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Little Johnny lie mute and defenseless while the huge (14 pounds and growing) Maine Coon kitten stared at him menacingly. In the nick of time, Leah (my 9-year-old niece who was spending the night) picked up her new best friend before certain mauling befell him. Sadly, this was just a foreshadowing of the tragic events to come.
A bit of history first....
Little Johnny was cleverly created earlier that day by my bored-to-tears niece out of notebook paper, tape, scissors and crayons. He measured 3 inches tall and about a half inch in diameter. He had a friendly little face and sported black curly hair created by little scissored notches. Which is why A.J.,
the aforementioned perp, who only plays with stuff from the trash can, found Little Johnny tantalizing.
Of course, it didn’t help that Leah kept placing her new little friend in front of A.J. and then admonish him to leave Johnny alone. She also repeatedly called A.J. “evil,” which didn’t help matters.
So there was Leah with images of Little Johnny’s destruction at the paws of A.J., racing through her head for hours. And there sat A.J. receiving those thoughts as if they were instructions from the Commander-in-Chief himself. Little Johnny didn’t stand a chance.
As bedtime approached, Leah put Little Johnny to bed. She had brought a little mattress and blanket cut from fabric, along with a doll house-sized pillow, perfect for Little Johnny to rest those curls. All tucked in atop my dresser, he presumably fell asleep quickly.
I awoke early the next morning. To my shock and horror, saw that the pillow, blanket and mattress were all on the floor and Little Johnny was nowhere to be seen. I searched and searched, careful not to wake Leah and beseeched the obvious culprit to spill his guts. Of course, and as usual, A.J. confessed to nothing. On a positive note, at least he wasn’t asking for ransom. Little Johnny had been well-hidden.
As I waited for Leah to wake up and give her the devastating news of Little Johnny’s abduction, I thought about the perfect storm Leah had created. Because animals “think” more in pictures than in words, and are very tuned into their owners, it is not hard to send them mental images. For example, my dog always knows when we are going to hike in the woods rather than walk around the subdivision. He acts much more excited about the prospect of hiking and knows to wait at the car rather than at the garage door. I am sure all of you can think of many times your pet “just knew something.”
Because animals are non-verbal, they don’t “picture” the words “no” or “don’t.” It could be argued that they do know a lot of words, but personally I believe they are picking up on the image their human is sending first, and maybe later—if at all—learn to associate that word with the picture. My feeling is that they are much more psychic than intellectual. In any case, when you don’t want your dog to get food off of the counter, try not to picture him getting food off of the counter! Hard, isn’t it? Well, then, try not to think about it at all. Unfortunately, it is often human nature to focus on what we don’t want—like our fears—than what we do want. (Just for fun, try monitoring your thoughts for a day!) Animals, naturally, are not given to fearful thoughts, but they are open to suggestion. Having said that, of course an animal can be traumatized and have very deep-seated fears as a result. However, it’s usually a very specific fear, tied directly to the traumatic incident. Humans, on the other hand, can worry about almost anything! (Well, I can, anyway....) It may be a fun idea to begin picturing fun/positive things that you want your pet to do. Really focus and project those images numerous times to your pet and see what happens. Let me know!
I won’t end without telling you how things with Little Johnny ended. Leah took the news rather well and said she could just make another little friend. Even better, a bit later, Little Johnny turned up under her gym bag, still intact! (Leah did trim his curls to make him less tempting to her five cats.)©2009
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The Spritual Connection 
