The first day that I talked to an animal....

This story was originally written as a request from a local newspaper that wanted me to convey my own personal experiences in an effort to educate and excite people about Animal Communication. Rememberance Day 2009 marks the 4th anniversary of my learning to communicate with animals. It also marks the one year anniversary of this blog, Ottawa Cat Chit-Chat. I thought it would be timely to run this story for my readers.

The Animal Communicator Inside

I feel a real wonderment about the animals that share our lives, both domestically, in our homes and those that inhabit our larger home, Mother Earth. They all speak their own languages and exchange meaningful communication among their own species, independent of humans. So, imagine how magical it must feel to be able to share in their seemingly exclusive inner thoughts and feelings.

My name is Melanie Walker. For the past eight years, I have owned and operated The Pet Bed and Breakfast. It is a completely cageless cat boarding facility. I have been an animal communicator for the past four years. If you had told me five years ago, that I would be able to commune with animals, I probably would have told you that you have an incredible imagination.

I have had many unbelievable experiences and feel very privileged to be an animal communicator. It is a world full of colorful personalities, each with their own style, sense of humor and uniqueness. Each conversation is special and each animal can teach you something new, that will expand your understanding of What Is and What Is Possible. The work is riff with uplifting exchanges and, just as often, has proven to be gut wrenching and heart breaking. Even those times have been remarkable. They have taught me about them and about our relationships with them. They truly are here to help us and teach us.

I believe that many people who share a deep love and respect for all life, have had many animal communication experiences of their own; they just don’t realize it, refuse to validate it or, in many instances, aren’t aware that it is even possible. My first noteworthy communication experiences started happening in my second year of business at my kennel. It was my morning routine to enter each of my group boarding environments and put the lights and music on. I would pass through one set of french doors and on to the next, repeating the process until all rooms were lit. On occasion, I would walk into a particular room, put the lights on and, without even having seen any or all of the cats yet, instinctively or intuitively, I knew that someone wasn’t well. I didn’t know How I knew that, but I did. I would know that something wasn’t right. Perhaps someone wasn’t feeling well or had stopped eating. I was spookily accurate at this too. My friends would caution me to ‘be careful, in case I ended up somehow getting sick from them’.

I questioned myself and spoke with many other people, in my effort and growing frustration, to try to understand what exactly was happening. Could I feel their low energy? or, Were they somehow telling me that they weren’t well? After about a year of these occasional baffling experiences, I met a woman that finally could help. She was very intuitive and well informed about many of the subtle things that are possible energetically. She was the one to tell me that Animal Communication is very real and that many people work in the field, full-time, as a career. I was shocked and a bit skeptical. I rushed off and bought a bunch of books on the subject. They gave me a feel for what other people were doing and an understanding of the scope of what could be communicated.

I had grown up on a farm and had many small pets that occupied my time and curiosity. I would sit and watch them, handle them, and observe how they learned, acted and communicated with each other. Even from a young age, I had a deep respect for their intelligence, their ‘humanity’ and their instinct. I was very aware that they were sentient beings. This was very obvious to me as a child and became even clearer, once I started working with animals. They are capable of experiencing every emotion that people do.

After achieving only limited success through the ‘How To’ books on the subject, I decided to go to New York City in search of a full fledged course. Aside from the fact that I knew it would be fun and an amazing skill to learn, I was deeply aware of how this could impact my work at my kennel. I considered how much better I would be able to help the animals, if I were able to understand their health and emotional needs better. By this time, my fascination had already taken root, regarding the many animals that I cared for. I met a steady stream of cats that had existing health issues like diabetes, kidney disorders or thyroid problems. Of bigger interest though, were the cats that had subtler health issues, like headaches or stress reactions. These often manifested in the form of ‘compulsive’ habits such as excessively licking their coats to the point of bald patches, or worse, open lesions.

On Friday November 11th, Remembrance Day in NYC, a group of sixty or so people, predominantly female, attended the two hour info session designed to give a brief overview of what the weekend had in store for us. In less than an hour, we got down to the ‘nuts & bolts’ of our first attempt, at communicating with a real live animal, Sea, the turtle. Sea, lay motionless in our instructor’s hand. What she lacked in animation, she made up for in conversation.

Each person in the group telepathically sent Sea the same question. Then, we’d each receive our own interpretations, which varied in detail, depending on our openness to receive and on our sensory strengths. When I asked her, ‘How she felt?’ She sent me a deep feeling of sadness and loneliness. When I asked her about her favorite foods she told me ‘ berries and grapes, preferably purple ones’. When I asked her ‘What she longs for?’ I got my Wow! moment in spades! Not only did she tell me that she longs to go outside and be in the grass, she showed me... Oh, but not just a picture of her outside in the grass... She let me pop my consciousness into her little turtle body and showed me, in full, vivid, 3D color, what she wanted. It was a surreal experience. We connected so profoundly that I WAS the turtle! I was inside of the turtle. I looked out the little turtle eyes. I felt my little turtle feet sunk into soft, lush grass beneath me. I felt the blades of grass stroke up against my little turtle cheeks. I didn’t know it at the time but, this technique is commonly referred to as Gestalt, and should only be done to another, with their express consent. Sea, on the other hand, invited me in and gave me the experience of a lifetime. NYC will always be one of my favorite cities due to these magical memories.

This first experience proved to be a life defining moment for me. It forced me to re-examine and re-define those things that I had for-took as ‘real’. It was the kind of experience that changes your world and challenges your perception of your world, forever, leading you to question ‘What else is possible?’

We had a wide array of guest animals to help us practice that weekend. Along with Sea, the turtle, we had a rabbit, a rescued white lab rat, a family of 3 Daschunds, a cat and a parrot. Each animal’s people were present for the Q & A segments involving their animal. The people provided the crucial element for us ‘Newbie’s’, The Validation. How else would I have possibly believed that an apartment dwelling Manhattan parrot told me that one of his best friends was a pink flamingo. His dad was delighted, when I offered this answer, along with the black and charcoal grey cats that most other people got too. He told me, that his parrot, has a little plastic pink flamingo toy. It sits outside of his cage, and he talks to it all of the time. Without this man’s validation, I probably would have left that evening thinking that I didn’t get anywhere that day, that I must’ve only been ‘making things up’. The ability to not judge or analyze what you receive, with the conscious/analytic mind, does take some practice.

Many people have told me over the years that they think their animal understands them, their animal knows when something is going on in the house, they know in advance that the family is going away on a trip, even before the suitcases come out. Lots of people say they have a ‘feeling’ that their animal talks to them, trying to tell them things. All of the above , are possible and do happen regularly. If you think about an animal, they know that you are thinking about them. They can receive your thoughts regardless of space and distance. They hear them. It is possible to speak to an animal by using a picture to connect, or by using a picture of the animal, in your mind, to connect. It is even possible to speak with an animal that has already died. Most animals have very good recollection of their past lives, and their past lives, with you, either in your current or your past lives.

I know that this all seems like a lot to believe and digest, if you’ve never heard about Animal Communication before. All I can say is that these tidbits are really only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been practicing my skill for four years now. The animals never cease to amaze me with their humor, insight, intellect and ‘soulfulness’. This skill is available to every one of us to learn. It is our innate birthright. We are born with the ability to talk to the animals. We often lose touch with nature as we grow older but, if any of this has peaked your interest, realize that it is easy to re-learn. It is my belief that our communication takes place at the spirit level and that, at that level, we are all the same. We just drive different cars. That’s all!