By John Sawyer

I first met Max in March of 2006.  I had just begun offering Reiki to
the animals at Animals In Distress
http://www.animalsindistress-pa.org in Coopersburg, PA near where I
work.  The staff at the shelter was open to Reiki as the kennel manager had been attuned to Reiki Level 1 some years earlier, but they weren't too sure what to do with me and Reiki.  They chose two dogs for me to start with: Amigo and Max. Both had been recently diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. Amigo is a Husky-Chow mix who has been at the shelter for a number of years. Max was a Scottish Terrier, all black and full of energy.  Max was about 5 years old and had a heart condition aside from his new illness. The heart condition made it more difficult to treat him. Amigo was undergoing the standard chemotherapy regimen specified by the vets working with AID, however, it was felt that Max' heart could not take the effects of the same drug so he was put on a different less potent drug.  He had just begun his treatments when I met him.

At the first session, one of the kennel staff held Max' leash while I
offered him Reiki. He seemed more interested in investigating the room we were in and darted here and there. At one point, Lori reached down to adjust his leash and gasped, looking at me horrified. I said "What's wrong?"  She said "Feel his neck!"  I did so and felt quite a number of large lumps all around Max' neck. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought he'd visited the next door golf course and swallowed a bucket of balls!  I continued to offer him Reiki and Max continued unfazed by our discovery of his condition. After about 20 minutes, Max stopped drawing energy from me and I told Lori he was through for the day.  Lori was unfamiliar with Reiki and with me and gave me a sort of "Okay, I'll take your word for it" look.  I found out the following week that the lumps in Max' neck had completely disappeared 48 hours later. No one at the shelter was quite ready to attribute that to Reiki, but it was a definite step in the right direction.

I continued to visit Max over the next several weeks and Lori always
sat with us and kept Max' leash. She asked me questions about what I was doing and what Reiki was about. I had arranged to teach a class at AID for the interested kennel staff and Lori was looking forward to that. I don't think she really knew anything was going on in terms of energy between me and Max until one day Max was being his usual busy self and suddenly stopped still, head up, ears cocked and fully alert. At that moment, I felt a surge of energy and Lori, much to her surprise, said she felt a wave of heat jump from Max to her. Max stayed still for about 30 seconds, then resumed his exploration of the room. Lori was quite surprised by the experience, but from then on knew that there was something more to this Reiki stuff than she had thought previously.

Max finished his course of chemotherapy and for several months seemed to be doing well. Later that summer, however, a visit to the vet showed that the cancer had returned. The vets predicted he had a few months left and put him on a different medication. I continued to see Max every week and gave him healing attunements every three weeks or so as well as his regular Reiki sessions. He continued to be the little ball of energy I had come to know.

In mid-December Max took a turn for the worse. The vets decided to try aggressive chemotherapy to turn him around. Unfortunately, the drug took such a toll on him that they stopped the treatments after the second round.  Max seemed to age several years in the space of a few weeks. He began losing hair and lost his ability to jump up on
things. I wasn't able to see him for several weeks during the holidays
due to number of factors, but began regular sessions with him again in January. The first session, he was obviously weak and tired.  The
spark had gone out of him. The following week, however, he looked
better and was more interested in investigating his surroundings. 
There was a calmness about him now, not the frenetic energy I was used to. He seemed wiser somehow and more peaceful.

At what was to be my last session with Max we had a wonderful time
playing with a tug toy. Max seemed happy and peaceful and I left with a good feeling about the time I'd spent with him. Three days later he made his transition after spending a day with one of the kennel staff who had been taking him to her house for regular visits. Looking back, I can see that he was saying goodbye to his friends and had made his decision to return home to Source energy. I know that Reiki helped him to make that transition easily and on his own terms. He is fully healed in spirit and is now pure positive energy. He taught me a great deal and I am honored to have known him.

About the Author: John Sawyer is a software engineer and Reiki Master who has been owned by 10 dogs over the past 17 years. Through those years, he and his wife, Donna, have dealt with a number of canine health crises which led them through the mainstream veterinary field to alternative health care modalities including acupuncture and Reiki.

John took Reiki Level 1 in 1994 and experimented with applying the
Reiki techniques to caring for his dogs, eventually taking Level 2
before becoming a Master in 2004. He is currently building his animal
Reiki practice and offering Reiki training to local shelters and other
animal workers in the Lehigh Valley area of Eastern PA. Please visit
his website at www.critterreiki.com or you can contact him at
john@critterreiki.com.