| (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop | | | | August of 2005 after which many animals were |
| after exposure to one or more terrifying events | | | | being placed in shelters around the country. Wylie |
| in which grave physical harm occurred or was | | | | came to Montana. With the open hearts of many |
| threatened. It is a severe and ongoing emotional | | | | humans who adopted these wonderful animals, |
| reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. This | | | | many let go of their experience, and many did |
| stressor may involve someone's actual death or a | | | | not. Wylie was one of those that did not. He clung |
| threat to the patient's or someone else's life, | | | | tightly to the devastation and death he |
| serious physical injury, or threat to physical and/or | | | | experienced. He had gone into survival mode, |
| psychological integrity, to a degree that usual | | | | running on adrenaline, trying to flee his own death. |
| psychological defenses are incapable of coping. In | | | | He had lost his spirit, along with his will to live. His |
| some cases it can also be from profound | | | | world was limited, dictated by fear and |
| psychological and emotional trauma, apart from | | | | abandonment. |
| any actual physical harm. Often, however, the | | | | He had lost his humans and the world he knew. |
| two are combined. PTSD is a condition distinct | | | | He was alone. The stresses of severe trauma to |
| from traumatic stress, which is of less intensity | | | | his survival and security had set in, Wylie now |
| and duration. | | | | experienced the world through a filter of fear. . In |
| Animals experience traumatic stress, as do | | | | healing work with any being, we can only meet |
| humans. In working with traumatized animals | | | | them half way. For if we try to "fix what is |
| there is a fine line to walk between honoring what | | | | wrong" we add to their feelings of being |
| they went through, and enabling them in keeping | | | | powerless over their world. I acknowledged the |
| alive the experience. Traumatic stress shapes | | | | wisdom of Wylie's choices to survive. After |
| whom they become. Extended stress shapes | | | | having his world torn apart, it was up to him to |
| their behavior. | | | | embrace the work we would begin doing. He had |
| No other being can fully understand what another | | | | to want to care enough to try. All the emotions, |
| has lived through. We can only offer compassion, | | | | Wylie experienced, shaped his world. He slid |
| support, and the gift of seeing beyond the | | | | deeper into depression, not wanting to feel the |
| trauma to the being. In seeing them only through | | | | trauma he lived with inside of himself. He had not |
| their eyes, we get caught up in their beliefs about | | | | grieved his losses. He did not want to live. He died |
| themselves. Healing from trauma encompasses | | | | in the only way he knew how, inside. Slowly |
| the entire being. After addressing the animals | | | | offering Wylie the possibility of change and seeing |
| physical needs, it benefits the animal if we | | | | him as a dog of courage, gave him the |
| address the mental and emotion levels as well. If | | | | opportunity to see himself differently through the |
| the latter are not acknowledged, in whatever way | | | | eyes of those around him. It would be up to him |
| they know how to tell us, the resulting emotions | | | | to decide to embrace what he saw reflected, and |
| go deeper inside. I first met Wylie, a Black Lab | | | | make it his own. Wylie began to change. Slowly. |
| and Hurricane Katrina survivor, when I stopped at | | | | When dealing with sustained trauma in an animal, |
| an animal shelter near my home in Montana. I had | | | | there are guidelines, not rules to follow. The way |
| gone to the shelter in search of a cat to add to | | | | to help these animals trust, and find |
| my family. After having been chosen by a | | | | self-empowerment again, is as individual as the |
| precocious feline named Q, I sat down to fill out | | | | animal. Shifting our focus away from the trauma |
| the required paper work. It was then that I first | | | | to seeing from our heart into theirs, begins to |
| noticed, curled under the table, a very withdrawn | | | | feed the animal, not the experience. Wylie, as well |
| and traumatized dog. | | | | as any animal that has sustained trauma, will do |
| I asked the volunteer who was helping me, who | | | | the best they can. Our love and support for |
| this dog was. She told me his name was Wylie | | | | animals, who has suffered trauma, is not short |
| and he lived with her now, then began to tell me | | | | term or conditional. Our truth and love, |
| his story. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in | | | | unconditionally, are gifts, given to us both. |