Susie

I was living at my girlfriend’s apartment in the late 1990s when I got seriously interested in meditation. She had two cats, a male and a female. The female, who I’ll call Susie, was about fourteen years old, black, and very fat. She followed me everywhere in the apartment. When I sat at the desk she used to lean against my leg and make noises until I picked her up and put her on my lap (she was too fat to jump), at which point she would climb onto the keyboard so I would pay more attention to her. I finally solved this problem by putting a folded towel on the desk next to the computer with a light shining on it to keep it warm. This towel was so appealing that she usually stayed on it.

Every day I meditated for several hours. Because of a back problem I did this lying on a bed with my head propped up by pillows. As soon as I got onto the bed, Susie would haul herself up to join me. This was quite an effort for her because she was so fat. She sort of half jumped and half clawed her way up. Then she would climb on top of me and sit on my chest like a sphinx facing my head. Her eyes would stare directly into mine.

I once met a Tibetan lama who greeted me by touching his forehead to mine and making a vibration deep in his throat, causing my head to vibrate. Susie did this to my chest with her purring. Her chest pressed against mine (she was heavy) and she made my chest vibrate like the body of a guitar. She did this steadily for hours while I meditated. She never moved. She never stopped purring. She never stopped looking at my eyes. Even if I closed my eyes for hours — sometimes I fell asleep — when I opened them, there were her eyes, inches from mine, still staring.

I don’t have any proof for what I’m about to say, but I think Susie knew that I was meditating and I think she was deliberately helping me.

They say that when the seeker is ready, the Guru appears. Just something to think about.

Image by AI. Not subject to copyright.

8 thoughts to “Susie”

  1. Freddie, when I first learned to meditate, we were warned not to allow pets into the room, not just because of the disturbance of coming in or making noise, but also because it was believed that they “suck energy”. I don’t know about “sucking energy” but I do know they seem to love being around us when we meditate. For all the years I have had pets, one has been there when I sit to meditate, usually very still and respectful of the silence, ie asleep. Even the pet squirrel we used to have, after rampaging for a while would come and settle down in my hand, resting his little head on my thumb.
    When meditation time was over, he would rampage again. 🙂

    1. P.S. I just remembered that a few months ago I met a guy in a park who seemed to suck my energy. I think Barbara Brennan writes about such people in one of her books. Maybe she calls them energy vampires, I can’t remember. But I’ve never felt that with a non-human animal.

  2. All of us must be absorbing energy from others and giving ours in return. I see nothing wrong with sharing energy with my little dog. We bless each other.

    1. There was something different with this guy in the park. The longer I sat there talking with him, the weaker I felt. Weaker in the sense of “less able to move.” I finally felt that if I didn’t get up and leave right now, I wouldn’t be able to leave, so I did. It was a little spooky. Admittedly I often feel that way anyway but this time I had the sense that it was because of him. He was an odd guy — he had suffered brain damage from a head injury — he told me about this at great length — and this was apparent from the way he spoke. A typical strange encounter on a New York City park bench. See all the fun you miss by living next to a beautiful river filled with salmon? 🙂

      1. I have had similar experiences with carp and river gulls. 🙂 When someone exists in an endless loop of confusion and a level of fear that almost but not quite rises to the level of hysterical action, there is a drawing of support and whatever energy is from others who appear to have more of what is needed, such as your kind attention. Remember also that I work in a paint store where they will let absolutely anyone open the door and come on in. 🙂

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