The Comfort Of A Pet

Do you have a pet, and have you been leaning on your furry friend more
during COVID? This week, Danielle and Renee talk about their four-legged pals and the lessons behind relaxing, spontaneity, laughing, and seeking joy. Share your stories and how your pet has given you the extra boost you've needed in your days!

Transcript

Good day and welcome to the Cauldron Podcast.

My name is Renée Vostovall and I'm here with my beautiful co-host Annie L.

How are you?

I'm good thanks Perné,

How are you?

I'm good,

I'm good.

You know,

Summer finally has arrived in Canada so we're out.

Oh it's gorgeous isn't it?

The weather is nice and hot.

It's really gorgeous.

Rob and I went for a picnic,

An impromptu picnic yesterday and it was really beautiful just to sit.

Almost flowers,

Oh my god the wildflowers are amazing,

So full.

This morning I spent the whole time watching a mama duck convincing her little ones to jump off a bridge.

It's so sweet.

Beautiful,

I love it.

I love this time of year where you get to see all the little babies.

Yeah I know,

Although the ducklings were not ready to jump.

Yeah you jumped.

She was like but I already jumped,

You need to jump.

I just love that maternal instinct because it doesn't matter what species.

You know,

That maternal instinct is there so that mother's there to teach and protect and feed and I just love that.

I love watching that,

It's just really beautiful so you're lucky to be able to watch that summer with all of the offspring teaching them.

Yeah I know.

So I was wondering,

In the beginning of Covid,

And I know I think everyone kind of stopped counting days how long we've been now with Covid.

But remember when all the animals got adopted from the shelters?

It was such a beautiful thing and you know,

It was a stressful situation,

People had to stay home and all of a sudden they went down and got all these animals out of the shelters.

Which was amazing for these shelters and the animals of course,

But also for the people.

So I'm wondering,

You know,

How are these animals doing?

What do you think?

How are they doing?

Oh I love that,

If any of our listeners adopted during this time please share with us because I think it's,

I'm like you,

I was really happy to hear about empty shelters.

And about,

I mean,

People are staying home much more now than they have before,

They're working from home so there's an opportunity for them to have an animal if they didn't have one or to take on another or to be surrounded and to lean on the animals.

You know more than I do and more than a lot of people about that healing aspect from an animal.

And I think it's just really important during this time that we have a pal.

You always remind us,

Okay.

Oh yeah,

It's just,

You know,

Someone walking through the house where you are and you're not on your own,

You know,

Bella,

My dog will definitely tell me if I need to get up and go move or if she needs something.

And the two cats are always very vocal on what they want.

But it's nice and it's noisy and you,

Yeah,

I don't know,

You feel connected.

I think that's what most animals give us,

Being connected,

Don't they take life so serious,

You know.

What do you learn from your cat?

Oh,

Well my cat's a jerk,

First off.

Love him in a lot,

Like he is just such a little love.

But I think having an animal gives you a purpose as well,

Right,

Like you still have to go through the motions in a day,

They still rely on you to walk them,

To feed them,

To love them.

So as we all are in fear or resisting or perhaps not in a place of surrendering to the times of right now,

Our animals remind us of that because,

You know,

They need us.

So even though my cat Louie needs me,

Or maybe he does,

He probably doesn't.

And you know what,

But I'm really sad that he doesn't like to cuddle.

It's just so many times during this that I just want to hold him and I do,

And he gets upset,

He wants to run but I just squeeze him even more.

And I just wish that he was a little bit more of a cuddler but he reminds me to just relax,

You know,

He relaxes a lot and he just chills out and he just is really simple.

I love the simplicity of his little life and,

You know,

He likes to be in a box and he likes to look outside and he likes to play with,

You know,

Little fuzzy balls on it.

It's just very simple.

It's just very simple.

And that's what he reminds me of is to take a breath and just enjoy and sit with him and just play with him.

Yeah,

Oh,

Absolutely.

That's what I like mostly.

And,

You know,

As you know,

Some of the listeners know I work as an animal communicator.

So I have the pleasure of chatting with lots of them and that's mostly what they want us to do.

Come sit with them,

Be with them,

Stroke them.

And I have two cats,

None of them wants to cuddle.

You know,

They see us coming,

They're like,

Oh,

Let's run,

You're going to pick us up.

But if you sit on the floor,

They will come and walk around you and you can touch them.

But the beauty of having whatever kind of animal you feel yourself attracted to,

Because it's not only cats and dogs,

It can be a rabbit.

I have a friend who loves her snakes and her reptiles.

But it's the connection and it's the willingness to slow down.

And it's the willingness to look at the little things in life,

Like,

Oh,

I didn't pay attention to that.

Why didn't I?

You know,

It's been there the whole time.

You know,

Notice that your animal is maybe hurt or did hurt him or herself.

Those little things,

We step over them so quickly because we don't take the time.

And I guess being at home and,

You know,

For a lot of people taking this big step to adopt an animal during this stressful time has maybe helped them to keep stress levels low,

I hope.

Because that's proven,

Right?

That's scientifically proven that your stress levels decrease when you have an animal.

Yeah,

I think so too.

And it makes you move,

You know,

Getting in my 10,

000 steps a day.

Oh yeah,

It doesn't make me move because my cat would prefer to just lounge and sleep all day.

He's a little lazy guy.

But yes,

If you have an animal that gets you outside,

Getting some fresh air,

Getting moving in your body,

Because that's really important.

Because during times of stress,

Sometimes we just like to sit and,

You know,

Just maybe more than we should.

Because we're working from home,

We're sitting at our desks or sitting at our tables or sitting at whatever our workstation looks like a little bit longer.

And it's really important to stand up and move.

So if you have a pet,

Then that's great.

It's a great,

You know,

If they force you to get moving.

Oh,

Absolutely.

And the other thing I was watching Bella and the cats and,

You know,

We both are Pilates teachers and I was looking at all the stretching they do.

It's so great how they stretch and take time and deep breaths in.

I'm like,

Oh,

Here's a lesson on relaxation.

How far can I bend down?

You're right.

You know what?

I probably just looked at Louis a little bit more during this time than I have previously,

Instead of just stepping over him to just be with him.

Because he is,

He lets me know when he's needed,

When he needs a little bit of affection and attention.

He lets me know.

He lets Rob know.

And so it's during those times that he is encouraging and inviting some love,

Some stroking,

Some touching.

But other than that,

He is just really content and very happy.

And it's just nice that when we wake up in the morning,

We have him there.

My concern,

Though,

Is that of all the animals and I had a friend,

She mentioned this to me because we did have a conversation about how great it is that animal or that the shelters are,

You know,

Without a lot of animals during this time.

And she said that she really hopes that what's going to happen is when we or what she hopes doesn't happen when we start moving back into a new way of life,

That the animals aren't going to be brought back.

Oh yeah,

No,

I hope that's not going to happen.

But I'm kind of hoping on the power of the animal that we,

You know,

As we all do,

You fall in love with the little creature.

Whoever or whatever does cuddly,

Not cuddly,

You know,

Big walker or not walker and you can't imagine your life without them anymore,

Right?

So,

And the period of staying at home has been long enough.

So I'm kind of hoping that they've been embraced within the family dynamics to stay.

Yeah.

Easy peasy.

Let's put some to our listeners.

Like if you have an animal and you are enjoying this time,

What is it that they're teaching you during this down time?

Yeah,

What's your biggest lesson?

Yeah,

Yeah,

As we readjust our new norms of life and being able to spend more time perhaps with our animals.

And what does that look like for you?

And how have you enjoyed this time and what have they taught you and how have this has it encouraged and supported deeper breathing,

More grounding,

More centering and just being,

Being alive during this time?

Yeah.

So for myself,

I've learned from my,

My loving dog,

I love that there is no clock,

That it doesn't really matter that we just walked an hour ago or that we didn't walk for the last three hours,

But that we can just go for a small walk or a long walk.

And that you can change your mind during the walk.

I've learned that too.

It's okay.

You know,

You can add extra time.

So it made me so much more timeless.

And that's great.

So what did you learn from Louis?

What did he offer you?

To just enjoy being in the moment,

Not predicting the future,

You know,

Not anticipating the next minute,

You know,

Because I like to be busy and I like to be reactive.

And I felt that I was always reactive and I was always a thought ahead.

I was always a foot ahead and living a little bit more in the future than I was in the present.

And he reminds me to live in the present.

Cool.

Yeah,

He's,

And I love it.

There's there to me,

The one of the most beautiful sounds is when he purrs,

Because he's got a really,

Really,

Really deep purr.

And I love it when he is so happy to have both Rob and I around and to just be around us.

And,

You know,

Just to just not not just to be relaxed.

And I think that that's what he's teaching Rob,

As well as to just put your feet up,

Relax,

Take a minute.

And then he says,

Okay,

Now scratch me.

Yeah.

But we you know what we've had him for seven years now,

I guess.

And he's always teaching us as animals do you know that right they always do.

And I'm just so thankful that I have him to rely on during this time to be my pal.

So when I'm going through the highs and the lows of what's happening right now.

I always know he's going to be right there just to greet me with no judgment,

With no expectation and be like,

Hi,

What's up.

Yeah,

What's happening?

Do you want to give me a cuddle?

Like,

You know,

Do you want to stroke my fur?

Do you want to give me scratchies?

Do you whatever?

Do you want to give me a treat?

Like he is just there to be present in the moment in that exact moment.

And I really,

Really love that.

It's so cool.

You say treat and Bella sitting up.

She's just sitting here.

She knows that word.

Okay,

Closing.

Yes,

Please,

Listeners reach out and let us know send us pictures of your pet.

Let us know stories about,

You know,

Your time during your Oh,

Yeah,

Pictures.

Yeah,

Pictures,

Especially if you have adopted during this time.

Yeah,

Congratulations to you.

And I think that's really special.

Exactly.

Well,

I hope to see and listen to you all next week.

And thank you for tuning in.

Danielle,

Have a wonderful day.

And listen as well.

Bye guys.

Take care.

Bye.

Reviews

A wonderful talk about animals and what you learn from them

Love it

Great discussion! Thank you. Love and blessings 💖 x

Excellent talk! I was also happy to see so many animals adopted during when covid started but I'm also worried those animals will end up back in shelters once things go back to normal. I personally would be so lonely without my two horses, three dogs and one cat if I didn't have them to fuss over all day long! Thank you!