Many years ago before I learned animal communication, my ex-husband and I adopted a cat named Kahuna. He was very affectionate, and a big-spirited guy with a deep wisdom in his eyes. But I knew down deep that Kahuna had a wounded heart.

We came across Kahuna sort of on a whim.

My ex-husband and I had gone to the local shelter to help look for a neighbor’s cat who had gone missing. Looking around at all the kitties, we saw Kahuna in his cage, and he looked straight at us and meowed.

When my ex-husband took him out of his enclosure, Kahuna wrapped his little kitty arms around Thomas’s neck. We knew right then we had to have him.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but I had this idea that Kahuna’s former person was a young woman in college, and she was moving around a lot and couldn’t keep him anymore.

I had no information about Kahuna’s past; the shelter just said he was surrendered by his former person.

So I thought I was just imagining this story.

A few years later, after I learned animal communication, I decided to ask him one day about his past. It turns out this story I had imagined was exactly right.

Kahuna showed me flashes of this woman; I saw things about her that I hadn’t realized before, like the color of her hair and her personality. And I recognized that this was, in fact, the young college-aged woman I had felt before.

In the scene Kahuna showed me from his past, I could feel his confusion and sadness as she was packing her home to move. He knew some big change was coming but didn’t understand it.

I saw the apartment, and the moving boxes. And I could feel impressions about her lifestyle and personality (she was a very artsy person, her home felt very alive and full of activity, and it felt like she had friends over a lot visiting).

As Kahuna shared these scenes from his past in images and feelings, I became aware of this vulnerability in his heart and I realized how much it had impacted him, how much it hurt him.

He missed her, was really scared in that shelter and had no idea what was going on. I realized that this trauma from his past was why Kahuna always had an edge to him, a grumpy meow and a kind of neediness (that we honestly thought was really cute).

The whole experience of communicating with him was deeply touching, and it made me love Kahuna even more.

This is what’s so amazing when as an animal lover you learn animal communication – you realize what is the stuff your mind is just making up, and what is true communication.

You are actually receiving more from your animal than you know! It starts as this vague knowing, or sense of things. But then when you learn animal communication, it becomes more vivid and you understand what your mind was generalizing or projecting, and what is actually true and real.

After I communicated with Kahuna about this, it was subtle but there was a change in him.

He seemed calmer and more peaceful. The communication experience brought this healing that he needed, and it deepened my affection for him, which I didn’t even think was possible!

People seemed surprised when I share how animals actively demonstrate that they are fully aware of and participating in our communication.

Many people think I am doing a reading, just intuitively picking up on things from an animal’s energy, rather than actually communicating with them.

There is no reading going on. This is two-way communication, back and forth. I ask a question, and the animal responds, or vice versa.

So it’s not a passive thing! When I begin an animal communication session, the animals completely understand what is happening, are ready for me to translate for their person, and demonstrate this!

My favorite example of this happened a few years ago when a new client said, “Is it normal for my dogs and cats to be gathered around me in a circle as I wait by the phone for your call?”

And I get this one all the time: I will say, “Stella the cat says it is her turn to share,” and then the person says, “Stella just walked in the room and jumped up on the desk and is staring at me right now.”

Or my client will say, “We are looking out the window in the pasture and our horse is right up at the fence staring back at us. It’s as if he is waiting for us to begin.”

Animals communicate with each other, silently and across great distances even, sending and receiving images, feelings, knowings, smells, sounds, etc. all the time.

This is how all living things communicate. Even us humans (!) when we take the time to reawaken this ability.

For better or worse we humans have strayed from this centered, direct and rooted form of communication. We have become absorbed in the abstraction of verbal language, we have become lost in our own minds.

So as you might imagine, in my animal communication courses the animals are the real teachers.

They sense exactly what a student needs, and show up in just the right way and at the right time to help a student learn and grow. This happens again and again in every class meeting, in every course.

In a recent course, a Siamese kitty named Nova-Lina helped my student Gina with a powerful breakthrough.

Here is the validation email that Nova-Lina’s person, Dana, wrote for me to send to Gina after the class.

Hi Sharon,

Thanks so much for this course, Sharon. I’m really getting a lot of deep meaning and spiritual impact from it. And Nova-Lina and the boys are too. But Nova especially.

Yesterday, just like the Sunday prior, she was so excited the hour before class started—jumping, running, meowing, rolling over and being cuddly cute, etc. I know that she genuinely wants to talk and help!

Please pass this along to Gina, who TRULY did have an amazing breakthrough yesterday and this is a further, really specific, validation of it.

Gina mentioned a couple times getting a visual from Nova of something the color of Nova’s fur. She said it was rectangular and kind of rounded. I didn’t know what that meant—I didn’t connect the dots.

But about an hour after the class, Nova was sitting on it and I understood. To me, this is a small, insignificant thing. But apparently to Nova, it’s not.

The picture is below. It’s a beige-colored memory foam pad that sits on the edge of a futon mattress.

It got placed there a while ago for some unmemorable reason… and the cats started laying on it and seemed to like it, so I just left it there. Nova likes to lay on it but also started to play with it—she’ll get under it and wrestle with it—and it’s light enough that she can sort of toss it around.

It seems like such an insignificant thing, so it didn’t occur to me in speaking with Gina that this could be what Nova was showing her, but when I saw Nova sitting on it, looking at me, I said to her “Is that what you were showing to Gina?”

Then she meowed at me as if to say “Yes.”

I told Nova all evening how smart and clever she is and how I’m so grateful that she’s helping. I’m so proud of this beautiful girl.

But wow—what a validation that Gina got this visual directly from Nova. Gina, you ARE receiving, and I know Nova is so proud that she could help. Amazing and well done, Gina!!

And Sharon, this marks a deepening of the bond and relationship I have with Nova and the spirit being within her. As you know, it’s been a spiritual bond so deep—crossing time, space, and the version of reality that most people casually experience—one would think it couldn’t get any deeper. What an honor it is to share my life with this being. I’m humbled, unceasingly grateful, and truly blessed.

And by the way, she was happy to cooperate with creating pictures this morning!!

In Love and Gratitude,
Dana

I love this story, and am so grateful to Dana for sharing it.

To me it is beyond adorable how Nova-Lina was being so demonstrative to help Dana connect the dots: “Over here mom, let me show you this beige rectangular thing! I love this thing and this is what I was showing Gina.”

Nova-Lina knew Dana wasn’t fully realizing what she was showing Gina. So she had to make it obvious, doing a game of kitty charades (!), so that Dana could realize what she was talking about, and validate this for Gina. This way, they could all celebrate how clear and accurate Gina’s receiving was in the communication.

Recently I received this email message from a client.

Dear Sharon,

Early last Fall I contacted you and you were kind enough to do a communication with me, my dog and my cat.

My dog (Millie) had been diagnosed with cancer and given 3 months to live.

When we connected with you she was into her 4th month and looking and acting very normal.

I was concerned that I would not know when it was time to help her pass on.

In our communication, she shared that there would be a lot of blood, she would “walk funny” and I would see it in her eyes.

That was very helpful because she passed last week after a week of urinating blood and left sided lameness… there was lots of blood and she did walk differently. Her eyes told me everything.

She passed peacefully at home last week after a good quality of life for almost another year from her diagnosis.

This week, my 22 year old cat (Molly) has taken a significant decline.

She has been treated with steroids for Mast Cell tumors on her head for a few years now. Her vet and I have balanced the use of the steroids to control tumor symptoms with the possibility of renal failure.

She has been sleeping most of the day for some time now, but I am seeing a definite decline in her mobility and ability to even get 7 feet to her catbox. I have a definite sense from her that she has finished her work here on earth and wants to leave. I am honoring that today and she will be seeing a wonderful, kind vet that will help her pass.

I don’t know why I am telling all of this to you. Perhaps I am having a slight doubt about my instincts.

I wanted to let you know how helpful you were to me and my pets with the communication that you did last Fall.

It helped me know that it was indeed time for my dog and now, I am feeling the same sense with the cat.

The communication from my cat to you was that she was here to help the dog adjust after being adopted into our home – to let her know that there is a place for everyone in this house to be loved, and even if she came to us with a wounded heart, there would be great healing here and she could relax and just be loved.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

With great admiration and gratitude for the work you do,
Karen U.

End of life is one of those moments in our journey with our animal friends that matters most. Our veterinarians give us guidelines which are sometimes helpful, but the timing and manner of every being’s departure into the afterlife is unique to them.

And there is no one right way to navigate end-of-life with an animal. Some animals insist on passing on their own, and if allowed to can do so beautifully, while others are completely fine with euthanasia and even ask for this assistance, for all kinds of reasons.

I remember in this communication that Karen seemed a little surprised that Millie was doing so well in the fourth month, after the vets had given her three months to live.

And Millie was so clear, and knew herself and her strong body so well. She kept showing us this very insistent message to Karen: “It’s going to be ok! I will help you. I am doing ok right now and we can relax and enjoy our precious time together.”

Meanwhile, Molly didn’t have as clear of a connection to her own body. This was surprising, because this cat really was / is such a wise being.

“I am a really big spirit,” she said in the communication, “I am not trying to brag or anything, but it is true.” And it was / is!

She kept saying, “I will stay for a while after Millie passes.” However in fact, she left just a week or two after her dear dog friend died.

Death is this magical threshold of life, just like birth. It is a birthing itself, an opening into a new world.

And in the midwifery process, this process of holding space for a loved one when they are approaching their transition, things become clear. This is especially true when we communicate with our animals, as Millie’s message to Karen shows.

And there are often surprises, as Molly’s earlier passing shows also.

As hard as we humans try, we can’t pre-determine life, figure everything out beforehand; this is especially true in death.

The passing of our animal friends is one of those moments where we get to be present and really listen, to feel the most beautiful thing that is trying to happen.

When our animals are aging, and approaching that sacred change of standpoint that is their passing, we need to ask ourselves: “What is the truth here, not just our fear or our guilt nagging at us? What do our animals really want?”

The process of death is an opportunity to trust the moment-to-moment truth that life shows us. If we do this, the experience of our animals’ passing can bring a sense of fulfillment and peace, just like Karen experienced.

Which is so beautiful really, because this is exactly what our animals teach us every day – to be present, and listen to what’s most alive in each moment, every day.

What is most rewarding for me, is how our communication helped Karen let go of her worry and fear and trust the truth of what Millie was showing her – that her body was strong and the vet’s time estimates were not correct for her.

Millie was fine, and enjoying life, and had almost another whole year after her diagnosis!

Then when Molly’s time came, and it went against what this wise and deep cat actually thought would happen, Karen knew. Karen felt Molly telling her, “I was wrong. It is my time sooner than I thought. I am ok with your help to leave.”

This is really the goal of my work: to empower people to communicate with their animals.

Some clients like Karen catch what I do. After their first session, something naturally opens in the space of our communication and they start to trust the images, feelings, knowings, etc that occur all the time in their daily interactions with their furry companions.

You may ask, how do they do this? The fact is, we are all communicating through feeling, all the time, every hour of every day.

Because our animals don’t speak verbal language, they give us this playing field where we can (and do!) reawaken our ability to communicate through feeling.

Then when we do a communication session, it opens up this whole world of knowingness and information, some of which we have felt and sensed, and some of which is new information.

So the experience of doing a communication session is like this beautiful validation of our connection with our animal friends, and at the same time an expansion and deepening of these precious relationships.

And I will just add, because I often get this question, it is never too late to communicate with an animal friend. If your connection to an animal in Spirit is alive in your heart, they are still available to communicate.

Communication sessions with animals both later in life and then after they have transitioned to Spirit can be such a healing experience.

Some clients take it a step further and decide they want to learn animal communication in a course with me.

In my Basic 1 course, I begin by helping every student to recognize the parts of their being (their heart, their gut knowing, their third-eye vision) that are already open – the parts of their being that feel safe to perceive truth through feeling.

And then as the course progresses, I teach a total of six techniques for communicating with animals. In this way, my students learn how to bring other parts of their being online, parts that may have closed through trauma or maybe just atrophied through disuse.