Recently I was at the grocery store buying cat food when I realized that they didn’t carry the flavor I had been buying any more. This is no big deal for most cat owners, but I have a cat that throws up a lot more than most, and she does it most often if I change her dry food. Dilemma. Chase all over town hunting down the food she’s used to? Buy something different and stock up on paper towels and sponges? Or get the new food and try EFT? I’ve done surrogate EFT with her before with some success, but it’s harder for me to do surrogate EFT with animals than with humans. I decided to try it.

When I got home, I settled myself where I could be undisturbed for awhile and tuned in to her. This is a challenge for me right now because I’m empathic and haven’t learned how to keep my boundaries drawn in all situations yet. I set the intention to open myself to learning about her physiology without taking on her energy, then I visualized my energy field. I focused on her and saw her field next to mine then opened my intention to learn why new food upset her stomach. I could see the two fields next to each other but not touching. I felt information come to me as I began to tap. I didn’t use a set up statement; I just began saying what came to mind:

This new food tastes good
But it upsets my stomach
I like it
But I can’t eat it
I want to eat it
But I know it’ll upset my stomach
My stomach doesn’t like this
My stomach thinks this isn’t good

At this point, I understood that she must feel a gritty, grainy upset in her stomach whenever I changed her dry food. It takes her stomach several days to adjust and it doesn’t like it at all. It throws her off balance in some way.

This gritty upset
This grainy upset
My stomach thinks this is bad for me
My stomach doesn’t know that this is just food
It’s just cat food
It tastes good and it’s good for me

I felt the tide start to turn and her stomach begin to accept the fact that there was going to be new food and that it was okay. It was like her stomach realized that this wasn’t a foreign invader and it didn’t have to reject it.

This new food is good
This new food is good for me
It’s okay to eat it
I can let it stay

It only took a few minutes before I felt that we were done. Later that day, I mixed the new food in with what I had left of the old (a process that I made sure to do over the course of a week or more previously, but only had enough old food to mix in for one night this time), and sat back to see what happened. Nothing happened. She ate it, went outside, came back in, sat around, fell asleep, and never threw up. I’m sure she’s more comfortable now, and my carpet cleaner is getting a rest. What an amazing tool, and how fortunate we are to know how to use it.

Arinda Davis

I am an energetic practitioner for animals and I teach classes in animal communication and energy healing. Here is a story about Drago the Stallion. We brought our students to a stable where we were given permission to work on several horses. Dividing the students among the horses, I was observing one group who were not having any success connecting to the horse.

Their efforts to connect with him to ask permission resulted in his turning away from them and ignoring them. I thought what a perfect opportunity to show how EFT can also be a tool for communicating and healing.

I began to tap on myself as a surrogate for Drago, saying:

Even though no one takes time to understand me and what I am feeling, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

After the second time saying that phrase, Drago whipped his head around and began nodding yes. I continued to tap and communicate what it was the students wanted to offer him to heal his emotional wounds.

Even though I don’t know these people and I am afraid of strangers, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though they say they want to help me, and I am afraid, I choose to trust them.

Even though I feel these emotions that are so foreign to me, I choose to be open to these humans. I choose to trust…

Then I used words of trust, love, respect, honor on all the end points, tapping on myself.

After three minutes or so of tapping, he then stepped forward and began accepting the students’ Reiki energy. He then proceeded to let the students stroke him. The barn staff was amazed as he was known as the wild crazy one, who had almost bit off the stablehand’s finger.

The owner was so impressed with the results, she asked if the students would continue working on him. I taught the students to tap for him while employing Reiki energy. For those familiar with Reiki, they would visualize the symbols entering the areas where they tapped.

After four sessions, the horse was a different animal. We also instructed the staff not to call him names, because that hurt his feelings, and he felt he would live up to all the nasty names he was called. So we tapped that if anyone called him a nasty name, he would look at them and then ignore them for he now knew his self-worth.

We communicated to the horse through EFT, tapping while sending our thoughts and mental images to him. We let him know that, whenever he felt agitated, he might imagine someone tapping on him. We sent him our intention that when he began to feel uneasy, he was to remember us tapping and know that the anxiety would ease up.

Today he is a beautiful stallion that is magnificent in the ring.

Linda Epstein
Email Linda

This article is available in Spanish. Go to the Spanish translation.

This happened to me at a time when I had been studying EFT for a few years but had been having difficulties convincing the very skeptical French people and I was about to give up the whole idea of being an EFT practitioner. Since then, thankfully, the French are getting rapidly more open to and less wary of techniques like EFT!

This experience with Elaine, my friend’s cat, gave me a reason to pursue my goal, so that’s why I call it Elaine’s gift. At the end of this story you will see that I wasn’t the only one to receive a gift!

I had an appointment to go to a friend Susan’s for tea one day.

When I got there Susan told me that Elaine, their cat was dying and was probably in her last hours. Her husband John was home from work as Elaine had had a fit that morning. She couldn’t breathe as she had cancer that had invaded most of her body (I saw the x rays – quite impressive). They had rushed her off to the vet that morning to have her put to sleep but she had put up such a fuss at going in the car that it had really livened her up, so when the vet agreed upon euthanasia they didn’t have the heart to put her to sleep and they brought her back home.

John and Susan were smiling and friendly but I could sense their tension and grief. They told me they were worried they had acted out of selfishness and they couldn’t tell whether she was in intolerable pain or whether it was the right time to put her to sleep and they were in total confusion.

I automatically thought of EFT but hesitated as I had already touched on the subject at an earlier date and hadn’t really found an opening. But this time I thought, “What the heck, this is a crisis, let’s give it a go!” So I told them I’d been working with this energy tapping thing called EFT and that I had just read an article about that explained how it could work on animals too.

So Susan said “O.K, why not have a go?”

I told her I wouldn’t have to touch Elaine or even see her. She hadn’t been to her favourite place the couch in the sitting room for over a week staying mainly on a cushion under the radiator as she was always cold.
But for two days she had been staying in hiding under the bed behind some boxes. Susan would crouch by the bed and coo at her to comfort her but she seemed to need to be alone. Susan said that it reminded her of when animals know they are going to die.

So, we went to the little sitting room just across the hall from the bedroom I sat down on the couch and I asked Susan to help me make a list of the things Elaine would be feeling (all the pains, discomforts, fears, tensions and emotions). I explained to her that I was going to imagine I was Elaine and that I would then tap on myself for what she could be feeling.

So Susan told me all the things Elaine could be feeling as well as the fact that she hated going in the car and that she really hated having to swallow the pills the vet had prescribed. I also suggested things that would concern John and Susan such as:

Even though “Mummy” and “Daddy” are afraid I’m in pain…
Even though are finding it difficult to let go of me…
Even though they are very sad I’m dying …
Even though they don’t know whether to put me to sleep or not…

…I’m a good cat and Mummy and Daddy love me very much.

While we were writing out this list, Frieda, their other cat came up and kept on meowing and rubbing herself on us wanting attention. She had never come up to me in my previous visits as she likes to stay on her own, but today she was extremely sociable!

When we had finished our list I started to really focus my attention on Elaine and seeing some pictures of cats on the wall, I thought that maybe I could focus on one of the to help me connect further while tapping surrogately. I asked Susan, “Is that one of Elaine?

I had barely finished my sentence when Elaine walked in and lay down at my feet, almost lying on them, as if to say, “O.K. lady, I’m ready, do your stuff!”

Susan and I were both in awe as we had never seen a dying cat go up to a stranger before, let alone lie down at that stranger’s feet!

I immediately started tapping on myself or just simply gently touching the EFT points, going through each item of the list. The atmosphere in the room grew more and more peaceful as I tapped. Susan sat down next to Elaine and stroked her gently and lovingly during the whole procedure. She was really participating fully and smiling gently all the while. All the sadness and distress she had shown previously had disappeared.

When I tapped on Elaine not liking the pills I felt a gripping sensation in my throat and chest so I tapped for, “I really hate those pills!” and “they hurt my throat and chest,” until it went away.

At first, Frieda lay watching the situation on the armrest next to me and at one point she sat up and stared intently at my face for the longest time even when I wasn’t tapping my face. After she kept rubbing against me and Susan demanding cuddles and meowing and she ended up lying in my lap as I continued on tapping.

During the procedure, Elaine looked up at me from time to time. When I had finished tapping I said to Susan, “O.K. we’re done now.” Right at that moment Elaine got up and stretched and went to climb up on the couch next to me, but she couldn’t as she was too weak, so Susan picked her up and placed her next to me. She curled up and fell asleep peacefully.

Finally we left her there to sleep and went to the kitchen for a cup of tea. The atmosphere was much more peaceful and even John, who hadn’t participated as he had work to do, was more relaxed. We chatted and even had a few good laughs!

Before I left we went in to check on Elaine. She was still lying quietly on the couch and her breathing was much more relaxed (John, the skeptic, was the one who pointed this out!).

The next day, Elaine had had another fit so Susan and John once more decided to take her to the vet, but this time they were decided that it was really time to put her to sleep. But they never had to make the decision whether to do so or not because this time Elaine died peacefully in Susan’s arms in the car on their way to the vet’s.

My deepest thanks to Elaine.

Whenever I feel discouraged I can feel her encouraging me to continue.

Christine Blanchet
www.eft-liberation.com

I’ve been tapping for about 6 years for myself and a bit for friends and family-mostly everyone thinks I’m loopy, so I tend to keep it to myself – EFT, I mean.

I have had some neat things happen while tapping for my and my mom’s cats, whom I know quite well. What really excited me was this past Friday I tapped for the neighbor’s beagle puppy, Brownie, whom I barely know…

It was about 11 at night. Brownie’s family lives in the house next door, and they were out. Brownie was locked in his crate, with the window open near him, so I could easily hear what he was doing.

We got a thunderstorm, very intense, so much so that later people said it knocked pictures off walls and dishes out of cupboards.

This little beagle had never heard thunder before and since he was alone, he got very worked up, yipping, whining, crying, throwing himself against the inside of his crate, it was pitiful to listen to….I felt so bad for him. And I felt for my husband, who was trying to sleep as he had to get up early.

After listening to the poor thing for about 10 minutes as he got even more hyper, it dawned on me to try tapping for him.

Aha! I was awed at the things that came up – his terror, being trapped, his anger at his family for leaving him, fear of being beaten for soiling his crate out, his pain from that loud noise hurting his ears and more….Wow! (I’m not a dog person…I love animals, but cats are my ‘thing’ – this was really blowing me away! – Sorry, I can’t think of another way to describe it)

Anyway, I tapped for each issue as it came up as if I were Brownie, it took less than 10 minutes total, and I got the feeling Brownie got calm and sure enough, suddenly his whimpering and crying stopped. And even tho’ the storm continued for another half hour, he never made another peep (I wondered if he had died….of course not, the had EFT worked).

Next morning my husband even mentioned that he noticed Brownie suddenly shut up…I told him what I had done and he gave me the “look”….ha ha ha.

One thing I might add, when I was finished, I spent another minute breaking the energy connection between Brownie and me. I pictured a cord between us falling away and I said “I am Susie-Brownie is Brownie” And a few similar type things. I don’t remember where I read it, but when I do surrogate tapping, I always break the connection when I’m finished.

Sorry to be so long winded but this experience really amazed me. Even after tapping for years, I’m still awed at what it accomplishes. And I’m not professional, just an avid user.

Thank you for spreading the word. Hey, also thank Betty and Jade for demonstrating the Inner Theater technique. I felt like I had come home when I tried it first time and now I use it all the time. I love it, it works for me when I can’t get anywhere with regular tapping… so I usually go straight for Inner Theater exclusively on myself. I mean, that’s my favorite EFT method when I need to work something out. For me.

Thanks again,
Susie

Update:

Funny thing about Brownie, we had another thunder storm roll through yesterday and Brownie was again home alone in his crate. He never made a peep. So it looks like he’ll be OK with thunder, as long as he doesn’t have some other mitigating experience with it. I love it – being able to help like that…

Tapping Away in New York state,
Susie
www.TapForCats.com

This article is available in Spanish. Go to the Spanish translation.

I was doing an EFT presentation for a group of about 30 people. A man at the end of the front row had brought along a beautiful yellow lab. The dog was nearly full-grown yet obviously still a puppy, and he was having a very hard time sitting still. The man had to continually calm the dog who clearly wanted to get up and interact with people. The poor dog kept changing positions and straining in one direction and then the other, looking very unhappy.

Part of the way through my presentation, I made a friendly comment to the dog’s owner. He then told us all, “Ziggy is in training to be a seeing-eye dog. I have to bring him to events like this sometimes so he can learn to obey and sit still. He would love to go and meet everybody but he’s got to learn to control his urges when he’s on harness.”

I took a chance and suggested to the group, “Let’s tap for Ziggy! You never know. Maybe it will help.” Some people thought it was a joke, but I guided us all to tap together:

Even though Ziggy is restless and having a hard time, he’s a good boy and we send him love.

Even though Ziggy wants to meet us all, he can calm down… we want him to know that we all love him… he’s a really good boy.

Even though it’s hard for Ziggy to sit still, we’re proud of him…he’s learning… we love him and he’s a good boy.

We tapped the points with words like “restless…. having a hard time…. but we love Ziggy… he’s a good boy”

Lo and behold, before we had finished that one round of tapping, Ziggy had stretched out and gone to sleep! He slept quietly through the rest of my EFT presentation. There were some incredulous expressions around the room, but no one could doubt that the surrogate EFT for Ziggy had really made a difference.

I think people who tap for animals would agree that animals are amazingly open. They receive the benefits of the tapping so easily. Simply tapping on ourselves and voicing what we think the animal may be feeling can often have remarkable results. It is wonderful to have such a gentle way to help relieve stress and restore calm, good feelings for our animal friends.

love,
Betty