From skepticism to acceptance a pet parent's animal communication journey

In this episode, I talk with Emmy Award-winning journalist, storyteller, podcaster and pet parent Nancy Aziz about her personal animal communication journey. Learn along with me as we talk through:

• How to move through initial disbelief or skepticism to find openness to intuition-based practices such as animal communication
• When is the right time to invite an animal communicator into the mix to support your pet through challenges and various life stages
• What to think through as you choose an animal communicator to work with
• How to make the best use of the information an animal communication session may provide about your pet
  
  
• Advice, guidance and practical tips to guide you as you include animal communication in your pet parent toolkit

We also enjoy sharing stories about how animal communication has helped us in our mutual pet parenting journeys. 

🌟 Find Nancy Aziz at Rover Says podcast: https://www.roversays.com/

🌟 Catch my episode on Rover Says (coming soon!)

✨Read Dr. Temple Grandin's book "Thinking In Pictures" ✨ https://www.templegrandin.com/templegrandinbooks.html

Transcript

Shannon Cutts: 0:12

So welcome to. Let's Talk to Animals, if you are listening to the audio version. You probably just heard a variety of sounds. If you're watching the video version, you know where those sounds came from. We have my wonderful, lovely Feathery co-hostess today, Petal Cutts. She is a puppy with wings, so she's always up for a good interactive recording experience. And we have Nancy Aziz from roversayscom, an amazing podcast about pet psychics and animal communication, right up our alley.

Nancy Aziz: 0:50

That's right, very similar content, but different yeah.

Shannon Cutts: 0:55

Similar yet different, complimentary, I think, where we're headed with that and hopefully we will be able to, and hopefully we will be able to shed some light for you, our dear listeners and viewers, on maybe a little bit of the behind the scenes of animal communication, how it works, how to choose a communicator, some of the things to ponder and maybe helping you tune in a little bit to your own intuition about what feels right for you and your animals and, by the way, that can change from one day to the next and definitely from one life stage to the next.

Shannon Cutts: 1:33

So I've invited Nancy on let's Talk to Animals because she has had a wealth of experience, as have I, talking with different communicators, working with different communicators and selecting communicators for our own precious, beloved animals, and so I thought this might be, especially for those of you who are maybe joining us, your animal communication curious. Maybe this is intriguing to you. Maybe you've had some experiences that were awesome. Maybe you've had some experiences that were not so awesome, but it hasn't put you off. Maybe you've even had some personal experiences feeling like animals, insects, birds. Your houseplants are trying to transmit messages. One of the okay, this is super fun. I know, nancy, that sounded so woo, but honestly, one of the ways that I practice animal communication at home is when I walk into a room, I ask my houseplants okay, who's thirsty?

Nancy Aziz: 2:31

Wow.

Shannon Cutts: 2:32

And I see what happens and they are very vocal when they need water.

Nancy Aziz: 2:40

I'm curious, how do they let you know? What do they say to you? I'm curious how?

Shannon Cutts: 2:44

did they let you know? What do they say to you? Well, it's interesting because when I enter a room and I notice or I'll just be standing next to one and I get a vibe, and if I really stop to think about it because of course I'm at a point now where I'm just a little bit more movable, if you will like my body will literally be moved in a certain direction. But if I really break it down which that is such a good question, I have to say it functions similarly to anyone that's ever worked with applied kinesiology or muscle testing, where you do the yes, no test with your body, I will lean towards a specific plant. So sometimes I just get anxious feeling in my gut and I just start walking in a certain direction. So, yeah, it's a great.

Shannon Cutts: 3:27

I often tell my students this is a wonderful way to practice animal communication in the course of your everyday life, because, of course, any of us who are coming to this field or this experience as adults it's not like we've got tons of hours just tucked away waiting for something to fill them. So we really want to incorporate animal communication into our regular daily life as much as possible. So, nancy, again, just welcome, and I particularly love your personal story because you mentioned on your own podcast, roversayscom and I will put that link in the show notes as well for listeners and viewers that want to follow up but you mentioned that initially you were a bit skeptical. Initially you were like oh, I don't know for those of us who come from a certain generation where talking about intuitive things, psychic things, even using those words, just doesn't feel quite so available to us, and so I would love to hear your story about how you made that transition.

Nancy Aziz: 4:39

Yeah, well, let's say I'm still transitioning, but because it's a process, like you said, there's different points in your life where you accept and are open to certain things. So I guess my background is I was a bio major in college, so I needed proof of things, and then I went into journalism as a career and of course that's fact-based as well, and so I wasn't really open to animal communication for a very long time, and I think that I probably was. I didn't even know about it for a really long time, just wasn't even on the radar. I had a horse for many years.

Nancy Aziz: 5:19

We had our guy for 17 years, and at the barn there were a lot of people that had used animal communicators, and in particular I had a friend and she had just purchased a horse for her daughter and the horse was lovely but just didn't really jive with the daughter and it bucked the kid off several times, and so she was trying to figure out why is this horse acting this way? And so she obviously talked to the vet is the horse in any pain? Let's eliminate that and then, of course, working with her trainer, but just not really getting results. So she ended up calling an animal communicator, and the animal communicator is very popular around here. Communicator and the animal communicator is very popular around here, very well known, and she said to my friend the horse's name was Dion that the horse was not happy with its name and wanted to be called commander in chief. And I thought that was ridiculous. So that was like my skeptical. I just like didn't, I just thought that was so silly. But over the course of time I've talked to a bunch of people whose animals didn't like their name and I guess now it makes a lot more sense to me because, like, if you think about it, let's say, your big brother has a nickname for you that makes you feel small or insulted or whatever it is. You don't want them calling you that. And so it makes more sense to me now that animals might not like that too, and so at any rate, that's where I came from. That's why I was not really a believer.

Nancy Aziz: 6:59

But slowly then over the years, talking to a bunch of other people at the barn who had had communications with animal communicators and had really just learned things that they're like there's no way in the world that communicator could have known that. It wasn't on social media, it wasn't something we said to them it wasn't something they saw. They don't even live close by. There's no way in the world they could have known that, and so some of those stories made me go huh. And then that's how I got interested. There's a lot that I do think that there's no proof for in life and which you just believe, and when I hear people's stories and they absolutely believe what they saw, then that sounds right to me. But there's still some other things. I'm not quite there yet, if that makes sense.

Shannon Cutts: 7:49

It absolutely makes sense. And in fact we just finished the kickoff call for a new group of students working their way through my animal communication adventure program and we were talking a lot about those doubts and one of the little tidbits of guidance that I always like to share is the fifth agreement from Don Miguel Ruiz, who wrote the bestselling book the Four Agreements. And there's actually a fifth agreement, and the fifth agreement is be skeptical but learn to listen. There is a healthy role that doubt plays where we start to learn to tune into our own intuition, our own vibes, the same like if you've ever had a good vibe or a bad vibe.

Shannon Cutts: 8:34

That is what we're tuning into. Does it resonate for you? And sometimes I talk a lot with my students about making deposits in your inner trust bank. I talk a lot with my students about making deposits in your inner trust bank. Even as communicators, we have to find a way to work with our doubt, to check ourselves. Does this ring true? And even with inner species communication, as with human communication, especially when there are different languages involved, there is always the probability, or at least the possibility, of mistranslation, perhaps not completely understanding what the other being is trying to share.

Shannon Cutts: 9:15

And so that's where having that animal's guardian or the pet parent in the mix can be really helpful in guiding the conversation, making sure that the information that comes through is relevant, is useful and hopefully actionable for that client, for that human client. And then there's always the opportunity remembering it's a conversation to go back and forth and say, well, if this doesn't make sense to you or doesn't resonate, let me go back to your animal and let me get some more information, let me ask for more clarity. So it's this process that's necessarily imperfect and there's also this bigger picture view. It's like if there are lessons, if there are life lessons in process, maybe we're not meant to know everything right now and that can be a tough one for we human animals to swallow. True, you know, you try to walk up to the animal and they're just going to spill all the beans and it's like and I loved what you said about nicknames because, yes, the energy of the words that we speak- the animals can feel that and so it's so spot on about the nickname.

Shannon Cutts: 10:25

I remember when my rescued box turtle came to me and I just thought he was so cute and cuddly and I wanted to name him something like Cottonball, and the communicator I was working with this was in my pre-communication days. Personally, she said he wants a really strong name, like something that starts with a B. Strong name like something that starts with a B. Chosen the name Bruce, was that what he named it? Yeah, because he wanted and he loved it, but I would have never chosen.

Shannon Cutts: 10:57

I was just headed down the cuteness path and so it's really interesting. So there was a point in your own story, there was a point in your own story, your own journey, that you actually felt like you had a need to invite an animal communicator into your world, into your relationship with your animals, and so what was that like for you choosing a?

Nancy Aziz: 11:21

communicator to work with. Yeah, okay, all right, yeah, so I think that I talk a lot about horses. I just do. It's a big part of my life and so sorry people if you don't like horses. Love it, we love horses around here.

Nancy Aziz: 11:36

It's where I learned all my life lessons at the barn, but at any rate, it's really like a big community of people that share and we all care about our animals and whatnot. And so that was. There were a large number of women who had used a certain communicator and really, and a trainer that had used a certain communicator, and they really thought highly of her, and these were women that I thought highly of myself. These are women that I had a lot of respect for, and so they and I thought I'm going to, I'm going to have her out too, and unfortunately, the first time I had her out, we had planned a trip, my husband and I, and so I don't even remember where we were going, but we weren't in town. But my daughter was able to be there with a communicator and at any rate it was really profound, and so my daughter was able to record a with a communicator and at any rate it was really profound, and so my daughter was able to record a lot of it and then just share a lot of it. And yeah, it was just, it was really. It was great.

Nancy Aziz: 12:33

I felt like the reason I had called the animal communicator out is because my horse had something called the EPM. I think it's protozoa myelitis or something to that effect, but it's. It comes from possum poop and when they, let's say, poop on the hay and the horse ingested, the protozoa gets in the horse's body, and when it can be in the bloodstream and not really cause problems, but then it crosses the blood brain barrier, it gets into their brain and their central nervous system and then it can cause problems like ataxia they're walking like a drunk, or they can fall, or they worst case scenario they can't get up, and so that's obviously a devastating disease and it's hard to so. Anyway, my horse had it. And then, once they have it, they can relapse, and then the tests aren't always a hundred percent accurate. So, at any rate, I really I was just like, oh, he's not a hundred percent right, and I'd had the vet out, had so many tests and I just I wanted to, I wanted to make sure he was okay.

Nancy Aziz: 13:37

It's a scary thing and it can be so subtle, the signs in the beginning, and it can be so subtle, so you're always questioning yourself and then, once they've had it, you're always like, oh golly, am I seeing that or am I seeing a ghost? Am I not that kind of thing, and so, at any rate, that's what I really wanted the communicator out, and this is one thing I learned Communicators can't tell you, and I know that Communicators can't say, yes, your horse has EPM. They can't. They can say, like, talk to the animal and find out how the animal is feeling and does something hurt in a certain place, but they can't tell you. So if I wanted an answer for that, I wasn't about to get it, but I did get some other great information and so it was definitely worth it.

Nancy Aziz: 14:27

I learned a lot about whiskey, and my daughter did too, and she had gone through some tough times in her. Golly, it's hard to be a high school student and and just hearing, hearing how whiskey had really tried to be there for her and he was, and then I wasn't, as I told you, I wasn't even there, I wasn't at the communication, and Whiskey told the animal communicator that I worried too much about him and that I need to stop. And well, yeah, that's me a hundred percent. She didn't know me. I only booked the. I only booked the session, but there were a lot of more in-depth things than that, but it was yeah, so then it got me even more curious.

Shannon Cutts: 15:15

Do you feel like, ultimately, yeah, receiving that additional information about how whiskey was doing and feeling? Do you feel like that maybe informed some future choices that you made on his behalf or maybe helped you feel a little bit more confident about the? Choices you already made.

Nancy Aziz: 15:35

Oh, it definitely did. One of the things we talked about is I wanted to know if he was. One of the things we talked about is I just I wanted to know if he was happy where he was at that barn, like, was it just too? Was it just too much? Was the energy too high? Did he want to go to somewhere else where he didn't have to be in a barn? He could be out on grass and that type of thing. And he said he didn't, he didn't want to, didn't? My daughter and I went? We were there every day, twice a day, and so he said he didn't want to be anywhere, that he couldn't see us every day, and so that was helpful. Maybe it was what I wanted to hear, but it helped me make a decision. Yeah, that, no, he, it's not good for him. He doesn't need to be far away, he needs to be close to us, which is really what, of course, what I wanted to. But yeah, it helped me make decisions, absolutely.

Shannon Cutts: 16:27

I love that because it's really reassuring to hear that the communicator you worked with was so clear as well, because, of course, I always throw the big disclaimer when I am communicating with an animal. I'm asking them how they're doing, how they're feeling, especially if they've been through something an injury, an illness, they're going through their end of life stage or something like that, or they've been through some kind of trauma. I'm not a veterinary tech. I'm not a medically trained professional in a related field. The value that I have to bring to the table is I can ask your animal how they're feeling, what's going on with them is I can ask your animal how they're feeling, what's going on with them, and so for me it's like the modern pet parent needs a team.

Nancy Aziz: 17:08

We need a team, we need different options to pull information from.

Shannon Cutts: 17:14

We need different types of support at different times in our life, just like we ourselves, as human animals, we need a team. We have people for our eyes and our ears and our throats and our bodies and our emotions and our relationships, and it's no different for these highly complex, intelligent companion and service animals that we choose to keep company with.

Shannon Cutts: 17:41

So it's a very beautiful awareness of like and this and this and it's one more piece of information to add See how it lands, see how it feels, see how it jives with everything else that we have learned.

Nancy Aziz: 17:58

Yeah, it's like an adjunct, it's not a replacement for a vet. It's like, yeah, maybe, vet, we can do these tests and then we can talk to an animal communicator about okay, does this still hurt? Because sometimes there are medical mysteries and you just want another. Bring in something else. You're right, just another piece of the puzzle bring in something else.

Shannon Cutts: 18:21

You're right, just another piece of the puzzle. Another piece of the puzzle and there can be even for the pet parent over time, or the animal guardian or the foster caregiver or whomever it is that's attached to this animal there can be a component of actually witnessing, just like when I go and I water a house plant and I see that it flourishes and then pops out a blossom for the first time ever. My choice to offer water is bolstered, my choice to trust my intuition is bolstered. So sometimes, when we see an animal change their behavior over time, when we say yes to a name change or we say yes to an environment change or a food change or change in treatment protocol or whatever it may be, that's another deposit to the trust bank.

Shannon Cutts: 19:08

It's like well, the animal shifted their behavior. There could be many reasons for it, but I love the scientific principle of Occam's razor, which says all else remaining equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one, right. So sometimes, if the behavior happened, the change or the shift or the positive growth or evolution happened after the communication. Well, rather than twisting ourselves in knots about the potential cause, we might just say, well, it was probably the communication. It's nice to be, heard.

Shannon Cutts: 19:43

It's nice to be invited to the conversation. So what guidance or advice would you have for a pet parent, maybe who? Or an animal guardian, or someone who's working with service or work animal and they're like ah, they're like. This is a little too woo for me, and yet I'm not getting my information or my guidance needs met from other areas. What guidance would you give for them?

Nancy Aziz: 20:06

Well, I guess I just say that if you wanted to bring an animal communicator into the mix and like, I just think that we all share a, at least I think everyone who loves animals just wants to know what their pet is thinking. At least I think everyone who loves animals just wants to know what their pet is thinking. And so, yeah, that's. I mean, that's really. I think even my motivation for starting this podcast is like it's just such a common thing among us humans is we want to know what our animals are thinking and can we make their lives better, and so can we deepen our bond. And so I think adding an animal communicator can really do that and so many other things. And if it doesn't fit, if it's not right, then okay, no harm, no foul. It's not like you went and had a medical procedure and then if that didn't work, well that's. But I guess I'm just saying that it's always something good to try. You can potentially learn a lot from it.

Shannon Cutts: 21:07

I agree, I agree and, looking back, I had to retrace my steps because you get a certain amount of distance down the road and it's easy to get a little blurry about exactly how you came to animal communication. But I look back and I realize I came in a very unorthodox way. I'm 53. So I definitely, and I don't remember being raised around anyone who talked about intuition or psychic senses or energy or anything like that, and yet I've always loved animals.

Shannon Cutts: 21:39

And so I remember coming across some books by Temple Grandin and this was an adjunct at the time I was working through my recovery from an eating disorder and so finding books about autism, and of course, she was such a pioneer and still is such a pioneer in the field that, having a book, I was gravitating towards autobiographies of folks that were dealing with brain-based issues and emotion issues and were making progress. So I found her thinking in pictures and she talked about how, because of the way her brain worked with the autism, she was able to see the world from the animal's perspective. I was so hooked. Here was a woman that was really working through some significant challenges and animals were her partners, and that led into reading more animal books and, before I knew it. I stumbled across some animal communication books and then I was like I've got to have this experience. Then I started hiring communicators because my animals had some mystery health issues.

Shannon Cutts: 22:40

Okay, you too, and we just weren't getting resolution and, to be quite honest, back in the day when I first started hiring communicators, it was quite different, especially for exotic animal species. Veterinary medicine has come a long way in the last several years, and just even having access to exotic avian and reptile veterinarians who have advanced training, that is significant. That's fairly recent, and so animal communication was very viable for me as another source of information, and so, in a circuitous pattern, we find our way right. This is the perfect moment where I would love to invite you to share more about your vision for Rover Says and starting a podcast about your experiences and others' experiences with animal communication. So intriguing to me, so intriguing.

Nancy Aziz: 23:38

Yeah, well, I think that I told you I was a journalist for many years and after leaving the profession I think there are a few reasons that I think I got into this podcast I really felt like I just miss telling people stories, interviewing people and hearing stories, no matter what it was about.

Nancy Aziz: 23:58

I just really miss that. And then again, I'm a lifelong animal lover, just love animals, fascinated by them and what they teach us, and then again I was hearing, like these stories from other people that I knew that they were having these experiences with animal communicators, and so all those three things came together and I thought you know what? I am going to start this podcast, and so I did. It's been a little bit over a year and I think I have 23 episodes and every one I feel like I learned something new and I hope that other people can learn something from it too and see themselves or see what the similarity might be for a situation they're having and whether or not this might work for them. Or maybe they just maybe it's just like an interesting story about something to happen to somebody else, but hopefully people, hopefully people like it.

Shannon Cutts: 24:52

I know I like telling it, so, yeah, Well, that's key, right, that's the key, because we have our time and we get to choose how we fill it and where we find meaning and value. And more and more, as we see the intersection of what in the past we have called woo the softer side of science and the brass tacks and the hard facts, and the more we're starting to realize it all belongs together.

Nancy Aziz: 25:20

Yeah that's a good way to put it.

Shannon Cutts: 25:23

Doesn't work all that well to separate it out completely, and it's so important to look back. In fact, one of my business and intuition coaches was sharing a story the other day about how and I don't know where this was sourced from and I haven't had time to research it but apparently Einstein's very first encounter with what would later become the theory of relativity was actually in a dream state when he was a child, and it took many years before he was able to bring that out in a format where he could share his experiences in experiments and then later as data with others. Yeah, and the life path that he had to go on to do that, and the challenges he had to face when he was not supported or understood Right, and his dedication and his devotion to that Right. There's a reason, there's a motivation, there's something in it for us.

Nancy Aziz: 26:42

Yes, yes.

Shannon Cutts: 26:50

As well as our listeners and the communicators who get to share their story through you. Not all communicators have a media background or a journalism background or feel comfortable with technology and all the different things that we have to do as podcasters. Okay, let's be honest, not all podcasters feel comfortable with technology. Right, there's another process. Yes, exactly. So it's a certain amount of inner drive or inner pull that maybe we don't always understand to be a part of somebody else's story as well.

Shannon Cutts: 27:20

Give them a voice and a vehicle. I love that. When I first started let's Talk to Animals, I was able to interview some communicators that they'd never been on a podcast before. And it was a really cool experience to give them a voice.

Nancy Aziz: 27:38

Yes, but I have to say I think that's changed so much because now when I reach out to animal communicators I find that they have been approached by 10 other podcasters in the last month. So it is funny how obviously podcasting has grown. But I think obviously animal communication has grown and become a lot more mainstream.

Shannon Cutts: 27:58

So yeah, there's a lot more opportunities, which is lovely. Yeah, there is a lot more, and there are a lot more communicators. When I've interviewed some of the founding mothers and founding fathers and I hear about what it was like back in the day- when they were the only one doing it versus today where the choices seem endless sometimes.

Nancy Aziz: 28:21

Yes, I know You're right and that I think can bring in people that maybe don't have the background to perform what they say they do, and I think that that's why I think it's important to try and when you find, when you're searching for an animal communicator, to maybe talk to people who have worked with one and have gotten some good things out of it, just because I do think there are people out there that are just trying to make a buck.

Shannon Cutts: 28:51

That's actually part of what I wanted to talk with you about, because you've had that experience and you've interviewed several different communicators on your podcast and most pet parents. This isn't something that we do every single week. We don't have a list of 20 communicators that we work with. I have definitely coached aspiring animal communicators and have worked with pet parents who tell me stories about having less than satisfactory communication experiences, and those can be instructive too. Right, yeah, because we get to choose at that point. Am I going to throw the whole thing out just because I didn't vibe with this particular person or I didn't really get what they were trying to say? So we get to make a choice at that point. But I am curious if you have any more guidance for someone listening today who would like to give it a try and isn't quite sure where to start. Really honestly, because that can feel. You Google animal communicator today. You'll be there all day.

Nancy Aziz: 29:56

That's so true, why should you?

Shannon Cutts: 29:57

look for.

Nancy Aziz: 29:58

That's true. Well, you know what, if you are Googling and going onto people's websites, I mean, I think you can tell people have been doing it for some time and you can read their testimonials and you can talk to people as well and see it Just even quick phone conversations, see how you feel about them. But I think I really do think that talking to people that have used an animal communicator is a good way to get a reference, just like I like to hear from my friends about a medical doctor that they like. And then, of course, obviously there's a lot more to it than that. But I think personal recommendations are always a really good place to start.

Shannon Cutts: 30:40

I agree, and yet there's still a little bit of a stigma in certain circles. There are people in fact there are many clients that I've had who don't have anyone else to talk with about something as simple as grief after their pet passes. There's no one in their life that truly understands, and so, in a way, searching for an animal intuitive doesn't always feel like as open a query to go to your neighbor or your friends If you are surrounded by people that are not open you could be opening yourself up to criticism, to skepticism, to, I mean nobody needs more bad vibes in their life.

Shannon Cutts: 31:25

So sometimes we're going to be dealing with someone who's one-on-one with the Google search results, sorting through profiles and feeling all by themselves for themselves what feels right. And so there I do think having online testimonials and here's something that I think is actually important and very cool is looking beyond just the website testimonials. I have plenty of those on my website. I also am able to offer additional testimonials over on Google, where I'm not influencing what people are saying.

Shannon Cutts: 32:04

It's their choice to leave a review and to let folks know. And so more independent sites like that I'm not saying that can't ever be manipulated. Sure, but no scandals and some of the things, but it's just less likely to happen, and so just and just recognizing. Not everybody that has a session again, probably for similar reasons, are going to want to share their experiences publicly in any shape or form, but sometimes people that have had a really profound experience. They actually want to be a voice for the benefits.

Nancy Aziz: 32:41

Yes.

Shannon Cutts: 32:41

And so that's something else to try. If you just happen to find yourself in a place where you're like nobody in my life would understand this but I and I can't explain it to myself, but it's on my bucket list, or I just feel like I've tried everything else and I cannot get anywhere for my precious animal, well, these are some additional tips. So here's the big question then right, because you are interviewing communicators, you have a podcast about animal communication. Have you ever had any personal experiences?

Shannon Cutts: 33:10

of an animal either communicating with you or feeling like you're receiving information, or you know something that you don't know how. You know it from an animal that's in your family or in your environment. Yeah, have you ever had any no.

Nancy Aziz: 33:28

Well, yeah, I mean, I think we all have and I think we dismiss them oftentimes, right.

Shannon Cutts: 33:33

I think that maybe we do have them, but I think the dismissal can be so absolute that it turns just into no, I'm not. I've encountered more than a few animal communication clients whom I perceive as deeply intuitive and they say, no, I'm not intuitive at all.

Nancy Aziz: 33:52

Yeah, yeah.

Shannon Cutts: 33:53

So where would you say you fall on that spectrum? Have and have you ever had any kind of breakout messages?

Nancy Aziz: 34:03

No, I don't think I'm terribly intuitive, I really don't, but I do say that the times that I think that I have, like, really received messages from my animals and is when we're talking about end of life I, just, you, just I don't know you just get this message from your animal that they're you know, that they fought the good fight and that they and of course I'm talking about in conjunction with a vet but, like I don't know, I feel like, even a month before I've lost an animal, I just knew I really need to appreciate this time because there's not going to be a lot more of it and yeah, so so that, yeah, I think that they're talking. They're like hey, I've done my job and you know I'm tired or I'm hurting and I just can't do it anymore.

Nancy Aziz: 34:51

So, yeah, I feel like there's that communication. I remember with my guy Whiskey, and he was just the best horse in the whole world, but he was not a lovey horse. There's a lot of horses that are big puppy dogs. He was not, he was a joker. You'd get to the barn and we'd always get his hay three times a day delivered by the barn. But you know, I'd go and I'd bring him an additional bucket of yummy stuff, like every morning and every night. And if I was late, heaven forbid. Like, mind you, he has a stall full of hay.

Nancy Aziz: 35:23

So it wasn't that he was hungry, but he wanted his bucket and I'd come in a few minutes late or the ears back like woman. You, woman, why are you late? Do you understand, horse, that you are the only horse on the property that gets meal service specially made buckets twice a day in addition to everything else, and you're giving me the ears back because I'm a few minutes late? But anyway, he was just like that, just something that was very, I think, endearing. I just thought it was so darn funny. But so he was just not a. He was a great guy, but it was not like a lovey guy, he was just a little aloof and I think the biggest sign for me that he was getting really near the end was him being so affectionate, all of a sudden coming over and just putting his head on you and like, wow, where'd this come from? So just like the subtle ways that they talk to you and we just have to be open to listening, I think.

Shannon Cutts: 36:25

So yeah, I think that's the time that I've been that I felt like I received messages the most, that end of life been that I felt like I received messages the most that end of life, and there is something very special that can happen with that. It's an opening of energy. But I also have to wonder if we as animal carers are paying more attention. We're giving a little bit more of our focus and attention, and so we're able to. We're looking, we're noticing a little bit more, and that receptivity amplifies our ability to receive as well.

Shannon Cutts: 36:59

So I've noticed many of my clients recently. They're coming and they're saying this particular animal has passed. And I've loved animals my whole life, I've had relationships with animals my whole life, but I have never had a relationship like this one and it's really opening them up at a deeper level, inviting them into questions that maybe they wouldn't have explored in any other way. There's some kind of special something that happens too, and that would be a whole other podcast episode. But before we conclude for today's wonderful conversation, I did and I prepped you a little bit for this, but I did mention that I would love to hear any updates about whether or not you've been able to get through to any of the area rodents at your farm.

Nancy Aziz: 37:56

Yeah, you know what? I'm a failed student here, because you and I talked about this and I have tried to send some messages out to them, but I know I need to send a lot more and I haven't. I need to send a lot more and I haven't been on the premises enough to notice the rodent activity, because they don't make themselves known. You do find their remains in places like their poop and whatnot places you don't want it to be. But these messages are getting through. But I know it's going to be a tough call and here's why there's so many tasty, delicious little snacks left around horse feed and stuff like that left around the barn that it's not going to be an easy thing for them to go. Yeah, we're just going to leave. So, yeah, I don't have that update for you.

Shannon Cutts: 38:47

Okay, well, maybe it'll be on a future episode of Rover Says. So, speaking of which, for those of you who are listening or watching, Well, maybe it'll be on a future episode of Rover Says Maybe.

Shannon Cutts: 38:53

Speaking of which, for those of you who are listening or watching, we have a companion episode that's going to release on Nancy's podcast, roversayscom, so I will put that link in the show notes as well. Maybe we'll get an update over there at some point as well, but for now, to close us out today, nancy please tell us more about Rover says. We've alluded to it, we've been mentioning it here and there, but I want everyone to know how to actually find you and tune in and what you expect.

Nancy Aziz: 39:27

Well, thank you.

Nancy Aziz: 39:28

So, yes, so you can find us on Apple and Spotify and all the other places that you can get podcasts, and on Instagram as well, at Rubber Says Podcast, and yeah, and what you'll hear are stories from folks about things that they've experienced, and maybe it was a problem that they were having with their animal, maybe that animal was lost, or maybe the animal started acting really strangely for some unknown reason, or there's a lot of different reasons. People call an animal communicator, and so you hear a lot about the relationship between that human and that animal and then the issue that they were having, and then we'll bring in the communicator that helped them work with it and we'll talk about what the communicator said and did and what the animal was saying, and then we'll see what the resolution is, and was there a resolution? And then we'll talk about what happened with the animal and their human beyond that. So that's what I strive to do, and I've really had some amazing stories from people that have been so fun to tell, and so, yeah, that's what we do.

Shannon Cutts: 40:35

How amazing, and that's something that you know. Communicators and pet parents were always hungry for more stories, for more insights. Well, how can this work? Well, it's not like we decide we're going to use an animal communicator one day and instantly we get a manual that downloads into our brain explaining all the different uses for it, All the different kinds of questions we can ask and the nuances to those questions and pitfalls to look for. And what do you do when you don't understand the information and all that? So stories is where we learn.

Shannon Cutts: 41:08

I mean for millennia we have been story based in terms of our history, in terms of our collective consciousness and our genetic memory, and it's beautiful to go back to the art of storytelling as a teaching and learning tool and also as a source of inspiration and personal growth and personal growth, and to be in service to these animals that we love so much. Right, because we know when you're communicating right?

Shannon Cutts: 41:39

Yep, absolutely, absolutely. All of our loves, all of our loves, and they do. Whenever we have a deep love bond, there is a shared resonance and there is always that back and forth communication. It can happen in so many different ways, and so I feel like everything that you're doing on Rover says as well as what we strive to do here on let's Talk to Animals is to offer you some different ways to interact with your own experiences. Yep, that's true, yeah, yeah. So, nancy, thank you again. Our dear listeners, our dear viewers, thank you again. I will offer all of the information for how to access this episode and its sister episode in the show notes and look forward to welcoming you back in two weeks for a fresh new episode of let's Talk to Animals. Nancy, thank you again for being a part. Truly appreciate it. Your honesty, your vulnerability, nancy, thank you again for being a part. Truly appreciate it, your honesty, your vulnerability, the love that you have for your animals. It's deeply appreciated.

Nancy Aziz: 42:39

Well, thank you very much, it's been a lot of fun.

Shannon Cutts: 42:43

Oh, I'm glad to hear it For me too, for me too, okay, all righty, that's a wrap, and we will see you back in two weeks.

Nancy Aziz: 42:52

Bye, bye.