How Our Pets Heal Us

If you have a pet I am sure you’ll agree they make us feel better. They know when we are under the weather. They come to us for petting. They want to sit on our lap. Or they just rest their head against us, like they know. That’s because they do! And I mean they really do know when we’re sick!

Yes of course, stroking and loving your pet is calming and reduces stress. In fact, therapy animals have become commonly used to help those who are ill, elderly, developmentally disabled, or dealing with other serious issues. It is medically proven that stroking our pets actually reduces our heart rate and calms anxiety. But really it’s much more than this. Animals can actually absorb negative energy from us and help us to dissipate it. Because of this ability, some animals feel their specific purpose in life is to be a healing animal. But all animals are healing.

For example, when we come home from work stressed out and our dog comes to rest his head on our lap, he is actually absorbing our stress, processing the negative energy, and releasing it.

I had a client who came for a “reading” about his cat. It was a large, very old cat and the owner was concerned about his health. I felt that the overall issue had to do with the blood. I got the word “HIV.” This was strange, I thought, but the owner confirmed that cat did in fact have a similar disease carried in felines. I also felt a lot of troubled energy, almost like a “homeless, drugs, street mentality.” I asked what this man did for a living that could give his cat this energy. He explained that he worked as a therapist for homeless drug addicts, many with HIV. I explained to him that before he comes home from work, he should take a moment to shake off his worries so his cat won’t absorb it. “Oh no, it’s more than that!” he said. It turns out these people come to his home office and his cat sits under the table during the sessions!

Has your pet jumped into your lap when you were feeling sick? Have you ever had an injury and your dog or cat came to lie next to you or on the injured area? An animal will often lie directly on our body part that is injured. They know exactly where we need the healing. As they lie next to us, they are actually removing our negative energy. They absorb our worries and take away our emotional stress.

Imagine that as well as our physical bodies we have an invisible energy aura around us. It is here that we store difficult emotions, deep grudges, and memories that continue to haunt us. All our negative thoughts and experiences that we keep here affect our health, cause us stress and worry, and may eventually manifest into something physical in our body. We all do it; it is a natural part of life. Our auras get murky and dusty and need clearing off once in a while. We pick up and keep negative thoughts that build up over time. It is when we store dense amounts of anger, jealously, hurt, and resentment that these can really fester and affect us. Often these thoughts are so old or the patterns have gone on for so long that we have forgotten that we have them. Our animals can help to clear our auras, helping us to feel better and heal more easily.

Because we become in tune with our pets and our energy is so closely intertwined with theirs, they can mimic our own health problems. They are expressing the energy that we are exuding. For example, if a dog has a right back leg that hurts, I ask if the family member to whom the dog is closest has a right leg issue as well. More often than not they do. A pain in the right leg can also be associated with not moving forward on an emotional issue. Perhaps this person has a relationship they need to move on from and is scared to do so. Sometimes the animal just wants to make their owner aware of an issue. Often as soon as the person acknowledges what is going on and promises to address the health or emotional issue, the animal is instantly better.

So, one of the first questions I ask when an animal has a health issue is what is going on health-wise with the owner or the person closest to this animal. Many times you’ll find that the person has an issue in their life as well.

My client Bunny came to me about her dog Sandy, who had an arthritic right hip. The dog wasn’t that old but would often run with a skip or a limp. Some days were worse than others. I asked Bunny if she had a bad hip. She didn’t but her husband Rick, who was closest to Sandy, had severe problems with his right hip. Over the years he’d had many surgeries but was still in pain. Some days felt better than others. He had physical therapy exercises that he was supposed to do but often skipped them.

I did a healing on Rick’s right hip and he miraculously stood up straight for the first time in years. Bunny called the next day to report that even more miraculously, Sandy whom I hadn’t even worked on, was healthy and acting her young self again as well. Sandy had been showing dad that he needed to pay attention to his hip. She wanted dad to do his exercises so he could get better.

Unfortunately, Rick’s hip problem slowly returned and after about a week, he had pain and weakness once again. Just as dad’s health reverted, so did Sandy’s and her limp retuned. I’ve worked on them both several times since. Each time I only needed to work on Rick for them both to feel better, and each time their symptoms later returned. Dad needs to work on his own health and emotional issues so that they can both be permanently healthy.

When your animal is ill, also look at yourself, both physically and emotionally. What is going on in your body that your animal could be showing you? Sometimes our physical ailments have not yet shown up or our animal has manifested the illness instead of us. For example, if we have a negative relationship that we are allowing to go on for a long period of time, it can create negative energy around our Sacral Chakra (the energy center about two inches below our naval). If we continue to allow a stressful situation like this, it may eventually manifest in an issue in the reproductive area or intestines. Alternatively, your animal may develop the physical issue instead. This is because they have removed the negative energy from you before it manifested physically in your body. So when your animal has an illness or ailment, look to yourself; look at unhealthy emotions or possible negative energies around you.

My daughter is a vegetarian who doesn’t like vegetables and essentially lives off pizza and the like. Of course as much as I argue that her skin and hair are the victims of her poor diet, it is hard to get through to her. One day she asked me to talk to her pet snake that was refusing to eat. “His skin even looks dull and pale,” she agonized. I knew the answer before I even asked. Animals reflect their owners until we pay attention and do something about it.

If you are feeling guilty about this, don’t be too hard on yourself. Your animal chose this purpose and wants this job in life. They love you and their role as a healer. Also, not every ailment they have is from you. Animals also bring their own illnesses and eventually their body may wear out as well. They get old just like us, so don’t forget aging is natural. The point is just to pay attention to your health, your emotional energy, and do your part in keeping your animals healthy, too.

British-born clairvoyant Gail Thackray was already a medium and healer, teaching Reiki and energy medicine, when she discovered her additional talent as an animal communicator. Gail uses both of these abilities to help people and their pets and has received hundreds of glowing testimonials from pet owners, resolving health for both their pets and themselves. Gail now travels the world teaching others how to communicate with animals and energy healing for both pets and people. Gail has appeared on many TV and radio shows.

Gail Thackray is the author of How to Talk to Your Pets: Animal Communication for Dogs, Cats, & Other Critters, a line of Reiki healing manuals, and other books on spirituality, available on Amazon and online at Barnes & Noble.

For more information about Gail Thackray and her books, please visit:

http://www.GailThackray.com