This photo was trying to be a selfie but Annie had her own agenda that day. Come to think of it, Annie has her own agenda most days! Lucky for me she is a really loving cat, stubborn and mischievous, but a good girl.

Cats have always been healers to me. It is more than just the companionship or having a soothing furry little sweetheart to pet. For starters, their vibrations in their purrs have a healing feel to them. I used to have a wonderful little black kitty years ago when I was still teaching dance students and still coming home with aching muscles from teaching on bad flooring. Zooky would somehow manage to find and sit of whatever muscle was hurting and within minutes it would relax and the pain would ease. I chalked it off to coincidence until one day he was pushing and pushing me to scoot forward on the couch. A muscle in the middle of my back was in a tight spasm. Thinking he just wanted to get a crumb that may have fallen behind into the couch or something, I moved way forward and he immediately got behind me and stretched up as high as he could and pressed up against the muscle that was hurting. It could not have been comfortable for him but he stayed there in that position purring until my back stopped hurting!

Zooky and my other cat, Bear, at that time which was back in the early 90’s, used to lay across my old dog’s arthritic legs too. I have seen other cats that I have had over the years do similar things, trying to heal other sick cats, my dogs, or me. Yoda would sit with any animal, or me, who was sad or grieving over some loss. He would often sit on top of me and literally massage my back, carefully kneading it up and down each side of my spine like he was a trained masseur! Then there was Tigre, a tiny little tiger striped kitty, who used to sit and stare at me from across the room. I couldn’t prove it by scientific fact but I always sensed that she was sending some kind of healing energy. I would instantly get a vision of a purple aura kind of thing or something coming from her eyes. I wasn’t “into” that type of thing at the time so I wasn’t looking for it. Just something I saw, perhaps with an inner eye “seeing”. No clue what that was but I would feel a warmth or some energy moving through me when it happened and suddenly I would begin to feel better or in less pain. Rusty who lives with me now can often be seen massaging his brother’s back. Annie, however, the kitty in the picture, is the snuggler. She will happily beat up her sister for trying to share the food bowl with her, but she loves me and that is its own healing I suppose.

To some of you this will resonate and you will be nodding your head saying, “Of course!” To others, you will run from my blog thinking this woman is nuts! I am not necessarily promoting cats as therapy or healers even though I think they are exactly that. What I am saying is that there are many unseen things in this universe that can contribute to healing and they don’t all involve taking dangerous drugs, whether herbs, prescription or illegal ones. I am also saying that cats have a natural vibration, as do whales and dolphins and likely other species as well. We need to learn from them.

Vibrational Medicine is a thing, as is color therapy and energy healing. My cats have been showing me this for about 30 years now. It would be a shame to discredit the existence of something that can heal without side effects or at least supplement the healing process! And of course being the cat lover that I am, it would be an even bigger shame to ignore how remarkable and valuable cats are. They are not a species to be culled, shot as a nuisance or tossed outdoors even temporarily let alone abandoned to the wild predators out there as so many people do! Even a feral cat CAN and WILL, once they trust you, become a healing force.

The visualizations and energies that I experienced all those years ago with Tigre and Zooky and Bear and Yoda were powerful enough and real enough to send me in the direction of a second career after retirement from dance and then teaching dance. I studied massage therapy, energy, sound and color healing, reflexology and hypnotherapy and became credentialed in those. I had to find ways to heal myself and use it on my animals when they were sick. I have taught versions of the visuals and vibrations and mindset to injured or struggling athletes since then as well as anyone with injuries needing help with exercising. These cats were actually the original birth of what I now call The HypnoFitness Method.