Heart to Heart. Pea Horsley

whom drugs had more damaging side-effects than benefits and there were patients that simply refused to respond to treatment that should have worked. It struck me that pets were not little machines that all behaved in the same way to the same treatment. They were living, breathing, sentient beings that sometimes went their own way.

      It was at this point that I discovered the alternative world of therapies such as acupuncture, herbal medicine and homoeopathy – a world where the feelings, emotions and character of the patient were equally as important as their physical symptoms. At last I could treat my patients as whole beings rather than as collections of body parts. Within a few years I had closed my practice and opened a centre to treat pets with natural therapies only. Joining me at the centre were other pet therapists – an osteopath, a physiotherapist and a healer.

      The healer, Charles Siddle, opened my eyes to a completely new aspect of animal treatment. He just seemed to ‘know’ what was wrong with pets. When I asked him how, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘Oh, they just tell me.’

      Around this time I went to a lecture given by the scientist Rupert Sheldrake about a book he had just written, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home. Rupert had undertaken months of painstaking work on this subject and proved beyond any reasonable doubt that some dogs really are telepathic and know, amongst other things, exactly when their owners are coming home.

      So, if dogs are telepathic and can read our thoughts, why not the other way round? Why shouldn’t we be able to read the thoughts of animals and communicate with them?

      My own journey of discovery about the treatment of animals from ‘veterinary mechanic’ to ‘holistic therapist’ has been endlessly fascinating. Pea Horsley’s journey in becoming an animal communicator, from doubting through training to believing to success, has followed the same pattern. This book details that journey. When you have finished it, you may not believe a man can fly, but you’ll certainly believe a woman can talk to a rabbit.

      

      Richard Allport,

      BVetMed, VetMFHom, MRCVS, author of Natural Healthcare for Pets, Heal Your Dog theNatural Way and Heal Your Cat the Natural Way

       Introduction

      

We Are All Born Intuitive

      LET’S IMAGINE a world where we are born pure and innocent. A world where we are open to anything and everything. A world that is an adventure of discovery from the moment of waking to the moment of sleeping. This world is our world, the only difference is our age – we are babies. For us, everything is possible and the only limitations are those set by those around us, for our imagination is free and wild and we go wherever it takes us. As babies we are naturally telepathic, because we are communicating with life through our senses. How many times have you noticed a baby look wide-mouthed and smiling at a dog walking by wagging his tail? The baby can feel the dog’s happiness. If we smile at a baby, she smiles back. If we are upset, she looks concerned. If we are angry and shout, she cries. We don’t need to tell her verbally how we are feeling; she is using her senses to receive this information. We continue to use all our senses to understand our interactions until around about the age of seven. Animals continue to use their senses for non-verbal communication all their life.

      I discovered animal communication existed for the first time in 2004. I also discovered it’s not a gift: everyone can communicate with animals. The only reason the entire human race isn’t doing it is because we have been conditioned not to. As we grow up we are taught to ignore our intuition about situations and people. We develop a belief system that is not our own. Our parents, grandparents, teachers and society condition us to trust in their beliefs, until finally we lose touch with our own intuition and rely on everyone else’s for guidance.

      By tuning back into our own intuition, into our senses, we can open the doorway to inter-species communication. John Wheeler, the physicist, once said, ‘Everything must be based on a simple idea. Once we have finally discovered it, it will be so compelling, so beautiful, that we will say to one another, “Yes, how could it have been any different?”’ That’s how it is with animal communication – it’s a simple idea that is so compelling, so beautiful, that once discovered you’ll wonder how life could have been like anything other than this.

      We’re not humanizing animals by listening to their thoughts, we’re enabling them to have a voice in a world where they struggle to be heard. We communicate with animals to understand them and to bring them comfort. As we do this, we continue to respect all species and their own laws of nature. This is essential to animals’ health and well-being.

      Communication with animals is a deep, tender, intuitive and heartfelt method which can bring joy and end suffering. It can be a step towards a world where animals are seen as equals and treated with respect.

      This is my gentle introduction to the subject of animal communication, told with the help of the animals with whom I shared my journey. It is my hope that you, too, will step out on this path and find that life is as surprising and exciting as it was when you were younger.

      Empower yourself by venturing beyond the boundary of your own current experience, of what you have always believed to be true in your life, and prepare to join everyone who has contributed to placing this book in your hands on a wondrous journey of seeing animals in all their glory.

       CHAPTER 1

       Intuition Ignited

      SITTING BOLT upright on my uncomfortable plastic chair, arms folded over my chest, legs crossed and no doubt a scowl on my face, I was wondering what on Earth was happening here. I didn’t believe a word of it. A rather dubious-looking man in casual jeans and a sweater was trying to tell me we could talk to animals!

      At the time I was working as company stage manager at the Comedy Theatre in London’s West End on a play called The Old Masters directed by Harold Pinter. Working for 15 years in the theatre, sourcing props, calculating wages, organizing schedules, running dress rehearsals, looking after the company and making sure everything went smoothly, especially on press night, I considered myself a practical and sensible person, not airy-fairy like. Yet here I was sitting listening to Doctor Doolittle-type stories.

      So how did I get here? Let me take you back to where it all started and I’ll explain. In the very beginning my journey began with cats.

      

Cat ‘Grooming’

      All my life I have been a huge cat fanatic. As a young child I grew up with a cat called Pixie, a no-nonsense minute dynamo. Her beautiful swirls of caramel, coffee and chocolate fooled the unwary to believing she was gooey and soft, but in reality she was more Joanna Lumley in spurs. Her original owners, our neighbours,