Let’s talk about it A conversation with

By Mary Glen Hatcher

After a four-hour search for her beloved dog, Jack, on her Amado ranch came up empty-handed, Karen Pomroy was in a panic, and turned to the only person who could help.

She called Jane Heath, an animal communicator in Montana, and asked her to speak with him.

Sitting more than 1,200 miles away at the Montana Horse Sanctuary, Heath, who’s turned her telepathic ability to commune with animals into a 26-year career, began to tune in and translate.

“Through Jane, Jack kept showing and describing these images of tall pine trees and that led us to a neighbor’s yard,” Pomroy said. “That neighbor was able to lead us right to the person who had actually taken him, and that’s how I got my dog back. I would never have found him if it wasn’t for her.”

JANE HEATH, an animal communicator and equine therapist based in Montana, plays with her dog, Bob. Heath said she’s been communicating with animals since about 10 years old, when she had her first telepathic experience with her childhood pet.

SANCTUARY, in Amado, is a haven for a number of horses and mules, rescued primarily from use in the manufacturing of the drug, Premarin. Karen Pomroy, who founded the sanctuary in 2004, has begun to use animal communication to connect with the horses on a deeper level. KAREN POMROY, founder of Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary, poses with Gulliver, the sanctuary’s mascot and first horse Pomroy brought to the rescue.

But for Pomroy, finding Jack was just the beginning.

Under Heath’s guidance, Pomroy is honing her own animal communication skills, and takes the messages she receives to heart when managing her growing herd at Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary – a haven for rescued mares and foals from the Premarin industry.

Tuning in to her animals, Pomroy said, has offered healing through the passing of a beloved horse and helped identify the roots of behavioral and medical issues among her other animals.

“I’ve seen so many miracles happen here, and I just feel like if you’re open to it, it’s amazing what animals can teach you,” Pomroy said.

She’s just one of a growing number of animal lovers casting doubt aside and turning to the art of animal communication – with the help of “pet psychics,” as they’re sometimes called – to deepen the relationship with their beloved animals, and try to figure out what’s on their minds.

“They do communicate with us in so many ways. We just have to be open to listening,” she said.

An animal communicator specializes in telepathically connecting with all manner of beings, alive or in spir-

it, from cats and dogs to horses, geckos and plants.

Oftentimes, Heath said people contact her when the relationship with their animal starts to suffer – a dog that’s starting to bite, a cat that’s peeing outside the litter box or a horse that’s starting to buck.

But in addition to unraveling behavioral quirks, communicators like Heath also aid pet owners in locating lost animals, communicating medical decisions – particularly end-of-life decisions – and bringing closure to a relationship with a pet in a past life.

“We’re able to fix so many things when we actually are able to talk and listen to one other, and that’s ultimately the reason I teach others how to do this with their animals,” Heath said.

“It’s really so important because it can change the relationship between humans and their animals profoundly,” she said.

So, how does this all work? For Heath, connecting with animals is a simple matter of relaxing the mind and tuning in. It’s similar to having a conversation with a friend, she says, only the messages coming through can be in the form of thoughts, images or physical sensations.

“It’s a meeting of two souls, or two spirits, and we’re hearing each other with our minds,” Heath said.

“I introduce myself, I say hello, and then I just ask permission to translate for their person. And it feels lovely,” she said.

Once connected with the animal, the communicator usually asks questions of the animal, like: How do you feel? Do you like your food? Where does it hurt? Would you like to return to your family?

Charles Peden, a psychic medium and animal communicator in Tucson, compares his telepathic ability to using a smartphone or other internet-connected device that can wirelessly send data in a variety of formats, like texts, images or sounds.

“It’s like using your body as a tuning fork, and absorbing all these pulses of energy,” Peden said.

“They’re rearranged inside my mind and I can see what they (the animals) are sending me.”

Because the exchanges are energybased, both Peden and Heath regularly perform a lot of their work remotely, using some basic information and sometimes a photo of the animal looking into the camera.

And, yes, both Peden and Heath say with proper training and an open mind, anyone can learn to do it.

“There is certainly some aptitude or natural ability employed to harness the skills, but just like taking swimming or singing lessons, it all boils down to just setting that intention and practicing,” Peden said.

ABOVE: A group of mules enjoys the Southern Arizona sunshine. RIGHT: Charles Peden, an animal communicator based in Tucson, has been practicing interspecies telepathy professionally for more than 15 years, and is a firm believer that with practice, anyone can learn to communicate with their pet.

While animal communication continues to grow in popularity, not everyone believes it works. Heath, who has a background in journalism and science, understands the doubts.

“My left brain tells me 20 times a day that communication isn’t real, but the work I do keeps proving it’s real,” she said.

Not every skeptic will be convinced, Heath says, but that’s OK.

“People will come around to understanding animals can communicate, or they won’t. But I don’t try to convince them. I leave that to the animals – I’m just the translator.”

But whether or not you believe in human-to-animal telepathy may be less important than what the growing popularity of the service signals – that animals and their feelings are worth considering.

“We have such a unique relationship with animals – we eat a lot of them, we raise a lot of them for situations that are basically servitude, and, ultimately, they have very little say in their own lives,” said Peden.

“I think a big part of what happens when people start to communicate with their animals on this level is there’s more accountability and responsibility, on both sides, and really a greater understanding of each other,” he said.

Pomroy, who eventually plans on offering and teaching animal communication classes at Equine Voices, thinks its growing popularity signals a positive change in how humans view animals: with more love, and more understanding.

“I think it’s really getting the message out there that these animals are sentient, feeling, loving beings, and they have something to say,” Pomroy said.

“People are ready for something new, that’s healing and that’s positive. We’ve been in such a dark space for so long, and I think this is something that can really help people and animals reconnect,” she said.