Lora Lee 
Over a year ago, we discovered that Emmet had a slight heart murmur. It was a Grade 3 and his vet was not overly concerned about it. He goes monthly to see his vet to keep a check on not only his heart murmur but his GI tract mass also. Back in October, his vet said that his heart murmur had advanced to a Grade 4. I just started him on a Mushroom Therapy for heart health a couple days prior, so we decided to wait and see how it worked. A couple of weeks ago, we did some blood work, and the results were not great. His heart values were way high. So much so, that we now have an appointment with the cardiologist. After having a mini freak-out, I took steps to deal with Emmet’s new health challenge.
Way Too In My Head Space
When his vet called me with the results, I was shocked. Emmet is not acting like a cat who not only is dealing with a GI tract mass, but definitely not acting like a cat who is dealing with heart issues. For about 30 minutes before the phone call, Emmet was running around and playing with Lily like a crazy cat. Hearing that my handsome mini panther had such high heart values and was in danger of throwing a blood clot threw me. Instantly, I was stuck in my head. What had I missed? Should I have had this blood work done earlier? What does this mean for his future? So many questions without any answers.
I started to panic and worry. After leaving a message for the cardiologist to set up an appointment, I did what I do best. I researched everything about high proBNP heart values in cats. Some of the information helped to ease my worries. Others planted that fear and concern again. However, through it all. The conversation with the vet, the call to the cardiologist, and hours of research. My “kitty senses” were not tingling. I did not have the feeling that something was really, seriously wrong with Emmet. I have learned over the years, and especially the past few months to pay attention and trust my “kitty senses”.
Shift Into My Heart Space
As I have been journeying down my path of using a more holistic approach to my cat’s care, I have made some incredible connections and friendships. As I sat in fear, researching what to expect from the cardiologist, I remembered what Julie-Anne Thorne from Naturally Cats taught me during her Cat Chakra Course. So many times, we get stuck in our heads when it comes to our cats. Something happens and we instantly pay attention to the voice in our heads filled with worry, concern, and fear. I needed to change that. There had to be a shift. Focusing on the worry, concern, and fear was not going to help me and it definitely wasn’t going to help Emmet.
After doing some grounding work on myself, I tried to connect with Emmet. I wasn’t able to make a strong connection because my emotions were still too high. Luckily, I have some amazing friends in the energy healing modality, and I was able to reach out to them to see if they could connect with Emmet. One of my friends was able to connect and work with him that night. She was able to find some areas that were in need of healing and work to help him and myself. By the end of the night, both Emmet and I were feeling a lot better about that scary blood work.
The next day, Sylvie the Cat Whisperer, who is not only my mentor, but a friend, worked on Emmet for almost an hour. It was really amazing what she was able to find out. She was able to sense his heart murmur and his mass, but she didn’t sense that either of those were deathly serious to his health at this point. Emmet was able to communicate with Sylvie that he was concerned with the stress that he was causing me. That even though I try to keep my stress at a minimum, he can still feel it and it does impact him. Of course, it does. Our cats are greatly influenced by our own energy. Emmet also had some very wise words of wisdom for me, but that is an article for another time.
In A Much Better Place
It really wasn’t long after having my mini break down, that I found myself in a better place mentally about Emmet’s new health challenge. After getting out of my head and feeling into my heart, I was able to better deal with what this could mean for Emmet and myself. I am trusting my instincts and intuition. But most importantly, I am trusting Emmet. Knowing and truly believing that he will let me know when there is something happening that is concerning has helped a lot. Not that I don’t have some stress and worry about his cardiologist appointment, but I am not focusing on it. And that has made a huge difference on not only myself, but Emmet as well, helping us both deal with Emmet’s new health challenge.
“Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.” – Rod McKuen
