Healing Duke the Tiger

Date: 6/6/2005 Excerpt from my forthcoming book
LIFETIME COMPANIONS: LOVE NEVER DIES

This book is devoted to the marvelous and amazing animals that I have had the honor to share my life, many of which return again and again to teach and share their love.

One never expects to suddenly wind up in a tiger’s cage pulling this awesome animal from the jaws of death but sometimes, the Goddess has other plans for you and you had best be up to the task at hand!
May 16 was just such a day in my life.

The Full Moon in Sagittarius pushed me back to The Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary[EARS], to work on healing Duke, one of the biggest and most splendid tigers you will ever see. I had visited him on Saturday when I heard that he was not doing well and joined the “Duke team” of supporters many of whom have alternated sleeping near his cage for many nights as this case has evolved. As a matter of fact, between Jaye,Gail, Cristina,Morgan,Susan,Amy,Kelly, Craig, and me,Duke has not spent a minute without human company in at least two and a half weeks and believe me he is loving it!.
Earlier that morning, his respiration had gone down to twenty something and the Vets and everyone else felt that Duke was about to pass from what appeared to be congestive heart failure.
Jaye, one of the directors or EARS [Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary} called me crying and her words almost broke my heart in two. She said ,”Flash, Duke is down, can you at least come and help him die?” Through my own tears, I told her that of course I would come and help him cross over more comfortably but that I would like to try to help him live if I could. I didn’t believe that I could for sure manifest that miracle but I would at least try to save my special tiger friend.

As I got into the cage with him, I felt no fear, just the healthy respect one should always have for such a being. Gail and Jaye from EARS were also on either side of me in case something went wrong. I asked that all his ancestors, including Betty and Athena, who were his deceased “wives” be present with me to aid Duke in his time of need so that he might once again stand tall for all the tigers on the planet.

As I asked the Goddess Durga to join me and her sacred animal, I felt her many arms wrap around my body. I was so grateful to Her and all the Ancient Ones who stood with me that day as I could surely feel their presence in the cage with me supporting the healing of this magnificent animal.
When I first placed my hands near his beautiful striped chest, he moved his head and I quickly withdrew my hands. I spoke to him in a soothing manner about what I was intending to do and he totally relaxed allowing me to do some hands on healing massage around his heart. Next I began working off the body stroking his auric field endeavoring to move his energy and circulation through his spine and to the rest of his body. If there was some kind of poison or toxin in him as we suspected, this would help move it through. Duke seemed quite amenable to all of this and I finished up by administering a dose of homeopathic digitalis in his mouth.

After about 10 minutes of working with him on and off body, I left the cage and to all our amazement and delight, he stood up for the first time in at least 4 or 5 days. We cried as we watched him get up like a normal tiger and drink heartily from his water bowl.
Using Jaye’s reports as well as my own observations, Carolyn and I conferred regarding new symptoms on a daily basis. We put in countless hours as well researching possible remedies that would fit Duke’s particular symptoms so that when I would go to actually see him, I would have the correct homeopathic support.

I treated him several more times and each time he responded with better breathing, eye contact, overall alertness and well being. His respiration clocked in at the same numbers as the other healthy tigers and he even licked some food, the first he had touched in over a week.

I have always had a particularly special bond with Duke too ever since ministering to him for grief. His second partner Athena, a gorgeous white tiger, had passed several years ago due in the most part to the utter negligence of the local Vet School. That had been a very hard and needless loss for all of us and especially for big-hearted Duke who clearly was grieving intensely for her for months.
During those dark days, we would talk and I would treat him with Grief and Loss Flower Essences as well as a few others for heartbreak. He always lapped them eagerly from my dropper, licking my hands and often asking for seconds and thirds.

Duke is a kindhearted cat yet I do have a healthy respect for his size and the fact that he is after all, essentially a “wild animal” which one can never forget when entering a cage even with a sick and lethargic tiger.

Jaye and Gail who own and run EARS “womaned” the gates and stood near me when I entered his cage to insure my safety. During my entire time in the cage with Duke,I could feel the presence of his tiger ancestors that I had summoned. Jaye and Gail would never have let me in there if they could not minimize the potential danger. The two of them and Susan, Duke’s sponsor, had me covered and my own senses and reflexes were on high alert for any sudden movements but all was well and he knew I was there to help as we all were and responded with grace and gratitude.

The next day was a day of waiting and watching. I treated him for the swelling in his head.
Because of the swelling we surmised that he may have either hit his head or perhaps even had a heart attack or stroke so I brought Duke 2 different potencies of Arnica to see if that made a difference, going slowly and gently with a dilution at first so that his system would not be overwhelmed. Two days later, and the swelling went all the way down.

Still hard to say what brought this huge cat down in the first place. One Vet thought that it might have been a spider bite although Duke never seemed to show pain or a sloughing off of skin in any affected area. Black widow bites should for all intents and purposes create a painful response and the toxins from a brown recluse usually cause the nearby skin to slough off neither of which are conditions that we were seeing. Because one of these might be the culprit, I gave Jaye a low dose of homeopathic Ledum for him to cover that possibility as it is the remedy used for a nonspecific insect puncture.
Thursday, I returned a second time with my Medicine Woman friend Aurora who is Lakota and an Isis Priestess like myself.

For the last 2 nights, an unusual frog with an apparent “mission” managed to make the long journey from the nearby woods, down past a row of some 4 or 5 cages and over to Duke’s water bowl! On the second night the frog even kissed Duke on the nose and hopped off to relieve himself. We were looking for clues, omens, guidance and the little frog seemed to be wanting to give us some.
In Native American tradition, the Medicine of “Frog” is one of release and flow, calling in the great waters to wash away the problem/negativity/disease etc. I told Aurora of this visitor so that she could bring some “frog medicine” with her in a pouch for Duke. For several days,Jaye had been giving Duke sub- cutaneous fluids to hydrate him as he was neither eating nor drinking enough to sustain his immense size.

A kindly Vet friend had also been treating Duke with large bags of IV delivered fluids to hydrate and also to ideally flush Duke’s system of the toxins that by this time seemed the likely cause of Duke’s decline and near-death. For sure, the constant flushing with these fluids daily gave Duke the time he needed to release the poisons locked inside his body.
I kept visualizing cleansing and flow for him as I sat with him focussing my healing energies through my hands and laser crystals as well. Day after day I sat with the Duke observing and sending healing.
Yes, frog, please clear our boy with the great cleansing waters of all. I hoped against hope that the “Release” would not be Duke’s life and kept that to myself.

We ministered to him using Aurora’s medicine and a whole lot of Reiki too. She and I and a few friends who also do Reiki, put up a dome of healing for him for nearly an hour constantly and another friend Craig had been working on him with Reiki earlier that day as well. It takes a Village as they say, and the Village of healers, friends, Vet techs and Vets were all coming out strong for our Duke. I believe that we also used a third go round of undiluted digitalis at that time to ideally jump start him again into a better place as well as some Nux Vomica homeopathic to help release toxins particularly from the liver which was showing signs of being stressed.

Yesterday when I was sitting and observing, which was so much of what I have been doing with him for days now, watching and waiting for a change or some new clues as to the source of his distress, he told me of his stuffed up gut.
He made such an off handed remark that I almost missed it because it whizzed by so quickly. This is often how animals communicate, very matter of fact so that if you are not paying close attention, you could almost miss it. I could hear him in my head just saying that “my belly feels sort of stuffed up.” I repeated his words to Gail and she said “so what are we going to do about that?” Instantly Duke replied to me telepathically,”The next roadkill deer is mine!” as he psychically sent me a picture of his big royal self chowing down on a deer haunch.

We had a bit of a chuckle at that which at this point we sorely needed and Jaye shared with me that deer is Duke’s favorite meat which I had no way of knowing.
So began the quest for deer meat for the boy which came from many generous sources as the volunteers Kelly and Vet tech Amy went out with Jaye to “trick or treat” for deer. These two women have also been mainstays of the “Duke team”bringing their love, monitoring and allopathic treatments to the case. We have been trying to use all the healing at our disposal without letting one modality step on another, to ideally bring the best of all possible treatments for Duke. He has had bloodwork which was a great relief as it helped eliminate what wasn’t “wrong with him.”

Aurora had brought some Noni Juice for Duke which bolsters the immune system and aids the cleansing so that was added to his diet as well.

Duke had been getting stronger slowly and steadily and was by this time eating some 4 pounds or so of deer meat which was a great relief even though a healthy cat would eat 20pounds or more.
Still his bowels were not moving and he seemed too lethargic.
I kept remembering Duke’s comment about his stuffed belly and indeed as a cub he had been hospitalized for bowel obstruction so his system was perhaps predisposed towards this sort of difficulty. I consulted with Carolyn again sharing his symptom picture and we agreed that homeopathic opium was a good choice for bowels that were stopped up with a lethargic but painless temperament.

All along Duke has appeared pain-free yet weak and this feature has ruled out other possible problems.
It appeared as though he was continuing with a slow steady progression towards health with increasing appetite and movement.
During my last visit, he even chose to leave his “sickbed” part of the cage and go into a more open area where he leapt easily up to his platform. At that point, I asked Jaye to deliver a dose of Homeopathic opium to Duke again as he still had no bowel movement.

It is not clear to me at this point why Duke took a downward turn but perhaps that was before he finally moved his bowels…..and we still don’t know exactly what created this devastating illness. Someone called the Sanctuary and wondered why we didn’t put him down already. Needless to say nobody thought that was even a remotely good idea as this was just a very sick tiger, not a pain riddled tortured dying creature.

“Duke’s pad” was created giving his cage air-conditioning which was helping him breathe easier by removing the unrelenting humidity. To be exact, he had a “Tiger’s Pad fit for a King” which he is. With tarps, sliding glass door parts, blankets an AC unit and fan with the next cage included as a place for his ever-loving Jaye to sleep on an air mattress. Duke had it made and is healing more rapidly finally.
Yesterday when I went to visit him in “the Pad” he looked and acted so much better. I gave him one of his favorite Flower Essences, Arbor Garden, from GreenHope Farms which he happily slurped up from the dropper and asked for another go round which he eagerly sipped as well, followed as always with several big wet tiger kisses on my hand to show his appreciation. I thought that my heart would burst when he licked my hand. The Duke I know and love was back and feeling good too.

Many of us have put in mega hours towards Duke’s healing and I had even created an online network of animal healers across the country to send him energy. However, no one has been more committed on all levels than Jaye who has probably not spent a night away from his side in 3 weeks, hand feeding him and combing the mats out of his fur, and his response and love for her is beautifully obvious as well.

I am optimistic now that Duke will have a full recovery. We still don’t absolutely know what made him so sick, but we sure know a lot of what made him well again. All the medicines, be they homeopathic or allopathic, Native American or plain American Veterinary combined to facilitate his healing and the most important ingredient by far was LOVE.

UPDATE ON DUKE: DUKE IS DOING FINE AND IS TOTALLY BACK TO NORMAL REGAINING THE HUNDRED OR SO POUNDS HE LOST AND HAPPY ONCE MORE AT EARS: ENDANGERED ANIMAL RESCUE SANCTUARY see them online http://www.earsinc.net

see my other work with animals on my site too
* The Wise Woman’s Tarot – http://www.flashsilvermoon.com *

* The Wise Woman’s Tarot – http://www.flashsilvermoon.com

Duke and Flash really love each other*