Snake Oil
The Right Thing To Do
I felt a sense of pride and I marveled at how active and healthy my almost sixteen year old cat was in early November of 2017. She was outside playing a game all by herself. I observed her silently from the top of my stairway without her seeing me, knowing I would interrupt her play if she caught me watching her and she would come running up to greet me. She darted from the big tree near the base of my stairway to a large rock as if she was playing a fun made up game of someone or something chasing her. She climbed up the tree, looking around and scooted back down and up again. She reminded me of myself when I was a little kid. I played very well with my friends but also enjoyed making up cool, imaginary games outside on the lawn or even inside the water playground of my swimming pool. I let her play for a bit longer and went inside to to follow an impulse to look up a movie online that I remembered from childhood called “They Shoot Horses Don’t They.” My research on this Sydney Poitier directed film was not what I thought it was about. It was about a crazy dance contest where the contestants pushed themselves beyond the normal limits. I wasn’t sure why I needed to know this, but I know that impulses always have a purpose and I usually follow them.
A month later my healthy cat nearly stopped eating and began to lose weight rapidly. I suspected it was the early stages of renal failure, a common thing for older cats. She also developed a “stinky butt” which I first assumed was an anal gland issue. I struggled with whether I should take her to the vet or not. Other than taking her in for all her shots more than fourteen years ago (she was already fixed when she showed up at my door when she was about a year and a half old) I had not used vet services. Other than a rough bout with feline flu two years ago she had never been sick. I thought I might lose her when she had the flu but gave her Colloidal Silver, a natural antibiotic and she thankfully recovered. I, for the most part, don’t use western medicine unless absolutely necessary and tend to do the same with my pets. My quandary was do I take my sick almost sixteen year old cat to a vet or not? It wasn’t that I did not think they might be able to help, but the process of putting a sick old cat in a cat carrier in the car was something she was not used to. I wondered if doing this would be more traumatic than allowing nature to take its course since she was nearing her natural old age in cat years. What was the right thing to do here?
I began to see why the movie title of “They Shoot Horses Don’t They” had come to my mind a month before this. A part of me had sensed a big decision was coming my way and unfortunately it might be far more than the issue of simply taking her to the vet or not. I grew up in a family where we usually had two dogs and often a cat. I experienced the loss of pets during my childhood. We never had to decide about something so difficult. Our dogs and cats would get older, sick, and usually hide in the yard when they were close to passing. We had the trauma of finding them deceased of course but it was still a natural process. Since my cat was primarily an indoor cat, the circumstances now were different. I deliberated for a week or so and finally decided to have a mobile vet come to my home. He checked her out and said she was fairly healthy for her advanced age, she just needed soft food because she didn’t have many teeth left! I considered the pro’s and con’s of having her anal glands drained and decided on giving her pumpkin in her food to add fiber and to help her push this through naturally.
A month later in late January things got worse. The stinky butt issue was not resolving and her behavior patterns began to change rapidly. My always immaculately clean cat was pooping and vomiting every few days in my bathroom shower. Some days she would do it right on my bed too. I had a daily routine of washing added sheets on the couch, bed, and myself when she sat in my lap. I knew that the bed messes were her way of telling me something was really, really wrong. I wasn’t mad at her in any way, but it was really rough for about two weeks. Her nearly constant diarrhea made me realize medicine or not she would pass very soon. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me she was experiencing organ failure. I did my best to make the end good for her. She got lots of tuna mixed with wet cat food more often than usual. I figured I would let her die at home, but in early February she developed a terrible limp in her right leg. She could still scoot around with it and was eating, but maneuvering on the linoleum floor in the kitchen and bathroom had her sliding all over the place. From a spiritual perspective human or animal, when we have issues with our right side and legs often mean “nothing to move forward to.” My cat was all about being a jumper and climbing on things and she was losing control of this part of herself. I knew she was in pain and after a Rune pull of Hagalez (Disruption, elemental power, Hailstorm*) I knew clearly she was suffering and the “They Shoot horses” theme in my intuitive mind was now painfully crystal clear with her losing control of one of her legs.
I worried about whether I was just “throwing away” my sick cat for a few hours. This fear was short lived. This was not what I was doing. A few days later I called the vet to make the uncomfortable decision to take her in to be euthanized. It was not a good day. I struggled but knew it was the right thing to do. The next day a good friend helped me to take her to the vet. I spent all of the weekend with her and had very little work or other obligations perfectly orchestrated by the Universe to give me the extra time with my little sweet girl. The last day was a lot of crying and giving her a million kisses, petting her skinny body in my lap, and giving her some of the turkey breast she so loved. Her final treat and her last meal, especially because she hardly at at all anymore, before putting her in a cat carrier was tuna juice, something she was truly crazy about. The support of my friends was priceless. ChiChi cried in the cage as we drove to the clinic because she was scared. I also felt pangs of guilt during the process. The vet said it looked like hyperthyroidism and it might be treatable. I had a brief moment with the possibility of keeping her alive, and then the reality of how sick she was, the probability of medicine not likely working, her in diapers for her pooping issues, and the loss of her leg inevitably on its way made me be strong enough not to waver. Having to take her back to do this again in a few days or weeks would be neither good for her nor for me. I told them to proceed and give her the shot to take her back to the Otherworld. I was of course in the room petting her as she left this world.
I shed quite a few tears for the first few days and went through all the traditional stages of grief. One of those stages was anger at having to go through this and whether I did the “Right Thing.” I work at home and was around her a lot. This cat was a part of my life in a big way. I had her for about fourteen and a half years. She was my buddy, my kid and something; someone I loved dearly. Every morning my bacon and egg sandwich was shared with her getting a little bit of bacon. There were countless routines my dog-like loyal cat and I shared. I had many pets in my childhood that were a part of my family and loved them all. The cat I had before her was Monte, I had him for seven years and an ex originally had him for the first 8 years of his life. ChiChi was completely mine and the best pet I have ever had. The days after her death and putting away all of her things, finding her toys under the bed, triggered more sadness. A thousand pieces of a life reminding me of the loss. After about a week when the grieving began to subside a new awareness pushed through. I was lucky to have had her and gave her a great life. I felt privileged to have had this experience and time with her. I began to feel just a wonderful sense of warmth and great memories of so many fun times with my little girl. I would not taint this with grief and sadness anymore. It was time to shift my view to remembering the many, many good things and gratitude.
In a truly spiritual, even magical way when I left the vets office after putting her down I had to walk up the stairs knowing for the first time in many years she would not be there to happily greet me. My legs were heavy as I made that walk. When I got to the top of the stairs a hummingbird flew by my face just two feet away and paused for just a second. My cat was mesmerized by hummingbirds and dreamed of catching one all of her life. Hummingbirds are considered messengers from the realm of fairy. The message is joy, hope, lightness and magic. The totem represents loyalty, playfulness and persistence, all attributes that were aspects of my cat. This hummingbird was telling me something. I had done the right thing. Not the easy thing but the right thing. My little girl’s spirit was released from her pain and she was free again like a hummingbird. There are so many different ways to feel and experience love in our lives, and this was not only one of those ways but a really good one. Sadness and loss are aspects of this world and never easy. We know our pets have much shorter life spans than we do. This is a hard pill to swallow, yet the gift of them being in our lives for however long outweighs the sadness. They remind us that life is short and all about the value of loyalty and unconditional love. Jim Ventura 3-2018
Notes
Back in early 2018 was the last time I posted this column about having to face the death of my cat Chi Chi. Rarely does a week go by that I don’t have at least one moment where I remember how cute, funny and what a great companion she was for me. The sadness has passed and I am just left with great memories of her and all the pets I have had in my life. There is some real truth to the old saying that time does heal wounds. Thankfully love itself never dies and I have strong wonderful forever memories of my sweet girl.
It is interesting to see something new that is actually becoming common place on Instagram. Reel clips about losing pets, the importance of their loyalty, and the many areas of impact hey have on peoples life are popping up quite a bit. Amidst a lot of nonsense posts, it is nice to see the world acknowledging the wonder and love of animals that so many of us share. I saw one video where a woman is facing her cat just as the cat is being put down at a vets office. Her face is inches away from her furry companion and she is crying and in pain. The cat in its last move before departing from this world makes a move to wipe the tears away from his moms eyes. It is likely the woman's husband or partner saw the beauty of this and intuitively decided to film this touching moment. It is far less less likely it was staged. The comment section was full of beautiful sentiments and it moved a lot of people including me. Of course, it also had a few ass hat’s commenting that “She shouldn’t have posted this private moment.” “It is probably staged.” and a few similar delightfully obnoxious cynical commentaries. Ah, you got to laugh at the way truly horrible people see things sometimes!
I have noticed far less clicks on my columns in the last two years. I am guessing this is due to people having fears about clicking on links. Anything sent by me of course is safe. It is wise to be prudent with not just randomly clicking on links. Still, after being sold the idea from main stream media of needing to be endlessly afraid of nearly everything and to be terrified about getting sick especially during the pandemic period, maybe it’s time to let some of that fear go. See if being overly fearful about anything is actually serving you or even actually protecting you? Another factor in the less column reads is simple, I think less and less people are reading at all anymore sadly. This is why I am doing more videos on social media sites like YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram. Rather than resisting I am going with the flow of modern times. I will still continue to do my column this way for now but probably only do three new columns each year. I will continue to follow the every other month format I am currently doing, but run old columns as well to cover six columns (once every two months), especially because I have over 150 of them from doing the column for almost twenty years now and it is a lot of work to do new ones!
It has been a long winter to say the least. In Phoenix we started getting cold in mid October of 2022. Most months had temperatures below normal, for about eighty percent of the days each month! There was also a lot of rain and snow especially in the high country. I have lived here for over three decades and this may be the coldest, longest winter I’ve seen yet. If you live here or in a state with a similar long winter, there may be hints of depression that have been hard to shake. I know I felt it. Thankfully you can’t hold off spring forever and while it seems to be coming later than I would have preferred, it is coming. Spring can be a good time to get a personal session in-office or by phone for a look at what the season ahead holds for you in terms of challenges and opportunities!
Cheers, Jim V
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Winnie The Pooh
New Client Special 2023
January 1st thru May 1st, 2023 Special:
$10-15 off listed rates for your first 45 minute session, 70, or 90 minute session! Debit and credit card payments get $10 off for 45, 70, and 90 minute sessions. Local in-office clients can get an extra $5 off for cash or check payments for sessions. If you want to buy a new client a thoughtful gift of a session for a friend or family member you can also take advantage of these rates!
“Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn’t breaking. It hurts because it’s getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds.” Rita Mae Brown
Channeled corner. I read many, many books from different trance channelers in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Unfortunately many of them are now out of print, but I still have a huge collection and will share some of the best material I have collected over the years.
“On the one hand, quite simply and in way that you cannot presently understand, evil does not exist. However, you are obviously confronted with what seem to be quite evil effects. Now it has been said often that there is a god, so there must be a devil-or if there is good there must be evil. This is like saying that because an apple has a top, it must have a bottom-but without any understanding of the fact that both are a portion of the apple.
We go back to our fundamentals: you create reality through your feelings, thoughts, and mental actions. Some of these are physically materialized, others are actualized in probably systems. You are presented with an endless series of choices, it seems, at any point, some more or less favorable than others.
You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible. That is what you are in this particular system of reality for as long as you believe in a devil, for example, you will create one that is real enough for you, and for the others who continue to create him.
Because of the energy he is given by others, he will have a certain consciousness of his own, but such a mock devil has no power or reality to those who do not believe in his existence, and who do not give him energy through their belief. He is, in other words, a superlative hallucination. As mentioned earlier, those who believe in a hell and assign themselves to it through their belief can indeed experience one, but certainly in nothing like eternal terms. No soul is forever ignorant.
Now those who have such beliefs actually lack a necessary deep trust in the nature of consciousness, of the soul, and All That Is. They concentrate upon not what they think of as the power of good, but fearfully upon what they think of as the power of evil.
The hallucination is created, therefore, out of fear and of restriction. The devil idea is merely the mass projection of certain fears-mass in that it is produced by many people, but also limited in that there have always been those who reject this principle...
Seth Speaks. Jane Roberts
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Snake Oil Radio
Thursdays at 3:30 pm (there will be two live broadcast this period)
My next live broadcast of Snake Oil Radio will be Thursday, March 23rd at 3:30 p.m. mountain (Phoenix) time. April show will be on the 13th with a live column read and discussion. Each 45 minute show will expand on my current column’s subject matter. It will also offer an opportunity for you to chat with other listeners in the chat room with comments and your thoughts about the topic of discussion. If you miss the live show, you can catch any of my previously recorded shows on the website’s archive. You can also catch Snake Oil Radio on I-tunes and similar locations for podcasts.
March 23rd show interview with Jen Dillon
“For over twenty years, my passion for natural products including aromatic plants, herbs, and essential oils led me to many discoveries of their wonderful health and beauty benefits. I began formulating natural products in 2002.
I have committed my life to the research and benefits of using the purest plant derived ingredients, wholesomely tended and harvested by farmers and distillers, who share my love of nature. I’ve formulated Natural Beauty Products, Herbal Tea Remedies, Aromatherapy and Homeopathic Medicines.
Jen Dillon has an extensive background in natural product formulation and natural wellness. Jen has most recently developed "The Homeopathic Detox Protocol", that is helping many people with long term COVID symptoms and adverse MRNA vaccine reactions. This protocol is currently in a Case Study supported by Pharmacists and MD’s in Canada and the US.
You can learn more by visiting gogetfunding.com/casestudy/
To hear a live show, all you need to do is be at a computer and tuned into: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Jim-Ventura or on your phone. You may also access it by going to the site and type “Snake Oil” into the search option. You can also go to the shows that are currently “On air” at that time and find me. The call in number is 646-200-3966 for questions and comments if the show is offering that (please check, many of my column shows don’t).
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Audrey Hepburn
“That is one good thing about this world...There are always sure to be more springs.” L.M. Montgomery
Here’s my contact information to make an appointment for a session, or information on current classes: Email: Venturasag@yahoo.com (best method for contact).
Phone calls: (602) 957-3035 text only: (602) 349-0746
Information about the different sessions and types of readings and services, past Snake Oil columns, and how to order my books and audio CD’s can be found at my website: Http://JimVentura.com
“Friend” me on Facebook to get other extra offers and in between column extras! Signing up for my fan page will get you even more extras and first shot at reading specials. Simply click on “like” on the fan page and you will automatically get my weekly updates.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jim-Ventura/110567902293371?ref=hl
I have a few other media channels other than my monthly radio shows and FaceBook:
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel (approximately once a month 6-11 minute videos) at J Ventura Snake Oil.
Instagram at Venturawords ( astrology updates on reels)
Tik Tok (animalspeaks) where I do short but powerful 3 minute videos about animal totems!
All personal sessions/readings for 2022-2023 are: Full (70 minutes) $115.00; Shorter session (45 minutes) $90.00; Extended session (90 minutes) $140.00 (two people can split an extended session back to back $70.00 each, although no other discounts will apply). Mini phone session 20 minutes $40. Email me for information about my Regular Client Program for even bigger discounts on session prices with the added benefit of monthly or quarterly check-ins. Purchasing 3 prepaid sessions also brings sizable discounts. Some examples; 3 prepaid 45 minute monthly sessions is $150 total or $50 a session. 3 prepaid quarterly 70 minute session are $240 or $80 a session.
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