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Pet fair features massage, acupuncture, psychic readings, and a lot of love

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Sandy, the 9-year-old pet of Doug and Sue Behrens of Whitewater, sits calmly with acupuncture needles treating her discoid lupus during the I Love My Pet fundraiser for friends of Noah on Saturday. Pet acupuncturist Teresa Osgood, DVM CVA, of Edgerton was demonstrating the treatment on the dog.

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Anna Brickman of Janesville holds her Americana hen "Leonard" while massage therapist and Reiki Master Laurie Fredricks offers her healing touch during the "I Love My Pet" fundraiser for Friends of Noah at Earthsong in Janesville on Saturday.

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Black lab Bridey licks her owner Cheryl Smith of Delavan while getting a massage from Bonnie Dittmer, a certified equine/canine massage therapist from Juda at the I Love My Pet fundraiser for Friends of Noah at Earthsong in Janesville on Saturday.

JANESVILLE — Anna Brickman held her hen Leonard in her arms while Reiki master Laurie Fredricks channeled energy into the pet.

That’s what Fredricks said she was doing at the I Love My Pet fundraiser at Earthsong Books & Gifts on Saturday.

Hens were scarce at the event. Most people brought their dogs to enjoy a range of services, including massage, nail trimming, acupuncture, reflexology and even psychic readings, or to peruse products such as food and collars.

The common denominator for the pet owners and the vendors was a love for animals. Everyone was smiling, and the dogs seemed to sense the love. A reporter noticed only one minor squabble between two Yorkies during a 90-minute visit.

“I’ve never worked with a chicken before,” said Fredricks, who regularly gives massages and Reiki treatments to dogs and cats in her business, Touching Lives Massage.

Fredricks sensed something in Leonard’s feet. She cupped her hands around the chicken’s claws, and very slowly, the three toes curled up, first one foot, then the other, looking relaxed.

Reiki is not massage. It works by channeling “life force energy,” said Taylor Gomez of Janesville, a Reiki master who works with Fredricks.

The energy “has a wisdom to it and knows where it needs to go to heal,” Gomez said.

Fredricks made motions in the air, as if pulling something away from Leonard.

“I’m pulling off the negative energy, if you will, infusing it with the positive,” Fredricks said.

Brickman, who has 40 Americana chickens at a farm in Albion, said she brought her rooster, Mr. Burby, to the fair last year and got a psychic reading.

“She said he had a calming, very spiritual effect on me, and that was true; he’s my buddy,” Brickman said.

Doug and Sue Behrens of Whitewater brought their dog, Sandy, to get an acupuncture treatment from veterinarian Teresa Osgood of Edgerton.

Sandy, who has lupus and joint pain, gets regular acupuncture. She calmly lay on a blanket on the grass with needles protruding from her head and foreleg.

“It has helped her a great deal,” Sue said.

Osgood said acupuncture has been popular for horses for a long time, but now it’s a growing field for dogs and cats.

“Cats love it. There’s a lot of endorphins released when they get the needle,” Osgood said.

Cheryl Smith of Delavan brought her black Labrador, Bridey, for a psychic reading.

“She came up with things that I kind of knew in my heart,” Smith said.

The psychic told Smith that Bridey was the same spirit as the bird she had when she was 3 and the dog she had who died of distemper when she was 8.

Smith felt “wonderful” to hear that. “When Bridey was born, I felt I was picked—she was mine.”

Amy Miller of Milton calls herself an animal communicator and says she can sense any animal’s thoughts, even from a distance.

A more down-to-earth vendor was Melissa Krysiak of Whitewater, who sells shoulder bags tailored for carrying small dogs.

She named them Ru’Sacks, after her miniature Dachshund, Ru. The bags feature a U-shaped cutout.

“I call it a peek-a-boo chin rest,” Krysiak said.

Ru seemed at home in her sack, dangling one foot out the chin rest, watching the other pets and humans come and go.

TO HELP

The I Love My Pet fundraiser was a benefit for Friends of Noah Wisconsin, a Rock County-based organization that rescues dogs, cats and house rabbits, rehabilitates them and then finds them homes. For more information, call (608) 774-3402 or go online to friendsofnoah-wi.org.