Homeopathy works on cats…

"Homeopathy works on cats." It does indeed. This is an ode to cats. They're beautiful, mysterious, magical, resilient and they can perceive many things we can't. But before I get into the story, let me share that this article has turned out much longer than I expected! Let's call it a full-on ode to cats. And here’s photo proof of that. (Spoiler alert, there will be photo proof throughout.)

Dashewydd Longnecker, a happy Homeopathy patient, snoozes in a ray of sun.

Back to story.

Have I told you this story before? If this is old news, or you're not into cats, feel free to leave now.

In fact, "Homeopathy works on cats" was my introduction to Homeopathy. A college classmate said that very sentence to me. It sounded so random. If I remember right, we were going from Bible as Literature class to somewhere else, walking by the computer science wing of the library (the ugly new modern part). If I recall, I was spacing out about something else, and he was making a point about the placebo effect. It went something like this: If homeopathy can work on cats, it must mean it is not placebo--that it actually works.

"How would your cat know you were trying to heal it?" he said, or something like. I mean, cats were considered back then to be somewhat aloof and uncaring. Of course I always knew better. Now, approximately 30 years later, we all know that animals (whether they wear a "cool" mask over their tender hearts or not) understand our intentions. Still, the question remains, and it's interesting.

But at the time it was random. Super random. I forgot all about it.

Fast forward to early 2021. Our dear old cat Benjamin developed alopecia.

Benjamin, reclining on chaise lounge with gooey lovey eyes

Benjamin, in his portrait entitled “Still Life with Vacuum Cleaner.”

Our neighbor, a fellow cat lover, said the problem was probably a flea allergy. I fretted. My previous cat, Bean, had developed a rare disease immediately after her first-ever dose of flea drops, and died only 3 weeks later. There was NO. WAY. I was EVER. giving flea drops to a cat, EVER. again.

I looked around for natural flea drops. Everything was still too toxic. I tried diatomaceous earth. All it did was give him a wan look and red rims around his eyes from the irritation.

I looked for herbal remedies. I did searches on Ayurveda. I looked up Chinese medicine. I considered locking him in the house 24/7 even though that would make him miserable.

Then that line echoed back into my head like a whisper. Homeopathy works on cats.

By now, of course, I'd heard the word "Homeopathy" more than once or a handful of times. As a solid fan of alternative methods of healing (remind me to tell you about my thyroid--another day...) the word Homeopathy had come up frequently. It still sounded fluffy to me. After all, they were just sugar pellets with no substance in them, right? I mean, I was raised as a typical American, to believe that vacscenes and anteabuyotics were the answer to civilization. I had given Homeopathy a try after college when my thyroid (that story again) went ape. Spoiler alert: it didn't work, at least not at that time, or not that way, or not that healer.

But, still... Homeopathy works on cats. There came that echo.

Mulling this over, I remembered a friend getting her cat cured of cancer by an acupuncturist/homeopath that normally only worked on humans, but made an exception for this friend's feline. She was a fluffy calico cat, still living and thriving 5 years after Homeopathic treatment, by the time I met the her.

So, I duckducked "homeopathy for fleas on cats." I ended up on the website of Joette Calabrese. There was a blog post with a suggestion for a remedy. I tried it.

It worked!!! Kitty alopecia, gone in three days.

In fact, it worked on the dog too, for both fleas and ticks. We had been giving him drops because, well, finding engorged ticks marching across our son's bed was unnerving, gross, unhygienic, and seemed likely dangerous. There is lyme disease around here. Although I hated doing it. Emmit (the dog not the son) would sleep almost for three days straight after getting the flea drops. And since he sleeps in our son's bed, our son was probably getting a dose of whatever chemical seeped into the dog's skin that killed the fleas. Not ideal, but we didn't know what else to do. When Homeopathy worked on the dog too, we were thrilled. It was miraculous in fact. It actually worked better than the flea and tick drops. With no drops, he'd get a tick, two or three every day. With the spot drops, he would still get a tick about 3 times a week. With Homeopathy, the frequency reduced to once about every other week. Yes, we still have to be vigilant, but what's wrong with giving your dog a good massage after a walk? It's an enjoyable activity for all.

But back to the cat.

With Homeopathy, Benjamin's hair grew back and he seemed like a new cat. But, sadly, a few weeks later, he developed a new, more serious problem. More likely, the flea allergy and the new issue were related but we didn't have the wisdom to see it. He stopped grooming himself and his tongue would hang out. We took him to the vet. It was a tongue cancer. The photo of it showed a tumor that spread about 2/3 of the way across his tongue. It went over the little groove that runs down the middle of the tongue. The vet said he would live maybe a few days, or a few weeks if we were lucky. He said there's nothing you can do when they stop eating and drinking.

Back to Joette's website I went. There, I discovered another remedy to try out, particularly effective for tongue tumors. I ordered the remedy and began droppering it into his water. He had more energy. He began to groom himself again. A few months later (yes months!) he was sitting on the couch with me and I happened to witness a mighty yawn. During said yawn, I was able to see unusually far into this mouth. The tongue tumor had shrunk! It now covered only 1/4 of his tongue, reduced from 2/3. Too bad I hadn't caught it on video or I'd have proof.

Sadly though, over the next several months, other issues began to crop up and it was too much for my nascent Homeopathic knowledge. Benjamin died a year after discovery of his tongue tumor, in January of 2022. RIP Benjamin. Still, we had the gift of an extra whole year with him thanks to Homeopathy.

Now he's reincarnated, back with us as Dashhe. That's *definitely* another story. And this is the story I had really set out to tell you today. I totally digressed. This time, with a brand new kitten, I was going to do it right. This new cat (Benjamin in his new form) was going to be treated with Homeopathy from the start. He would be given no vacscenes, no drugs, nothing, nada, no allopathy. Only raw organic food, herbs, Homeopathy and a lot of love. After all, my childhood cat Fidget was raised like that (on the organic/non-allopathy part) and she lived to be 20. Cats can live a long time if raised naturally and their immune systems are left intact.

Not quite Fidget, but a close contender in mustache and sass.

So with Dashhe, we did nothing. He is pure and natural. In fact we kept him intact in all ways. I'd also been raised with the idea that you *have to* neuter male cats or they will mark all over the house. But I began to question that as a possible myth too. Dashhe never once marked. He was and is as sweet and docile as anything, never aloof or aggressive, and a perfect playmate for us and the dog. Incidentally, another Homeopath friend said she had a lot of male cats that didn't spray. Interesting...could there be a theme here? Hint, hint! As in: Homeopathy is supportive and gentle so it brings out the best in your pet's health AND their personality? But alas, he did begin to roam. And he's so pale-colored and goofy, the opposite of his previous form Benjamin. He's not camo colored, streetsmart and wily, but pale-colored and goofy. As such he would be an easy target for night-roving coyotes or mountain lions. I fretted again. The first time he stayed out all night, he stayed out for a full 24 hours. Though he came purring back, I vowed to neuter him.

Though it seemed tragic and wrong, I did it. I had looked for Homeopathy to curtail roaming, but as it is a natural behavior, I found nothing. There seemed no other recourse. We opted for the absolute minimum--anesthesia only, no tests and no painkillers. The night before the operation we gave him Homeopathy and some more in the morning before we took him in.

We got him home and put him into the cone of shame. The vet said he would need to wear it for A WHOLE WEEK. That didn't last long--he couldn't even walk, banging into walls. He complained loudly and couldn't eat or drink so we took it off. He had diarrhea once (probably why he was complaining) but then he was fine. We cleaned him up, watched him closely and gave him 2-3 more doses of Homeopathic medicine over that afternoon.

We followed none of the vet's advice. We took the cone back to the pet store, we let him eat and drink as much as he wanted as soon as he came in the house and we let him go outside again the very same day. He would clean his incision a couple of swipes as part of a regular bath, but the cone turned out to be completely unnecessary. There was zero obsessing, zero reopening of the incision. He was relatively quiet and slept a lot for a day or two (probably a result of the anesthesia) but the whole thing ended up being a total non-ordeal. Wow.

As he progresses through life, I'm much more equipped now than before on how to handle kitty krabwalks (if you don't know what I'm talking about read the seminal blog post here) and other, less nerve wracking issues.

And--I'm trying so hard not to brag but I can't help myself--pretty much everyone that meets our cat and dog is enchanted. Well…except those who don’t like being jumped on by boisterous dogs when arriving at our house…but, ahem, we won’t bring that up right now. Bringing up animals with Homeopathy is such a gentle, supportive way of taking them through life. Their health and their personalities thrive on it.