Review: A Healer in Every Home: Dog & Cat Edition

If you buy one book on animal health this season, let it be A Healer in Every Home:  Dog and Cat Edition.  You won't regret it.

This little volume on the wonders of homeopathy and natural remedies will open doors and possibilities to help you not only preserve the health of your animals, but to treat them safely and effectively when veterinary help isn't immediately available.  From their perspectives as a certified classical homeopath, holistic veterinarian, and shelter director, authors Begabati Lennihan, Dr. Margo Roman, and Shirley Moore have packed A Healer in Every Home with practical tips to help you manage dozens of common crises without resorting to drugs or despair.

I was midway through the book when my recently adopted dog, the rascally cocker spaniel, Bobby, got into a bag of cat food and unbeknownst to me, apparently ate about half of it.  Without going into too many graphic details, I'll just say that torrents of vomit and diarrhea ensued, and the over-the-counter treatments and probiotics I was administering seemed woefully inadequate to stem the tide.

But then I happened upon the section of the book that discusses what the remedy Arsenicum can do, referencing its ability to quell diarrhea.  As it happened, I'd gotten a basic homeopathy kit from Dr. Roman a few years ago, and fortunately for me and for Bobby, it contained a vial of Arsenicum pellets.  I mixed four of them in some spring water and gave the solution to Bobby, in two doses. As if by magic, the diarrhea disappeared and Bobby's gastrointestinal tract returned to a quiet, normal state with no further incidents.  It made me a believer.

And chances are, you will be, too.  Do you have a dog with itchy skin that nothing seems to soothe? The authors recommend the remedy Sulphur, at the 6c (low potency) dose.  For kennel cough, Save A Dog founder Shirley Moore uses grapefruit seed extract, which also prevents and cures giardia.  When her shelter dogs are whimpering from the loss of their former people, Shirley gives them a dose of the remedy Ignatia, with good results.  For puppies and kittens who are taken away from their mothers too soon, Pulsatilla (30c) is the remedy to try.

What makes this book so valuable is that it doesn't get overly bogged down in theory, but consistently presents actual case studies of real animals who were in physical or emotional pain, but who were then helped by homeopathics, supplements, and/or complementary therapies.  My only complaint is that A Healer in Every Home: Dog and Cat Edition doesn't have an index.  But that's just a small quibble. I'll say unequivocally that if you share your life with animals, it belongs on your bookshelf.

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A Healer in Every Home: Dog and Cat Edition co-author Shirley Moore will be one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Conference on Complementary Animal Healing in November.  Her presentation, "Using Homeopathy to Heal Your Dog's Body and Spirit" will be on Sunday, November 11th.

Review: The New Holistic Way for Dogs & Cats, by Paul McCutcheon, DVM

Dr. Paul McCutcheon sees things differently. When a client makes an appointment for him to treat a dog because the dog is compulsively licking and chewing his skin, for example, the Ontario-based veterinarian doesn't immediately reach for a shot of prednisone. Instead, he starts asking questions.

After more than 35 years as a holistic small animal practitioner, his focus is to identify the early signs of "unwellness" before they explode into full-blown disease. And, as he explains in his important book, The New Holistic Way for Dogs & Cats: The Stress-Health Connection, "there are important differences between the way mainstream medicine and the holistic way attempt to find out what's wrong when a pet is not well."

Rather than rushing to eradicate the symptoms of an animal's illness, Dr. McCutcheon becomes a detective, seeking to identify what external forces may have tipped the balance in an animal's equilibrium and garbled the energy flowing through his "living terrain," compromising his immune system in the process. In this respect, he differs sharply from conventional veterinarians who reach for a quick fix--that shot of prednisone--to quell an animal's pain and discomfort, without worrying too much about how a steroid injection may simply further impair the animal's ability to heal.

In a life devoted to animal healing, Dr. McCutcheon has emphasized the power of prevention, and it's here that he empowers animal caretakers by helping us to become mindful of the insidious and often unrecognized sources of stress that affect our animals in ways we never intended or imagined. In Dr. McCutcheon's view, "stress is the sole cause of everything that happens to our pets' health."

It's when stress becomes chronic and unrelenting, and morphs into distress--from the high-pitched noise that never stops, the shock collar, the processed foods, the annual vaccinations, or the exposure to toxic household or lawn chemicals--that problems can ensue:

"Because it is prolonged and persistent, chronic stress can wear a pet down over time. Its effects manifest differently in each individual. One animal may show it through a behavioral issue; another, through a gastrointestinal disturbance; and a third, through unexplained weight loss. It may also produce problems with organs or glands, such as heart disease or diabetes. . .

Chronic stress can also compromise a pet's health indirectly. For example, she may become more susceptible to infections, and eventually to degenerative conditions such as cancer or allergies."

Dr. McCutcheon challenges his clients, and his readers, to become their animals' stress monitors and to ask themselves how their own habits and lifestyle choices may be putting their animals' health at risk. He urges us to watch for subtle signs of unwellness--such as changes in our animals' behavior, appearance, energy level, habits, appetite, weight, and even smell--and regard them as early warning signals that something may be wrong.

The New Holistic Way for Dogs & Cats offers a refreshing--and some would say, even radical--approach to protecting, preserving, and enhancing our animals' health. For those whose efforts to "cure" their animals from illness or chronic conditions have dead-ended, it offers options. And for those whose animals are facing daunting diagnoses, it offers hope. I highly recommend it.

Review: The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care, by Celeste Yarnall and Jean Hofve

Celeste Yarnall and Jean Hofve want to change your mind. In their bold new book, The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care, they challenge our notions about the appropriate care and feeding of our cats, and make a persuasive argument that most of us are doing it wrong.

Is there a cat person among us who has not lost a cherished feline friend to cancer, chronic renal failure, diabetes, leukemia, thyroid problems, or other ravaging diseases? When bad things happen to our cats, we fight the good fight and support them with drugs, prescription diets, surgical procedures, and love, but we may not have dared to ask the question: how could we have prevented this?

In The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care, authors Yarnall and Hofve affirm not only that most chronic diseases can be prevented, they also tell us how. And they offer health-affirming prescriptions which, if we follow them, will enhance our cats' daily happiness quotient, and add many years to their lives.

It all begins with feeding. With a Ph.D. in Nutrition, Ms. Yarnall is an ardent advocate of a carefully formulated raw food diet, but, as she takes care to emphasize, it's not enough just to feed your cat raw meat and think you're giving him all he needs:

"It's vital to remember that cats cannot live on meat alone. There are many case histories of unfortunate cats who suffered and died from being fed only meat (or fish or liver). As an example, there is virtually no calcium in meat. A cat fed on a meat-only diet must satisfy its calcium requirement by stealing from its own bones, and ultimately can fracture a leg just walking across a room."

One of the things I didn't know until I read The Complete Guide is that, contrary to what we've been led to believe, most fish is bad for cats. Yarnall and Hofve posit that "the fish used in canned pet foods usually includes bones and are high in phosphorus and magnesium, which can be an issue in cats with a history of urinary tract disorders or kidney disease." And, even more alarmingly, "there is a known link between the feeding of fish-based canned cat foods and the development of hyperthyroidism in older cats."

The book has an excellent guide to "anti-aging supplements," and, equally important, a list of commonly used foods, ingredients, and other substances that are highly toxic to cats. Ms. Yarnall and Dr. Hofve recommend that you look for products that carry the National Animal Supplement Council seal.

And that's just the beginning. It's not just what a cat ingests in the form of food that will shape his future, it's how he copes with stress. It's here that Yarnall and Hofve are at their best, with innovative tools and techniques to ease anxiety and boost our cats' immune systems. They advocate incorporating play therapy, massage, TTouch, Reiki, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), flower essences, and even telepathy into your cat's routine. If you're thinking that you can't do any of those things because you don't know how, don't worry. The authors will show you.

While The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care breaks with many commonly held assumptions of conventional veterinarians, it does invite the reader to have a reasoned conversation with her own practitioner, armed with facts, rather than rhetoric. Perhaps the most controversial section of the book deals with the topic of vaccinations. Citing studies by researchers Ron Schultz and Tom R. Phillips, the authors contend that not only is there no solid evidence justifying annual vaccinations, but that they actually do more harm than good. Indeed, there are studies that suggest "a causal relationship between the panleukopenia vaccine and the development of CRF (chronic renal failure)." And there is little debate about the causative role of the rabies and feline leukemia vaccines in the development of "malignant, fatal tumors called fibrosarcomas."

What no one can question, though, is the recurring theme that runs throughout this revolutionary volume: it's critical that everything we do for, to, or with our cats, is done with love. At first blush, that sounds like a cliche, but there is actually scientific support for the idea that we shouldn't be feeding our cats (or ourselves) when we are unbalanced, upset, or in the wrong frame of mind:

"I recommend that you do not feed your cat (or eat your own meals) when he or you are stressed. Acute stress releases adrenaline, which shuts down the digestive system. When anxiety accompanies a meal, your food cannot be properly digested, so nutrients can't get into your cells and function properly. This can compromise the immune system, making you vulnerable to infection and degenerative disease. All of our digestive functions work best when conditions are pleasurable. It's a double-edged sword for you, the caretaker of your family and pets."

How many times have you ever rushed home from work and, still in a harried state from your commute, literally thrown down the food for your cat (or dog, for that matter!)? I know I have. But after reading The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care, I won't do that anymore. My animals' lives might depend on it.

Review: Buckley's Story, by Ingrid King

Just by being there, our cats exert a profound influence on our lives.  Yet so many of us fail to appreciate how much they care for and calm us, how necessary they are to our emotional equilibrium, and how integrally they contribute to our inner happiness. 

But Ingrid King knows.  And as she movingly details in Buckley's Story: Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher, her poignant memoir of her relationship with a little torti cat with a deformed hind leg and very few teeth, cats can lift us up and make us better for having known them.

Buckley's Story chronicles Ingrid's three-year journey of the heart with her two tortoiseshell girls:  Amber, a steadfast--almost spiritual--cat, and Buckley, an ageless waif whom she initially rescued to be her office companion at the veterinary practice she managed.  Soon, Buckley was running the place herself.

Ingrid started to find it increasingly difficult to leave Buckley at the office on weekends, but she was torn, because though she intuitively understood that Buckley longed to live in a real home, she wasn't sure that Amber would welcome another cat into their close-knit family.  She made two failed attempts to commingle the two cats, but admitted that her own conflicted emotions were interfering with  Amber and Buckley's ability to form a feline friendship.  Finally, though, when Ingrid decided to relinquish her position as the manager of the veterinary hospital to devote herself to writing and to developing her Reiki practice, she realized she couldn't leave Buckley behind.  And sure enough, within a few days, Amber and Buckley worked out their own ground rules, and peacefully shared the same space:

"Cats are sensitive to human emotions.  They often feel our stresses and worries before we acknowledge them.  When I worried about whether Amber and Buckley would ever get along, there was hissing and posturing.  When I finally let go of the fear and worry and simply focused on the desired outcome--all three of us living happily together--the cats' behavior changed."

And, in the process, Ingrid found herself changing, too.  The petite cat who she thought she had rescued was actually saving her:

"The process of bringing Buckley home, with all the emotional ups and downs it brought for me, is ultimately a testament to how much this little cat opened my heart. . .I was set in my ways. . .Buckley's exuberant energy and big heart required me to open myself to change."

As Ingrid plunged into her new careers, Buckley happily settled into her own new roles as "official greeter" and assistant Reiki practitioner:

"She would get up on the Reiki table and often curl up next to or on top of the client.  I realized after a few sessions like this that she intuitively knew where extra energy was needed."

But Buckley's bright light would be extinguished all too soon.  She developed a series of physical problems, which not only challenged her health but also tested Ingrid's ability as a healer.  Her experience at the veterinary practice armed her with the knowledge she needed to get Buckley the best available treatment, but it didn't prepare her to be able to cultivate a sunny outlook.  Only Buckley could do that:

"Buckley taught me how to stay in the moment and not get ahead of myself with worry.  Despite being in considerable pain prior to having her teeth removed, she never spent any time worrying about the upcoming surgery, anesthesia, or recovery. . .I had learned that I could help her more by focusing on her well-being rather than worrying about whether she was going to get better.  It was a constant process of redirecting my thoughts to something positive, whenever the old pattern of worry reared its ugly head."

As Buckley's condition deteriorated, I found myself tiptoeing through the chapters with a sense of foreboding and dread, though Ingrid infuses them with introspection, wisdom, and an unexpected twinge of optimism about her beloved cat's fate:

"We can choose which story we tell from moment to moment.  We can focus on what we want and tell the story the way we want it to be, or we can focus on what we don't want or don't like and tell the story the way it is. . .So rather than telling the story the way it  was--she had been diagnosed with a serious heart condition and had been given a poor prognosis--I choose to tell the story the way I wanted it to be:  she was a happy little cat who was enjoying her life to the fullest."

I felt some of the same emotions as I faced the death of my own dear cat, Casey, whose life on earth ended just two days before Buckley's, in November of 2008.  But I wish I had shown the same grace Ingrid did, as she readied herself to finally let Buckley go.  A year later, as I came to the end of Buckley's Story, I cried for Buckley, for Casey, and for myself.  But not for Ingrid King, who has written a heartfelt gem of a story that will resonate with me, and with anyone who reads it, for a long time.

Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits

What is it about cats that so captures our imaginations when it comes to the paranormal? According to author Dusty Rainbolt:

"Our cats seem to live in that mysterious realm between the natural and the transcendental, betwixt the living and the dead."

Cats do seem to dominate the literature about phantom apparitions, and if you're endlessly fascinated with their uncanny--and sometimes eerie--appearances as translucent beings, then Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits is for you.

Unlike Kim Sheridan's Animals and the Afterlife, which chronicled afterlife visitations from dogs and cats who came back to the people they knew and loved, not all of the emphemeral cats whose stories are documented in Ghost Cats are known to the people who see them. Some inhabit hotels and public places, and the author even includes a list of "locations that may have ghost cats," in case you'd like to go in search of them. According to Ms. Rainbolt:

"There's a mystery and a tension that comes with cat entities when you never knew that cat in life. I selected these tales for their strangeness. In most cases, the people featured in the stories were visited by ghost cats they'd had no connection with. Why die these cats come back? Did they select the people to haunt, or were they simply trapped in their place of death?"

Often, the spirit felines are encountered after a family moves into a new home. The cats' previous human companions may have vacated the premises, but these kitties aren't going anywhere. Some of them may not even have realized that they have passed into another dimension: they continue to play with living cats and dogs and jump up on tables and beds, and on occasion, even make distinctive mewing sounds that can be disconcerting, indeed.

Most of the people whose stories are told in this enjoyable volume had no prior experience with ghosts or spirits. They are not psychic, they don't possess special powers, and they seem to have "an easy acceptance of the occurrence." Ms. Rainbolt notes that:

"Few people felt threatened or disturbed by the dead kitty's appearance. People usually felt blessed and happy about their cats' spiritual return, while they might have gone into a complete panic had a dead parent or spouse shown up instead."

Having recently lost my beloved cat, Casey, I've been hoping that she might reappear--even fleetingly--to reinforce my belief that she continues to live on another plane, albeit one where I cannot see or touch her. Ms. Rainbolt's deep understanding of the bond between cats and their people is what gives Ghost Cats its power, and what prevents it from being just another compilation of scary stories:

"During their lives with us, cats act as our companions, caretakers, nurses, counselors, and even entertainers. And after that all-too-short life comes to an end, their absence leaves a huge hole in our lives. Nothing will ever be the same. You feel incomplete, empty.

But that spirit who loved you so unconditionally in life continues to love you despite that vast invisible gulf that divides you."

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I'm thrilled to announce that Dusty Rainbolt will be my guest at the inaugural "Conversations with Animal Authors" Teleconference, on January 29th!

More details will follow!