Introducing Mrs Dolittle

I talk to animals, and they talk to me. You do too, but you might not be aware of it. Everyone has the ability to talk to animals and hear their answers. It's easy to learn – in fact it's something that humans used to do quite naturally before we evolved and started to converse verbally. Then we forgot that we could converse without words, and got out of practice. Like any skill, once it's not used, it tends to diminish – but not disappear completely.

Animals haven't forgotten how to do this, and still communicate this way, with each other and with us. Of course, our clever pets have also learned that we've forgotten how to do this, and have learnt some of our words – we all know that most pets understand the words "food" "walk", and many others. Bella loves being brushed, and shouts enthusiastically if I ask her if she wants a brush. This is her favourite human word. Many of us are convinced that our pets also have a spoken vocabulary, and we know what some of their words mean.

But this isn't really what this is all about...... When I say that I talk to animals and they talk to me, I mean that I (and therefore you too) do this intuitively. You might call it telepathy. Think about it. You have a really close relationship with your pet. How many times have you known what your pet wants? How often do you realise that you know how they're feeling? Body language and familiarity with them is a part of the answer, but it's not the whole answer. It's subtle, but if you really think about it, you know that you know.

I realised that I could talk to animals a couple of years ago, and my introduction to it wasn't subtle at all!! I had recently been introduced to a couple of female cats, about 12 years old, who I'll call Jenny and Sally. Their human carer had only just taken them on – sadly from someone who really shouldn't have had the care of animals. They clearly had developed lots of emotional issues, but we didn't really know the cause – only some of the effects.

I met them when I was booked for cat sitting services, a couple of weeks after they'd moved into their new home. They were very lucky as their new carer just wanted to provide a place they could feel and be safe – she wasn't concerned about what she'd get from the relationship. She knew that rehabilitation would take a long time, and just wanted to give them all the love and care that they were able to handle, not to mention good quality food!!

We'd had a long conversation about their issues and problems. I came to look after them on a regular basis, getting to know them well, and they learnt to trust me. I would watch as Sally would grumble and growl at Jenny whenever she got close, and in fact when I did too. Lots of the issues seemed to be around food, and they needed to be fed in separate places. We knew they'd been together for a while, although we both doubted whether it had been always. But this didn't explain Sally's grumbling at Jenny. It was quite sad to watch as Jenny tended to look quite upset when this happened.

One day, while I was sitting with them, I found myself asking Sally a question. It came out of the blue, and I didn't know I was going to ask it. I asked her how she felt about her sister (which is what I called them). I didn't really expect to get a reply, but if I had I'd have expected to hear that she didn't like her much. Imagine my shock when the reply came in the form of a huge wave of love that was so strong every part of my body was filled with it. I was close to tears with the sheer strength of this emotion. Then the words followed....... She told me that she loved her sister very much, but that she didn't know how to show it, she found it very difficult to express. So I turned to Jenny and asked her the same question. By then I sort of expected an answer, but the answer I got wasn't what I expected. I was told that she was fond of her, but that her behaviour confused her, she didn't know why she was like that. No upset, annoyance or irritation, just bafflement.

Not long after that, I was in the vet's waiting room, where I'd taken Bella to have her annual booster and check up. A lady came in with a cat in a basket, yowling terribly, making an awful noise. They sat down and she told me that the cat was 20 years old, and was very poorly – she was bringing him for his last journey. She thought the cat was in some pain or discomfort because of the awful sound he was making. I looked at the cat, and this time didn't even need to ask him a question – he just spoke to me. He told me that he knew where he was and why he was there. In fact he knew that his time was up, his body was failing him, and he was happy to go (I've since discovered that they all know when it's time to go, but this will be the subject of another Blog).

Without stopping to think – ie, she'll think I'm bonkers – I turned to the lady and told her what her cat had told me. To her credit she didn't show any sign of thinking I was completely mad and seemed to appreciate my telling her. With that the cat settled down in the basket and went to sleep. The awful noise had stopped because his message had got through – he was so desperate to let his carer know, so that she wouldn't worry, that by then he was screaming it at her as he knew he only had a little time left to put her mind at rest. He seemed happy after that.

After two very strong indications that I was carrying on conversations with animals I thought I really ought to learn to do this properly. I found a lovely man, and his partner, who teach people Reiki for animals and animal communication. Even though I'd already graduated to 2^nd degree Reiki myself by then, I was thrilled to find someone who did both – I knew he be the right person. I booked myself on an introductory course, and it was great to know that what I was doing was so normal, easy to do, and that others could also do it. For any of you who might be interested, his name is James French. This is his website: www.reikicare.co.uk.

So, that was my start in animal communication, and since then I've used it to great effect with the animals I care for - when their humans go away, when asked to provide Reiki treatments for animals, and also at Animals in Distress.

I've lots more fascinating stories about communicating with animals, and will return to this topic in future blogs.

Meantime, if you've got any experiences of communicating with your animals, please share them here - we'd all love to hear from you.