A Free Spirit. Betty Shine
to their adopted families. Their ability to show this love may seem quite extreme at times, but that’s because it’s the only way they can communicate their feelings.
But it is the territory in between that is difficult to define, and an area which, if misunderstood, can lead to illness and possible death. The lives of our pets are in our hands. If they run away from a particularly bad situation they may end up being passed from place to place, which can often have disastrous consequences. Or they may not find a new home and be put to sleep. They have no hiding place.
If you can begin to have a ‘gut’ feeling whenever you are near your pet, you will be able to feel their emotions. But if you always insist on having things your own way, then you have lost the plot before you begin.
I have been in homes where owners have made it clear that their pet has to obey every command. This is sheer lunacy. They are trying to turn an animal into a robot. Of course there have to be rules, but they should never be so rigid that there can be no give and take. What about the times when the animals are feeling under the weather and cannot respond as usual?
In the country, many dogs are kept outside in all weathers, so when they are ill their suffering can be acute. I have seen the owners of these animals sitting in comfortable chairs by a warm fire on a bitter winter’s night, with no thought at all for the poor wretched animals outside.
I know from experience that these people would never accept that they are being thoughtless and uncaring. Many of them come from families who have always treated their animals in this way. So it is only through education, through television and books, that children today are beginning to understand not only the laws of nature but also those of love, kindness and compassion towards the creatures who share this planet with us.
Before taking possession of any animal, it is essential to understand what will be involved in taking care of it in the proper manner. Because we have taken away its natural habitat and have tried to humanise it, we have become responsible for it. Although this may not be an ideal situation for human or beast, it is simply the way things are. But trust between our species can grow if more effort is put into the relationship by us.
Training an animal to fit into your environment must never entail any action that would harm the animal. Cruelty will only reduce the poor creature to a miserable, neurotic wreck. Worse still, those animals capable of attack will eventually retaliate, and then they might be labelled as difficult, impossible to train and not worth the effort, so they are put down.
It is not just animals who behave like this. Humans react in the same way when they are treated badly. But in their case, such behaviour will usually elicit support and understanding from friends and counsellors. Sometimes, if the animal attracts the attention of a caring organisation, then it will receive similar treatment, but a large percentage do not have this chance.
I received a letter from a woman who begged me to heal her Highland terrier. It had apparently taken an intense dislike to her lodger and become extremely aggressive whenever he was around. This was unfortunate, because he actually liked the dog and had tried to bond with it. She assured me that, apart from having bitten her ex-boyfriend – who hated dogs – it had always been very docile.
There is always a reason for aggressive behaviour in an otherwise docile animal, so I decided to set up a telepathic link whilst giving it healing. The result was rather surprising. The first picture I received was of a man’s jacket and the feeling of fear the animal had whenever it came into contact with it. I received a strong impression that the jacket had belonged to the ex-boyfriend.
I contacted the owner, who not only confirmed my diagnosis, but told me that she had given the jacket to her lodger after it had been cleaned and that he always wore it when he took the dog for a walk. I was able to explain that the energy of the original owner would always remain in the fabric of the jacket, no matter how many times it was cleaned, and that her terrier associated the coat with its fear for the ex-boyfriend.
Wherever we live, whatever we touch, and whoever we meet throughout our lives, we always leave a part of ourselves behind – that part is the mind. Once you understand this, it becomes obvious that you must strengthen your own mind in order to counteract any negative vibes you may encounter. However, animals do not have this level of understanding, and so react instinctively.
With this diagnosis in mind, the owner destroyed the jacket, and all signs of aggression from the dog disappeared. A year later, I was delighted to learn that the dog and the lodger had become firm friends.
A lifetime of linking in with animals has taught me that there is always an underlying factor to unusual behaviour in our pets. It is not always possible to change the circumstances, but it is within our power to investigate every avenue, to try to uncover the underlying source that is causing the disturbance.
I remember one lady who had all the qualities necessary to ensure the happiness of a beloved animal. But she was taxed to the limit the time her dog reacted in a very aggressive manner when she moved house.
Her companion of five years was a collie cross. They went everywhere together, and the love they shared was there for all to see. She decided to move from her large rambling Victorian home to a small isolated cottage surrounded by three acres of fields. She thought it would be an ideal situation for her and her dog.
However, as soon as they had moved in, the animal’s personality changed. It was no longer a loving pet but an aggressive and totally neurotic stranger. The local vet visited the dog, and also called in a dog psychiatrist, but to no avail. When all else had failed, the lady wrote to me, begging for my help.
I decided in this case that I would use remote viewing, which is the ability to visit places by using mind power. On my first ‘visit’, I was astonished to see a phantom figure standing behind the dog. I could feel the animal’s distress as it tried to escape the attentions of this very negative spirit, who was haunting the cottage.
I made contact with the dog’s owner and explained the situation, offering to exorcise her unwelcome guest. Understandably, the lady was shaken, but agreed to let me intervene.
I contacted the spirit and asked it to leave, to look for the light. But it took three sessions before the owner was able to inform me that her dog had returned to normal.
A year later, she happened to mention the incident to a near neighbour, who then told her that the late owner of the cottage had not only been extremely possessive of her home and belongings, but had always hated dogs. Everything points to the conclusion that it was she who was haunting her own cottage.
Because animals can see spirit manifestations, it is possible to determine where the spirit is standing by studying the animal’s behaviour. If a dog feels that it is being threatened in any way, it will show its teeth and snarl, and even try to attack the apparently empty space occupied by the spirit. They can also feel the temperature dropping as the entity absorbs earth energies in its efforts to stay where it is.
My next story involved the whole of my family, including our own dog, Mickey.
My husband and I were looking for a larger house, as our children were growing up and we all needed more space. We looked around for several months before we found a house we liked. As it was obviously empty, we parked our car in the drive so that we could have a closer look. The large garden was overgrown, which was strange because it was in a very upmarket area and the surrounding houses looked immaculate.
We were about to leave when we noticed that the back door had been left ajar. Gingerly, we pushed the door open, and found ourselves standing in a huge kitchen. As we walked through into the hall, Mickey rushed past us, and then stopped in his tracks and began to whimper. This was unusual behaviour for him as he was normally a very confident dog. It was at this point that I felt a prickly sensation over the whole of my head – always a sign that something is wrong.
Determined to view every room, we investigated further, and found that all the walls in the house had oak panelling. This gave them a very sombre look, and for some reason it filled us all with a sense of foreboding. There also seemed to be a peculiar smell about the place like rotting vegetation.
Not