Over the past few days and weeks, I have been accompanying a dog on her final journey and would like to share with you what she told me in our last conversation.
 
It was about pain and how she was doing.
She made me feel that accepting everything that is, including the pain, is so liberating and does not cause any suffering. Only our judgement leads to this suffering. Our desire that it should be different and therefore our resistance to it.
Yes, sometimes she is limited and yes, sometimes there are phases when the pain is more present. But if she doesn’t focus her attention on it, but simply lets it be there and concentrates on other things, then she hardly notices it.
 
She then told me that the judgements of others also keep us stuck in something and can make it unnecessarily difficult for us. This is how her human judged the physical reactions she saw and went into pity. This intensified these reactions. When she herself was able to accept and calm down, this dissolved and her dog became more relaxed.
 
That really touched me and also made me think. After all, we are quick to judge the situation of others, whether human or animal. And just like with pity, I can sense that this is not good for the other party. Animals have often told me how uncomfortable our pity makes them feel and how it keeps them ‘small’. I will write more about this in my next newsletter.
 
Towards the end, her human clearly sensed that the dog wanted support because her physical limitations were becoming increasingly severe. And even though her consciousness can withdraw from her body to such an extent that she no longer perceives many things in the same way, there came a point when her soul was ready to go, but her body would continue. It was then a very peaceful transition.
 
I am very grateful that I was able to accompany the two of them, for this touching experience and the insights it gave me.
 
Lots of love for you and your animals
Tanja


P.S.: The above post is mainly on pain and restriction in the last phase of life. Where painkillers are no longer effective.

But animals also deal with pain differently in general, it is not so present for them. When I ask them to show me where and what hurts them, chronic issues are often not included or are not so important. They live with it without always worrying about it. That’s why I often ask ‘what’s affecting you’ instead of ‘are you in pain’.

Because even if pain is not as present in our animals’ consciousness and they don’t judge it and focus on it the way we humans do, it still influences them and their behaviour. Just like us, permanent pain changes their mood and they may be more irritable and their tolerance threshold is lower.
Therefore, it is always our duty to support our animals if we suspect they are in pain! Just because their way of dealing with it is different doesn’t mean they have to endure it if there are solutions. This can be done in a natural way, but sometimes it also needs conventional medicine. 
Because then the animal can enjoy its life more carefree again. We see that it moves more and easier and that it becomes happier and more itself again.

It was important for me to add that the above is really only about experiencing the last phase of life, when we feel that we can no longer give them any relief. 
But otherwise we must always be aware of whether our animal is affected by pain and it is our duty to do something about it.