To evolve or devolve - that is the question!

Words VIV ADCOCK

To evolve [ ih-volv ] progress; mature, grow, change, transform.

For a person seeking consciousness, evolution is a personal quest, an immeasurable organic adventure that is a choice-by-choice process. It can be a bittersweet ride as we navigate the ‘uncomfortableness’ that change sometimes brings before stepping into greater awareness and clarity.

Yet, I marvel at how animals evolve with more ease. Over the past five years, I have had the privilege of fostering 30 rescued greyhounds from the Australian racing industry.

It has been an incredible gift for me to engage with their rehabilitation, transforming from being a racing animal to a family member. Each of the dogs arrived with a vast array of issues and injuries, both physical and mental. As a foster carer, you are given little or no history of the dogs that have mostly come straight from the racetrack, which I know facilitates the change for them. People often take a point of view about the treatment of the dogs and their past and make it significant. If their story was to go with them from their past to the carer, and onto their forever home, it could lodge into the animal’s world and body and stop potential evolution.

One particular hound, Cooper, had spent 18 months of his 24-month life in a laboratory. He was petrified of people and open spaces, and any noise would turn him into a trembling mess.

It was a vastly different journey with Cooper, and I admit that I questioned whether he would be able to adjust and trust someone again. He showed me very quickly what movements he could cope with and what overloaded him. Initially, he was most comfortable in the small, dark laundry area. He would only approach me from behind. He had learned he could get away from people if he was behind them (to this day, he still mostly approaches new people from behind).

The simplest task was a big step for him – we put his food bowl up on a stand as he struggled to eat at floor height due to muscle weakness. We went through a variety of bowls to find one that didn’t make a noise and scare him if he was eating from it. We couldn’t walk towards him carrying anything in our hands – the abuse this animal had endured was unimaginable.

He took me on a massive learning curve of awareness and patience, and I stepped into a kindness I didn’t know I had. Throughout this whole journey there was an invisible simultaneity of evolution between Cooper and I that had been weaving its transformative contribution in both our worlds since we first met.

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