Tag animal communication

Of course goodbyes are hard

Nancy Crowe Leave a comment

On the left is Rowdy, also known as Little Man or Little Rowdy Man. I worked with this cantankerous senior mini horse when he joined the Summit Equestrian Center herd a few years ago, as he retired to Lopin’ Along at the Farm Microsanctuary and just before he passed away last month. 

That came shortly after Maggie, Summit’s majestic (and sometimes princess-like) black Percheron, died. I’d known her since she came to Summit in 2018. Though skeptical of me at first, she decided relaxing meditation and getting her opinions heard were worth her while.  

All along the way, I was able to check in with them about how they were feeling and offer meditation to help. As their conditions and pain levels became more difficult to manage, I helped assess their readiness to cross.  

Anyone who lives with or works with animals has to deal with goodbyes. There are also hellos, I love yous, thank yous, inquiries about breakfast and other exchanges. 

Animal loss is painful. I’ve struggled mightily with it and walked clients through its dark, sweet shadows. There are no shortcuts.

The animals deserve to be remembered and the humans who love them deserve to heal in our own way. Can we offer ourselves the grace and humor our beloved animals have given us? I have found that as we do, it helps us see a much bigger picture.  

(Photos by Nancy Crowe)

Communication gets you further than compliance

Nancy Crowe
Image by Rebecca Scholz from Pixabay

Frustrated dog, cat, and horse owners will often enlist an animal communicator to get the animal to do what they want. They’ve tried and tried to get the cat to use the litter box, the dog to stop digging up the dahlias or the horse to just get on the trailer.

These are all legitimate concerns and ones I’m happy to address. However, animal communication is not about compliance. It’s about gathering information that will help animals and their humans find a way forward.

For example, a communication session can tell you:

• A noise from the water heater startles the cat in mid-pee. Moving the litter box out of the utility room, or adding one in a different spot, could make a big difference.

• Your dahlia-digging dog needs more enrichment. Which seems obvious, but he may also tell me that nose work or agility training would be even more fun than additional walks.

• The horse’s previous owner used force to get him to load. A small change — even you doing some deep breathing before you lead him to the trailer — would let him know he is safe now.

As with human brains, making the link between actions and consequences can be a work in progress. Nevertheless, knowledge is power, both for the animal knowing what the human wants and the human knowing where the animal is coming from. Why ask for compliance when communication gets you so much more?

Two hands and a paw

When humans mistreat one another, animals feel it

Nancy Crowe

When people are cruel to one another, animals feel it. This happens when they experience trauma – such as witnessing the fatal shooting of one of their humans, as Renee Good’s dog did.

I would tell you it also happens when they sense the grief and pain their humans feel over such events, even far away. A horse told me last week he knew human cruelty was “out there” and that it made his beloved person feel angry and discouraged. Then he showed me an image of himself with all four feet planted firmly on the ground: “There is good.”

A few days later, after I read about the killing of Alex Pretti, one of our cats climbed into my lap and gently kneaded my chest, looking into my eyes and purring. This face-to-face kneading was a departure from her usual facing-out, turning-around-a-few- times kneading. Of course she had no idea who Alex Pretti was, what ICE is or what immigration means. No doubt she picked up on the energy and images I carried away from that news story. She knew it was something happening in the human world, and she was there providing evidence of what is good in said world.

I don’t know much about policy or politics, but I know that treating people as if they don’t matter is not only wrong but unnecessary. We can be fair to strangers of all stripes. We can ask better questions. We can, and must, create a kinder world for animals and ourselves.

(Photo by Anastasiya Lobanovskaya/Pexels)