Barbara Bettke is Highly Commended in our Animal Reiki Stories competition and has won herself an online course by the International House of Reiki called The Remembering for this funny story that made us laugh out loud – never forget your humour!
ps – Everyone who entered the competition also gets to choose one of 1/2 hour Reiki meditations from our online Reiki Meditations!
The evening was like any other evening. It was 10pm, and it was time to put the dogs out for one last time before going to bed. But before we can let our two dogs Molly and Daisy (Both terriers) into the backyard, we must first do a perimeter check of the yard with a flashlight to make sure we’re clear of any little critters such as skunks, raccoons or anything else that has fur and moves on four legs. I was folding laundry, so my partner Cecelia went ahead and put the dogs out for me.
Suddenly, I heard Cecelia yell for me to come out to the yard quickly. Running through the house I thought the worst. Molly must be in a fight with a skunk.
I flew out the door to find Cecelia in a panic and Molly running around with something in mouth. I breathed a small sigh of relief when I realized it wasn’t a skunk, but what ever it was, was in danger. Thankfully, Molly stopped running around and laid her prey down on the ground. A opossum. It just laid there. Eyes as black as the night and not moving. His mouth wide open with teeth glaring but completely frozen. I quickly grabbed Molly and put her in the house. Daisy goes where Molly goes so she freely followed. I grabbed the flashlight and told Cecelia that I was going back out there to do some Reiki on the opossum in the hopes that it would comfort him after this horrible experience.
I shined the light over him. He was still breathing! That gave me hope. I apologized to the opossum, and told the little guy that I was there to offer him some Reiki if wanted it. I quickly set my intent. I was in a crouched position less then a foot away. My hands a safe distance. The images of Molly running around the yard with the opossum in her mouth played over and over in my head, but I tried to stay focused not to mention my flashlight was growing dimmer and dimmer. After several minutes and without notice, the opossum blinked and lifted up his head and looked at me and then looked in all directions. Then he got up and started to run across the yard, stopping once to look back at me and then he continued running until he disappeared under the fence. Thrilled, I walked back to the house to find Cecelia at the back door waiting for me. I told her I was doing Reiki and after a few minutes the opossum got up and ran out of the yard. She started laughing hysterically. I said “Why are you laughing?” She said “He was playing opossum, and he totally tricked you and Molly.”
Wow I thought, he had that down. A master. Certainly humbling.
I know deep down though, that that last little look over his shoulder as he trotted out of the yard was to say thank you.
Barbara Bettke is a Reiki Teacher for Healing Animal Life.
