Ten times a year for the last twelve years PetMassage™ Foundation Workshop students, as part of their training, have been providing massage to members of the transient canine population at our local ASPCA. All of the people on staff at the Humane Society look forward to our arrival. PetMassage™, they tell us, helps their dogs become more adoptable. This is one of hundreds of stories.
The dogs that are available for adoption are kenneled in large cement runs in two tiers in the rear of the ASPCA facility. In the back tier, in cage one in from the end was a small golden colored dog, shaking and cowering in the corner against the back wall. She would not make eye contact. She appeared frightfully shy and withdrawn. I entered her cage and sat cross-legged on the floor next to her without looking at her. I did not reach out to touch her.
Observing my breathing I drifted into a gentle meditation. I saw myself being an oasis of calm in her world of chaos and discomfort, whatever its cause. I was making myself available for her to choose to enter my space. If she didn’t, that would be okay, too. After a few minutes, she looked at me and stood up. Her head was drooped. Her tail was curled under her, between her legs. Her coat was sweaty wet. Her pendulous teats dripped onto the cement. She moved slowly toward me and lied down, resting her head against my knee. I gently stroked her head and ears. After a few minutes, I hooked a lead onto her collar, stood up, and quietly escorted her out of her cage and toward the door for a bit of outside air. As I opened the door, one of the vet techs informed me that her puppies had just been taken from her that morning. She appeared inconsolable. Of course, she was grieving the loss of her puppy family, and that was on top of the recent loss of her human family. Outside, she moved about the grounds slowly, disconsolately, disinterested in any of the scents and other distractions that so delight the other dogs.
The students who worked with her showed compassion and patience. The massage was for her, a fifteen minute course correction in attitude and expectation. Their PetMassage™ was simple and non-specific. It was a means of showing this little dog that she was honored and appreciated. When the session was complete I returned her to her cage. As my role in the ASPCA field trip, I collect each of the dogs from their runs, walk them a bit outside and hand them over to a student. I noticed that when I walked by her cage retrieving or returning other dogs, our little dog began to approach the front of the cage. The last time I saw her, and this was within an hour of her massage, she was standing, smiling and wagging greeting everyone who walked near her. She was adopted that morning. If she had not had her PetMassage™, she would not have been open and available to move into her new life of possibilities, potential and love.
