I have recently had a spate of wild birds coming right up to me, these birds are all poorly in some way or another. Some just look done in, some have injured legs, wings or eye problems. 
I send them healing, say a little blessing for them and off they go. Some come back the next day and the day after for ‘treatments’ and then fly away.
Something I have noticed over my years working with animals is if you make a ‘heart to heart’ connection with them and help them with either healing, helping them adjust to living with a family or rescuing them from a traumatic or stressful situation they often will come back to you when they are feeling better and say thank you. Obviously I don’t mean they speak words, but they will come up and make an acknowledgement. Wild birds will come really close look right at me chirrup and fly away, dogs tend to do a nose bump to the hand and cats do it in a style that only a cat could! In my personal experience they come right up close as with the other animals, give eye contact that seems to come deep from their soul to mine, will invite some physical touch from me before getting on with their lives. I have also experienced animals that I have tried to help or that I have given healing to as they are passing away spring up in meditations to say thank you, sometimes years after the event. Of course this could be my imagination, but these are often instances that have been forgotten about and anyone who has had profound meditation experiences will know that you can tell the difference between these and an imagining.
During my time spent dog training and helping with behaviour problems I have visited homes where there has been a complete communication and relationship breakdown between a dog and it’s owner. After working with them the owner will often come to the realisation that the way they were trying to communicate what was expected of the dog to it was actually causing the problem as the dog didn’t understand the language, shouting, beatings etc. These were beautiful moments where the owner’s whole way of interacting with the dog changed immediately as we worked together in a way that both human and canine understood. Often at the end of the session the dog would come over to me, look into my face, nose bump or lick my hand and walk away again.
Those of us privileged enough to share our lives in some way with animals will tell you that they are feeling, thinking beings and it is our duty to respect them.
Be compassionate to yourself and others. 5th Reiki Precept.
