October 2009: From the Editor

Dedicated to:

Ashke
Beloved Companion
~Dec. 1999 to Sept. 19, 2009

I used to think it was kinda corny when people would say that their animals were teachers, but I don’t believe it is corny any more. I wasn’t looking for a dog when I walked into an animal shelter with my mom and sister, but I fell in love with a wiggly puppy, and started a journey that lasted over nine years. Ashke’s whole life was filled with lessons for me about health and healing. I’d like to share some with you.

The first lesson for me was about diet. After we decided to adopt our little puppy, I ran across a book at the library that changed my life. It was called, Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats: The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy Schultze. At the time I was a vegetarian who had never heard of Dr. Weston A. Price. From this book I learned the concept of the “species appropriate diet” for dogs (raw meaty bones, organ meats, and a small amount of vegetables and superfoods). In the process I started my quest for the “species appropriate diet” for humans. This search has brought me from vegetarianism, to low-carb, to the work of Weston A. Price (with a few other stops along the way).

Later, Ashke taught me lessons about using herbs for healing and the futility of going to conventional allopathic doctors for any real answers about health. His recent illness had many lessons for me, although I am not sure what they are yet. A friend of mine says it may be a long time before I really understand what all I learned. I know they have things to do with simply being in the moment, with taking time for myself, with listening to clues that something is not right and acting on that knowledge, with not waiting for experts to know what to do, with dealing with grief (both old and new), and with going way outside of mainstream beliefs about health to find true healing.

I have a greater appreciation for homeopathy after this experience. I repeatedly saw homeopathy work with him, twice very dramatically. I saw a homeopathic remedy bring Ashke out of an event that I thought was leading to death. The first time I gave it to him I thought I was saying goodbye, but the second time I was more objective and was able to calmly witness this amazing revival from zoned-out and unresponsive, to a dog resting comfortably. I had always considered myself open to homeopathy, but until witnessing it first-hand, I think I had always retained a bit of skepticism. I remember hearing a spiritual teacher once try to explain to us the difference between belief and wisdom. Belief is something that you accept as true from someone else. Wisdom is something that you have experienced and you know in your body and soul. Belief will change depending on whom you are listening to at the moment. Something that you have experienced as wisdom no one can take from you no matter what they say. Now, I know that homeopathy works. I also know that nutrition is a powerful force in healing, and nutritional deficiencies may be at the root of all degenerative disease.

We were using conventional therapies and homeopathy, and also using a coordinated nutritional and energy method with Ashke, and I was really hoping that Ashke would show me that this method works. Unfortunately, that may have been too much to ask from one little dog. His death left me with many unanswered questions. He was not able to prove to me that these methods did (or did not) work. Instead I am left still searching.

Looking back, I see that there were signs that Ashke was not in perfect health. What do a growth between his toes that swelled and burst repeatedly; backache, itchy skin, a stinky-greasy coat and kidney failure have to do with each other? I don’t know for sure, but think they were symptoms of a body and an immune system that was not able to keep up with the demands placed upon it. I believe that despite the fact that modern doctors and scientists can tell us intricate details about the workings of parts of the body in isolation, we really do not understand as much about how the body functions as we think we do. I also know that when we accept failing health as a natural result of aging we stop looking for answers. Weston Price and other researchers found traditional cultures that had a high degree of health, and whose elders lived productive lives right up until the time they died at an ripe old age. Degenerative disease is a disease of civilization.

Early on while I was taking care of Ashke a friend recommended I write a book about my experience. I said I would only do it if he recovered because I hate books that have sad endings. This is as close as I will come to writing that book, so thanks for reading.

For more information about the nutritional and energy work we were using, see: More Than A Theory: A New Medical Paradigm by Bert Brooks, DVM. of Cache Creek Holistic Veterinary Service (www.cchvs.com). I wish I had known about Cache Creek earlier. I would have tried it when we were treating the growth on Ashke’s foot a year ago. I didn’t know about it then, but you do now. I am not going to go into everything that I’ve learned about it, (or this really would turn into a book) but I am happy to talk to anyone who is interested (they specialize in “Chronic or Unresolved Health Problems of All Mammalian Species”).

Ashke lived a month after blood tests showed severe kidney failure (with blood levels “generally not compatible with life”), and even longer from the first diagnosis. I am told that that in itself is unusual, as most dogs rarely live for ten days even in the animal hospital. I think that what we were doing was helping, but think that it was either just not enough, or we didn’t start soon enough. I wish I could say I know that it works, but right now I just have belief that I have borrowed from others. I believe that we were on the right track, but not soon enough.

If I have any advice for all of you it is to not settle for degenerating health. Keep searching for answers, and sharing what you learn.

Ashke was a perfect dog. Well yeah, he liked to roll in cow patties when we would go out to the farm for milk, and he’d get so excited about going to the coast that he would whine for miles, and when he was chasing a wild animal he wouldn’t listen to a word I said. But he was brave and joyful, loved to cuddle and he was oh so friendly. He traveled nearly everywhere with me, he was our “official greeter” at work, and he taught me much about life. He was a perfect dog to me, and I miss him.

~ Lisa