Friday 6 November 2009

Time to say goodbye - Kat's story


A little while ago, I posted a Blog called “When it’s time to go”, and talked about how I make use of Reiki and intuitive communication to help animals and their carers to prepare for moving on. I mentioned that in just one week period, I found myself helping in three such situations. Now I’m going to tell you a little more about one of these.

My sister had a cat – called Kat – who was 21 years old. She’d been showing signs of age for a while, in the form of some deafness and sight problems, but otherwise was fairly well. But then I heard that Kat had been starting to have kidney problems, usual issues with not being able to control the bladder, etc. My sister was starting to fear that this might all be signalling the end of her life, and asked me to send some Reiki to help her. When we next spoke, Kat had perked up a little, and seemed to be much better. I’ve found this to be a common occurrence, where the animal will seem to recover - for a little while.

I received a text from my sister a couple of weeks later. Reading between the lines of the text I could tell all wasn’t well, so called my sister and had a long conversation. Friends had tried to tell her that it was time for her to take Kat to the vet for the last time, but Louise wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t convinced that it was quite time yet, although she did realise that it probably wasn’t far away. Because of the strong bond I knew they had, I knew that Kat was hanging on for Louise’s sake, and also that Louise would know when it was time to take her. And this is what I told her.

She seemed to take heart at this, almost as if it was giving her permission to keep caring for her a little longer. Often people just need time to come to terms with what they know deep down is inevitable. They need to enjoy what time is left, and say their goodbyes in the right way.

I continued to send Reiki whenever I had some quiet time, both to Kat to help her with any pain or discomfort she might be feeling, and to Louise, to support her emotionally. Numerous phone calls followed over the next couple of days. During the Reiki with Kat, she let me know (her signal was quite weak, but the Reiki was helping it to come through more strongly) that she loved Louise so much that she didn’t want to leave her, but she did know it was time to go.

The week before this started to happen, Louise had a rather nasty virus and had been signed off work for a couple of weeks. We were now in the middle weekend, and Louise still had another week off. She felt that this was a gift – that she had a week with just her and Kat, and that they could both enjoy this time. By now she’d come to terms with saying goodbye. The weather that week was wonderful, and Louise spent most of her time outdoors, with Kat always nearby. Louise noticed that Kat was revisiting some of the places in the garden she used to like being in, almost as though she were saying her final farewells to them all.

Kat was now very weak, and on the Friday morning Louise called to say that she had an appointment to take Kat to the vet at 4.00 that afternoon. I tuned into Kat one last time, and she knew what was happening, and was very ready for it. She told me she’d had a lovely final week with Louise, and would be forever grateful for that opportunity, and for all the love and compassion Louise had shared with her then, and over the years. Kat’s still with Louise now - every time she thinks about her it brings her near.

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