* Free Chapter* Give Your Abused Pets Treats Slowly

Thirsting for Water

A devotional that brings healing to the hurting!

I’ll admit it; I’ve snapped at my children, gotten angry at friends, and said things I regret. I did not trust them. I once told my husband while we were dating that I had been through a lot and felt like a dog that had been beaten half to death. I informed him that when people held up their T-bones and said, “Here, girl,” most of the time, I was still too afraid to come.

After much healing, I noticed a friend’s controlling and defensive behavior towards me a year later. She seemed to yell at me a lot when things were taken wrong. As I pondered the snapping issue, I heard in my spirit this message — “If a dog has been abused, it may snap at you.” Oh, my, revelation into the healing of the soul!
So I did what any other certified google-oligist would do; I googled it. “How to care for an abused pet.”

Once you get the basics for your abused pet, you must go more in-depth into helping them heal. The number one item on the list was to provide a safe place for your abused pet to live. The second suggestion was to ensure they had plenty of fresh food and water. Since I had been abandoned by my ex-husband when I was chronically ill and eventually became homeless, I needed these simple necessities myself afterward.

# 1) Give your abused pets treats SLOWLY. Use one hand to approach them gently–two hands may scare them.

#6) Don’t allow the abused pet to interact with other pets until they are whole. If the other pets are pushy or mean, this will cause the abused pet to be even more submissive and scared. Reward good behavior, but do not punish your pet. Never hit or scold an abused pet.

I began to notice how we humans tend to be a lot like these fur companions that have been wounded. We have trust issues, and we need to be approached with ease at times. We don’t like to be pried for information or pushed into doing something. We don’t want to be controlled through harsh words or even bribed with treats. Syrupy compliments can also evoke warning signals. We tend to think things like, “What do they want?” “What are they after?” Yes, too often, pets and people who have been hurt are quickly ready to runoff from a family function or an event that makes them feel worse about themselves. Their lack of self-esteem can be crushed when others are given all the attention in the room, yet they are not ready for the focus of everyone in the place to be on them.

Next, I wanted to know how a person could tell if their dog (pets) had been harmed or abused, so I researched this topic. While you read the list below, try and think in people’s terms.

# 1. Check the dog for physical signs of abuse. These could include scars, lesions, burns, or open wounds. Also, missing fur or sores around the neck could indicate a dog was chained up for long periods. The pet may have missing teeth that rotted out, have cloudy eyes, show no energy, and be generally fatigued. An animal may also have been starved. Repeated vomiting and bloody diarrhea are other signs of trauma.

Did you notice that the signs of abuse are physical illness, mental stress, and fear? Could past trauma and abuse cause sickness in our bodies at times? Yes, I believe it could. Ask a person who has PTSD, and you will get an even broader understanding of what our environment can do to our mental health. Sometimes our sickness and wounds were brought on by ourselves.

(Psalms 38:4-7, CJB) “Your indignation left no part of me intact; my sin made my whole body sick; for my iniquities loom high over my head as a heavy burden, too heavy for me. I have stinking, festering wounds because of my foolishness. I am bent down, prostrate completely; I go about mourning all day long.”

We must heal our spirits and our souls and forgive the abusers. We have to take action to see a healthy body come forth. An abused and battered body will not become whole without us making phone calls to the counselor, joining a fitness program, caring for ourselves by watching what we say about ourselves and others.

Abused, tattered souls may need to write their abusers a letter that never gets sent. This type of journaling helps release bottled-up anger. We vent and get rid of the pain. We will cry out to our Father to help us forgive the person who kept us chained, muzzled, or unfed. And He will because He is a good Abba. Our trauma and fear may not be something that is cured overnight, although it can happen. The mighty hand of HaShem is not too short to save. His powerful Spirit can find the mangiest scrawny, scared pet in the darkest alley and rescue it from the power of drugs, sickness, pain, guilt, and shame. Our Father sweeps in and brings us to an animal shelter. Pets with mangled and matted fur must be shaved and shampooed with medicated ointments. We need the balm of Gilead, the anointing oil, and the covering of prayer.

If you have been abused today, the Father of Lights wants to hold each of you and comfort you. The Father’s love and compassion have no limits; it’s unreachable. He is holding out His arms to you right now! Reach up and take the master’ Hands. Run to Him instead of getting back into a relationship with a new partner. Chances are you will run smack dab into another person who will harm you if you haven’t healed. We must become whole and healthy to attract someone healthy for us.

“For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘Because they have called you an outcast, saying: “It is Zion; no one cares for her”‘ (Jeremiah 30:17, NASB).

Someone cares for you! Yeshua, the Messiah, is interceding right now on your behalf.

To purchase book click HERE

.