About the "Hack Pack"

There are a lot of animal lovers out there that have been asking me to tell the stories of the "Hack Pack".  There certainly are quite a few stories to tell for each of them, so grab some popcorn and get comfortable!

Here you will learn:
    ✅ How I "cheated" Death for Mater
    ✅ How I healed Mattie's seizures
    ✅ How Mirai adopted me and joined the fight to save my life
    ✅ How I healed Maece's abuse scars & "mother wounds"
    ✅ How Maeve gave us all someone special to love
    ✅ How Merida was saved and did some saving of her own in return!

From eldest to youngest, it is my greatest pleasure to introduce you to his royal highness Prince Mater von Itchybutt. Also known as Sweet Boy, Mister Mater, Mister Mister, Doofus McMater, Doofy Boy, and Butthead, Mater has been with me since he was 8 months old, in November of 2011.

He is what I call a "pre-rescue". Having been adopted as a puppy by a family who had no idea what they were in for with a German Shepherd / Border Collie mix, Mater, who was previously known as something else I can't even recall, quickly frustrated the family and they were going to send him to the shelter.

I heard about him from a friend at work and expressed interest in meeting him.  At the time, I was severely deep in my depression, suffering the occasional breakdowns. I remembered the dogs we had when I was kid, and how they always helped me through difficult times and saw this as an opportunity for something similar in my adulthood.

A skinny boy and smaller than most German Shepherds thanks to his Border Collie blood, it was love at first sight!  Mater was love incarnate, full of zest and vigor and playfulness.  With a big ol' set of "yoda" ears and giant glass eyes of softness that could melt anyone's heart, I did not hesitate.  Within seconds he was in my car and going home with me.

He's been with me ever since. He saw me through my lowest. When I was homeless and battling suicide, it was Mater and Mattie that were all I had to hold onto.

Physically, Mater is nearly all German Shepherd. But personality wise he is mostly Border Collie.  At 80 pounds he is small for a male GS, but large for a BC and fancies himself a bit of a lapdog- much to the chagrin of my hips and spleen! LOL

In the winter of 2022, when this picture was taken, Mater began showing signs of Dementia. Aging liver-spots began to appear on his legs and belly. His neck started to get very crusty and he started to isolate and sleep a lot more. No longer wrestling and playing with Mattie or Maece, and often having accidents around the house.

He was 11 years old nearing 12 which is the tail end of the average life expectancy for a German Shepherd.  Thankfully, it's the low end for a Border Collie that can range from 11 to 17. But, being physically mostly a GS, I began to fear it was going to be his final Year.

I did not want his life to end in suffering though. So I started honoring him more, and we started weekly healing sessions. I changed their diet, slowly over time to fresh people foods that are acceptable to dogs.

In less than 9 months he had a complete turn around! The liver-spots faded away. The crustiness disappeared.  His mental faculties returned- no more dazed and confusedness or accidents in the house. But my favorite of all- he started playing with Mattie and Maece again!

In 2024 now, he is 13 and a half. You can still see signs he is an older dog. If Maece gets too rough with him, he yelps in pain and withdraws, and it's easier to do that to him now. But he does still engage in play with her, though he mostly just lays there pawing and play-biting at her, defending himself against her goofy wrestling antics! He has some small issues with coming up stairs if they aren't carpeted and has to be led with a leash to even attempt it.  But if you did not know him or these minor issues, you'd never know how old he is!  Even the new vet on his latest checkup thought he was only 9! (He just turned 13 in January!)

Hear ye, hear ye! Now Presenting her royal majesty, Princess Mattie von Krazymoot, Queen of the Pillows, Dutchess of Dogbowls, Protectress of Foods, and the Prettiest Puputo in the whole wide world!

Also known as Baby Grrl, Sassy Brat, Loud Mouth, Silly Grrl, Crazy Moot, Monkey (because she sometimes makes noises like a monkey!) and Whingey Butt, Mattie's story is even greater than Mater's.  She is only a few months behind him in age and is another, sort of but not quite pre-rescue.  Mattie was born to an "accidental" litter from her mother who was owned by a friend at work.  They knew I had just taken in Mater a few months ago and asked if I would be interested in one of the pups as a companion to him.

This was definitely a good idea, as Mater needed someone to keep him company while I was gone for work so he wasn't completely destroying my house lol.  Thing is, my 'friend', as I learned when I went to go check out the pups, kept their dog chained up to a tree in the backyard.  An unfenced yard in a rural area.  The mama dog was not fixed and got impregnated by some random stray.

Worse than that though, they let the litter roam free outside, feeding them by simply dumping a full bag of dog food in a pile on the ground next to the mama dog.  So the pups were semi-feral when I met them at 4 months old.

All the puppies looked exactly alike with the tan and cream colors.  Only Mattie had the black that is on her ear tips, back and tail. And it was another love at first sight moment.  She was fiery and ferocious but also sweet and loving and sooooo tiny!  In all the years, she has not changed except to grow bigger- about almost 3 times the size she was when I got her, she's now 25 pounds of pure fire!

But Mattie suffered for most of her life, even under my loving care.  See, not long after she turned 1, Mattie started having seizures. I'm talking the full blown, body-locked in rigor-mortis like stiffness, violent and scary full body seizing for multiple pain-filled minutes that caused involuntary evacuation of her bowels and were followed by long periods of sickness that included retching.

The first time it happened I cried and thought she would die. The vet was not as worried and could find nothing wrong with her. A couple months later it happened again. The vet still could find no answer.  A couple months later and again the vet could find no answer, but at this point told me not to worry.  It was not uncommon for mutt's to have occasional seizures and the frequency was "not worth treating with medication".  In fact, the Vet seriously recommended that I put her down. They said her semi-feral nature made her untrainable, and the seizures would eventually kill her anyways.

I couldn't do that to my Baby Grrl.  We kept on and over the years, the seizures stayed the same horrible long period of around 4 minutes of seizing, evacuation of bowels, a few minutes of retching and then a good 20-30 minutes of just being "bleh" while she recovered.  And all I could do was lay there and hold her and cry every time.

Year over year the frequency slowly got closer and closer together, and the severity seemed to diminish some. But at the time of my spiritual journey, when I was studying Reiki for the first time, they were coming at a rate of only 3 weeks apart!.

One day while I was practicing self-healing, Mattie started having a seizure. As always, I immediately dropped everything and jumped down to her to hold her.  This time though, I just started channeling the Reiki energy I had been doing for myself on her.

Despite having only been trained level 1 Reiki, to my amazement, it did have effect.  The severity of the seizing lessened and slowed down. For the first time ever she did not lose control of her bowels. The retching was reduced and she was seemingly back to normal in about 10 minutes instead of 15-20.  A few weeks later, when it happened again, I did not hesitate to start channeling, and we saw further improvement!

 I began a weekly regiment of sessions with Mattie. But more importantly, she started coming to me when she was about to have a seizure !  Somehow she KNEW when she was about to start having a seizure and she would come to me and paw at me and lick my hands, and then it would start happening.

The frequency began to spread apart again.  After the second healing and I started the weekly sessions with her, the next one did not come for a couple months.  It ended in only a couple minutes, and there was no more retching afterwards. Within 5 minutes she was her spritely self pouncing after Mater and Maece for a wrestle!

We continued sessions and the next seizure did not occur for six whole months.  The seizing was brief, about a minute long, her body not as badly rigid, and she was back to normal about a minute later once the seizing stopped- jumping out of my lap and running over to the water bowl to hydrate.

About 10 months later, she had another seizure. If you could even call it that.  But she came to me like she had learned to do, pawed and licked my hands and settled in my lap and started shivering.  That was the severity of it. A "shivering" like she was only very cold, for about 30-45 seconds. And then she was twirling around the bedroom like nothing had happened and was ready for a fight! 

That was the last seizure we saw, back in March of 2020! She never had another seizure for the remaining 4 years of her life!

Mattie was the first of the Hack Pack to receive energy work from me. Then came the work I did with Mater, Maece, and the others...

Pronounced /meerr-AYE/ with a slight roll to the R, Mirai is also known as Mama (because she's the oldest and most "adult" personality of the cats) and "Pretty Kitty". Mirai adopted me!

On March 5th, 2017, a friend came over and stayed late for an early pre-celebration for my March 6th birthday. Around half past midnight, just into my birthday, they needed to go home so I went to walk them to their car.

As I opened the door to my apartment, sitting there directly in front of the door as if waiting for me to open it was the most skeletal, malnourished little tortoise-shell kitten. Sitting there, inches from the door, facing it as if patiently waiting for me to open it!

She mewed once, softly and my heart just melted on the spot.  She was tiny, clearly still a kitten not more than a few months old (the Vet aged her at ~6 months, approximate), and horribly malnourished!  Even emaciated as she was though, she was a beauty, and very loving.  I couldn't imagine she was feral, more likely dumped by someone. Lord only knows why though.

I only ever had a cat once before, many years ago for a short time as a temporary foster. I took her to the vet in the morning, she had no chip, obviously, and no one claimed her from my postings around the neighborhood and online and checking with shelters if anyone was looking for a lost kitten.

And so Mirai joined the pack and actually started me officially calling us the "Hack Pack" with her addition.  Her name was decided as a blending of two forms of "Mirai".  In old Basque Mirai (pronounced /muh-RIGH/) means "miracle", and in Japanese Mirai (pronounced /mih-rah-EE/ ) means "future".  At the time, I was just beginning my Spiritual Journey by only a few months into things. This being the first birthday of mine at this time that things were shifting and finally looking up for me, I took her presence as a gift from the Universe. She was my miracle and a promise for a brighter future!

In early 2022 she survived an attack from one of my brother's Staffordshire Terriers who broke loose while she was out.  Amazingly, despite a full locked jaw on her belly for almost 30 seconds before we got her free, the damage was not as bad as it could have been!  By all rights, she should've died from such an attack to her belly. But a trip the vet, medicine and several days of intense energy healing and she was mostly back to her normal self in about a week!

Now she sees me off to bed by laying on my chest or shoulder (if I'm on my side) until I'm asleep.

Princess Maece von Goofenshitz, the Goofy Grrl and cutest puputo ever, was the next one to join the pack. She came a month or so after Mirai. Seen as a shared post by a friend on Facebook from a rescue shelter it was love at first sight with those big doe eyes!  I brought Mater and Mattie along for a meet and greet to ensure they would all get along and sure enough they were all wrestles and play within minutes!

Maece was a rescue from a backyard breeder.  In just over 2 years of her life she had 3 litters, all of whom were taken and sold. The breeders had kept her locked to a cement pen in the yard with a huge 5lb chain that was so heavy it caused her permanent scarring and open sores/wounds all around her neck.

I spent months working with the wound on her neck.  In the beginning, I wasn't sure how to handle her with Mirai, or Maeve who had joined the pack only a few weeks after Maece.  Whenever she saw the kittens she would go absolutely crazy with these chirpy noises and chasing after them. Clearly a form of prey drive and hunting sounds, I thought.

I eventually figured it out, that she was "simply" over-excited and wanted to play with them (in more ways than one as it later turned out lol).  Maece is a small girl, supposedly an American Bull Terrier/Golden Retriever mix (I've yet to verify), but she is 100% muscle!  She had destroyed half of a door to get out of the laundry room where I was keeping her while at work in order to be with Mater and Mattie in the bedroom!  So, you can imagine my hesitance to let play with the kittens!

But I needed them to be able to get along, so I caved and introduced them carefully in a very controlled manner. Much to my pleasant hoping, she was good with the kittens!  She definitely needed close watch and supervision while they were small and defenseless, but she was nothing but loving and doting with them!

Eventually I came to realize that helping to surrogate with the rescue kittens was a cathartic healing for her- a mother who'd lost all of her previous children.  So, every rescue kitten since Maeve has been partially raised by Maece!  They frolic, play, wrestle and even groom each other!  Chase each other around the house and then cuddle and nap together!

Maece has helped raise 4 foster kittens- 3 feral rescues & and 1 domestic.  Maeve and Merida remain with the Hack Pack, but Mittens and Mâria were rehomed. (It's the tortoiseshell feature- I can't give up the torties! LOL)

About a month or so after getting Maece I was reached out to by a friend who was following the growth of Mirai. The family they worked for had found some abandoned feral kittens in their back yard and one of them had similar coloring to Mirai and she thought I might be interested.

"HELLS YEAH!" I said and raced across the state the very next day!  Maeve was the first true BABY kitten that we (Maece and I) raised together.  The vet aged her at about 3 weeks old at the time, but otherwise very healthy!  She is now Princess Maeve the Whiny (she cries and whines at me any time I kick her out of my lap to get up), Baby, and also "Silly Kitty".

Maeve grew out of Maece's love pretty quick and stopped playing with her when Mirai finally started accepting and playing with her.  Soon there were cat zoomies going on regularly as they chased each other around the house!  Although she stopped playing with the dogs, she still cuddles with them and she will always rub against them affectionately and give loving headbutts to all!

Merida was barely 2 weeks old when she was found abandoned in the parking lot at the warehouse where I worked at the time.  Born as a half sister to Mittens who had been raised and rehomed by me already, my associates brought her straight to me when they found her.  She was horrifically tiny and her eyes crusted shut.  Clearly abandoned as a sickly runt, I popped her in my coat pocket and took off to the nearest pet store for supplies!

Her eyes needed regular cleaning. Twice a day for the first few weeks, then at least once daily for the next few weeks after.  Oh but she was a fighter, and every bit as adventurous and Brave as her namesake.  She was climbing things within a week of being with me- when she was barely 3-4 weeks old!

She took to Maece with a special fondness and even now at 2.5 years old she still chases and wrestles and plays with her, as well as the other cats!  It was during her raising with Maece that I fully came to understand the "mother wounds" that still lingered in Maece.  Since then we've done our own Hagalaz Healing™ work for Maece's trauma of losing her litters and while it has not changed her much on the surface at home, you can see the difference in public when she sees other small animals that could be mistaken as puppies/kitties.  She no longer goes crazy excited trying to get to them to play with and care for them. No more lunging and pulling and scaring strangers with her crazy excited yipping noises! It is amazing!

Merida has also come to be known as Princess Merida McBrattyCatty the Thunderous, Tiny Terror, Bratty Catty, Little Shit, Baby Baby, Bitty Kitty, and Sweet Babu.  She is the tornado of terror at 3am, the "sneaky cuddlebug" who just suddenly appears at your side cuddling you and you've no idea when she got there.  She is feisty and bitey and a total rabbit kicker! She will climb anything to the tippy top without fear and secretly loves Mater more than Maece (she is always being caught cuddling with him and not Maece LOL).

Even at 2.5 years old now, she is clearly a runt compared to the other cats, being several pounds lighter and a good 75% their size!  But her spirit is tremendous and she more than makes up for her size in spunk and attitude and is not treated any less by the other cats or the dogs.