Arunachala Animal Sanctuary's December Report
Dear, dear People,
I'm at the Dreaming Tree, a wonderful rooftop restaurant in Tiru that has become my favorite place to work. So I'm overindulging, gaining weight, loving it, as I write this Report.
Blessings to All of You this Holiday Season. May each of us pass thru it in warmth, bathed in love-filled energy. May we all, All of Us, without exception, be blessed with more compassionate understanding this year.
The Shelter is going beautifully. A major topic these last two months has been puppies. Many, many of them. At one point we had forty. This created two distinct needs--caring for the Precious Little Ones, and finding homes for them.
The most important care is simply touching and babying them. And we have four village ladies--two in the morning and two in the afternoon-- whose only job is to cuddle and baby our Precious Ones, puppies and adults alike. If you saw these ladies, they would warm your Heart. They have little packets to help clean their fur babies' eyes and ears, and to remove ticks. They hold them, baby them and stroke them. It has really made a difference, so we're in the process of increasing our ladies to four in the morning, and four in the afternoon. Also of importance is that puppies have each other to snuggle, play, rest with, and touch. They're a real "Heartwarmer" to watch.
Finding homes for them, though, is a big problem and requires major, major effort. Vishwa has three students from the nearby college who go out up to 100kms looking for good homes…Then Vishwa goes to check the homes out. (About half are good.) The students can receive 500 rupees from us for each puppy placed…but they’re “deeply into it” and refuse to take any compensation other than reimbursement for their expenses. Our beloved Vishwa spends an incredible amount of time doing this. It’s not easy to find good homes. Sometimes a full day’s searching yields none. (At this point in time, since opening, Vishwa has remarkably placed over 1000 puppies in good homes.)
We’re concerned about the increasing number of puppies coming to us. So we’re doubling our efforts to sterilize the homeless dogs. We hope to do 100 to 150 a month. If that doesn’t bring the number of puppies being born under control, then we’ll have to radically increase our efforts from there.
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Many of you like to hear about our emergency rescues: (We do 60 to 120 a month.)
- We received a call from a village 65 kms away. A dog with a horrible infected wound on its back leg was going to houses for food and being chased away because he smelled so bad. People in one house tried to kill him…Vishwa got there about 10am. Just outside of town there was a large, wooded area, making it difficult to find the dog. Ten village people helped Vishwa look for him all day and couldn’t find him…Finally, Vishwa left around 6pm, when it was starting to get dark. The next day he returned at 9:30am with Prem Kumar and Arunagiri. They looked until 5p and gave up…The third day, Vishwa took our beloved Pandi with him, leaving Tiru at 4:30a. They got there at 6am. At 8 o’clock, they found out that the dog in question usually turned up at a particular house between 8 and 10. They waited, finally spotted him, chased him down and caught him…He had hundreds of maggots in the wound. Scores fell off in the car….Dr.Raja said he was weak, depleted, anemic, and in pain. He gave the dog a painkiller and i.v. with neurobion for nutrition, and tended the wound. The poor babe was only five years old. We’ve had him for five weeks, now. His wound is almost fully healed. He’s regained his strength, and has several furry friends with whom he wrestles, rests, and sleeps. He’s doing beautifully, and in two weeks Vishwa will take him back to his territory.
- The second rescue…Late night call. A cat had somehow fallen into a well...about 30 kms outside of town. The well was a deep one, sixty feet. Vishwa lowered himself on a rope. The cat was in an indentation in the side about five feet above the water. On the way down, (he was tired; it was 11pm), Vishwa lost his grip and fell about twenty feet into the water. But he reached the cat. (The poor baby was very scared.) He put him in a bag to carry him up - and the cat bolted to freedom as soon as they got to the top and opened the bag! (Enjoy your life little guy. We’re glad we could help.)
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The remainder of this Report is different than all the others. It’s mostly about the healing power of love, and about positive feelings.
Most of you know that my Main Teacher told me thirty years ago that the physician heals with the Heart. And we believe deep healing will only take place if an animal feels safe, cared for and loved. So the very core of our Work is demonstrative love—touching, stroking, reassuring, hugging, kissing.
There are many stories of the healing power of positive energy---Hope…Love…Belief.
For many years we’ve known thru the “placebo effect” that just the belief that getting (or doing) something that is beneficial creates a healing force. Medical science didn’t fully follow up on the implications of the placebo until the last twenty or thirty years. At this point in time, there’s been a lot of research done.
I remember 35 years ago, a dear beloved friend of mine found out she had an advanced case of metastasized cervical cancer…and for months I dedicated myself to finding “a way”. It’s during this period that I became aware of the healing power of a “good inner-state”...
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I came across the miraculous story of Norman Cousins. He had been the editor of the Saturday Review of Literature for over 30 years. The Saturday Review was quite prestigious and Norman was well known.
He had been in the hospital with a life-threatening, potentially terminal illness. It was a good hospital and he had all the top doctors. After a period of extended treatment, they told him that there was nothing more they could do, and that he had only a month or two to live.
Norman, in consultation with a dear doctor friend, decided that he would stop treatment. Their thinking was that if negative emotions could precipitate illness, positive emotions might be able to cure it. So the two of them pulled together all kinds of uplifting movies (including Charlie Chaplin) and books and moved into a hotel. They ate good food. Laughed. Enjoyed. And his doctor friend who was monitoring his vital signs, saw that his vitals were getting better and better……End of story—HE RECOVERED.
His story was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the States. And he became a lecturer at the University of California Medical School, expounding on the subject of the healing force of positive emotions. Om Namah Shivaya.
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Also in the 80’s, I came in contact with an organization in Los Angeles (supported by local doctors) that helped women dealing with cancer…They had considerable success. I used a tape of theirs for a dear friend who was getting chemotherapy. It guided her thru visualizations, recollections of things she loved, and meditations, as the chemo was being administered.All of it had to do with positive feelings. I believe it really helped.
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There have been a number of times when the condition of one of our Precious Ones in the Shelter was getting serious, when medication wasn’t working, yet we were able to reverse it just by focusing on being gentle and loving.
I remember late one night when Vishwa and I were in front of the Shelter with a puppy who was clearly fading and wasn’t going to make it. In the darkness, I held the baby against my Heart, stroking and kissing him. Then I noticed a light start to come thru his eyes. Vishwa was going to take him home to spend the night. I told him to hold the tiny creature against his Heart. The young babe experienced a strong reversal, and lived.
We have many, many such stories…The Power of Love…The Power of Positive Energy.
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This brings us to the end of the Report.
Hoping that each of you is doing excellently...That you're unfolding beautifully and strongly, inside. My Baba said that nothing is gained without some inner austerity...It seems that we have to go thru some inner burning to clear the way.
As in previous reports, I've included a collection of photos. Hoping you enjoy them. Remember...the theme is simply LOVE.
PLEASE...REMEMBER...DONATIONS.
THE PRECIOUS ONES NEED US...AND WE NEED YOU!
RECURRING DONATIONS, EVEN QUITE MODEST ONES, ARE BEST FOR US. THEY GIVE US STABILITY.
PLEASE...KEEP YOUR SUPPORT COMING.
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With love, blessings, and wishes for all things good...May we All, each of us, do actions that emit uplifting, healing energy. These are difficult times for our beloved planet…and each of us can help in a major way.
Leslie, The Ageing Expatriate Warrior
