I wanted to share with you in a new topic at Lumigrate, about the journey I've been on recently applying my skills at The Lumigrate YOU! Model, to being the human advocate and guardian of a cat. After being raised with many dogs, as my parents had an AKC registered kennel operation when I was born and until I went to elementary school, I had a good background with dogs, cats, mice, and horses related to wellness, illness, and veterinary medicine. Conventional veterinary medicine, that is. 

There is a phenomenon where humans learn about wellness and illness and life, overall, through being advocates for their animals .... or children, for that matter. Many parents self-diagnosed their attentional deficits after their children were identified by school professionals, for instance.

Often people will do more for their animals relative to wellness than they'll do for themselves. And since we have such control over the things they consume, typically, it's possible they get better results because they're more compliant (through the hands of their guardians). 

One of my favorite stories of people knowing things and not thinking things through very well to apply to their own lives comes from the first years I was 'doing Lumigrate'.  I had a canine expert inquire for professional services/educational advise related to lupus in a family member, and when I said 'do you know about grains and other foods our bodies just don't know what to do with being a factor and thought to be possible cause or contributor to basically "all" the illnesses?', the expert laughed and said 'I tell people about not feeding dogs grains and I never thought about grains/ wheat for people'. 

When "SpoildeyCat's" path crossed mine on Thanksgiving 2009, I didn't have a clue who she was or why she was greeting me at the door of the house I was going to for dinner, many hours from my home; I do recall saying "I have a feeling this was a setup, and you are going to be coming to Grand Junction with me, little kitty -- I hope you like to ride in the car, it's a long drive to my house from here."

It was 'meant to be' -- we were like Jenny and Forrest Gump; peas and carrots. Really, were were like two peas in a pod. A pod that many of the experts I will share here, have remarked about our similarities and how ironic it was that I wasn't looking to adopt a cat when 'our paths crossed', becoming 'my greatest 10# teacher'. She wasn't doing anything wrong at her first adoptive home, but ended up needing another home due to their household falling apart; kids farmed out to family and no room for the cat too. I could only imagine what the kids were going through, they were apparently very good to her.  

As our Yenta at Lumigrate would say: Get a tissue and pull up your blanket -- get something to drink while you read, perhaps. Enjoy the story. It isn't a "happy ending", in terms of the heart wrenching that went on, but it is an ending which, to me, is incredibly rich in "food for thought" and perhaps ends up being an ending that shows the spiritual aspects of the 'meaning of having a life'.  Naturally, I hope that her having to experience what she did in her short life on Earth goes far with those who are touched by her story and glean meaningful, life-changing information from it.  

In March, I wrote at Lumigrate about vaccinations, including Debby Bruck's Homeopathic Word Community featured as a wonderful resource.  I had told Debby about the cat's symptoms when I heard that she did a regular show with a homeopathic veterinarian.  Christina Chambord, DVM, discussed the situation with Debby and the consensus was that vaccine certainly could have triggered the situation I was relating to them. 

Photo: SpoildeyCat often sat in this position on the back of my recliner. The deep pressure appeared to calm her if she had gotten 'amped up'; she would also RUN at the recliner and JUMP onto the top of the back which would make it drop and SPIN, which was interesting as that's one of the three basic motions that sensory integration therapists will do with those they're treating. So I would promote her doing the activities that appeared to be what she was 'needing'.  

In my childhood, I'd had the usual vaccines for the early 1960s, and my mother had taken me to the pediatrician when I was a toddler or a bit older due to my routine every morning of taking out the pots and pans and setting them on the floor in the exact same order every day.  He brushed it off, saying to just let me do what I was needing to do.  I was hung up on the color red. Then on Mary Poppins. There were many things I struggled with in school, yet I had a high IQ and good grades. My father later admitted in his older years that he felt he had something like autism before he met my mother --- something wasn't right with him he said -- and perhaps he shouldn't marry and have children.

I was diagnosed with significant learning disabilities in my late 20s, and in my mid 30s, in occupational therapy applied neurology class, I was basically told by the internationally known sensory integration specialist professor that I had a significant case of sensory integration dysfunction. That would explain my freak out when put on the kiddieland roller coaster at the amusement park. And a lot of things. Yet in my ability-grouped class of about 100 students in public elementary school, I was in the top group. 

In my young adulthood, I'd had a vaccination to get married when I was 21, which was required in the state of Colorado at the time if titers for rubella were not sufficient. My pre-existing 'okay' wellness level tipped immediately to 'problematic'. I'd had ongoing symptoms that I would now know were indicative of adrenal fatigue, the onset of complex chronic illness, harbingers of things to come that would have been good to get turned around when I was young.

But what did we know back then? Even today there are kids with these same obvious symptoms whose parents, teachers, medical providers don't realize are SYMPTOMS OF this stuff we all have. Symptoms of what some call autism. Symptoms of what we all have that lead to my mother's finding only one student in our school during years of screening who didn't have any symptoms of neurological impairment. Yes, in the area outside Denver, Colorado even in the 1970's timeframe, we were all messed up. Did we look at the things going on with our cats and dogs and other animals and say 'there's something affecting everything?' No. But I do today. I sure see it today, hindsight being 20/20. 

Nine years ago my boyfriend vaccinated his older dog, who had been my working therapy dog in years past, and she immediately was deaf. I'm seeing a concerning trend here. However, overall, most pets I've had and most people I know, have vaccinations and they appear to be 'fine'.

Yes, subjective and personal, but ... personal life experience that I know is the case and experienced first-hand. Something to really think about, no less! Not that YOU need to believe what my subjective, personal information is about, but I encourage YOU / consumers to really look at your OWN STORIES, information, scenarios, history. 

This information confirmed what I had suspected, and it is why I had picked the brain of my locally owned pet supply store's owner for a recommendation about veterinarians who would have 'gotten the memo' about the downside about vaccinations. "The only one doing that is Dr Hooley in Montrose, Morningstar is the clinic name."

Before I had made an appointment, waiting for the snow season to pass completely, SpoildeyCat had another episode of being provoked by what I presume was a wandering neighbor's cat outside, and charging into the area of the house I was occupying, all puffed out and looking literally, like a 20 pound racoon and not a ten pound cat. She oddly would let me 'scruff' her, and, like the other episodes in the last 14 months, carry her with some weight supported by my other hand, to the 'padded room' for sequestering her with a litter box and eat treats under the door, play with a feather or felt toy under the door, and 'redirect'/'reset' her brain.

I could tell when she was out of one of these 'episodes' when her eyes were normally dilated and not fully dilated. There was no padding in the padded room, that's just a joke based on how psyche wards are set up for people.

But she couldn't hurt herself in there, nor could she hurt me. It was a place she could have everything she needed and get back to 'normal'. I would later realize when working on information that was being put out by an 'autism mom' that the symptoms she had with her pupils dilating was similar to this mom's kid's symptoms.

Later I'd be working with a person wanting training on application of information to daily living related to water and food preparations in light of the emerging evidence of bacteria underlying our health issues; just as sweet a person as can be .... until someone in her family provoked her to 'snap' into a rage.

Turning on me because the gal had stormed away from her family member that provoked the reaction, I had to process the interaction that occurred after. I realized her brain was essentially doing something similar to what SpoildeyCat's in her "episodes". "We all have the same thing"....

Not long after this occurred with the woman I was working with, there was a video of a 2015 autism conference and a woman from Utah who was treating autism in her son and helping others with a parasite protocol.  Her lead-in for the presentation was about the violence problem in adolescents with autism when their hormones kick in with puberty. I'd been working with some educators who work in the special education domain and they were telling me about the risks of being injured working with these young people with 'autism' symptoms. 

The 'shocking surprise' occurred with my cat for the first time one February day in 2012, she would be three that June.  I had returned home from an early morning continuing medical education seminar. I'd briefly come into the house and, as always, she greeted me at the door much like the first time I saw her when she was needing a foster/adoptive home, just very sweetly coming near. In retrospect, she was looking down, having what I now realize were little seizures. But my thoughts were on the day ahead, the next meeting and what I was going to take with me when I left. And I was very hungry. 

I realized there was something in the garage I wanted to toss in my car for my next appointment. In checking that the batteries were operational still, I was suddenly attacked by this normally playful and sweet, sheepish yet bold 'tortie'. I honestly had not looked up 'tortie' cats, so I didn't yet know they had what is known as 'tortietude'. So I dismissed many of her symptoms to being a tortie; but could it be that torties have these unique traits because there's something disturbed with their energy system, as the homeopathic veterinarian who has made the connection with a cat in New York to autism, and vaccination possibly. 

But what I experienced that February day was, to me, beyond anything explained by 'tortie' information that I'd researched in the previous year when I realized after she became a year old that her 'kitten' behaviors were perhaps not going to change. It was as if she had what in humans is called 'sensory integration dysfunction'. She chewed incessantly on EVERYTHING, had to climb on anything she could -- my pants/legs, the curtains, trees if I got her outside on a leash finally so she could get some of this 'monkey' energy out. She jumped and ran and played and was a LOT of fun! But it wasn't like anything I'd ever seen.

She'd eventually lie on her stomach for the deep pressure that calmed her -- again, very much like the 'Squeeze Machine' that Dr Temple Grandin invented for herself that has now helped countless people with autism and senstory integration dysfunction. I was informally diagnosed at CSU, not far from Dr Grandin's office in the Animal Sciences department, by an occupational therapy professor, with sensory integration dysfunction.

I wasn't surprised at what she found. I had informally been diagnosed with a brain injury by vision/learning disability/perceptioin specialists, likely the forceps birth on a beautiful spring day in 1960 when the obstetrician had a golf tee time scheduled on Saturday at 3 pm, for 9 holes; my mother had gone into labor that morning. SpoildeyCat had jumped or fallen from a 2-1/2 story height, I had been told, seeming to not have suffered any damage. This was, perhaps, not the case. It is suspected that the vaccines AFTER that time hit an injured brain and optical system and had affects. See the 'two peas in a pod' I referred to? To damaged peas, perhaps. 

I'd learned much about detoxification, after having my urine analyzed for heavy metals twice in the last decade and working to chelate to pull out the toxins; mercury, lead and cadmium were high; after much expense and effort I saw improvement after withholding things that add mercury, lead and cadmium, and chelating for heavy metals. So it seemed to me I could possibly do the same for SpoildeyCat. But since I've not become dangerous to others due to 'flipping out', I wasn't thinking that at some point the cat could flip out and we'd be at a whole 'other level'.

Hence, my interest in getting the expertise of a veterinarian like the east coast veterinarian who does a weekly webinar with Debby Bruck of Homeopathic World Community, one of Lumigrate's expert providers. She was going to have Christina Chambord on later that week, so our case was submitted for that show -- it was March 2013. And having hands on from someone like Dr Hooley at Morningstar in Montrose was what I had in my plans for once the winter and spring storms might be a factor, because it just seemed more sensible to me to wait a little bit and not have to contend with a storm on a day with hours driving to the veterinarian two counties to the south. 

So as soon as I could get into my house in April (2013) without the agitated/'triggered' cat attacking me, who was truly 'not my normal SpoildeyCat', I called Dr Christina Chambord. "This is just very unique, hang up and quick call Jackson Gallaxy of Animal Planet, perhaps he can talk with you today even if you get to him fast today, it's early in California" she said. ... and if you can't find someone to help you, call me back!.... 

Well, Jackson was so busy with a new season of "My Cat From Hell" that he is not taking any consultations, but his staff did email back that day. In the mean time, I'd called Dr Hooley's office and gotten her first appointment, which was 10 days in the future. I ended up calling back to ask if there was anything they could tell me over the phone to give her to calm her down, much like a holistic version of Valium.  

The woman on the phone that time suggested I call a woman they knew of in California named Deb Jones. "People think we're here floating crystals around or something, but really, it's all very legitimate, she's helped every one we've stuggested call her, that we're aware of.'  Since I had a cat at this point that was living in the garage, looking at me somewhat suspiciously but wanting to trust that I was the person she formerly trusted fully, who would suddenly look at me strangely and put her ears back and hiss, something she NEVER did before, I called Deb!

And I'm glad I did! Deb is a former veterinary technician who had previously been a health food store manager in the days of much good continuing education for anyone who wanted to attend, she was an invaluable resource to me and SpoildeyCat. I was very pleased when she agreed to be part of this topic, if there were people who came through Lumigrate whose animals could benefit from her expertise. She was very suspicious of injury from the fall from 2+ stories years before. She felt that the vaccines that came along after were problematic on the already damaged/injured tissues of the brain.

She also could guide me about there being visual distortions that were similar to 'floaters' that people see, perhaps. And that made sense, as her vision seemed always to be a bit off sometimes but not others, but in these episodes or after, she was just looking at me like she didn't know who I was. I'd noticed that if it was the first warm or cold day of the season we'd have an 'episode' -- it was like she didn't recognize me with a sweater on or no sleeves.

She was a wealth of information about diet, supplements and homeopathic remedies as well as the more conventional veterinary information. And she was ALSO a Jackson Gallaxy/My Cat from Hell fan, and suggested I watch the show. 

This past weekend both cats on the new episode airing were 'torties', one short haired like SpoildeyCat, the other long haired. I am glad I saw the show because I had investigated all that 'territorial' stuff and bought the motion activated sprinklers and done what you can in cold weather to keep roaming neighborhood cats away. I'd bought motion activated silent alarms that were solar powered; I couldn't tell they did much good but we also did have no episodes for a while.

However, it was cold and the cats were likely inside their homes being warm and not coming to our house to antagonize the cat that was being kept inside. Trust me, it had gone through my mind to not trim her nails and just let her out sometime to go let them see what she had in her ... But without having her legally vaccinated, that wasn't so wise, and I truly felt the vaccinations were not helping her/were part of the problem. 

It turns out that all the trial and error we had with progressing her food, with the patient help of the Chow Down staff over many months, which is where she earned the SpoileyCat nickname because she would act 'unhappy and on the edge of losing it' if she didn't get Newman's Own, was because it was messing with her neurological problem to be getting too much of a 'detoxing' diet.

And considering she'd truly seemed to me to go so 'crazy' the day of the first attack, trying to get to my face and clearly wanting me out of the house and garage, I was really not wanting to do anything that provoked problems. Slow and sure, to me, might be the way to go.

I'd noticed that day, as I took refuge in the car and she had come and looked in the windshield at me, that her eyes were fully dilated, I could barely see any color of the iris, it was like 'paper thin'. And suddenly, after a few minutes, she appeared to 'come to' and back to 'reality'. And then in a few seconds, she started slinking across the hood of the car like 'don't hit me for what I just did'. I'd never hit her, but I'd also not been her only owner; I know the people whose house she was born and raised for the first two months and they didn't hit her. 

In telling the local animal behaviorist, Teri Thomas (AngelsInTheMaking, link to website, below along with the others) about her history, the question was "did she get into drugs? Like pot? Pot smoke can be a real problem for cats." The 'profile' of the home's problems that resulted in her needing to be rehomed when I gladly took her, would indicate that was a likelhoood. And per the experts, possibly contributed to her toxification and 'tripping' of the genes she had for what Dr Hooley was able to tell us about when we finally got to our long-awaited appointment. 

Terri also said, without knowing my background is in occupational therapy and sensory integration was a significant portion of my applied neurology class at Colorado State University in the mid 1990s, that this sounded like sensory integration problems were a factor, something she became aware of via the work of Dr Temple Grandin who, she mentioned, was going to be coming to the area to speak at the college/university in the not-too-distant-future, via the work of a particular veterinary office in the Grand Valley.  That was very helpful information to add to the mix. I remember, writing this, how I was learning about sensory integration in class and thinking 'it's like it's a minor case of autism, between a perfect neurological system and where autism is'.

Whoa, if I could have just bottled THAT thought in 1994/5 and run with it! Instead, my career went into the those in skilled nursing needing wheelchairs and general therapy, home assessments, then driving rehabilitation, then inpatient hospital experience, outpatient hospital experience and then eventually home health care in 2005 when I'd needed to make money while I started my outpatient therapy contract service in the Primary Care Partners building in Grand Junction, which went into effect just after midnight on January 1 that year.

And then by 2007 included a health education forum I co-hosted and lead, which lead to my being part of the integrative center that opened in early 2008, where my company put on the seminar series -- some of which were recorded by us and you'll see at this time still on the videos tab at Lumigrate (just look at the snippets, if you wish to get an idea of what we had, or our YouTube channel, I don't suggest people any more do the video downloads, I have things in the forums now that are faster, transcribed, and with more and different experts substantiating the information). 

So the day I ended up getting the appointment to see Dr. Hooley, we didn't have to drive through snow and had a good drive down the Valley to Montrose, and arrived very early, so I parked downtown and we just watched people walk by on the sidewalk, and popcorn snow fell on the windsheld. It was very peaceful and she was enjoying being propped up high in the passenger seat in her large cage. It was what I bought for traveling with her, it accommodated a small litter box and I could give her food and water as needed and there was plenty of space for her to lie down.

She'd gone on many trips in that cage with me, and overall was always restless for the first half hour or so and then she'd get in the mode of watching what was out the windows and we'd go visiting various friends and stay in their homes or at a motels or hotels. Since she was only provoked, apparently, by animals coming onto 'her turf', she never had one of these episodes when we traveled.

But last fall (2012) after our fall trip, she went on a streak at home where she was agitated a lot and it seemed to get better when SpoildeyCat got her Newman's Own, just as she liked it. However, she also enjoyed the raw, frozen food cubes I got from ChowDown, which were acutally very economical. I learned to simply provide half of one and let her eat it when and IF she wanted it. It turns out she was brilliantly intact with her intuition related to what she was needing in terms of not detoxing too fast, per Deb Jones' expert input and insights. 

So when it was almost time for our appointment, she ate the Newman's Own that I'd set in the cage on a plate when we parked, and she lapped a little water, and I poured it out on the ground and we drove to Dr Hooley's office. They took the history and copied the five pages of history I provided in writing.

"The detail" of SpoildeyCat's pupils getting totally dilated and for the time I'd observed on that first incident was a key bit of information that let Dr Hooley know this was a condition that's apparently rare but she's seen it many times in her career. "They're just dangerous cats" and there is nothing currently in holistic or conventional medicine that can correct it. I was seeing what I thought were seizure-like events as well.

She said that sometimes she feels these cats know that euthanasia will put them out of their misery of what all goes on when they have these episodes and they almost welcome it. And that appeared to me, to be the case with SpoildeyCat. Hard as it was on me, it appeared to be really beautifully done by an experienced, efficient, and experienced and CARING veterinarian. We were all eased by the essential oils and energetic medicine sprayed or waved in the air, and it appeared to me that SpoildeyCat felt this was another home we were visiting, with loving people just like every other trip she'd come along with me for. 

So, for what it's worth, that's the process in my experience, for how we went from suspecting there was a problem, to solving the problem. I have become a big fan of Jackson Galaxy and his product, called SpiritEssences: I got a bottle of $9 'ScaredeyCat' on the day of her last episode and it did seem to turn her around from not wanting me in the house to being glad I was home, yet suspicous and untrusting and 'confused' a bit. She slept for days after that, much like people I've been with in the past after they have a grand mal epileptic seizure episode. I am so grateful for the local behaviorist's knowledge and abilities, the local pet supply owner's connection to know about Dr Hooley, and their knowing and suggesting Deb Jones.

Deb told me about the specific types of Bach Flower Remedies that were needed and I immediately went and purchased and used them. Amazing. And it makes sense they might be as good for myself as they were for her.  I had talked with a clerk who had been a farrier at the health store who had suggested one of the two that Deb suggested and since it was horse not feline experience he had, I'd passed on purchasing at that time.  I regret that now. (Live and learn!)

I'm providing all their links for your information, below. I encourage you to go out to the veterinarians' for education they have about a number of topics. Visit Deb's website, it's like a 'business card' with no additional information, but I'll be letting her know about this information and she can provide a comment/response to be included, and perhaps embellish it with a photograph. If this helps YOU somehow, with your challenges as a human guardian and advocate for a pet, then, well -- that is why I have shared this with you here today. 

Chow Down Pet Supplies' website:  www.chowdownpetsupplies.com/

Deb Jones is also a hands-on animal therapist. Her clients include beloved family pets and exotic animals. She is especially valued for her physical work and communication with horses."

ANOTHER TOPIC AT LUMIGRATE ABOUT PETS, focused on FOOD (and water/ diet) www.lumigrate.com/forum/animals-showing-us-way-feeding-our-pets