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 and prolonged his life a few more years
    ✅ How I healed Mattie's seizures
    ✅ How Mirai adopted me and joined the fight to save my own 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!
    ✅ How Mercy brings new beginnings to the Hack Pack

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 was 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 the picture to the right 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 potty accidents around the house.

He was 11 years old nearing 12 which is the max tail end of the average life expectancy for a German Shepherd.  Thankfully, it was 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, at 13 and a half. You could still see signs he was an older dog. If Maece got too rough with him, he would yelp in pain and withdraw. But he did still engage in play with her, though he mostly would just lay there pawing and play-biting at her, defending himself against her goofy wrestling antics! He started having some small issues with coming up stairs if they weren't carpeted and had 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!)

In December 2024 we became homeless again, this time living out of my Jeep Cherokee. I made a bed in the back portion of the car for Mater and Maece to be comfortable, and we managed.  We "day-camped" at Connestee Nature Preserve in Mauldin, SC and would walk the trails and go to the dog park there.  Mater loved it, and he kept up just for awhile he took a tumble on one of the trails in February.

He bounced back well enough with the help of pain meds to manage his arthritis that the fall incident helped us realize was what was going on when I took him to the vet.  He started slowing down and wouldn't play as much with other dogs, but he was still a happy and social boy who loved to meet everyone - people and other dogs.

May 15th, 2025, at 14 years and 4 months old, he came down a second round of pneumonia. He had just had a bout in February that he recovered from (they all did then, this time was only him). This time, however, he did not pull through and on Monday May 19th- 11 months after letting go of Mattie, we had to say goodbye to Mater and send him to join her.  He never took his sweet, loving eyes off of me as went to sleep for the last time.

A few weeks after Mater's passing I had an epiphany of sorts revolving around the timing of it, of Mattie's passing and just everything happening all at once since the loss of my warehousing job in January 2024 up to then and beyond.  This was a season of great letting go/releasing for me.  As I had been growing in my spirituality and Path as a healer, and working on developing and growing my plans for Jera Laguz, the dream had become HUGE!  And a huge dream needs a LOT of space to be manifested.  This was all part of that.

And so came "Mercy and Me", a poem I wrote about it in relation to the passing of Mattie and Mater, and the next expectation of Maece as, at the time of this updating she is almost 10 (will be in May 2026), and has shown signs of slowing down and her age catching up to her.  Smaller signs that mostly I can see as people are quite shocked when they meet her and I tell them she's almost 10!

It's not the same kind of homage I gave to Mattie shortly after writing the original poem version of "Mercy and Me", but since it was Mater's passing that triggered its creation, it's what I have for him.  Additionally, at the same time I was starting to get into using an AI app to create full-fledged songs out of my poetry and lyrics, and so I set to work to make "Mercy and Me" an original song as well. You can listen to that below.

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 was only a few months behind him in age and was 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 before 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 was 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 SO 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, topping out at 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 mutts 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, though 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 in the midst of my level 1 Reiki training at that point, 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!

Mirai has always been an independent cat, and "tolerated" the presence of the dogs and Merida, only ever playing with Maeve.  It took years for her to get to the point that she would join us in the bed at all. At first, when she finally started to, she started by taking the furthest corner of the bed from anyone and would leave after I fell asleep.

Then one night she started curling up by my side at the shoulder.  Soon after that she would climb onto my chest, or shoulder if I was on my side) and she would knead into me gently until I fell asleep.  I've always had trouble getting to sleep, when she started doing this, however, I started falling asleep much more quickly and getting better sleep.

She and the other cats are currently being cared for by a dear friend during this season of release while I work to re-stabilize my life and prepare to start bringing the dream of Jera Laguz into reality.  I couldn't be more grateful to my friend taking all three in for me, and I look forward to the day we are back as a full pack!

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 allowing her to help 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)

Her other nicknames are Slobber Goblin, Sugar-face Baby, Donut Doggy, Thumpy-Butt, Wiggle-Butt, Goofy Shit, Mace-Wacey, Bubby, Maece-Bubby, Bubby-Wubby, Cutie-Wutie, Cutie-Wutie Patutie, and the ultimate nickname-string of My Maece-Wacey Bubby-Wubby Cutie-Wutie-Patootie Goofy Grrl!

I've known for a few years now (since mid 2023) that Maece is psychic. It was first hinted to me by my Wiccan friend who instigated the awakening in me that started my spiritual Journey. It was later confirmed in 2023 when she interrupted a session between me and a psychic intuitive who was doing a reading for me.  Maece literally interrupted her psychically to give her a message of her own to convey to me!  Since then, Maece has come to me in my dreams occasionally, along with the Rúna. 

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 at 2.5 years old she still chased and wrestled and played 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 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.

On March 3rd, 2025, the stunning husky you see on the left surprised me, Mater and Maece around 7 p.m. as we did our final walk around Connestee before we were to head to our night spot. No collar or harness, and no tags to identify ownership. She was friendly and playful, yet timid. Every time I tried to grab hold of her, she would run off out of reach, then circle back to play with Maece and Mater.

So, I got my dogs into the car, grabbed my spare harness and leash and worked on trying to catch her after checking with others nearby that she did not belong to them. One couple having told me that she had followed them on the trails for several miles before they exited to the main grounds where she had suddenly appeared on us.

Eventually, I was able to corral her into the fenced in dog park and get her on leash. Once I did, and brought her back to my car, she was SO sweet!  I called animal control, but it was after-hours and the regular police wouldn't do a thing since she wasn't attacking anyone.

SO, I kept her with us overnight, secretly hoping I wouldn't find her owners as I've always wanted a husky!  But alas, when we went to the vet in the morning to scan for a microchip, there they were.  Her owners were given my number to contact to get her back and later that day Alaska, as she turned out to be named, was reunited with her family and litter of pups.

The proximity of the event to my birthday was not lost on me. The opportunity for an un-spayed female puppy to join the pack was also a two-for-one blessing to work on Maece's issues with smaller dogs and not fixed females.  So, when Alaska's owners offered me one of the pups from her litter as a reward for rescuing and reuniting her with her family, I did not hesitate.  On Friday, March 7th, 2025, I picked up a little fluffy marshmallow and named her Mercy!

Mercy, because there was the knowing of the Divine at work behind this coming together.  This was meant to be, for many reasons.

Mercy has had all the sweetness of her mother, and the playfulness.  She was shy of 3 months old when I got her (born December 18th 2024), and almost pure white, with just a hint of grey-ish white on her back.  She integrated within just a few days, and she came to help Maece with her training in so many ways!  

Mercy has proven herself quite intelligent, and has taken to her training pretty quick despite her puppy nature and desire to play 24/7!  As she grew, we would be at the dog park with her and Mater free to roam around while I worked on Maece's training with small dogs on the other side of the fence of the split dog park (under 25 pounds to the right half, 25 pounds and over to the left half).

Mercy's intelligence shined within a couple months where she picked up on my training with Maece, to counter Maece's bad habits of being over-stimulated at the sight of small dogs and behaving the way she would.  And I would be using blocking techniques to corral Maece away from the fence between the two halves of the park whenever she started to escalate and fixate on any of the small dogs there.  Well, Mercy picked up on what I was doing and if she saw me having trouble getting Maece away from the fence, she would stop playing with other dogs and come over and latch on to the loose skin of Maece's neck with her teeth and start tugging her away from the fence area! 

And, she would do it on walks as well, if we came near enough to someone else walking their dogs and Maece started over-reacting, as soon as I started correcting and commanding to leave it, Mercy would latch onto Maece's neck and tug her in a direction away from the other dogs!

She STILL does it to this day, even though Maece no longer gets so bad and actually listens to commands, she'll start latching on to her neck and tugging her and I'll have to tell her "Mercy, stop! She's ok, she's listening!"

Mercy's presence in the pack has truly been a blessing. She brought back some of Mater's lost vitality in the last couple of months of his life, helping them be full of joy and love instead of pain and suffering.  And she helped with Maece's training, as mentioned, but also in being a constant play companion for Maece when Mater no longer wished to play.

As for the notorious Husky sass... she's been a late bloomer in that regard.  Only starting to find her husky voice and attitude little by little over the Fall and Winter of 2025, she mostly only sasses me in the mornings when I'm slow to get up and get them their first walk of the day, but also any time I leave them alone for more than 15 minutes- I'll get an earful on my return! LOL  This has earned her the nickname "Sassy Grrl".

The thing that makes me wonder the most though started in May not long after Mater's passing.  Up until then, I could sense Mattie's spirit by our side. A couple weeks after his passing, I stopped sensing Mattie's presence and Mercy's behavior changed. She was suddenly stealing my spot whenever I got up, laying on my pillows- including curling up around my head and shoulders when I'm laying on my pillows, showing me her belly for rubs when I ask her what she's doing in my spot after stealing it, doing these cute little dances and giving me some sass when I don't give her meals to her fast enough, rubbing up between my legs in a cat-like manner- all exactly like Mattie would do...

So, I wonder if dogs can soul-swap like people can. The evidence is clear to me, especially since I have mistakenly called her Mattie and she responded to it even though she never knew Mattie and hadn't heard me use the name before.  But I know it's probably a topic that will be vastly divided amongst the populace, and I don't bring it up to stir up a debate. While I have come to believe it is true and can happen, I do not treat Mercy as Mattie and I do not cling to her as some kind of resurrection of her, because I know I could be wrong, but regardless of the evidence and change in habits to ones Mattie did, she Is Mercy, not Mattie.

Right or wrong here is irrelevant to me at this stage in my life. Mattie is chasing squirrels in the fields of Valhalla with Mater. Mercy is here now, bringing joy, love and Light to the world and my world. and that is all that matters!

Mercy's full list of nicknames as of Spring 2026 are:

Toasted Marshmallow, Floofy Boot, Floofy Face, Floofanutter & Silly Sandwich, Mercy the Destructor, Kooky Moot, Huskatini Tornadini, Twirlybird Tornado, Snow Dolphin, Sassy Grrl, Sassy Brat, Spoiled Brat, Bratty Brat, Pretty Pupoto, Sweet Baby Grrl and Naughty Grrl!

She has been testing my patience since about day 3 of training (in good ways)! LOL  But to be fair to her, she is LEAGUES better than pretty much every other husky I've ever seen on social media!  She pretty much just wants to play and be loved all the time, and go for long, long walks.  Seriously, she needs to share some of her endless energy with me!

But the dynamic with her has changed things so much, and she's come to represent a new beginning for us as we pass the tipping point of this season of release and letting go.  2024 through 2026 so far has been a theme of letting go in so many ways.  It's understood though, as the plan for Jera Laguz is HUGE, so too must be the space in my life for it!

She also loves snow like a crackhead in a bed full of booger sugar!  (No offense to any crack aficionados that might be reading this!) Here's a short video of what I mean: