“Rescue Me From My Boring Rescue Dog”

Here’s the gist of what a desperate man said to me in his cry for help: “Brought this rescue dog home from the shelter a couple of months ago. I figured, wow, my new friend to come home to! He’ll be excited at the very sight of me. He’ll play ball with me.

Get me to go running again. Entertain me. Worship me. Instead, I got stuck with a rescue dog that might as well be dead.”

To keep the rescuer anonymous, let’s call the rescue dog, “Stud.”

I asked the rescuer if, in his heart of hearts, his intention was to rescue himself or the dog?

He surprised himself with his answer. Surprised me, too. He realized that it was he who he was trying to save from what he judged to be, his boring self.

In my connecting with Stud, the rescue dog, I got that Stud didn’t quite know how to be with humans, since he was mostly on his own before the shelter.

My previous post talks about communicating with a cat who was nasty aggressive, the cat’s way of compensating for his own lack of human social skills.

We aren’t the only mammals who are individuals, or who might lack social skills. Animals are unique in how they think, how they respond, how they learn, how they cope, how they love. (The ones on plates also had minds of their own.)

Stud played dead with his strange guardian because his guardian failed to take the time to connect with him, hear-to-heart. The only way to be real with anyone, is to connect with the heart, right?

Heads don’t connect two beings. Heads connect the dots, not the heart. This is what animals tell me, including a few human ones.

Approaching any animal solely by way of your talking head, is a dead end to the possibility of true communication.

Only your heart can lead to the deep connection you want with any animal you choose to bring home.

The above is the gist of my conversation with the rescuer, after checking in heart-to-heart with Stud.

Stud was the one actually guiding the conversation.

Turns out Stud was pleading for the same thing as the rescuer: “Please rescue me from this deadbeat,” Stud’s paraphrased plea.

The heart is the common ground where real communication begins. Communication is the ‘inter-action’ that takes place on that ground.

Taking action from the interaction, takes a committed mind balanced with the heart.

We all know that the stereotypical man tends, I say, tends, to get stuck in his mind. Many women, in their hearts.

Nonhuman animals are natural examples of being at home with their minds married to their hearts living in perfect harmony.

Bringing an animal home brings you home…when you listen to who s/he is, and to what s/he needs from you to make you both happy.

I know you all know this, or you wouldn’t be on this page. Just reminding myself.

I wonder if this is how marriage counselors talk.

Secretly Wanting Her Cat Dead

Wanting her cat dead was so secret, even she didn’t have a clue why she forgot to close the window the day he fell to earth.

But her cat lived to tell his tale, and was quick to clue her in, in our chat.

You might shudder, thinking what a nasty person she is.

She’s not. She’s just human. A rare, honest one.

Whenever someone tells me they wish they never had children, or if only their animals could disappear into some golden cloud of faerie dust, I sigh realizing this momentary coping mechanism in humans is still the norm.

Admittedly, I am forced to remember that I, the vegan animal communicator, once begged a friend to adopt my 3 month-old pup whose teeth on steroids were too sharp for my thin-skinned state of mind at the time. I am so very relieved she refused.

Happy to say, so is my now grown-up almost 5 year-old canine bud.

In a going nuts moment of wanting to jump out the window, or wishing your animal would, is understandable.

How we react or respond to our unconscious cry for help, can be a matter of life or death. For the animal.

Like every animal – you included – Freddy, the cat was born to love. Growing up in the streets of downtown, anywhere, kept him out of touch with his true nature.

He wanted his guardian to help him fit into her human world, to show him how to express the affection she wanted.

Instead of ending up dead or back in a shelter, Freddy lucked out in having a guardian who was intent on finally understanding him, and his needs.

The week following our phone session, he even let out a purr, a first ever according to his guardian. And instead of clawing her as usual whenever she got too close, he actually jumped on her and stared into her eyes with total love and awe. . .the way we all want to be seen.

Now that they see each other for who they are, they can relish the possibility of a relationship of give and take, full of awe, appreciation, and inspiration.

They’re making a difference in their world, and the world around them.

Think how fewer animals there would be in shelters if their guardians had considered that bonding with a nonhuman animal requires as much love, patience, and understanding as we invest in our connections with humans.

By the way, Freddy suffered a broken jaw from the fall. Most of us repress anger in our jaws. Now that he got to communicate his anger about not having been understood, and with a little energywork over the phone, his guardian told me yesterday that the vet is amazed by his speedy recovery.

If your animal companion is not giving you what you want, please consider an animal communication session as a means to understand what s/he as an individual, might want…not what you think s/he wants based on species specific generalities.

It could save a life. And change your own.

Our Planet. Theirs too.

Dear animal loving friends: I know how much you love your dogs, your cats, your bunnies, your sweet birds, your horses. You love them as much as your own children. Some animals even more than your own children, you have told me.

You refer to yourselves as their guardians, not their owners.

I know the depth of your love, in the intensity of your pain I have felt the times you called me, tortured by needing to know how much suffering they endured during the months, weeks, days before they finally shed their sweet bodies. Before they passed from your arms, forever.

I know because you asked me to help you find closure that can only come from your knowing if you did the right thing: Did you have them euthanized too soon, too late, did they forgive you for ending their lives before they were ready to let go? Were they ready to let go?

For some, your animals were mere babes when an awful disease, or some other trauma cut their lives short.

It’s just as tough for us, as it is for them, to face never having a chance again to bask on our planet that was theirs, too.

At least, there’s consolation in knowing that our animals were never abused, never neglected, never abandoned, never violently attacked. Not on our watch.

We held memorials to honor them, to ease our pain. Years later, tears slip out at random from the windows of our souls, as if our companions died only yesterday.

I want to show you a video. A very beautiful, deeply moving animal memorial from Our Planet. Theirs Too.  This non-profit organization honors and holds all animals dear to their hearts. Literally. That’s what’s so awesome about them.

Their video will move you deeply, I promise:

At the end of each of our days, may we all put our hearts and minds to rest in knowing we are doing the right thing.

We are honoring with love, all the exquisite beings who share our planet together with us…so they may never have the misfortune of ending up on our plates.

Thank you for being beautiful, compassionate you.

Cats, Dinosaurs, Humans. Same Path.

We all know that all species – cats included, believe it or not, LOL – are governed by the same laws of nature.

But few realize, aside from scientists, that each individual in each animal species is born with a unique purpose to fulfill beyond that of survival and reproduction.

The chickens and pigs roasted in our ovens and the dogs and cats boiled alive elsewhere as dinner–we seldom think that each had his/her own mission to accomplish aside from dreams of being free. Every bite into their flesh was a missed opportunity to love. Theirs, as well as our own.

Cats. Who would ever think that cats came into this world with their own personal growth issues to work on? We’re supposed to be the personal growth species, right? Especially if we’re American…yeah right.

According to paleontologists, even dinosaurs were on their own personal growth walk on the path of love, walking side by side with their mates, resigning themselves to stay the winters in frigid, formidable places because their kids were too young to travel.

Back to the cat I communed with a few days ago in a session.  He’s a master of personal growth in his own right. Yet, my quick impression of him was that he was a scared-of-his-own shadow kind of cat.

But probing beneath his scaredy-cat surface, I met someone else. I met a cat on a mission to live, and let live.

His strength was in expressing the power of love his way, regardless of how wimpy it made him seem.

We thought he was scared of Bo, the tough, always in his face, cat, when in fact, he was lovingly giving Bo his space to eventually grow into his tender, loving skin…in Bo’s own mega testosterone-like  way.

Love is a journey of personal growth. Reverence for all life, the destination. It’s encoded in Life’s DNA, in the genes of every known species going back to the dinosaurs.

The beat, beat, beat of the universal (one verse) heart, regardless of what species of drummer, is love, love, love, reverence for all life. Leave it to a cat, to drum this into me. Though we all know deep in our hearts that love is the answer, hearing it from him made it feel fresh and new to me.

I could have questioned him about his dietary choices, and could have even suggested that he care about the individuals he ate everyday, but it didn’t seem like the right time in his physical evolution to ask him. Besides, the thought had not occurred to me until now.

Turns out this post is not so much about the cat.

It’s about upholding the power of love and the freedom to love that every individual in every species is encoded with the nature-given birthright to express. It’s what veganism basically is about.

How I Became a Happy Vegan Black Sheep

Decades ago, before I stopped eating sweet, innocent herbivores, aka, meat–little lambs, baby boy calves, teenage cows, chicken tots, and piglets and their moms and dads–I had chronic fatigue symptoms, severe thyroid and pancreatic issues, a taxed liver, and chronic bouts of anxiety and depression.

When compassion gave me the courage to switch to a meatless diet, my physical health morphed in less than a year into near excellent health which I still enjoyed decades later.

I realized back then, that my new meatless diet was not the sole cause of my new vitality. It was my re-awakened awareness – that my new diet inspired – of our deep connection with all animals, with all living beings. The awareness we all had as wee children, open and receptive to the wonder and joy of life.

I was moved once again to interact, commune more deeply, more specifically with nature, be it a mouse, or a tree, or a patch of clover, or you.

To this day, connecting with all life, as I did during my childhood spent mostly in nature, surrounded by animals tame and wild, is as full of wonder and compassion, if not more so. It’s as though my sensory perception sensors were recharged, as well as my awe and love of all life.

Though my growing awareness of the suffering of animals in human hands spurred me onto vegetarianism way back then, I still, until I switched to a vegan diet, suffered from getting stuck in anxiety and depression.

Not anymore. When I cut out dairy, my health made a beeline from near excellent to excellent in a few weeks.

Aside from the tranquilizers, pus and other bad stuff in dairy, there’s pain…the horror the bovine mother experienced when her calf was torn from her side, the loneliness she had to endure tethered to milk machines stripping her udders raw and causing painful puss-filled infections.

No wonder I was depressed for years. I was taking in the pain of enslaved, battered cows. My psyche knew what I was doing. My conscious mind did not.

If you are still a meat and/or dairy consumer, please be aware of the reality that is a scientific fact: We are all connected, we are all one. The harm you cause to one being, you cause to your own.

The river of sorrow flooded with our conscious or unconscious complicity in the suffering of our animal relatives, of all our relatives, planet included, runs through our veins, physically and metaphorically speaking.

The horror in meat and dairy alone, ‘coarsing‘ through our brains, our hearts, every cell in our being, is enough to make anyone sick.

A well-balanced vegan diet and lifestyle does not make you sick. It makes you clear. It makes you healthy. It makes you whole.

For years now, since deepening my commitment to actively advocating the rights of animals, aside from communicating with them more deeply, I have new energy.

More energy than healthy people half my age, I am told by those half my age. Several times a week, I hike mountains and practice yoga with young athletics.

I am a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the rights of animals to live as Nature intended. Everyday, I ‘follow my bliss‘ with the determination that all beings…including the planet…will get to follow theirs.

Did you know that the meat and dairy industries are the number one cause of climate change? Well, now you do: A quick easy search online will tell you this is true.

Please don’t just eat vegan, be vegan. Be a happy, healthy, and wise little black sheep. And the other sheep will follow.

When Wild Lives Become Backyard Pests…

…please do no harm. Instead, talk to the little perpetrators heart-to-heart, by way of animal communication, our primary language.

Whether they are upsetting your space, chomping on the roots of your fruit trees and vegetable gardens, creating a stink, gnawing at the walls of your home, chewing on your car engine wires, and/or finishing off your cereal before you wake up…whoever they are, try to be humble. Talk to them.

They’re smarter than us when it comes to listening, to creating harmony.

Two emails Bev Shintani in Oregon sent me in 2011, about her backyard pests:

“Jane, I have a problem with some raccoons leaving a poop pile in the same place, every year. Each year, as it progresses into summer, the pile grows and grows, and the stench gets stronger and stronger. I’m wondering if we can ask them to stop leaving the mess. I’ve tried cayenne pepper, and other such “natural” things, but no results.”

Bev’s reply to my 2015 email, asking about the raccoons:

“The raccoons. I have not seen a trace of them since our a.c. session four years ago. Nothing. I check for poop piles from time to time, but the place remains clean.

“I would be delighted for you to share the poop story. It may help someone else, or at least make them aware that they can resolve “backyard pest” issues without doing any harm.”

A few months ago, I spoke with Bev again. Still no pest problems.

You don’t have to be in the animals’ physical presence to ask them to work with you. Remember, we’re all connected. We’re all one, us and the entire universe.

Might as well make it all won, while we have the option.

You don’t need me to do the talking for you, but I will, if you want.

Thank you for listening.

Now, I just need to make time to talk to the rodent newcomers outside my door, as well as remind my dachshund friend to please not ‘reach out’ to them again.

Almost Quit Veganism for Happy Organic Pasture Cows

Sometimes, I’m only human in forgetting that I’m an animal.

When I disconnect from my sacred primal self, not only do I feel bored, I crave creamy comfort foods to nurture me in my dead zone.

Today, during my disconnect with myself, my instant target fix was on butter.

Online, I found Organic Pastures.  I was amazed at how wonderful the dairy cows have it there.  And their label is so cute with the smiling cow cartoon. I could just eat it up.

Their photo of a calf with its mom is to die for. So heartwarming. So believable.

The Cornucopia Institute gave the dairy farm 5 Cows(Stars), an “outstanding” rating having to do with humane treatment of dairy cows in healthy outdoor green pasture environments.

And get a load of Organic Pasture’s FAQS! They are the only organic raw milk dairy in the country with a 5-Cow rating. Amazing.

How could I resist my insatiable lust for the milk of bovine kindness from these happy cows?

I must rush to the store as fast as I can.

But first, I need the missing facts. (After all, I may be sentimental. But I am not stupid where animals are concerned.)

For starters: What happens to the male calves? And the cows, what’s their fate when they run out of milk after so many forced pregnancies?

I called the farm and spoke to the woman in charge. She was nasty, but honest.

She told me that yes, the male calves are sold to the “calf industry.” And that yes, the industry does send calves directly to slaughter houses, or veal stalls, or stud corrals.

I didn’t get to ask about the fate of the happy cows once they’re ‘used up.’

Needless to say, my butter craving bolted for the high road to redemption.

Cozy again with my animal self, a memory of first noticing two years ago in a store, the illustrated happy cow on Green Pasture’s label came back to me. I remember that my animal intelligence warned me then, that these cows were not happy. No, no, no.

No more than you would be happy if someone snatched your male newborn from you and trucked him to a slaughter house, or bull pen before slaughter, or to a short life barely surviving being literally chained to a veal stall. Poor baby.

Amazing what our human minds can persuade us to do when we disconnect from our sacred animal selves. Killing becomes easy. Suffering even easier to inflict.

The vegan way of honoring all life always outweighs whatever excuse we come up with to justify the suffering of our animal relatives.

So why do I write about things just about everyone doesn’t “give a rat’s butt about?”

My passion for the happiness and survival of all life, earth’s included – not just our and our pets’ lives –  makes me do it.

A Sentimental Swim with a Sea Turtle…

"Swimming with Sea Turtles" by Susan Clifton
“Swim with Me” by Susan Clifton

This turtle painting by Artist Susan Clifton takes me back to the time I was  straddling the bow of a boat sailing full stream ahead over the Bermuda Triangle.

I clung to the rails as I was swept through dimensions of our ancient past.

That was the feeling I got from the brilliant gold turtle springing out of the deep blue depths of the Atlantic, very close and personal to me.

His stare penetrating the depths of my soul felt as if we were once upon a time in an enchanted place called, Lemuria, guardians of the wild creatures of the deep, ancient environmentalists, so to speak.

Today, back on dry land, sitting at my computer on this dark gray day, I take a quick leap into the shimmering true blue of Susan’s painting. I feel the turtle’s ‘wing’ brush chills over me, reminding me of where it all began, and where it might all end.

There are seven sea turtle species. Wikipedia says five of them are on endangered or critically endangered lists.  But I will not think about this, now.

Instead, I bask in swimming through that moment captured in time. Susan’s print  makes a beautiful imprint on my heart, stirring up perhaps an ancient genetic memory of that first primal outburst of Life on this exquisite planet.

When all was as it is meant to be with Life on earth.

9 Pet Ways of Surviving the Holidays

1. Breathe deeply like an animal. After all, you are one. Oh yes. You are.

2. Smile. Your pets don’t roll their eyes when dust balls roll into view. So what if your guests by the Yule log sipping vegan eggnog roll theirs?

Shrug off their reactions the way a dog shakes off bath water.

3. Feel the love. Tell your pet how much you love him/her. Feel cushy warmth pulsing between your hearts.
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“Getting Rid of My Girlfriend’s Dog that Bit Me”

“You never know with animals,” the young student in the parking lot said sheepishly, after telling me that his girlfriend’s dog was a cute, little female dachshund who(m) she loved ever so much.  She agreed to get rid of the dog because the dog bit him.

Once. The dog bit him, once.

“So, what happened that the dog bit you…once?”

“Oh, I was rushing in the morning to leave. Bent down to take her out of the crate to feed her, and she bit my finger.”

“You were probably all tensed up inside because you were running very late….you were late, weren’t you?”

“Yes. I was running late, and pretty tensed up.”

He then quickly added, “Our place is too small for the little dachshund. She would be better off on a farm.”

We both pause to look at my little dachshund friend sniffing his somewhat plump Lab dog.

Do you see where I’m going with this post? His girlfriend had the dog as a puppy. He said she was very attached to her dog. I assume – I could be mistaken – the dog slept on her bed, before her boyfriend came along six months ago.

It’s pretty obvious that since this is only the first time that the dog ever snapped in her whole life, the dog was intimidated by his sudden impatient, aggressive, and perhaps angry energy that he was late. When he rushed over to her crate and lunged down to grab her out of the crate, she was terrified, and bit him.

If ever you find yourself thinking you never know with animals, take a long look in the mirror before you get rid of your pet. Please. Or contact me for an animal communication session by phone. We’ll get to the bottom of the issue and resolve it.

You might also want to read this animal rescue list of excuses people make to soothe their guilt about no longer wanting their pets around.

You never know with people. Her place was too small for her mini-dachshund, but not for his chubby Lab?