Wow, what a day.

Sunny, warm. It was one of these days where you just get stuff done. Things that hadn’t worked out, come together. Smooth sailing all the way. By the time I hit the road home, it was already dark. I tend to drive defensively at night, always keeping an eye out for animals. Suddenly, I noticed an apparently lifeless body in the middle of the road. I pulled over to determine if, in fact, it was. Upon closer inspection, I was happy to see that the animal was still alive.

The animal needed to get somewhere safe, and I had the means to do it. I emptied the tote of laundry that I had in the car, grabbing a bedsheet to protect both of us, and proceeded to pick it up. I grew up on a farm and am used to situations where you just need to get things done. His body weight was healthy, but I could see a big bump on his right shoulder. He didn’t fight, and it seemed that he was closer to death than life. His body felt rather cold when I touched it.

The first step to recovery was to get him warm again, now that he was off the road. Okay. Animal in car. Check! But now what? I had no idea.

I walked up to a vehicle that had pulled up behind me while I was putting the animal in my car. I asked the occupants if they knew a place that rescued wild animals, explaining that I was new to the area and had no idea where I could bring an injured animal.

After the driver listened to me, he asked in disbelief, “Do you know what you just put in your car?”

For a split second, I wondered if I had misidentified the animal and stuck a skunk in my car! No, the stripes went the other way, phew!

“A raccoon,” I replied. “Why?”

“They are ferocious,” he said.

I simply shrugged my shoulders and said that the animal was almost cold, so I wasn’t particularly worried about that. My main concern was to find a safe, caring place for my little buddy to heal and survive.

Years ago, I had picked up an injured fox. Back then, in the location where I was living, there was no place that was allowed to rehabilitate wildlife. (I still find that difficult to comprehend.) I ended up bringing the fox to the conservation officers. The First Nations conservation officer asked me how I managed to get a wild fox into my car. I told him that I just picked it up with my parka and that it wasn’t a problem. He said, “We have people like that.” I guess I always had a strong connection to animals.

The people in the car behind me were rather helpful and found the name of a rescue place where I could drop off the animal. They were probably happy that it wasn’t in their car. I called the rescue. The people were super friendly and helped me navigate my way to their location. This was a bit of an undertaking as I had never heard of the community in which they were located. My phone is so old that most apps don’t work, I have no GPS in my car, and in the back of my head, I was calculating the risk of having a “ferocious” animal in my car.

I needed to breathe and get my head in the game. I crossed an entire continent without GPS, how hard could it be to make the 15-minute drive? Well, 15 minutes is what I heard but it was actually an hour and 15-minute trip. Perhaps that’s what it would have been if I had known my way around or had any kind of navigation system. 

Every journey starts with one step, so I hit the road and we started our journey to the wildlife rescue centre.

After driving for a while, I started wondering if my passenger was still alive. I didn’t hear anything from the back. Was he still breathing? As soon as I tuned in, I knew he was still alive. I have something like a magical gift, although most of the time it feels more like a curse. I basically feel everything people and animals around me feel. If anyone in my vicinity is injured or sick, I feel a tingling in my left hand and healing energy flows to the other being.

In sessions, I do this on purpose, and I can increase the flow by focusing on it. Let’s say I walk through town and all of a sudden, I feel the energy flowing. Then, as I turn the corner, I see someone with a broken bone. I don’t mind being a vessel to bring healing energy to someone. The energy is neutral. For the recipient, it’s basically like fuelling up at the gas station and then their body can use it to heal. All healing is self-healing, just as your doctor can put a bone in a cast but it is your body that actually heals the fracture.

You might be thinking that a really nice lady rescues an injured animal, but in a way, he rescued me right back. Because of that, I called him Merlin. He made me realize that I have a tremendous gift. I knew that he was alive without needing to check. I knew that my not knowing the way, gave him more time to receive the healing energy from me. Right now, as I am writing this, he is receiving healing energy. He is now in someone else’s custody, but we are still connected. 

About one hour into the trip I started to hear Merlin breathe. For me, that was such a relief. That and the fact that the supposedly ferocious animal hadn’t attacked me, yet. For me, animals are brothers and sisters, just like people. Merlin showed me that animals view pain differently. They don’t ask themselves why this happened to them or blame themselves for having done something wrong, it’s just what is.

The first time I worked with energy was probably when I was about 14 years old. We had a crippled calf on the farm. Animals sometimes grow out of deformities, but in this case, it didn’t get better. My mom told me that we would have to put it down, so I asked her to give me time. I had no idea what I could do but I just couldn’t let it go without trying. I followed my intuition. I massaged it, manipulated the legs, walked it to strengthen the legs, and after some time, her legs healed. She had a long, healthy life.

After a two-hour drive, we finally arrived. I was relieved to hand Merlin over to the people at Hope for Wildlife, that is specialized in wildlife recovery. All I had to do is pick him up and give him a ride. I have had passengers who were far more trouble than he was; maybe it was because they were human. Merlin was a total gentleman.

If you feel called to do so, please consider supporting them via this link. They are an extremely professional organization and you can learn more about them and wildlife here.

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