frenchie, whose deteriorating spinal malformation required serious weight loss -- under his vet's orders, I had to take him from 23 pounds to 19 (at last weigh in he was under that). His disorder has caused paresis, rendering him unable to walk without his rear legs sliding out from under him. The slightest stress causes frequent urinary and occasional fecal incontinence. He has always been my little sidekick, following me from room to room, and now I sometimes forget that he can't, so when I leave the room for more than a minute, he breaks into wild howls and yodels, what Frenchie people know as "the French bulldog scream." He has slept next to me for the ten years I have lived with him. Once a week or so I am awakened by a mess in the bed....a very unsavory mess with omission-worthy details. From the waist up he's joyful, hungry, alert, ...

Six months ago, I sent my blog link to a very good friend of mine who didn't respond. Later that week, when I asked if he had received my e-mail, he said he had and deleted it without viewing the blog because "frankly, blogs don't interest me." I nodded and said nothing but felt incredibly insulted, and then felt -- and remained-- angry at myself for suppressing those emotions. Six months later, I'm carrying that conversation like stale crumbs in unlaundered pants and would like to empty my pockets . What would make my written words"uninteresting?" Is it that writing requires more depth than cursory Friday night conversation at the Chinese buffet and is therefore too taxing to investigate? What makes me acceptable company in the flesh but rejection fodder in print? He didn't even question the blog's focus, suggesting that the blog as a very entity rather than its content justifies disrespect. If I'd presented a published article or a book to ...

I hate to admit that despite years of academic and metaphysical training in loss and healing, endings and beginnings, farewells and soon-to-be farewells, I still haven't learned to curb my tears in the face of someone else's sorrow. My degree of empathy exceeds usual boundaries, at least in a visual sense, although enough years of therapy have taught me not to internalize someone else's tsuris. The problem? I cry too readily, involuntarily, as I work with animals and people in sobering situations. I understand that the flowing tears during a communication session are a body/mind recognition that I have settled into in an elevated spiritual space, a poignant other-than-this - world reality. Once I asked my therapist why, whenever I entered a deep state of meditation, I began crying. She explained it as recognizing God, an emotional homecoming. I accepted this then and am used to it now, 20 years later. But all emotional triggers make me cry. I drive around the Brooklyn of ...

I'm still unsure of protocal and technical skill regarding the blogosphere, but I'd like to thank all of you who have so graciously commented on my first few posts.