Robyn Fritz — Page 29 — Intuitive and Spiritual Consulting, Past Life Regression

Our Birthday Wish for Your Animal Family

July 16, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

Today, July 16, 2012, my beloved Murphy would have been 14 years old. Instead, I lost her on March 8, 2012, to splenic cancer, one of many diseases I now learn is linked to early spay/neuter.

Yes, my grief is compounded because I did what the animal care community, from veterinarians to shelters to breeders, insist is the proper thing to do: spay or neuter your animals as babies, before they are sexually mature.

Sadly, that is not true. Today, 50% of dogs over 10 get cancer. It’s an epidemic. Thyroid issues, obesity, arthritis, hip dysplasia, cancer … it’s a big list, and early spay/neuter is one of the culprits.

What are we doing to our families? To ourselves?

The research is out there, and being ignored. Why? Ignorance. Propaganda. Politics. A deadly combination of trying to do the right thing, for example, reducing pet overpopulation, and not thinking things through, or keeping up with the research.

Was Murphy ‘old enough,’ as some people say? No, but she was old, and happy, vigorous for her age, and we were robbed of more time together.

Most important? Murphy was family.

Are your animals family members? My animals are part of what I call a multi-species family. What does the human-animal bond mean to you? What is proper veterinary care?

How do you define love?

Someone told me recently that I “walk my talk.” I guess that’s true. I believe in the equality of all life, that all beings, whatever they are—human, animal, chair, car, home, business, plant, weather system—all life has a soul, is conscious, has free choice, and responsibility. All life. Including my animal family. I give space for my animals to make choices. So Murphy chose how she would live her ending. Unfortunately, I didn’t know better in the beginning.

The fierce love I have for my animal family to me is normal. My animals are my kids, my family. My partner is a crystal ball. My home is alive and participates in the work I do, as does my business.

Murphy was a dog. She was my soul mate. Right now, I don’t want another soul mate.

Do you?

If so, let’s talk. Let’s brainstorm, in person, on the Internet, and figure out how the love we have for all of life, including our animal families, can keep them as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

Really look hard at the early spay/neuter issue. Take an immediate stand: say no to any animal that comes from someone who insists on spaying or neutering it before it comes to you. Any animal from anywhere, shelter or breeder. Don’t patronize vets or any animal organization or business that supports this insane practice.

Make it stop. That will get attention. That will get us talking. All of us together.

Maybe, then, more people will get something I don’t have today, July 16, 2012: I don’t have my beloved Murphy with me.

I can’t save my soul mate. Help me save yours.

Say no to early spay/neuter, then investigate it and make a decision that works for your family. Research. Connect.

Help me do one more thing: I can’t hug my beloved Murphy on her birthday. Hug your animals for me.

We’re celebrating her birthday tonight with a piece of chocolate cake topped with fresh cherries.

We’ll be lighting a candle for change. For peace. For all of our families. Together.

Light a candle with us. A candle for love. In the end, that’s all we have, and all we need.

Here’s our birthday wish for you: a long healthy life with your animal family.

How Do We Really Define Land of the Free?

July 5, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

The Fourth of July in America has become a puzzle for me. We’ve devolved into an ‘us or them’ paradigm, it seems, where the only thing that matters is our military. Why is that?

Seriously, why is that?

I honor every American who works hard at whatever he or she does: from serving in the military to growing food, building roads, teaching, writing, fitting shoes, whatever it is. Especially those who love their work and respect other people.

I’m also puzzled over the state of our national discourse: people argue, rant and rave, attack characters instead of debate ideas. And somehow in that we get nowhere, as a society, as a culture, as a country.

The Fourth of July used to be something that narrowed the field, so to speak. It gave us a time out to look around and say, “Yes, wow, I am a citizen of this great country.” Time to think about it: “What does that mean, exactly, to be a citizen of the United States of America right here and now?”

Sadly, our culture now seems to be one that perpetuates fear. Yes, there are plenty of things we can fear: hatred, contempt, the politics of loathing, economic turmoil, drought, crop failure, cropped pants, and men who don’t wear shirts in the summer.

But there are plenty more things we can love: each other, determination, courage, experimentation, curiosity, intelligence, commitment, and winter fleece.

There are even more things we can do: we can get together every day, in large ways and small, and connect with each other. A quick smile at the market, a nod at work, letting the annoying driver cut in ahead of you, staring at the sun shining through a thunderstorm (it happens).

The Fourth of July is one of those days: connect to all Americans, as Americans, regardless. We’re not just military. We shouldn’t be. We have other things to be in the world: ambassadors of freedom.

Here’s hoping that next year when they televise the concerts and fireworks and highlight the people we should thank for their service, that they move beyond the military and show people of all races and creeds, representatives from each state, smiling and laughing together, joining together, one heart and one voice: we’re doing something great in the world, together. We’re Americans. We’re proud. We love: each other and the world. Whatever the work we do, whatever we look like. We matter. All of us, together. We’re all the land of the free.

You in?

Vets Say “No” to Early Spay/Neuter, Too

June 20, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

People are starting to listen to those of us who are learning the truth about early spay/neuter.

Vets are starting to speak up as well. Like all pioneers and good-thinking people, they are not always treated well by the establishment. Why? Speaking the truth upsets the status quo, and that often means an income loss for others as well.

Here’s the thing. I lost my beloved Cavalier, Murphy, to a cancer linked to early spay/neuter. I had her neutered at six months because we are all told that’s what you do. The arguments for it are silly and amount to brainwashing by special interests: vets, animal shelters and welfare groups, people who invented procedures and refuse to look at the consequences and the clear proof that it is wrong.

Yes, early spay/neuter is wrong. It leads to cancer, thryoid disease, obesity, arthritis. It should be a choice, a choice made by the animal’s family, the animal, and a responsible, knowledgeable veterinarian.

Check out this article: “At What Age Should I Spay or Neuter My Dog or Cat? What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Neutering My Pet? Revisiting the Idea of Early-Age Neutering.” The article outlines how early spay/neuter got started, what the health and behavior issues are with it, and what it means for you and your animal families. It was written by Ron Hines, DVM, PhD, a Texas veterinarian who is apparently under fire from the Texas veterinary association for sometimes giving free advice online.

Really.

I can’t presume to know why people do the things they do, even though I work as an intuitive, and somehow we’re supposed to know things other people don’t. Truth is, I don’t understand brainwashing, or the subtleties that go along with it.

I just love my animal family, and always tried to do right by them.

At the time I lost Murphy I began to learn the truth about early spay/neuter. I’ve been talking the truth ever since.

People say: “But we have to prevent pet over-population.”

Really?

That hasn’t worked. Besides, are you going to let your animals run around untrained and unsupervised? If so, you have a bigger problem to deal with, which starts with common courtesy and respect. You’re the problem, not my animals.

People say: “We have to adopt all the animals in the shelter. We have to rescue animals.”

Really?

Fine, if you want an animal from the shelter. But consider the irony. The shelters are adopting out animals that are bred irresponsibly by your irresponsible neighbors, and perhaps also by you. They are asking you to take care of it for life, at whatever cost that comes to, and denying you the fundamental right to decide one of life’s most important issues: when to spay/neuter your animal.

And you’re still going to those shelter/rescue places why? Tell them no. They’ll start taking better care of the animals who end up in their care. If you want an animal from a shelter organization, make sure the spay/neuter decision is yours. Not theirs.

The irony for me is, my dogs are purebreds and I’m proud of it. I’m proud of their beautiful personalities, their breed, and I love them. If you want to adopt a dog who’s a mixed bag genetically, then do so. You’re free to do that. Leave my purebreds alone.

My cat is a cat mutt I adopted from a local Seattle rescue organization.

All my animals came to me with a spay/neuter agreement in place. I did so early, because that was the recommendation. I didn’t adopt an animal that was spayed or neutered before it came to me. As a responsible pet parent, I was asked to make that decision for them myself.

As we all should be.

I had no idea that the advice I was getting was wrong.

You do, now.

I lost my beloved dog to a cancer linked to early spay/neuter. I have to live with the idea that I might have contributed to that because the responsible pet parent I thought I was clearly was not.

I didn’t know better.

You do now.

Refuse any animal, purebred or otherwise, where the decision on when and why to spay/neuter is anyone else’s but yours. Policies will change when it costs these organizations the thing they most want: money and your support. Plus, they will educate themselves about the truth behind their misguided policies.

Your animal’s life may be at stake.

Your peace of mind should be.

Love life. Love your animals. Say no to early spay/neuter.

Please.

Demystiying Intuition: How to Be a Survivor

June 14, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

: (c) 2011 Danny L. McMillin

We are all intuitive. I teach this by explaining that there were once two branches of humans: one was intuitive, and the other got eaten.

So relax, you are a survivor.

Or, at least, you’re descended from survivors. Improve your odds of staying that way by learning to tap your intuition, which will also help you create a more graceful, vibrant, successful life.

I teach people how to tap into their own plain, ordinary, everyday intuition by exploring what some people call the woo-wooey: yep, when I teach my classes or work privately, our special guests include Mount St. Helens, dragons, goddesses and guides, animals, gardens, a car, a condo, a business, and, of course, my partner, Fallon the Citrine Lemurian Quartz.

Why? Because it’s fun, which is my first rule of life.

Because it’s intriguing, and gets people to use their intuition as a practical sense, just like hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, and tasting.

Because it’s real and commonsense: talking with beings we’re not used to experiencing, or talking with, as equals creates a humbling appreciation of how fascinating and complete our lives can be once we get past the burden of humans being ‘in charge.’ Once we treat all life as equals.

And, yes, because learning to trust your intuition—your gut sense—can save a life.

Years ago my dad was ill and hospitalized for gall bladder surgery the next morning. When my mom called me, she told me not to bother coming: I lived in Seattle, four hours from Salem. When I hung up I was hit so hard by the strong sense that I had to be there that I was on the road in 30 minutes.

Five minutes after I walked into my dad’s hospital room, the surgeon walked in to chat about the surgery. He asked if my dad was allergic to anything, and my parents said “No.”

The same gut sense knowing that pulled me out of my chair in Seattle to drive to Salem hit me again. I blurted out, “Wait a minute, aren’t you allergic to that dye they use for X-rays?”

Startled, the doctor looked at me and then my parents. “Is that true?” he asked.

My parents stared at me in surprise and nodded, perplexed.

The doctor nodded at me in satisfaction and said, “I guess that’s why you’re here today. We would have used that dye before surgery tomorrow. You probably just saved your dad’s life.”

On two other occasions I saved my own life by reacting promptly to that same gut instinct. Ironically, in one of those instances the police called me a ‘survivor.’

Dramatic, yes, and all before I really understood what intuition was, how to use it, and how to teach it.

Now when I teach people how to tap their intuition I help them find what their strongest intuitive ability is: whether they see, hear, feel, or know something beyond what we think we experience daily. People are able to take that knowledge to live more comfortably and completely. To claim their power.

That day at the hospital my intuition saved my dad’s life. Why? Because I listened to the nonlinear, this-doesn’t-make-sense-but-I-know-it’s-right feeling.

How do you learn it?

Well, I think it’s fun to learn it by inviting other beings to come talk with us. Yes, goddesses and dragons, animals and weather, a car, a house, a business, a garden. It’s also astonishingly successful: when people relax and open up to talking with other beings they really learn which intuitive ability works best for them, without the pressure of conforming to what we’re supposed to think or how we’re expected to act.

By taking a full leap into the big wide world that we never think to intimately explore. A world where we are equal with all life.

It’s enlightening. Humbling. Fun.

Come to one of my classes on tapping your intuition, on how to talk with all life. Find out for yourself.

“Murphy’s Choice”: Save Our Dogs, Stop Early Spay/Neuter

June 11, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

Sometimes an issue is so politicized, the cultural issues so huge, you can’t imagine making a difference.

But you know you have to try.

I am calling this issue “Murphy’s Choice.” Because I want your dogs, your beloved animals, to live.

Please. Help me take down the animal welfare community as it currently exists.

End it. Stop it. Put it out of business.

Don’t lose your dog the way I lost my beloved Cavalier, Murphy: to a cancer linked to early spay/neuter. Let’s save our dogs’ lives. Our cats. Our beloved animal families.

How?

Just say no—and make sure they know why you’re saying it.

Don’t adopt any animal from anyone—shelter, rescue, breeder, irresponsible owners—who requires early spay/neuter. Tell them why.
Don’t do business with anyone, especially veterinarians, who urges routine early spay/neuter. Tell them why.
Don’t give money to anyone or any organization, from the Humane Society to Best Friends to your local shelters and rescue groups, who support early spay/neuter. Tell them why.
Tell everyone you know or meet on the street: what they’re telling us to do to our animals is killing them. There is proof.

Early spay/neuter has not stopped pet overpopulation. It is causing cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, arthritis, hip dysplasia—want to know more? Google it. You’ll find me. You’ll also find research going back years that points to early spay/neuter as a key reason for these conditions and illnesses, and for a host of others that plague our animal families.

That we don’t know this is, honestly, a conspiracy of silence and ignorance. And it is killing our animals.

All issues concerning the animals who are your current or prospective animal family members should be your decision. All of them. Each animal needs to be considered as an individual, with its own needs. You need responsible, knowledgeable veterinarians to help you with those choices. You don’t need to have those decisions made for you by anyone else, no matter how loving and concerned they seem to be.

Because they either don’t know the truth, or they think their political views are more important.

They are wrong.

Really, it’s simple. You add an animal to the family, and you’re expected to care for it for life, which could be years. Yet one of the most crucial issues is when you interrupt its hormonal development, and somehow politics says it should be someone else’s decision. That we are all buying into it is shocking. That we need to stop doing so is obvious.

Here’s what you need to know:

Take female dogs through at least two heat cycles.
There is almost no reason to ever neuter a male dog.

When an animal is spayed or neutered depends on that animal’s needs. If that animal is living with you, then it’s your responsibility to know what those needs are, and to meet them.

Right now 50% of dogs over 10 will get cancer.

I lost my beloved Murphy to cancer. She was a week shy of 13 years, 8 months. She had other issues throughout her life, from a thyroid disorder to arthritis. I can’t say for sure everything that was involved in this. (It is not being a purebred, this problem crosses all breeds and mixes, which, by the way, happen to be unethical, and somebody needs to offer a rational explanation for why everyone rushes to adopt the animals that come from people who have irresponsibly allowed their animals to reproduce yet criticizes responsible, careful breeders, but those are serious subjects for another time).

What I now know is that early spay/neuter is a well-known culprit in these conditions. And I can tell you that it was bad enough to lose Murphy, and worse to know that I might have been able to prevent it if I’d just known that early spay/neuter is not a solution to anything.

In 30 years of pushing early spay/neuter we have not resolved pet overpopulation. We have simply brainwashed people into doing it because there is a problem, which assumes that we are not going to be responsible for their care and supervision.

How dumb was I? How dumb is everybody else? How dumb will you be going forward?

Let’s stop the madness. Get off the early spay/neuter bandwagon. Get onto one that protects our animals and our multi-species families. That honors the human-animal bond.

Let’s take down the current animal welfare system. Replace it with loving, calm, committed dialogue and solutions that work for our animal families.

Educate yourself. Educate your neighbors. Then quit doing business with the people and organizations who are perpetuating a myth that is killing our animals.

Here it is, again: early spay/neuter is not solving the pet overpopulation problem, but it is subjecting our animals to serious illnesses and early deaths that can be prevented by not interrupting their hormonal development until they are sexually mature.

Please. Save our dogs. It’s too late for my beloved Murphy. Please, help me save your animal family.

Shut down the animal welfare system as it exists. Just say no.

Why You Need to Tap Your Intuition

June 7, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

Helping people tap into their own plain, ordinary, everyday intuitive awareness is central to my work: how to live graceful, vibrant, successful lives by tapping our intuition.

I teach this by jumping right into what some people call the woo-wooey: yep, when I teach my classes or work privately, we have goddesses and guides, deceased family and animals, Mount St. Helens, dragons, and, of course, my partner, Fallon the Citrine Lemurian Quartz. I am, after all, an MBA with a crystal ball.

To intrigue people to take a leap and experience their intuition as a practical sense, just like hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, and tasting, I use a common-sense, fun method which includes many beings we’re not used to experiencing, or talking with, at all, let alone as equals: Mount St. Helens, dragons, furniture, animals, the dead, trees, condos, weather, businesses. You walk away astounded at how easy it is to talk with things and with a new appreciation of how fascinating and complete our lives can be once we get past the burden of humans being ‘in charge.’

We are all intuitive: personally, I believe humans once came in two varieties: one was intuitive, and the other one got eaten. So you’re a survivor, and you’re intuitive. Get over the woo-wooey thoughts and be grateful. Your ancestors listened to their intuition. They were smart enough to know what was sneaking up on them, and they survived.

So follow in their footsteps. Learning to use your intuition can make your life better. It can even save it.

Here’s an example: years ago my dad was hospitalized, and my mom called to say he was having gall bladder surgery the next morning. Now, they insisted I stay home, but I suddenly knew I had to be there. That certainty hit me so hard in my gut I doubled over. Then I went through the house at high speed. Within 30 minutes I was driving to Salem, about 4 hours from Seattle.

Five minutes after I walked into my dad’s hospital room, the surgeon came to chat about the surgery. He noted my sudden arrival from Seattle and asked my parents if my dad was allergic to anything. They said, “No.”

The same ‘gut sense knowing’ that pulled me out of my chair in Seattle to drive to Salem hit me again. It made me blurt out, “Wait a minute, aren’t you allergic to that dye they inject for X-rays?”

The doctor looked at me and my parents. “Is that true?” he asked.

My parents stared at me in surprise and nodded, perplexed.

The doctor looked at me and said, “That’s why you’re here today. We would have used that dye before surgery tomorrow. You probably just saved your dad’s life.”

That was long before I recognized intuition as a real ability we can learn and use, in things as simple as choosing our daily food. Or saving someone’s life.

That’s why I teach people how to tap their intuition: you will find where your intuition sits in you, and you can work with it to live more comfortably and completely.

That day my intuition saved my dad’s life. Why? Because I listened to the nonlinear, this-doesn’t-make-sense-but-I-know-it’s-right feeling.

Find out how to make it work for you. Learn to sharpen your innate intuitive ability.

Contact me for private sessions or classes on learning intuition.

The life you save may be your own.

I did that once, too.

Stop Early Spay/Neuter: Save Our Dogs!

June 1, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

Murphy is dead.

My beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel died March 8 of splenic cancer. She was a week shy of 13 years and 8 months.

She died of a cancer linked to early spay/neuter.

Cancer is the new epidemic in this country: 50% of dogs over 10 get cancer. Don’t believe me? Google it.

Our dogs don’t have to get cancer because of ill-conceived social conventions.

Save your dogs.

Stop early spay/neuter.

Just say no.

Here’s the thing. Cancer comes from a lot of things, including environmental toxins, poor nutrition, genetic mutation, and plain bad luck.

It also comes from interrupting the maturing organism’s hormonal development by spaying and neutering when they’re babies. Before they are sexually mature, as nature designed them.

Why did we ever think we were smarter than nature?

Because of politics.

Stop overpopulation, we’re told (get the irony of that for human populations?). Spay/neuter before the animal is sexually mature.

Has that policy worked? No, it has simply created a gigantic welfare agency called the shelter and rescue community. They have become the new puppy millers. Shut down puppy millers, they claim, including responsible breeders. Instead go to the shelter/rescue people to buy dogs whose parents weren’t spayed and neutered or properly supervised. And the oh-so-well-meaning organization will spay or neuter the offspring, and stop overpopulation.

Which has not happened.

But cancer has.

Make no mistake. You are buying a dog from a shelter or rescue organization, an animal who comes to you before you can choose whether it needs to be spayed or neutered, and when. They are buying into bad advice from their comrades and from the veterinary community.

I would never have spayed or neutered any of my animals early if I’d known the truth about cancer.

Now you know. What are you going to do about it?

I hope you’re going to save your dogs: if not the ones you currently have, then all the ones that come later.

This policy was born in ignorance. It will only stop if we take a stand. Here’s what you do:

REFUSE. Refuse to buy any dog from any shelter/rescue/breeder/careless person that sticks to the early spay/neuter policy.
REFUSE. Refuse to support any person or agency that insists on this policy. That includes the Humane Society, Best Friends, veterinarians, pet supplies stores, you got it. All of them.
EDUCATE. Educate yourself and everyone you meet about this problem.
COMMUNICATE. Get together and talk about it. Help figure out how we can change mindset and save lives.

Together we can make a difference. We can stop the brainwashing with bad statistics that is ruining lives. We can save our dogs.

Say no to the truly irresponsible organizations and people: refuse to adopt their dogs if they refuse to stop this policy.

The policy will stop soon enough. Because we’ll put them out of business.

Money works. Talk works. Love works.

Murphy is dead. Don’t let your dogs die from something you could have prevented when they were babies.

Stop early spay/neuter.

The life you save may be your beloved animal’s.

Stop Cancer in Dogs: Shut Down the Animal Welfare Community

May 21, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

: Save Our Dogs

Everybody has an agenda.

Mine is that you don’t lose your dog the way I lost Murphy: to a cancer linked to early spay/neuter. Make my agenda yours: let’s save our dogs’ lives.

Join me: let’s take down the animal welfare community as it currently exists.

End it. Stop it. Put it out of business.

All of them. The veterinary community. The animal welfare organizations, from our local shelters and rescues to national organizations like the Humane Society and Best Friends. Breeders. The irresponsible owners who produce the mixed-breed dogs who have helped our shelter/rescue system become the new puppy millers.

Rebuild it so all of them become our partners in creating healthy multi-species families.

Got your attention?

Did you know that 50% of dogs over 10 will die from cancer?

Murphy was a week shy of 13 years, 8 months.

She died from a cancer linked to early spay/neuter, like other cancers, as well as thyroid disease, obesity, and arthritis.

Do you know what the research shows?

Take female dogs through at least two heat cycles.
There is almost no reason to ever neuter a male dog.

Why? Because we don’t know what interrupting the hormonal development of maturing animals does, but we can now clearly see what happens when we do.

The animal welfare community knows this! They are ignoring it! The statistics are out there. Their silence is killing our dogs!

Many of these people know better. Their voices are either silenced or drowned out by ignorance and politics. Bad thinking that says we must spay/neuter to prevent overpopulation because people won’t be responsible later or because it controls aggression. Bad thinking that insists somebody else should tell you how to live with your animal families. Dangerous thinking, because it is clearly wrong.

Yes, cancers can come from not spaying or neutering, and from other things, like environmental toxins, genetics, over-vaccination, and bad luck. It’s a delicate balance, and the answer shouldn’t rest in the hands of our paternalistic, simplistic, brainwashed animal welfare community. The answer rests in our hands.

Make them accountable. Make yourselves accountable. Here’s how you start:

Refuse. Refuse to buy or take any animal from anyone, shelter or breeder, who insists on spay/neuter before adoption. Refuse to adopt any animal who has been spayed or neutered early. Whether or when your next animal is spayed or neutered, it should be a decision you make with a trusted vet. If we were going to solve the problem of pet overpopulation by early spay/neuter it would have happened already. Instead, we have an epidemic of life-threatening and life-ending diseases, like cancer. The practice will stop if you don’t buy into it.
Hire. Find a veterinarian who will discuss early spay/neuter with you and help you come to a wise decision. Stick with that vet and refer business to them.
Educate. Learn what the issues are, including cancer. Tell everyone you know who has an animal, wants one, or trades in animals (that includes breeders, veterinary facilities, shelter and rescue organizations, and the irresponsible people who breed the dogs who end up at shelters). The arguments about aggression and overpopulation are ignorant. People mean well but they simply don’t know any better. Learn about the issues. Then teach them.
Discuss. Debate the issues calmly, rationally, respectfully. It’s the only way we’ll create new guidelines that will help our dogs. And us.
Research. Get them funding and conducting the research that will fight these diseases while clearly identifying what causes them, and why. Do your own research: read up on it starting with this article.
Love. Good policy comes from wide open loving hearts. Keep clear and balanced. Refuse to fall into the traps of fear spread by current animal welfare policies.

When cancer is linked to something that we thought all along was responsible, like early spay/neuter, then we need to stop the practice, counsel and educate all involved, and conduct the research to find a solution. Then we need to apply the solutions, even if it’s on an individual basis, dog by dog.

Here’s one strange argument: vets have been doing early spay/neuter for some years on dogs as young as six weeks, and they insist on doing it by six months. They say the dogs are fine. But are they? The dogs may have done well in surgery, but who’s tracking what happens to them during their lives? Cancer is epidemic in our country. Reasonable, smart people are worried about the link between early spay/neuter and serious health and behavior issues in our dogs. Think about it!

Make the animal welfare community do the right thing: force them off the early spay/neuter bandwagon.

If you don’t do business with these people, they won’t be in business. If that’s what it takes, let’s do it.

Now.

Wise, responsible, caring choice is how we live the human-animal bond. Don’t let it die like Murphy did.

Life is too precious to waste. Love is too important to lose.

Take a good look: Murphy’s isn’t the face of the last dog who dies from splenic cancer. But maybe hers can be the face that helps us stop it.

Help me. Save our dogs.

Chiropractic Care Isn’t just for People … or Dogs

May 17, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

Some days you’re just goofing off and you find news about somebody who makes a difference. This one is ironic to me, since it deals with chiropractic care, this time for race horses, in particular, for 2012 Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another.

Here’s a link to the article, “Equine Chiropractic Asset to O’Neill Team,” just published in thebloodhorse.com. It profiles Larry Jones, a chiropractor who works exclusively with race horses. Jones’ philosophy is that a lot of physical problems in race horses, especially back issues, can be treated more successfully chiropractically than with medications. It’s his life’s work—a calling and a business.

A lot of people dismiss chiropractic, like they dismiss other holistic modalities, including diet and exercise. So they patchwork a problem. Give a drug for pain. Take some time off to recover. Prey on suffering people with the latest miracle cure.

Sometimes that works. Well, not the miracle cure bit, but you get the idea.

I personally have had better luck in my own life with chiropractic than with most other modalities I’ve tried. My dog, Murphy, also benefited from chiropractic care off and on during her life. And acupuncture, Chinese herbs, diet, drugs, and laughs. I had to work hard to find out what worked for her, and my other animals, Alki and Grace the Cat.

I’ve had to work hard to find solutions for myself, too. Why? Because our current medical system doesn’t like anything that doesn’t benefit a big drug or hospital or insurance company. They’d rather you take a drug, which can mess with your body, than have a chiropractic treatment that both resolves the issue and makes your body, and your mind, feel better.

Case in point: I’ve worked very hard to get well and stay well. Years of work. Now my insurance company doesn’t want to cover a $59 chiropractic bill for anything, including a migraine. They’d rather I pay $100 a dose for a pill. This infuriates me and makes my chiropractor boil. And it should. If we have to pay for health insurance, we should get coverage for what works for us, and not for what some unknown person thinks should work.

So I credit Doug O’Neill for an enlightened approach to his stable’s care. Winning the Kentucky Derby didn’t prove that equine chiropractic care works. But since a winning horse benefited by it, maybe other trainers will look at it for their horses’ care.

After all, we all get out of whack on occasion, and chiropractic works.

Health insurance, not so much.

Cloning Dogs: Grief Doesn’t Make It Work

May 10, 2012 by Robyn Fritz

my dying dog Would I clone this dog?

In a heartbeat—if it worked. But it doesn’t. At any price.

Cloning our animal companions is in the news these days, stories of people paying upwards of $150,000 to clone their deceased dog or cat.

I just sigh. What are these people thinking?

Actually, I know what they’re thinking. They’re grief-stricken, mourning the loss of a beloved animal companion. Just like anyone mourns the loss of anyone they love. They just want them back.

I mourn this dog: my beloved Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Murphy, died March 8, just two months ago. She was a week shy of 13 years, 8 months. Forever would not have been long enough with Murphy, but she’s gone. And cloning her won’t bring her back: cloning never brings anyone back.

Here’s why.

Scientists are obsessed with replicating genetic material, so they can say they’ve cloned the animal. It’s supposedly an exact genetic duplicate. Well, barring the problems of mutations and other serious effects of cloning (we just aren’t superior to nature), genes are genes. So what?

Genes are not personalities. And they are not souls.

So the people who clone their animals may get a genetic match, but it is not their dog come back to them. It may look like them, but it won’t be the same personality. It won’t be the same soul. The way life works that isn’t possible, at least scientifically.

Now I’m not going to say to run off to a shelter and adopt a dog, because that’s not how it works, either. I will say that you should find a heart match between you and your next dog, whether you find it from a breeder or a shelter/rescue organization. Sometimes you have to look hard for it.

But you won’t find it in a laboratory.

Here’s the thing people miss in the whole cloning argument: grief and longing create new dogs from dead ones, because we’ve allowed fear to rule us. Love finds a way to move on, to have new relationships, to stay healthy and balanced. Yes, it’s possible to love an entirely different dog just as much as you did the lost dog. I know. I’ve been lucky that way.

With cloning you’re trying to freeze time: understandable, because loss is devastating. But cloning comes from fear: we simply can’t let go and move on. Fear damages us psychologically and emotionally, because we actually step out of life and into memory. Maybe that’s too philosophical, but think about it: as we recreate the past, how are we living right now, and how much does that stifle our future?

To the point: cloning will never duplicate the same dog.

As a professional intuitive I help people explore relationship and business issues, find balance and healing, and talk with all life, including the dead.

When someone dies, they move on. Literally. If they come back, and they can and do, their soul inhabits a new body, because that’s what we do on this planet, we play with different bodies. We can’t create that body, because creation is the soul’s choice, not ours. The personality that accompanies that soul is different: so you may get a physical genetic duplicate, maybe even the same soul willing to come back (science has no control over that), but not the same personality. Cloning doesn’t bring the soul and personality back, just the genes.

Case in point. The soul that was Murphy is a very active soul. It is also the soul of my second dog, Alki. And it’s been the soul in many other bodies, currently and in the past, with me and other people. I’m not just talking reincarnation here, although that’s part of it. I’m talking a soul being in multiple bodies at the same time (or none, because it’s decided to rest).

So, Murphy and Alki are the same soul in two different bodies (well, until Murphy died). The same breed of dog. But strikingly different personalities. Because I’m experienced with this soul’s reincarnations, and with those of others I meet, I know that cloning their physical bodies wouldn’t duplicate their soul or personality.

Think about it. If you consciously chose to come back again in a body, would you choose the exact same body or personality to be in that lifetime?

Yes, we’re into metaphysics here, but that’s what science is trying to do in cloning. Science can create a body, but not a soul or personality.

And believe me, it’s the soul, and especially the personality, we miss when we’re gung ho for cloning.

The only way to get that soul back is to ask it to come back and, if it agrees, to find the body it comes back in. In fact, in my practice, I often see the same soul reincarnating in family groups (not always happily, but that’s another issue), so that isn’t as hard as, well, cloning. Honest.

Fair warning, though: you may want your dog’s soul back, but it may choose a different personality, and even species, meaning it could come back as a cat, if at all. It happens all the time.

So save yourself the money, and the grief. Find a new animal to love, if you’re up to it. A heart match.

Cloning your dog won’t bring your dog back. It might make a nice copy. But it won’t be the original. That only comes around once.