I pulled up on the side of the road, and the old lady waved at me as she got up to come over and open up the gate for me.
\”You can drive in if you want,\” she said, with a smile.
\”I\’m fine parked there, I can see the road better when I have to go again,\” I explained, as she walked me inside. Their little Cavvie snuffled about in the yard, tail wagging. I was ushered in, and sat on the couch.
\”She\’s been limping, a couple of times for maybe 3 or 4 days, so I\’m worried about her,\” the old lady nattered. \”It was a back leg, I think, though I can\’t remember quite which one, or if it was one and then the other…\”
\”It was her front leg!\” her husband interjected, \”mostly the right front leg, but she limped a bit on the left one, too.\”
\”Are you sure?\” she asked.
\”You can both argue about it when I\’m gone,\” I said, with a smile. \”Does she normally jump up on the couch?\”
\”Oh, yes, she does,\” she told me. \”But she hasn\’t been jumping up like that for a while, has she dear?\”
\”No, not since she\’s been limping.\”
I called her over and gently lifted her up onto my knee. I gently palpated and assessed her neck- the joint between the top vertebrae and her skull was locked tight, rigid, and when I felt gently down and along the muscles on the side of her neck, they twitched and flickered in pain under my fingers, like an electric eel. Her muscles were tight, painful, and reactive all along her spine, but the main issue was low in her neck, a massive tight knot of suffering.
\”She\’s hurt her neck,\” I explained. \”She\’s very, very sore and tight in there, so I\’ll do some hands-on work to help release and loosen that up.\”
\”A sore neck?\” she asked, looking surprised. \”And is what you\’re doing there painful for her? It doesn\’t look like it, because she\’s not making any noise at all…\”
\”Well,\” I told them both, \”dogs don\’t make much noise about being in pain, not like us humans. I can tell you that her neck is very painful, I can tell by the way her muscles are twitching under my fingers here, with even a very gentle touch.\”
I worked gently with her – my fingers dancing on a delicate edge of pressure – just enough to help the spasm let go, but not so much that it hurt her more and made it all worse. Her eyes softened, and after a while, her head sank down onto my knee. I could feel the locked-up spots in her neck starting to slowly move, changing from a rock-hard feel to a more fluid, springy motion as my hands eased her pain.
\”She\’s loving that, isn\’t she,\” the old lady said, fondly smiling. \”She\’s such a special little dog, she is, we love her to bits.\”
I worked away for about 45 minutes…
\”Ok,\” I said. \”That\’s enough for today. I can feel a really good improvement in her neck and back. It would be great if you could get me back in a month or so to give her another hands-on session though.\”
\”Oh we will,\” she assured me. \”Whatever she needs to get better!\”
I packed up, and was walked out along the verandah and back through her front garden.
\”What lovely roses.\” I said, admiring the vibrant thorny bushes, bursting with fragrant blooms.
\”Would you like some?\” she asked.
\”I would,\” I said with a smile.
She scurried off to find some secateurs, and danced about the garden, clipping off a big bunch of glowing, colourful, divinely scented roses that filled my hands with their gentle grace. I tucked them on the passenger seat and waved her goodbye as the scent filled my van, and drove home, smiling, very touched by her generosity.
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