I adopted Jolene, a two-year-old cat, from a rescue program. She came with everything. She was vaccinated, tested for the feline leukemia virus, spayed, and dewormed. She even arrived with ten pounds of Science Diet dry cat food and a paper bag full of her favorite toys.
She is a beauty—part Abyssinian, her tawny black-tipped fur is glorious. The way she moves, especially when prowling along the edge of the kitchen floorboards, homing in on the nest of baby mice in the walls, reminds me of a wild thing. I can see her ancient Egyptian roots in every ripple of her taut muscles.
Shortly after I adopted her, though, and she arrived, transported by the veterinarian student who was fostering her, Jolene’s eyes began to water. She sneezed and sprayed snot all over the wall.
“What was that?” I asked. “Is she sick?”
The vet student assured me that Jolene was quite healthy. “Seasonal allergies,” she said. “It’s not a big deal. Every once in a while her eyes will tear up.”
I didn’t want to make a fuss, even though I was a little miffed no one had told me about this earlier. I know people who have allergies, and they live with it. I suppose cats can adjust, too.
For the first few months, I kept Jolene inside the house while she acclimated to me and her new digs. She slept mostly during the day and played at night. I’d wake to my Thai metal bowl crashing off the bookcase or the bag of recyclable bottles toppling over and rolling across the pantry floor. In the dim light, I’d watch her leap into the air and swat at bugs. All was wonderful, except for her sneezing and the snot and that weeping eye.
I read up on animal allergies, and there are three main factors: food, fleas, and environment. It was spring in California, and the trees were blooming, the grass was growing, and the pollen was floating everywhere. It was a safe bet that the vet student was right; Jolene had seasonal allergies.
Over the years, I’ve had a number of animals—cats, dogs, horses, goats, sheep, and chickens. Sometimes I have them treated by a traditional veterinarian, and other times we go the holistic route. I don’t like to expose my animals to unnecessary chemicals or drugs, and in the case of allergies, I figured the traditional vet would probably prescribe antihistamines or corticosteroids, which would only mask Jolene’s symptoms and not cure them.
So I took Jolene to my holistic vet, who uses a technique called Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique, also known as NAET, to diagnose and eliminate allergies. The process looks a bit strange at first. NAET is based on the principles of Chinese medicine, and allergens are found by checking the reflex points along the animal’s meridians. Since cats are squirmy creatures, a surrogate is used. It takes a leap of faith to believe that the weaknesses found along the surrogate’s meridians actually correspond to the cat, but I am the kind of person who doesn’t need to totally understand how something works. I just want it to work.
It turned out that Jolene was having an allergic reaction to viruses in her body. Clearing the allergy involved spinal acupressure, which opened up the flow of energy and reprogramed her body to not react to the allergen as a threat.
Within 24 hours of the NAET clearing, Jolene’s nasal congestion completely disappeared. Within a few days, her eye was also clear. I don’t totally understand it, but these are results that tell me this works!
On occasion, Jolene’s eye will weep, but not nearly to the extent it did before. The congestion never came back. She’s a very happy, healthy cat!
The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association provides a list of members on their website: www.ahvma.org
You can learn more about NAET at www.naet.com or at www.cchvs.com
Charlene Logan Burnett works at her holistic veterinarian’s clinic. She is passionate about animals, especially the homeless and unwanted. When not writing, she is volunteers for animal rescue and cares for a growing brood of senior collies while finding them homes. She is a service professional member of HeARTs Speak, an organization that unites artists with animal rescues.