The ACO on duty had tried to give the dirty, scrawny, hungry kitten to another cat who had recently weaned her litter.
She was not very accommodating.
He was then placed in the cage with a different cat, Belle, who had delivered one stillborn kitten a week earlier. She was VERY accommodating, fervently cleaning him, snuggling and loving him, guiding him to her nipples, all the while making little meeps of joy.
But she was not producing milk.
The ACO called me, as at that time I happened to also be working as an ACO, and asked me to come give Reiki to Belle to make her start producing milk. I explained that this was NOT how Reiki worked, but I would be very happy to try and share Reiki with the kitten and the surrogate, for the greatest good.
Upon arrival at the shelter, I saw for the first time this little scrap of cat. He was nothing fancy, a mangy little alley cat with dirty, ruffled tabby fur and pleading eyes.
Upon reaching into the cage to say hello to the little fellow, he promptly bit me, attacking my thumb with little snarls and growls, chewing and gnawing hungrily.
I was smitten.
I began performing Reiki on the pair of them, all the while explaining that Reiki was not some sort of on-demand, vending machine, but that at minimum, it would help to calm and relax the pair of them. Imagine my shock and surprise when Belle’s milk began flowing.
The kitten quickly switched his biting, chomping, snarling ,growling focus from my thumb to her nipple, and had his first meal in who knows how long.
He was still not expected to survive.