Judi was working several lost animals last February. I thought these stories were great. So I thought I would reprint them.
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I want to share them with you. Many of you have worked with me previously and are very aware of
Kristine Kamp-Adante who works with me and covers for me when I am traveling. She is a wonderful communicator, healer and fantastic lost animal locator. You will see many emails from her in the stories below.
Barbara Myers (see Heidi's story) is also a well known communicator and I met all of these ladies including Sylvia (who owns Heidi) years ago on the Animal Communications Yahoo list.
For privacy, some parts of the stories have been changed; in particular, names and addresses have been cut or modified. I purposely left the stories in their unedited email formats so you can see what all is actually involved in the locating of lost animals. jb.
One of those was a cat named Baron
who decided to come in after a month. His story is first and is told by his person, Leslie Hjeldness. Baron Baron’s Vision Quest
My cat, Baron, is a great teacher. In the last two months, he has taught me many truths. An accelerated course, like a language emersion experience that forces you to “get it.” Most of what I learned recently, he taught me in his absence…for twenty-seven days.
We had just arrived at the vet, an hour from my home. Lesson (1): Respect. Always respect a cat’s need to feel safe by keeping him/her in a carrier until securely behind a closed door with the vet. A dog owner didn’t have her pet firmly on a leash and it chased Baron out of the clinic. Lesson (2): Try not to growl at dog owners who fail to control their animals. It only lends to more tension in the moment and self regret later. Thus began three weeks of going home to an empty house and sleeping without a companion who had been there for nine years.
I didn’t actually go home that first night, I spent it in the car, certain that although Baron was scared by the dog, he would calm down, and definitely come to our car after he felt it was safely dark and quiet. It was 36 degrees out and around midnight, when 44 coyotes serenaded me from every corner of that county, I began kicking myself for not acting like I knew Lesson (1) in the first place.
Thankfully, my vet knew Judi Byers and ending day two, when I felt less confident, and had walked a 1.5 mile radius (without a shower, calling “Baron” constantly) through multiple private properties of 3+ acre lots and adjoining extensive woods, I was afforded Lesson (3): Guilt is a Useless Emotion. Beating yourself up for what you did “wrong” that lead to the animal leaving is a complete waste of time, thought and energy. It does not help the animal or yourself. We have so much control in our lives…we think. The vet concurred with Judi on this point, and reminded me of the wisdom of cats. Stay dry, eat now and then, and avoid predators. Baron is well equipped to do all three of these. Judi knew these qualities in him immediately upon contacting him.
My first conversation with Judi was encouraging and full of insight. Her gift allowed me assurance that Baron is indeed wiser than I was aware. She validated many things I have known about this cat, specific details about his attitude and his character were evident to her. This confirmation of him as the beloved being I know, and Judi’s understanding of him was worth every penny of the fee Judi charges for contacting an animal. It made me appreciate and respect him more than ever.
I told Judi that he had gone on previous “vision quests,” each lasting 4 days, about three years apart, so this was possibly just our third respite from one another? What I wanted Judi to tell me was: “Yes, of course. He will be found or find you on Sunday.” She’s psychic, right? Lesson (4) Animals have free will, just as we do. Nobody can predict the future to an absolute certainty, because we all play a part in the energy of an event, and that includes the choices, or spiritual path, of the animal. It includes the energy and spiritual path of the person too!
So at what moment do I panic here? Lesson (5) Panic is even less useful than Guilt. Serious panic set in on day three. I had lost sleep and wasn’t eating right, commuting an hour to the farming area where Baron was. I had fliers in plastic covers backed by cardboard with the picture of him I had emailed to Judi. These were for posting at stop signs. I had two dozen more fliers that went into every mailbox in the area and some to give vet offices nearby. I knocked on doors and introduced myself as the nut who was wandering the woods calling “Baron!” I asked people if I could look under their pool houses, wood sheds, and back decks. This went on for fourteen days. I know more kind people, and all their animals, in that spread-out equestrian community than in my own densely populated suburb. But this was mostly for my benefit, it kept me busy, busy, busy.
I spoke with Judi about every other day regarding what Baron was looking at in the moment and tried to match this up with what I saw while haunting the county. When Judi sent me the first satellite picture of the area, I gasped. The lines she drew on the map while dousing, marked the baron map exact path I had made in my barn to barn inspection, with all the vet’s neighbors. For a moment I wondered if Judi was psychically tracing MY steps through the area. But in hindsight, I feel that I was connected enough to Baron to be following him myself, just a few steps delayed. But Judi was able to trace us on a map!!!
On day 16 I let Judi know I was going to camp out in a tent that Baron and I had previously used for a weekend years prior. I asked her to let him know of this and his response was, “Why?” You see, Baron was having a good time. He was hunting like some saber toothed ancestor, avoiding the coyotes by getting safely bedded somewhere around nightfall. He was on vacation. The perfect feline sabbatical. I was the lost one. Lesson (6) Feel your feelings and move-em-on-out. I came to the awareness of the following: Baron gave me this opportunity to go be alone in the woods and grieve. I had avoided grieving the death of my sister, Lori, who left this life in November, 2007. I think Baron knew his leaving would bring me to “breaking” or surrender. Something necessary to start the healing. I spent the night in a tent, too afraid to unzip it when something four legged walked on the leaves a foot away from me, likely a deer, and listening to several renditions of local coyote anthems. I cried and talked to Lori’s spirit that night and drove home Sans chat noire in the morning. But something was released and relieved.
The next day, Judi advised me to sit in the woods, very still, and visualize a lighthouse coming out if my heart, reaching above the trees and shining for Baron to see it. Lesson (7): It is essential to be still. It feels so much better to be moving and doing, but this is actually confusing to the animal and only lends a delusion of relief to the human partner. Around this time, Baron stopped talking to Judi. Cheeky monkey! She would attempt to tune into him, and he would say, “Talk to the tail.” This hurt my feelings. Judi was able to convey to him that I missed him and was in the area looking for him, but he had no inclination to come home.
When Judi realized that Baron was not connecting with her, actually avoiding her, she emailed my info to her colleague and student, Kristine. Baron liked talking to Kristine, we think because she has cats as well, and he gave her information specific to his location. He had moved a quarter mile from the vet’s place and was less enthralled with the “wild life.” Kristine doused another satellite map and narrowed my search to a 50 yard area of woods bordered by homes with at least two acres of land each. I met my first wild turkeys there, five of them, and Kristine let me know they do not attack humans, while I stood looking at one that had flown to a branch above my head. I had another moment of doubt and asked Kristine if she could have mistakenly tracked a turkey to the area. She had not. She was gracious in saying, “No, it’s Baron. When you call his name, I see his ears perk up.” Turkey’s don’t have ears that perk. I’m still ashamed I questioned her. (Note: Shame is even less useful than panic). Each day, for a week, after commuting to the area, I either met children playing outside or received calls from people who said they had seen Baron. Judi and Kristine had asked him to allow people to see him, and he allowed this much, the little turkey.
Six days later, Kristine and Judi reminded me of Lesson (7): Be still. I took a fold-out chair to the center of the wooded area where Baron told her he could see two swimming pools, and I wondered why he couldn’t see me standing RIGHT THERE too. I sat down and tried to meditate. It was cold and windy. I was uncomfortable and frustrated. Kristine told me to send Baron mental images of home. I saw his cat door in my mind. I saw him walking across the sink, over my arms as I wash dishes, to sit in front of the “treat cabinet” and stare through it meaningfully. I saw him perched on the lid of the toilet, waiting for me to finish a shower. It got colder, darker and more windy.
I had to go on a business trip the next day and realized I wouldn’t be able to come back to the area for two days. I told Baron out loud, I’d be gone for two suns and two moons, but he could come home with me that night and be warm if he wanted. I went to get some dinner nearby and received two calls from people who offered help and another camp site if I wanted. I drove back to that wooded area and rolled down the passenger side window to call him one more time, around 8:15 PM. Baron came out of the woods, meowing loudly and plopped down on his side to roll back and forth on the pavement beside my car door. This is his typical message of, “Isn’t life GRAND?”
Lesson (8): When a cat tells you life is GRAND, believe it. -Leslie Joy
I
would like to start with just briefly describing the animal’s
chakra system. This hold’s true for all 4-leggeds no matter
what their size. You will notice that I have placed a dot at
the shoulder. This is the location where some healers believe
there is a key chakra located and always start their connection
with the animal in this location. I do find it is a good non-invasive
and non-threatening location where you may very gently place
your hands to make the first connection. I feel this is a centralized
energy spot, but I do not feel it as a chakra, but more as a
connector point. It is the same on humans, which is why we tend
to place our hands on people’s shoulders when we wish to
connect or comfort them. Animals chakra’s are in about
the same locations as ours except they are much larger and thus
sometimes more difficult to feel as they tend to overlap each
other. As with humans, they do come out the front and the back
although the Brow (third eye) and Solar Plexus chakras are difficult
to locate the secondary site, and the animal’s heart chakra
actually comes out in 3 places rather than just two. Please refer
to diagram below.
