Jake's acupuncture day

Jake is our dog. (Well, he was J's and J's daughter K's dog, but then as households merged he became my dog, too.) Since our move back to Michigan, he has had some anal gland issues--I will not go into details, but suffice it to say that this has been stinky and unpleasant, for him and for us. We thought he would be relieved to say goodbye to the hot pavement of Brooklyn and return to his old house and big backyard, but perhaps he missed the off-leash time in Prospect Park more than we knew. Or perhaps it was too much change in routine, since, as our new vet hypothesizes, he has a lot of wood (the element) in his personality, and those of the woody element like routine and to be in control of their environment.

Yes, this afternoon we were analyzing the elements of Jake's personality, at our acupuncture consult with our new vet--whom I would like to have as a new best friend, but so far the relationship is strictly professional. After a discussion of his history--which also felt like a discussion of our relationship history and therefore a bit like couple counseling--Jake received many small needles along his back and in his legs. We had to try to keep him relatively still for 25 minutes. The needles were intended to unblock stagnant energy on the liver meridian (or something close to that description). He did not seem to mind too much, but he was very enthusiastic when we finally put his leash on him to leave.

I am now contemplating the idea of taking Tiger Lilly, the cat, in for acupuncture, because I want to know what her dominant element is and what she would do with the needles. I am not sure what to say the complaint is, unless there might be some treatment for the psychological condition that causes her to drag stuffed animals and dirty socks around the house yowling whenever anyone is trying to sleep. In the past, we have discussed taking her to a pet psychic to see if we could uncover the hidden need or trauma that she is expressing, but in the end I think we were scared to find out.