Connected

It’s true that I have to moms, but somehow I’m more connected to one more than the other. Not that I don’t love them both equally. Not that when one or the other comes home I’m not thrilled and all wiggly to see them, but it appears that on a more unexplainable level, when Gretchen gets sick, I get sic. Or worse, when I get sick, Gretchen gets sick. I’m not sure why that’s worse, but maybe it’s because I feel bad about it.

Anyway, last night my stomach got all gurgly (is that a word?)…it started to gurgle. Loudly. I didn’t feel well and in the middle of the night, I got up and hurled on the carpet. Not a pretty sight, but all night long Gretchen kept feeling worse and worse and though she kept her side of the carpet clean, she said she felt like she could leave a spot somewhere inappropriate.

Turns out we both have intestinal distress. This is not the first time that it’s happened. Sometimes my left shoulder will hurt and Gretchen will get the same pain. When her left knee was gimpy, mine was too.

This is what I mean by connected. It’s eerie. We talked to the doctor about it this morning when I went in for my acupuncture appointment. “It’s not uncommon,” she said and went on to explain how many clients and their pets have the same ailments and conditions. “As a practitioner,” she explained, “I have to protect myself not to take on the energy of my clients.”

I thought this was kind of weird so I talked to Gretchen about it on our way home from my relaxing acupuncture appointment (and surprisingly, my tummy feels much better — must have been those needles in my stomach points!).

“You do massage on dogs,” I asked, “Do you sometimes pick up their ailments?”

“You know, Rubin,” she responded, “I’m not your typical woo-woo kind of person and I would have been the last to believe that such a thing could happen, but the more I work massaging dogs, and time with you, I realize just how amazingly we are connected. It’s true, if I open myself up too much in a massage, the pain the dog is feeling sometimes transfers to me. Not with the same intensity and it’s not like my knee is injured or my discs ruptured, it’s more of a general pain in that area. So, I’m not surprised that since you and I spend so much time together and we love each other so much that your sore shoulder is mine and mine is yours.”

Wow. If you knew Gretchen well like I do, you’d find this pretty surprising information and I suppose, if I were a scientist, I’d question the results, but I guess, in a way, we’ve kind of run our own experiments and the evidence is pretty clear to both of us — we’re connected.

On another completely different note, we’re “connected” in another way. Gretchen and our friend, Richard have been working feverishly on a new website for Wellsprings K9 (the pool where Gretchen works) and last night they launched it. You can see it here. Ironically, right after it launched, Gretchen felt ill and so did I.

Maybe it’s been the stress of ironing out all the glitches and the hours spent making it look the way we wanted it to, but I guess with all this woo woo stuff in the air (and in this house) I shouldn’t be surprised by the cause and effect.

Don’t worry — neither of us was too ill to not walk dogs today, though we walked slower and Gretchen let me rest more at home during the day, which was a good thing, I suppose.

So while I went on a walk with Monty, he walked some of the other dogs in my stead while Oshi, Perrito, and Gemma were left to their own craziness without Monty or me!

And just like the weather people promised, the temperatures rose and the rainclouds moved in. Thankfully, it stayed dry for our work, but things look mighty threatening right now.

So here’s a quick rundown of the day…

Monty walked with Rosie — well actually, they played at the tennis courts and had a blast (I’m only slightly jealous!)