Animals readily understand and seek out flower essences when they need them. I saw dramatic evidence of this several years ago when I was volunteering with the cats at my local shelter. Reiki was bringing wonderful healing to the most sick and distressed cats; but it was frustrating to be able to treat only one or two cats in a visit when there were so many wonderful cats in need of healing. I began to wonder what the flower essences could do in this setting. The shelter agreed to let me give flower essences daily to all of the cats for ten weeks. During this period the shelter was full almost every day, with the full capacity of 36 cats in their care.
Many of the cats quickly understood the essences’ action and, as soon as I arrived, several would stand by their water bowl and meow for their essences, looking back and forth from the water to the essence bottle until I gave them their essence. Then they would immediately drink from the exact spot where the essence landed in the water.
The flower essences brought remarkable improvements in the physical and the emotional/spiritual health of the cats. Some of the improvements were rapid and dramatic. The benefits were especially impressive considering the often challenging backgrounds the cats had come from and the constant stresses of being in a shelter.
In a shelter many animals, even comparatively healthy ones, will become depressed and lethargic eventually if they remain there for a long time. With the essences, the cats who remained at the shelter for a protracted period were able to maintain a state of relatively good emotional health for a longer period of time, and the effect of the essences on cats who were depressed at the start of the study was often dramatically beneficial.
During the period in which the study took place many of the cats contracted a highly contagious respiratory infection. It became quite severe in several cats who had been weak when they arrived at the shelter. The essences, sometimes combined with Reiki treatments, brought about effective, rapid healing for the sickest cats.
Shelters can be places of genuine healing for animals. The period an animal spends in a shelter can become a time of profound healing while he waits to be restored to loved ones or to find a new and loving home. With the assistance of dedicated volunteers, many shelters are moving increasingly in this direction.
Sharon Callahan, founder of Anaflora, explains some of the reasons why flower essences are especially well-suited for use in healing animals:
“Animals are also intimately attuned to the music, or vibration, of nature: the flowers and the trees dancing rhythmically in the wind, the murmuring of the breeze, the whistling of the wind through trees, rocks, and mountains, the harmony of movement of sun and moon, stars and planets, the rhythm of the days, months and seasons. In their essential state animals and plants communicate by means of the music of nature, so it is natural for flowers and animals to work together, and likewise natural for us to extend the healing properties of flower essences to animals.
Animals respond more quickly to flower essences than do adult humans, and often with greater results. Their response is often immediate and sometimes borders on the miraculous. Animals don’t have the complex mental overlays that impede their multi-level functioning by questioning and doubting, and they are closer to flowers both physically and energetically than are humans. In many ways, humans have become disconnected from their point of origin, whereas animals have maintained a firm link with it.”
Heidi was a large white cat with tortoise shell patches and beautiful big green eyes. When she was picked up by the animal control officers and handled initially at the shelter she was so aggressive that she was placed in the back room of the shelter, where the cats deemed too dangerous for contact with the public were housed. She was a terror her first couple days at the shelter, hissing and lunging at everyone who came near her cage. A couple of days after she arrived I began to give flower essences to the shelter cats. The day after she received a flower essence she turned around completely; she was gentle and easy to handle and was moved into the front room, where she was available for adoption. There she interacted well with the staff and volunteers and found a new home within a few weeks.
