Dear Spirit to Spirit friend,
With all the kittens and young cats I've been working with recently, this session popped into mind. It was at the very beginning of my offering sessions as a spiritual healer and interspecies communicator…. oh so many years ago.
A woman called me asking for a session with her recently adopted 4 month old kitten. When we got on the phone together, she explained to me that she is an older person who uses a walker around her home and has a cane with her for additional stability. Her young feline family member constantly weaves his way in and out of her legs and the legs of the walker. She is terrified that she will fall and swats him away with her cane. Even though she loves this little kitty, she was wondering if she should return him to the shelter as she was so frightened that she would fall.
Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to hear about the cane. Taking a deep breath and taking in the depth of the woman’s fear, compassion arose in me for this woman and for the kitten. To love her kitten so much and to be so terribly afraid. I felt curious to understand this kitten’s point of view and how he was feeling about this.
When the kitten and I connected, he presented as a completely joyful being, full of life
and wonder, a happy young boy who loved his mom. He did not seem as disturbed about the cane as I had felt. When I communicated about his mom’s vulnerability and fear, he seemed to understand and communicated that he felt that he doing a great job helping her by being as close as possible to her legs and the walker. From his young kitten point of view, he felt that he was doing the best thing he could do to support his mom and so always went back to help her even if she shooed him away with the cane.
What a surprise. So unexpected to hear this kitten’s version of things. When I shared this with his mom, she was stunned. It never dawned on her that in misguided kitten thinking he was trying to help her. Something shifted in her. As we continued the communication, the kitten began to understand how his actions didn’t help his mom but actually made things more difficult for her. After offering a few suggestions as to how to be of better service to his mom, we ended the communication.
Before we hung up, there was a long moment of silence. Then the woman asked, “Do you think it was abusive of me to strike my kitten with my cane?” I replied “Yes.” And she said,
“I will never do that again.”
A few weeks later, I received a message from the woman. She told me that she and her kitty were doing fabulously together. He never walked around her legs or the walker and he had become a loving healing support for her in her lap and on the bed. She said that she was keeping her promise of never raising her cane toward her kitten again.
It is our natural tendency, as human beings, to view everything from a humancentric perspective. If this kitten has taught us anything, it may be the incredible value in being
open to the animal's perspective. To always be curious about how they see, feel, and look
at themselves and at life. It may, as with young kitty here, surprise us greatly.
Good advice for us humans, little kitty (of years ago), in all of our relationships!
In Gratitude & Love, Joanna