Alternative Care

I am currently listening to the audio book "A Good Dog" by Jon Katz, where he describes his experience with alternative treatment as a way to help his troubled Border Collie. In this section of the book he describes not only sessions with an acupuncturist and herbal healer, but also an animal communicator and a shaman.

I live in Takoma Park, which probably has more wiccans and spirit walkers per capita than any US city outside of California. And maybe New Mexico. Searching the internet, I did manage to find a small animal masseuse in town, but didn't see any animal communicators or soul retrievers. The former communicate with animals through telepathy, not just grasping ideas and images, but actual language in your pet's thoughts-- there's a more complete description here. A soul retriever goes out and reassembles the free floating parts of a pet or human soul that have escaped through trauma. One can find more information here. There are a surprising number of practitioners out there, or perhaps it isn't so surprising.

In the book Katz acts all hard-bitten and skeptical about these methods, but it's clear he's totally sucked in before he even gets to the first appointment. Personally, I am going to have to stick with veterinarians for Pappy, and, even then, as infrequently as possible.