So...speaking about animal communication....

it is not as far fetched as most would believe. You don't have to actually believe in the whole Dr. Dolittle thing, actual verbal conversations, or even mental ones either. But consider this...humans use approximently 10% of their brains...what is the other 90% for anyway. Even if you don't want to consider the possibilty that actual communication is possible...understanding certainly is.

Consider Phoebe, sitting at my feet, pawing at my leg, and making some pretty pathetic in-desperate-need noises. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the little red miss wants up on my lap for a close and meaningful moment. She is saying in a way that I can understand that she needs some warm and fuzzy's. When I invite her up, she does the super sonic kissing thing and settles in my lap for a nap...communication successful.

Consider Carl following me around, looking wistfully over top of Petunia and then back at me. I would have to pretty dense not to get that a certain llama wants one (or ten) of the carrots on the shelf in Tunies stall.

When the sheep or donkeys are banging on the closed barn doors, it is not hard to figure out that they want in, and quickly too.

Even subtle emotional messages are clear if we are paying attention. I watch moses fairly closely on our walks right now...I can see when he becomes a little bit confused and a tiny bit unsure and when i call him to me and touch him, I can also see him relax and become confident with who and where he is again almost instantly.

When all of the dogs sit in a half circle around me and their eyes follow the cookie in my hand, up to my lips and back down again, how hard is it to guess that they are very clearly saying that they want some too.

The dogs tell me every day that they want to go for a walk, I would have to be deaf and blind not to see it when they are knocking me over to squeeze thru the gate with me.

And these guys can all hear me too. Some sit when I say sit, some wait when I say wait, some actually do knock it off when I say knock it off. Most of them come when I ask them and ALL of them say yes when I ask them if they want a cookie.

These are all really obvious ways that all of us communicate back and forth with our animals. We communicate in ways we don't we know and understand too...thru body language, thru emotional energy and maybe even telepathically with our thoughts.. I believe that the animals talk to us constantly and I certainly talk back to them just as much. The question becomes, how much are we even willing to consider that we do communicate with them and on how deep a level? Spritely did tell me in the field that day that she could not walk, she did it thru nickers, and pawing at the ground and by her refusal to come when I called. She also did it by somehow sending her pain and distress out when I could hear it with something other than my ears and I understood almost instantly what she was saying.

I think we sell ourselves and the animals we love short when we put limits on just how far our ability to communicate with each other can go. I think it might only be limited by our very own self imposed limitations. Like everything else in life that we don't always understand, I do believe the possibilities are endless. That is why life at SAINTS for me is such an wonderful adventure, because each and everyone of them has something really interesting to say every day.