Zora Visits the Vet: A Case of Family Karma

This is Zora, who lives with me along with her brother, Pushkin, and her mother, Precious.


Two days ago, I took her to the vet because she was exhibiting what I thought were symptoms of asthma. This is a relatively new apartment for us. The windows face a beautiful garden and the street, the entire neighborhood, in fact, is filled with trees, grasses and flowers, and the three of them love to sit and watch the squirrels, birds, and the neighborhood cats who wander in and out. Pushkin has the same symptoms, but to a lesser degree. Anyway, I was worried because their other brother, Gadu (Armenian for cat), aka Mister Huggy, passed away a couple of years ago from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common form of mostly inherited congestive heart failure in cats. I always describe her as beautiful but skittish, and she lived up to her reputation. She escaped in the examination room, ran from one corner to the other and lept from the floor to the counter. Eddie, the veterinary technician, finally had to resort to putting a blanket over her and donning protective gloves in order to take her temperature, etc. She wasn't very vocal, just extremely physical, a little athlete, jumping, turning, twisting. Poor Eddie even had to muzzle her in order to take X-rays. When it was all over, the diagnosis is that she has asthma and a heart murmur, but her heart looks normal on the x-rays. Well, like owner, like cat. I have had a heart murmur for years and I, too, have asthma. And I believe the same is true for Pushkin (I'll take him in in a couple of weeks). Dr. Linda Jacobson, the veterinarian, has such a beautiful and caring manner of being and well as speaking. And the way she speak to the animals . . . And her reasonable fees . . . Zora got a shot of cortisone and she's doing well, now.

In much of the metaphysical/spiritual literature that I've read regarding the animal-human bond, the theory is that our animals often take on the physical or mental disorders of the household. They pick up on and act out the energy of the household. In Buddhism, there's a Japanese term, esho funi, which means that the person and her or his environment are one. In other words, whatever the condition, or vibration, if you will, of the person's life, that corresponding quality will be reflected in that person's environment, wherever it is, whoever it is.

Well, since Zora has made her debut on the web, I would be remiss if I neglected to introduce her mother and brother, so here are Precious and Pushkin:

I know, I know . . . she's on a diet as we speak.

NoNoNoNo . . . he's just sleeping!