Parallel Recovery. A Tribute To Jess C.

jessc

As many of you know, I re-homed a dog, Jess C, about 12.5 years ago when she was 18 months old.

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Jess C had a difficult beginning in life. She was very disturbed when I met her, she was stuck in Fight and Flight (I never saw her freeze.)

So which weird person chose her from the rescue centre? Someone who had been stuck in FFF for too many years, and was in full CFS/MCS/Fibro etc mode herself.

It wasn’t long before I felt totally inadequate as regards Jess C. I’d never taken in a dog with as many amygdala problems before. There was I, hardly able to walk without after effects.. There she was, needing masses of love and attention and exercise!

So, we did our best.

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Unfortunately, para gliders hover and float along near where I could park the car and walk a little way with her off the lead (both of us as a lead has 2 ends to it.)

Why unfortunately? Jess C was petrified by them, and fled in a total panic. Luckily straight to the car where she waited for me.

I reckon she ‘saw’ a giant bird of prey looming, on the hunt for prey; where it was really some person below a parachute type of thing. No real danger.

This happened a few times, so I started taking her where no paragliders venture.

We walked along a track with the clifftops behind us. Jess C turned around and saw a big seagull hovering in the sky. She was in panic mode, as before. Fleeing to the car.

She transferred her fear to any bird in the sky. Panic, flee to ‘safety’.

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I took her out after dark and before daylight.

She transferred her fear to the moon and clouds in the dark sky. Panic again (her not me.)

She wouldn’t/couldn’t go out of our garden, past the front gate.

I asked a really good dog trainer, Debbie, for help.

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Firstly Debbie said it didn’t matter if Jess C never went for another walk as long as I kept her interested at home, playing games etc. so that pressure was off.

Then Debbie showed me how to reward Jess C for going out of the front door. Tiny treats and verbal praise. But always only a step or two each time until Jess C was happy to do it.

In a couple of weeks, we got past the front garden gate into the road. Then a while later we actually walked a few steps up the road, and so on, treats and praise all the way. After a good few weeks, she was OK, but I avoided paragliders for her.

All that happened about a year pre-Gupta for me.

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So when my Gupta pack arrived, Jess C would sit with me while I watched the DVDs, sit with me while I listened to a guided meditation and when I would do Soften and Flow before her afternoon walk.

We calmed our amygdala together. As I got better we could walk a bit further together. When I sang my stoppity song she didn’t laugh at me, when I zig-zagged along a track she zig-zagged (off the lead, so by choice) with me. She was there when I did full rounds of ART, but didn’t do them herself as far as I know.

I changed her diet to a better one, wheat free, as I’d heard it could calm a distressed dog. It did.

I got better, too.

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She’s 14 now and I’m 71 so we’ve recovered together and are growing old together, with better lives this past 7 plus years than ever before.

I’ve never seen a dog turn into a butterfly before, but she certainly went through a metamorphosis, as I did.

A parallel recovery for us.

Jess C passed away May 2020 aged 15 yr 10 months after a long and happy life. We all miss her dearly.

Margaret-Cory-Blooger-Moderator-Mentor

Margaret Cory

Having been forced to stop working aged 53 due to CFS, I was later diagnosed with Fibromyalgia as well. (With the added challenges of hypersensitivity to chemicals, smells, various foodstuffs, bright light, noise, etc.)

10 years later I found the Gupta Program and started my recovery. Wanting to pay back some small part of what I owe the Gupta Program I later volunteered to be a moderator in the Facebook Gupta Forum.

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