A Path With Paws

Beautiful, strong and proud, he leaps across the field with graceful steps, able to turn on his heals in a second’s time if something fun to chase crosses his path. But slowly the gray hairs form on his muzzle and his step slows, his eyes are no longer as clear as in his youth and he no longer hears the door when it opens.

For many dogs, aging is a difficult transition from being able to take on the world to not being able to take on the steps. The fun things they used to do like going to the dog park, going for long walks on the beach, or just making it around the block or into the car become impossible. Many of the very active or herding dogs have an equally difficult time mentally accepting that they can no longer do what they see to be their job.

My own dog Jake recently went through a very difficult period which started when he reached the point of not being able to climb the stairs between the first and second story of our home. Jake had always been the protector and organizer of our family, following everyone around, many times backwards bumping into walls as he went, so that he would not have to take his eyes off of us. He even made it a job trying to herd our four cats, which as any of you with cats know is clearly impossible.

He became extremely anxious about his limitations and would walk around panting nervously until he fell over with exhaustion. This was very difficult because his anxiety was not only very uncomfortable for him but also for us, especially when there was little we could do about it. We quickly got into a pattern of Jake becoming extremely anxious, us leaving the room because he was so anxious, and him becoming more anxious because he wasn’t with us. This was compounded by his anxiety causing him to lose continence and end up walking around panting and peeing as he went or pooping on the living room rug. I became convinced that not only was he losing his footing but that he was also losing his mind.

I would get so frustrated with him that I would shout,” just stay there, can’t you just sit still and relax!” Of course I was not making things any better with my frustration. Jake was not accepting his condition and I certainly wasn’t either. This just made him more agitated because I was upset with him in addition to him not being able to do his job. And he had always tried so hard to be a good dog. Having a career working with older dogs you would think I would have realized right away that we were both stuck in a very bad pattern but it is always harder to see the things that are closest to home.

Gradually as a family we realized that there was a large problem with acceptance and the first thing to do was accept Jake for where he was at. We also made some changes to our home and routines to improve things. We changed our schedules so that we were able to let him out at the same times every day to poop and pee. One very important change was to put up a gate between our two floors so that Jake could not go up or down the stairs on his own. In the morning we would help him down the stairs and in the evening we would help him up so he could sleep in my son’s room and do his job of protecting him. Because the gate was there he knew that we were purposely stopping him from going on the stairs and he no longer felt that he had to follow us where he could not.

We let him know that we accepted him for who he was and that we valued his job of protecting us and watching over us but that his most important job now was to keep his strength and be our companion instead of our protector. He received more pets and we tried our best to make him understand that he was loved for being Jake and that was separate from what he could or could not do. We praised him when he was calm and sitting still and took more time to sit and talk to him.

In a short period of time he because more calm and stopped following us around everywhere. After about two weeks we were able to take the gate down and he no longer went on the stairs except in the morning and the evening. Now most of the time he doesn’t even need help to get up and down the stairs the two times a day he climbs them. His continence also improved and he no longer pees or poops in the house and can make it much longer without being let out.

Of all the things we did I think the most important was to accept and love him unconditionally. I have had other clients tell me as well that when they were able to truly accept and love their animal companions in the condition that they were in, there was improvement not just for their animals both mentally and physically but also for themselves. I had one client explain to me that when she was able to accept that her dog needed to go out multiple times in the evening and realize how happy she was just to have her here in her old age that she no longer found it so difficult to get up in the middle of the night. In addition I noticed a huge improvement in her dog’s physical condition, she was much more present and less painful.

When we have friends or family who truly accept us regardless of state it makes us feel very loved and protected. We no longer have to pretend to be something we are not. I think it is no different with our animal friends. Through accepting them we are sharing our love and letting them be what they are at that moment. After all with older animals every moment we have with them is precious.

Love me for who I am today
Tomorrow I will be someone different
Gray may shine through my hair
Like stars in the sky
My eyes may be cloudy
Like the far off sea
But we are together
Our hearts touch as one
I am forever your friend
You are the one I love

Photographs in this story from Jennifer Kogut

In a couple days we will celebrate a new year and with it the hope of new beginnings. Unfortunately for many of our animal friends this can also be a stressful time because of the loud fireworks that many people set off when the clock reaches midnight. For many animals, fireworks can seem like the world is ending and every year animals injury themselves by trying to escape out of houses or by running away and getting lost or hit by cars.

If you have an animal who is afraid of fireworks or a new animal in your household this is a good time to be home with them if at all possible. Here are some things you can do to avoid stress and injury to your furry companion. Not everything works for every animal and many of these suggestions can be used in combination. Some animals get such severe anxiety that they need to be sedated with medication, so if your animal falls under that category this is the time to call your veterinarian. Most of the suggested products below can be purchased at natural pet supply stores.

1. Put on loud music or turn up the television to cancel out the noise. If your animal is prone to stress I would suggest classical or other calming music.

2. Use pheromone sprays such as Feliway for cats and DAP for dogs to calm them down.

3. Spray a natural lavender product around the house. Lavender can be very calming but make sure you use a natural product and not one full of chemicals. Do not spray directly on your animal.

4. Bach flower remedies such as Rescue Remedy can be very helpful for stressed animals. These are homeopathic in nature and very safe for even the oldest of animals. Put a few drops in their mouth or on the ear and a few drops in all the drinking bowls in the house.

5. Animal Apawthecary has a great line of herbal essences. Tranquility blend works well for many animals however check with your veterinarian if your animal is on any medications or has any major health issues before using this.

6. If you are home, talk to your animal calmly and rub them gently. If they become agitated try to stay calm. Your stress will only make them more stressed.

7. Make sure all windows and doors are closed. Do not leave your animal outside.

Have a wonderful new year and thank you for visiting!

So often our animals remind us how it is to be free to play and enjoy the world. Today while on vacation in Pacific Beach I saw a couple dogs running across the sand, their feet flying off the ground with every step. So happy, so in the moment. Barking wildly at their people to throw sticks, running against the wind, and having the time of their lives.

Today I also received some beautiful photos of Lucca and Sadie playing in the snow, in their element, jumping in the air, biting at the snow. How does it feel to be so happy and excited about life? Through our dogs we get to experience some of this, what greater gift. Laughing as we play and toss sticks or throw snow in the air. Laughing as we run after them in their joy which we are allowed to share in.

Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
by Mary Oliver

Today while looking for photographs of cute animals on flickr I came across the story of Chris and Brandy. Somehow this seemed to tell the true meaning of Christmas and giving more than photos of cute animal under the Christmas tree. Here is their story as told my the photographer who took these pictures.

I found this homeless man with his dog, he was ever so gentle and loving with man’s best friend. Chris told me his dog, Brandy, was all he had in the world. His last dog was taken away from him by the police because he did not have tags or a licence for the dog. The dog was euthanized. Killed by law enforcement! This is how they protect and serve. How can anyone be so heartless to take the only thing that a homeless person has? For that matter, whether homeless or not, our pets are sometimes the only love any of us really have.

It’s ironic, but Chris saved this dog as a puppy when it received a beating in a hotel room by a man that just threw the dog to the streets. Chris, being homeless, heard the puppy dog crying and being beaten and repeatedly hit. For as a homeless man was in the nearby trees spending the night. Chris saved Brandy, and in turn Brandy has saved Chris.

Chris and Brandy have such beautifully soulful eyes. Through all the pictures I took, this man was smiling. I kept wondering what made him so happy? Maybe it boils down to being happy with the one you love. How simple is happiness.

But, then again, maybe Chris was just hiding his pain and suffering. We never know how much someone is hurting. Maybe if we treat everyone with compassion, assuming the worse has happened to them, then in the process we may save ourselves.

I did try to find Chris and Brandy again, without any luck. I had wanted to pay for the spaying of Brandy. I have heard horror stories of dogs going into heat and being attacked by the male dogs on the streets. I do hope the two of them are doing okay.

When I first started my career treating animals, I would greet them and say, “I want to take away your pain and suffering. I will pull it out of your body and then you will be free of it.” I remember towards the beginning of my career I met a dog, who was boarding at the clinic, who couldn’t walk and was very painful. It was a slow day and so I decided to do about an hour of energy work. After that hour to the amazement of the technician, who jumped up like she had seen a ghost and shouted,” Fred’s walking,” he stood up and walked out the door. However he only continued to walk for about two days and when I worked with him again he only ended up with about a day of relief. I remember being so frustrated that I had tried so hard only to have him get worse again. But I was just removing pain, not helping him to work with it himself. I don’t know, if I had know what I know now, if I would have been able to help him get better or not, but the approach I was using then did not work. The relief I gave him clearly did not last. In addition it took a large toll on my body to work this way and I would physically hurt and weaken myself to take the pain away. I would also have animals who would get upset and not let me work with them; anytime I would try they would pull away. Their pain was part of them and I was acting like that part of them was bad and that they were not whole. They wanted to learn how to live with their pain and work with it, not for me to magically remove it. I was also invading their personal space without their permission.

I have since realized that what animals want is compassion and acceptance. Isn’t this what we all want after all? They want help but also they want to be involved in the process of healing their illness. They have their own wisdom that needs to be respected and listened to. I have learned to approach animals I am working with and say,” I will sit with you and be here for you; together we will look out from the same place (and not me staring at you like there is something wrong). From this place of togetherness, we will explore how I can help you work with your illness/pain and see if there is a way that I can help you to heal yourself.” Not only have I found that this works best in the long run and I don’t hurt my own health but animals are much more open to working with me.

Like us all, animals have an amazing ability to heal themselves and to deny them the opportunity is stealing from them an amazing experience for growth. Through their own path of healing they grow stronger. Through this strength they are able to show us what it means to fully live with illness and heal from illness.

Here’s some more animals having fun out there and a woodpecker too!

Dexter

Dexter playing in the snow

Woody the woodpecker

That's some thick snow!

Ollie thinking about the snow

We got another six inches of snow here in West Seattle last night. I’m not sure what the total on the ground is now. There are almost no cars out and the few people moving around are on foot. I thought it might be fun to post photos of dogs playing in the snow (or other creatures too) If you send me a photo of your animal in the snow I will add it to this post. Please send it to lena (at) pathwithpaws (dot) com . Jpeg format is the best. Enjoy!

Puma at Schmitz Park

This is Puma having fun in the snow. For the full story please check out Dog Walking in a Winter Wonderland on the Wild Reiki and Shamanic Healing Blog

Jake in the snow

Jasmine prefers to watch the snow from inside

Alex with some extra traction on his ramp

Syd tasting the snow

Paige in the snow-from Sheila Wells of Wellsprings

playing in the snow

just a little deeper

Maya in the snow

Mr. Moo wishes for spring

Christmas lilies are extremely beautiful but also deadly to cats. Every year cats die from nibbling on lilies and once they become sick it is too late. Just a couple bites of lily will destroy the kidneys of a cat and send them into renal failure. Usually they die within 24 to 72 hours. Please do not bring lilies into your home if you have cats even if you think they will not eat them. It is heartbreaking to have to tell a cat’s person that there is nothing you can do. If your cat does eat a lily call your veterinary clinic or emergency hospital immediately and get instructions to induce vomiting.

In the mind of kittens, the world is a constant source of excitement forever being full of new and amusing things. Anything that moves should be chased after and pounced on as hunting skills are developed. “I have slain the fuzzy catnip octopus! I am the mighty hunter!” our kitten Raven seems to say. Moving toes are fair game and anything that can be climbed should be. Plants are a natural source of entertainment and are a nice place to rest one’s bottom. Although the humans sure get upset when you knock them over.

Raven being an indoor only cat has a smaller choice of prime hunting. Lately his victims have been the Lego people that my son keeps in his room. One day he took out a large number of the clones in his star wars battle and just the other day I want down to feed the cats to find that the conductor of the Lego holiday train had been slain, carried down two flights of stairs and left by the food dish.

It has been almost nine years since I have had a baby animal in the house and the joy that this little guy gives me is immeasurable. In the evenings he goes crazy running around the living room, scaling the scratching post in one leap and trying his best to get the other old fogy animals to join in. He has a habit of jumping onto your shoulder in a single leap that can be quite shocking and also make it very hard to get any work done. Of course to him loving him is my most important work.

After my sixteen-year-old cat Ziggy passed away, I realized that all my animals were aging fast and I really wanted some young energy in the house. I however had to find a cat who would fit in with three other old cats, two old dogs, and an eleven-year-old son who often has other kids over. We slowly began looking for a kitten or young cat and I hoped that we would be able to recognize the right one.

A few months into our search we made a trip over to the Seattle Humane Society and spent some time looking at young cats. I had worked at the Humane Society at the beginning of my career and was happy to run into one of the volunteers I had known who was working in adoption that day. After looking in the cat rooms we made our way over to the kittens, which were in smaller cages in the lobby area. There was one kitten who another couple was looking at, and he grabbed our attention. He was batting through the cage bars and climbing up the sides of the cage trying to get attention and he was all alone. The other cages all had multiple kittens yet he did not have the benefit of having others to snuggle or play with. He was the most beautiful kitten with solid black fur, big amber eyes, and a white spot on the very tip of his tail. On his cage was a sign which read, this kitten is testing FIV positive and cannot go to a home with other cats. Because he was a little under six months there was still a slight possibility that he would convert back to being FIV negative.

The other couple decided that they could not adopt him because they had other cats in their house but we were still very interested. Part of me thought, this is a crazy idea taking on another cat who may have health problems, but I knew this was the one who would fit into our home. When I picked him up he climbed up my shoulder and purred and clung to it for dear life. When we put him back in the cage to fill out the paperwork to adopt him he went crazy batted and calling out and saying “Please, please take me home, don’t leave me here.” The poor little guy had been found as a stray two months ago wandering the streets and he was ready to finally have a home. Because I was a vet and I knew the risk of him passing FIV to my other cats they let me adopt him even though I had other cats in the house.

While my intention was to keep him in the bathroom separated from our other cats for the first week, within 24 hours he had full run of the house. Not only was he fearless but he also liked our other animals and they liked him. Our dog Mel would follow him around, fascinated by his every move, and our oldest cat Basil would take him under his arm and groom him. Our most playful and youngest cat Melody spent the whole first day playing with him and was so worn out by the end that she had to spend the whole next day in bed resting. We even had to bring her food because she wouldn’t leave to eat.

We are so happy and blessed to have Raven in our lives and he makes each day better with his excitement over life and his love of sitting on shoulders and purring loudly. I know that because of his FIV positive status that he will most likely have more health issues than another cat but like most FIV positive cats he will probably live a normal length life.

Feline Immunodeficiency Virus positive cats are more prone to dental problems, are more likely to get infections, and have a higher risk of cancer than normal cats. Traditionally most shelters have euthanized all FIV positive cats but now some shelters are trying to adopt them out. FIV is transmitted much like HIV although the most common transmission is from deep puncture wounds in fighting. Because of this it is most common in unaltered male cats. It can also be passed from sexual intercourse and from mother to kitten. Kittens born to a FIV positive mother will test positive for FIV for up to six months even if they are negative because the test is for antibody against the virus and not the virus itself. Because of this it is very hard to adopt kittens from FIV positive mothers.

Additionally there is a new vaccine for FIV and a huge controversy that surrounds it in the veterinary community, mostly against the vaccine. There is no way to distinguish a FIV vaccinated cat from a FIV positive cat with our current testing. A vaccinated cat and her kittens will test positive for FIV. Most shelters still euthanize for FIV so if a vaccinated cat comes in she/he will be killed. In addition most veterinarians feel that the vaccine is not highly effective, and since the disease is not highly contagious, it is not advisable to give it. If veterinarians do give the vaccine a cat should be microchipped so that they will not be euthanized if they end up at animal control. There is a slight possibility that Raven is from a vaccinated mother and is not truly positive but there is no way for us to know this.

Raven has become an ambassador for FIV positive cats among by family and friends who have also fallen in love with him. If you are considering adopting a cat please consider helping one with FIV. The Seattle Humane Society has a whole room of adult FIV positive cats and often kittens, as do many other rescue groups.
Here is a link to The Seattle Humane Society.

A perfect place to view the snow. The colder it is outside the warmer the radiators are in here.