Helping Hurt Feral Cats

If life were a Disney movie, I would win big with Lotto and establish a safe rural sanctuary with an on-call veterinarian.

Instead, I make the best out of what is available to me on a very limited budget.

Feral cat colonies abound in many Sacramento neighborhoods.

Earlier attempts to trap some failed. Instead, I am one of those people who put out just enough food and water to keep my standard visitors and lodgers as healthy as I can. A few, abandoned by mothers, have made it to the esteemed title of “house cat.”

Friends and loved ones kid me for giving each feral cat a name. They warn me I am emotionally involved. Emotional attachment aside, one of Reiki's five principles is being kind to all living things daily.

Feral cats definitely fall into that category,

As with all of nature, I accept survival of the fittest is true.

A number of the cats, especially kittens with upper respiratory diseases, have been calmly comforted through Reiki as death slowly claimed them. Afterwards, Before disposing of them, I placed their little bodies in boxes filled with rosemary, thyme and lavender growing the garden they were born in.

Reiki’s immense healing energies have also assisted older cats.

Scratches, swollen faces and a limp exposes who lost the previous night’s battle, that shattered our sleep with blood curdling screeches and angry hisses.

Regardless of how much I love animals, I never endanger myself by attempting to pick up or touch a hurt feral cat.

As Reiki is a practice of respect, I literally ask the animal, from a distance, if I can offer the healing energy to it.  Their response determines my distance.

Two months ago, Dapple Annie recently confused from her own kittens' stillbirth, started stealing other cats' young to nurse them.  Although the other mother cats seemed to go along with it, someone evidently had a problem. Annie came to breakfast listing to her right with a head swollen to the size of a softball.

One of the friendlier feral cats, slowly she climbed onto a patio chair accompanied by soft cries of pain.  Keeping the damaged side towards me, I ran my hands over her face with a distance of three inches.  Almost immediately, her slow and even breathing demonstrated her relaxation.

The next day her face had literally exploded with blood and pus dripping everywhere. 

Yet, she jumped back on the chair and through one eye gave me a look that clearly said, “Get to it.”

Twice a day for a week, I continued performing Reiki on her, while never actually touching her wounds. By the following week her fur fell off in strips revealing new skin thankfully free of infection.

Now her health and face is restored, and she continues to nurse other’s kittens.

Two days ago, Mini Max showed up with a bloodied and swollen chin.

Dumped as a young kitten through the front gate, he was so easily frightened by everything and everyone – I have never been closer than five-feet to him.  

In fact, for almost seven months I thought he was a female.

Approaching him quietly he seemed to anticipate my desire to help and did not dart away.

As I opened my hands his eyes immediately softened and then closed. He rolled off his haunches to expose his chin and belly. Such an act of trust told me he understood.

I am happy to report his healing is well underway.

The healing energies of Reiki are amazing when used with our animal friends as well as humans.