Do your pets care about Feng Shui?
The short answer is maybe? Years ago, I hired an up and coming pet psychic named Sonya Fitzpatrick to talk to my pets and while the cats told her that I changed things around all the time, they didn't seem too bothered by it. My Husky/Malamute rescue, Chelsea on the other hand, loved one of the Feng Shui cures I had put in place, but thought I had put it there for her. I had placed a large stone water fountain in a spot outside to complete the corner, but Chelsea thought it was her very own flowing water bowl. Needless to say, the pump broke several times because she kept drinking all the water out of it!
One thing to understand about our pets is that there are some big differences between the way cats perceive energy vs. dogs. For example, cats will sit comfortably on stairs and other areas that have very active chi and though I can't confirm it, I feel like either they just like that juicy activity or they are there to help absorb and balance it a little. If you want to learn a little more about cats and their penchant for strange chi, be sure to check out this book by Alison Daniels.
One thing I can say for sure is that dogs seem to be a little bit more easy going than cats. A few weeks ago, I realized that I as winter was approaching, I would need to either sacrifice my outdoor plants to the elements or find a way to bring them inside. I chose the latter and that is when I finally realized that every location that I had used for my new puppy's kennel placement was in a very active stream of chi combined with a draining stream of chi.
When I got my Pyrennes mix puppy, Ayla, she was a mere 30lbs. In spite of this, I got the largest kennel that I could find and placed it in the #6, Service, Travel and Helpful People gua of my room. It wasn't until I started bringing my plants inside that I noticed that Ayla's kennel, though tucked away from the main bedroom door, was in alignment with the door to the bathroom along with toilet on the other side of that door! I would never have put my baby's crib in such a place, but apparently all my Feng Shui sensibilities had evaporated four months earlier when I put her kennel there.
Before we go any further, let's review a few important Feng Shui guidelines and then apply them to our pets as well as ourselves.
- Sleeping in alignment with a door, much less a door that leads to a bathroom/toilet is a guaranteed way to zap your energy or impact your sleep.
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Sleeping with your feet in alignment with a door is considered a big no-no in the Chinese culture. This is considered the "death position" because of the ancient Chinese practice of lining death beds along the pathway of the door.
- The preferred direction to sleep is in a commanding position that affords a view of the bedroom door without aligning your feet with that door.
As it turns out, I had placed my puppy without considering any of these guidelines. Needless to say, the first few months were full of interrupted sleep (mine and hers) as well as lots of anxiety and stress (mine). While I am sure that a lot of that had to do with her being a puppy, I'll never know if that was the only reason or if she was responding to the overwhelming chi she was aligned with.
Watch my instruction video here.
Ayla was born on March 14, 2023. The only reason that this is easy for me to remember is because it is also known as Pi Day. With this information in hand, I looked up her best and worst directions the way I taught all of you to do in my last newsletter. It turns out that she is a Kua number 2 and her best directions are W, NW, SW & SE.
Given that I have a lot of furniture in my room, I tried two different ways to place her kennel so that it honored her best directions and moved her away from the door and bathroom chi. I tried each option and experienced a lot of frustration as I tried to fit her 48" wide kennel sideways into the 48" closet. I finally found a way to place it so that she is in her own quiet space, and she can face any direction that suits her, but I could not find a way to place her without being aligned with a door. Aside from the fact that she is about to outgrow her kennel at 7 1/2 months and 57 1/2 pounds, she seems to be much happier in her new placement. She frequently wants to go to her "room" for short naps throughout the day and when she is there, she sleeps deeply.
Even if you don't know the exact date that your pet was born, you can still use the above rules to find the perfect placement for their kennel, cat bed, cat tree, etc. If you are opposed to a kennel, and much prefer your fluffy butt to sleep in the bed next to you, that is fine too. The more I observe my pets, the more I think that they will naturally place themselves in the direction that is best for them. As I finish this newsletter, Ayla is laying on the couch, her head resting on the pillows, facing West, one of her best directions.
logynn@fengshuishuidesignconcepts.com
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