Elaine’s Gift

This article is available in Spanish. Go to the Spanish translation.

This happened to me at a time when I had been studying EFT for a few years but had been having difficulties convincing the very skeptical French people and I was about to give up the whole idea of being an EFT practitioner. Since then, thankfully, the French are getting rapidly more open to and less wary of techniques like EFT!

This experience with Elaine, my friend's cat, gave me a reason to pursue my goal, so that's why I call it Elaine's gift. At the end of this story you will see that I wasn't the only one to receive a gift!

I had an appointment to go to a friend Susan's for tea one day.

When I got there Susan told me that Elaine, their cat was dying and was probably in her last hours. Her husband John was home from work as Elaine had had a fit that morning. She couldn't breathe as she had cancer that had invaded most of her body (I saw the x rays – quite impressive). They had rushed her off to the vet that morning to have her put to sleep but she had put up such a fuss at going in the car that it had really livened her up, so when the vet agreed upon euthanasia they didn't have the heart to put her to sleep and they brought her back home.

John and Susan were smiling and friendly but I could sense their tension and grief. They told me they were worried they had acted out of selfishness and they couldn't tell whether she was in intolerable pain or whether it was the right time to put her to sleep and they were in total confusion.

I automatically thought of EFT but hesitated as I had already touched on the subject at an earlier date and hadn't really found an opening. But this time I thought, "What the heck, this is a crisis, let's give it a go!" So I told them I'd been working with this energy tapping thing called EFT and that I had just read an article about that explained how it could work on animals too.

So Susan said "O.K, why not have a go?"

I told her I wouldn't have to touch Elaine or even see her. She hadn't been to her favourite place the couch in the sitting room for over a week staying mainly on a cushion under the radiator as she was always cold.
But for two days she had been staying in hiding under the bed behind some boxes. Susan would crouch by the bed and coo at her to comfort her but she seemed to need to be alone. Susan said that it reminded her of when animals know they are going to die.

So, we went to the little sitting room just across the hall from the bedroom I sat down on the couch and I asked Susan to help me make a list of the things Elaine would be feeling (all the pains, discomforts, fears, tensions and emotions). I explained to her that I was going to imagine I was Elaine and that I would then tap on myself for what she could be feeling.

So Susan told me all the things Elaine could be feeling as well as the fact that she hated going in the car and that she really hated having to swallow the pills the vet had prescribed. I also suggested things that would concern John and Susan such as:

Even though 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' are afraid I’m in pain…
Even though are finding it difficult to let go of me…
Even though they are very sad I’m dying …
Even though they don't know whether to put me to sleep or not…

…I'm a good cat and Mummy and Daddy love me very much.

While we were writing out this list, Frieda, their other cat came up and kept on meowing and rubbing herself on us wanting attention. She had never come up to me in my previous visits as she likes to stay on her own, but today she was extremely sociable!

When we had finished our list I started to really focus my attention on Elaine and seeing some pictures of cats on the wall, I thought that maybe I could focus on one of the to help me connect further while tapping surrogately. I asked Susan, "Is that one of Elaine?

I had barely finished my sentence when Elaine walked in and lay down at my feet, almost lying on them, as if to say, "O.K. lady, I'm ready, do your stuff!"

Susan and I were both in awe as we had never seen a dying cat go up to a stranger before, let alone lie down at that stranger's feet!

I immediately started tapping on myself or just simply gently touching the EFT points, going through each item of the list. The atmosphere in the room grew more and more peaceful as I tapped. Susan sat down next to Elaine and stroked her gently and lovingly during the whole procedure. She was really participating fully and smiling gently all the while. All the sadness and distress she had shown previously had disappeared.

When I tapped on Elaine not liking the pills I felt a gripping sensation in my throat and chest so I tapped for, "I really hate those pills!" and "they hurt my throat and chest," until it went away.

At first, Frieda lay watching the situation on the armrest next to me and at one point she sat up and stared intently at my face for the longest time even when I wasn't tapping my face. After she kept rubbing against me and Susan demanding cuddles and meowing and she ended up lying in my lap as I continued on tapping.

During the procedure, Elaine looked up at me from time to time. When I had finished tapping I said to Susan, "O.K. we're done now." Right at that moment Elaine got up and stretched and went to climb up on the couch next to me, but she couldn't as she was too weak, so Susan picked her up and placed her next to me. She curled up and fell asleep peacefully.

Finally we left her there to sleep and went to the kitchen for a cup of tea. The atmosphere was much more peaceful and even John, who hadn't participated as he had work to do, was more relaxed. We chatted and even had a few good laughs!

Before I left we went in to check on Elaine. She was still lying quietly on the couch and her breathing was much more relaxed (John, the skeptic, was the one who pointed this out!).

The next day, Elaine had had another fit so Susan and John once more decided to take her to the vet, but this time they were decided that it was really time to put her to sleep. But they never had to make the decision whether to do so or not because this time Elaine died peacefully in Susan’s arms in the car on their way to the vet’s.

My deepest thanks to Elaine.

Whenever I feel discouraged I can feel her encouraging me to continue.

Christine Blanchet
www.eft-liberation.com

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on March 21, 2010.