Our Honor Roll………

With all our experiences working with animals and their people, we find that our world is expanded and we are enriched.  Some of our experiences are exciting, and we’d like to share them with you.  Though we haven’t room for them all, these are some special cases that have touched our lives:

Mouse:

Mouse, a black Labrador, experienced hind limb paralysis from a herniated disc (L2-3), which had been surgically treated at onset.  About three months after the onset and following surgery, Mouse seemed to have reached a plateau in her mobility. She propelled herself by her front legs, in a semi-sitting position, with her back legs dragging behind.  She needed to have her bladder expressed manually.  At this time she received her first TTouch Session. The big change in that first week was that she urinated for the first time on her own. 

After two more sessions a week apart, she was able to stand when wearing a body wrap. Changes were forthcoming. Because wonderful things can happen when it does not matter who gets the credit, other holistic therapies were recommended and brought in as well—hydrotherapy, chiropractic and Reiki.  At the end of a month Mouse was often up on all four feet, sitting with her hind legs beneath her instead of out behind.  Her mobility was increased and she was urinating more often on her own.  Gradually her hind legs began to support her hindquarters more, and she stood taller and taller.  At this time, acupuncture was added to her treatment program. 

Soon she was standing to eat and able to rebalance herself by shifting her rear foot position, instead of her hindquarters listing and tipping over.  She began to function well enough to stand and move while playing with her toys.  Throughout this time she was full of life and spirit, a real inspiration to all of us who worked with her and got to celebrate each successive approach to her four legged mobility.  It was a big event when she was able to navigate the step down to the garage and the step up to the outdoors, moving, not dragging, each foot! 

Missy Meow…

The stray black cat was brought to the veterinarian’s with a large gash across her shoulder, and her leg turned paw up and aligned along her spine.  The rest of her body was covered with small cuts and nicks, especially her face.  The exam and radiographs showed no broken bones, so the veterinarians recommended rest and physical therapy.  If those showed no results after three or four days, they recommended amputation of the leg.

Four days after Sue began fostering the cat (now named Missy Meow), there was no observable change in Missy’s rigid leg, and it looked like amputation would be done.  However, that night Sue attended an evening talk and demonstration about TTouch, and when she got home she did some Ttouch with Missy.  By the next morning Missy’s leg, though still rigid, had begun to move a bit toward the ground.  Sue decided to have a private TTouch session at that point, and we met with the two of them, working with Missy and showing Sue some follow-up TTouches.

Sue later wrote, ”Within a week of that visit, with a combination of TTouch and PT, Missy Meow’s leg was down.  Things moved quickly the next two weeks and she regained use of her leg and paw.  She sometimes limps a bit, but is able to RUN up and down stairs, sit in windowsills, use the litter box, etc.” 

She had also worked her way into the hearts of Sue and her husband, finding herself a permanent home!

Sabrina (German Shepherd):

Sabrina is about two years old and was deathly afraid of strangers. She couldn’t tolerate being within ten feet of someone she didn’t know, and when strangers came to the house, she would run and hide.  When I arrived, she barked the alarm, and true to her nature, headed for the hills when I was admitted to her house.  This was a situation that was extremely distressing to her owner, because she had bought Sabrina hoping to breed her.  This phobia was so terrible for Sabrina that her owner just couldn’t even think of bringing puppies of hers into the world if it was going to be that scary for them.

Sabrina was a wonderful family dog and loved the two boys in the family.  She just couldn’t be among strangers.   Her owner was afraid that if Sabrina became too upset, she might bite someone.

The first session began with the owner bringing Sabrina back into the room on leash, trembling and cowering.  After doing TTouch on the owner, and through the owner’s hand, on Sabrina, I was able to touch her with my own hand.  More TTouches and some time later, I was able to sit next to Sabrina and actually take the leash from the owner.  After this session, Sabrina improved markedly, allowing some of the owner’s friends to touch her, too.  

Three sessions with Sabrina brought her to the point that she could be walked on the street, and a stranger could approach her owner and touch Sabrina without her lunging away or cowering behind her owner.  It was such an incredibly heartwarming experience to see Sabrina to release the terrible fear that held her captive so that she could begin to really enjoy life.

Diva (English Mastiff):

Fear of thunder and storms was making Diva’s life very unhappy.  Diva otherwise was a happy, well adjusted dog.  She has a great home where she lives with her friend Digby, another Mastiff.  However, in the past, when a storm approached, Diva was beside herself.  Her fright was palpable, and she would whine and try to find some safe spot in the house.  But there was never any place that she felt safe, so she would pace and tremble and sometimes knock things over.  No amount of comforting from her owners helped. 

Diva was brought to a TTouch workshop, and after hearing of her terror of storms, a variety of TTouch techniques were used with her, in addition to putting what is known as a body wrap on her.  This is an elastic bandage that is applied from front to rear, crossing over the back.  This tool seems to bring a unique sense of body awareness to animals that can help with a number of issues.  She was also taken through the confidence course, which can help animals to be more grounded and centered in their being.  The result of the efforts with Diva was that she is now able to experience storms without the sense of dread and anxiety that she used to feel.  She knows when a storm is coming, but is actually able to settle down and sleep if it is a night storm!

Hattie (Scottish Deerhound):

Hattie was actually a Deerhound that we bred and co-owned.  She was a truly lovely girl, and we had high hopes for her show career.  At a young age, though, it became apparent that the show ring held fears for her that we couldn’t understand.  She would tighten up so that when we tried to gait her, her normally lovely movement became stilted and restricted.  When we tried to “set her up” so that the judge could see her beauty, she pulled her rear under her and looked something like a camel.  When the judge touched her, she would flinch and move away. 

Having just started in TTouch, we thought it might help and it certainly couldn’t hurt!  She became our home experiment, receiving TTouch all over her body, wearing the famous TTouch body wrap described above and experiencing a new technique (at that time), leg circles. 

At the next show after this started, she actually stood where she was supposed to, and wonder of wonders, she gaited freely!  She won her championship easily after that, and because she was being so good, we decided to enter her in our National Specialty, where she would be one of over 200 Deerhounds.  We hoped she’d be as good for that show as she had been.  To make a long story short, she behaved very well, and we were pleased.  And to our wondering eyes, the judge pointed to her as Best in Show!!  It was a thrill never to be forgotten, both in terms of our breeding program and our personal TTouch success!