Soothe, Celebrate or Empower
The role of the pet companion takes on a variety of hats. There are those times when we are the soother or the mother who is aiding the pet who is feeling sad or displaced as his or her family has gone on vacation leaving him or her at home. It is through nurturing and love that they move emotionally through the first day with us acknowledging what they are feeling to let them know they are understood while assisting them in moving to the next phase.
It can be feeling the excitement of the kid whose family is on their way back home. Many pets have a sixth sense or a direct channel to when their family is returning home or where they are at in the process. There are very few pets that I have worked with that they do not “just know” when the halfway mark has been met and just as few do not know the day their family is returning. I can feel it in the energy of them and in some cases the way they want to rush through the tasks at hand during the last visit to get to the reunion quicker.
There can be a dichotomy between leaving one house filled with happy kids who know their family will be coming through the door the next time it opens versus the door you open whose family just left. There is such a huge chasm that can be physically felt in the high and low depending on the pets and where they are at.
Often it is time that provides the avenue for the healing to begin. If the pet has known me before, they start remembering things from our last experience together. Often it is a loose routine set by the parents or one that develops based on the tasks at hand. The pet companion themselves goes on the emotional journey with the pet(s) based on what stage each family is in.
For a new family it can take a day or two for them to understand me or my actions while I am learning about them. When it is a pet or pets that we have gone through the experience before together, within an hour or so they are playing or enjoying our form of companionship once again. It can be in the form of eye gazing, connection in the entryway, a mini greeting and belly rubs, pulling out certain toys that they played with when we were together or even sitting in my lap to connect with me. With every kid, there is a unique action or activity that we do together that allows them to sink more quickly into the rhythm of the visits.
At any given moment or visit, the pet companion or sitter finds themself donning the role of soother, the one empowering, or celebrating the pet’s accomplishments or the return of their family. It is a heart-based business and a labor of love that is walked.
