Success Secrets Exposed - What Animals Tell Me

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Welcome to Success Secrets Exposed with Sally A. Curtis, where we share stories of challenge, success, and inspiration, along with practical tips and strategies to move you forward to your success. And now here is your host, Sally A. Curtis.

Good evening, good morning, and good day to you all. Thank you again for joining another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. We are— we have conversations with today's thought leaders, changemakers, and disruptors to bring you tools, strategies, and tips to help you grow. And in today's episode, including your pets to grow. So for those that are new to the show, I'm a content repurposer for speakers, authors, coaches, and consultants, helping them turn their book into 2 years' worth of social media posts. Effectively, it's my role to turn their existing content into new profits. And today we're going to be talking with Annie Burke, who is an animal communicator. And we're going to be talking about what animals tell her. And Annie, as I said, is an animal communicator and animal medium who has conversations both with living animals and those in spirit. And what I love most about the stories that I've heard from Annie is she also helps parents of bereaved animals and animals that have passed over to go through the grieving process by passing messages to and fro with them. One of the other things that she does is obviously help animal parents that have got problematic or health-affected animals understand what's going on and converse around those elements as well. Now, Annie is a twice number one bestselling author, and she provides animal conversations, animal mediumship sessions, and distance healing. So please help me welcome Annie Burt to the show so we can deep dive into what animals tell her. Welcome.

Thanks, Sally.

It's so exciting. I've been so excited and waiting to be able to share this great conversation with the audience today. And thank you very, very much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

I'm looking forward to letting people know a little bit more about what goes on with their animals that they're not aware of.

Absolutely. And I'm so excited to be sharing that as well. So one of the questions that always intrigues me when I do speak to people that are on a very, very strong soul-driven purpose is how do you— how did you actually get started? How did you know that you are an animal conversationalist?

It's interesting. I've read lots of things about knowing that your purpose is something that you're very passionate about. And for as long as I can remember, animals have been my passion. Like, I've gone and visited them with zoos. I've loved having animals at home. I've loved being with other people's animals. And I've— for as long as I can remember, I've thought that animals could understand me. So I thought that they could understand everything I was saying, but I couldn't understand them.

Mm-hmm.

And I had a little ginger and white girl cat who passed away suddenly after a short illness, which was a big shock. And it just made me think that I really should do something about finding out about how to communicate. Like, I just felt that I'd missed that opportunity with her. And I was just really disappointed in myself that I'd done that. Interestingly, since I've spoken to her since, she's just said that that's not a problem and that all my animals that I'd had before I started communication were there just to spiral me into where I was supposed to go to. So they were all part of that process guiding me, which was just very reassuring and very lovely. But anyway, I looked to find an animal communication course. And I found an online course. And the cat on the front page was the spitting image of my cat. And so I thought, this is a sign that this is exactly what I'm supposed to do. So at the time I had 2 cats and they were my teachers. And in fact, they'd been waiting for me to work out that they could teach me and that they could talk to me. So when I realized with my girl cat who didn't mince her words, um, I said, oh, you're here to teach me. What do you want to teach me? And she said, about time. So she had been waiting very patiently for me to work out that I could actually talk to her, and then she could tell me what she needed to tell me. Mm-hmm. So the course was amazing. I had to do all these exercises with my cats. I had to tune into their frequency. It's like tuning into a radio station so that everybody's different, every animal's different, but it's tuning into their soul and their energy. And then I hear their voices in my head. And every animal's got a different voice, just like humans do. So I can tell when they're smiling. Some of them are real practical jokers, and you can hear when they're laughing. And I even had a horse sing some of her answers to me, which had never happened before. So you just never know what they're going to say. But anyway, my cats were very patient teachers with me, and we had to practice sending messages and colors and images. And I don't understand the technology of it. It's like thought transference because the words come into my head and there's no rational explanation for how they get in there apart from the animal animals putting them in there. And if I can't understand what they're trying to tell me, I ask them if they can show me. And then all of a sudden I get these little video snippets in my head, and so they can demonstrate what it is that they want me to know. So with my boy cat, I asked him what was his favorite part of the day. So then he showed me a video of me opening up the garage door when I got home from work and came home. So that was one of his favorite parts of the day, and then jumping up on my lap because he was a real lap cat and loved sitting there and getting Reiki and crystal therapy. So it's just beautiful when they can show you the images as well. So that was over 10 years ago now. So I've just been practice, practice, practice with my animals. I've practiced with lots of friends' animals so that they could confirm some of the answers that I was getting. And then I've since gone on— I love going to zoos and talking to the animals at zoos. So if they've got any issues with health or temperature in their enclosures or something that they want fixed, then I can pass that on to their keepers. And the keepers are very open to getting that information as well, which is just lovely. So now I, I do conversations for people all around the world. I tune into the animals from photographs. So people just send me photographs of their animals and the questions they want me to ask. I have the conversation and it's a free will thing. So if animals don't want to talk, they don't have to, and I can't force them to talk. But none of the domestic animals I've ever spoken with want to miss out the opportunity of talking to their human parents. So that's just been lovely.

I can imagine in that, and that was— I was sort of bubbling up when you were expressing that. I can imagine that the animals are almost sort of themselves are bubbling up thinking, you know, like we do, we've got so much to say. I remember when Rory used to come home from school, my son, and he would just erupt with all the stuff that had happened during the day. So I can only imagine that the animals, in your cat's instance, sort of going, finally, and having that ability to actually be heard. Because as humans, how important is that for us? And I can only imagine that it is equally as important as it is for the, for the animals to be heard and to pass on those, those messages as well. So just, just as an, I suppose, an add-on to where you've sort of got to after your training and you've been working in this manner, and I love that you're working with the zookeepers because obviously they're obviously very animal-centric, obviously, because they wouldn't be doing that work as well. So they're obviously that come from that awareness as well. But you've also written a couple of books. So where did the books and the, you know, the, the, the— I'm going to say the gift of being able to write some 2 books in this arena, where did that inspiration come from?

Okay, so my first book, which is The Bridge to Animal Consciousness, which features one of my lovely boy cats I've got with me at the moment. This was something that I've known for long time was a big part of my purpose. And so my mission is to raise global awareness of the importance of animals, because there are a lot of people who just think, oh yeah, they're a pet. And yes, they might understand no and stop and walk. And that's kind of what a lot of people understand about them. But they're actually extremely intelligent and intuitive. Like some of them, I have to go and look up the thesaurus afterwards and make sure that what I think they were telling me is what they really were telling me. Like some of them they just understand English language to a very sophisticated level.

Yeah.

And so I wanted to let people know about why animals were here, because they're souls that are here having an experience on our planet, but they're here in animal form, whereas we're souls here having an experience in human form. So it's interesting finding out why they're actually living with us, because it's no coincidence. Sometimes they come to us so that we can help them with their lessons. Sometimes they're with us to help us with our lessons. And so I wanted people to understand a bit more about that relationship. I also talk about the benefits of animal communication, because once you know how to communicate with your animal, the whole relationship changes. Even just me having a conversation with someone's animal, the parents report back afterwards that the relationship has deepened. There's a lot more affection there. Mm-hmm. And they now know That you know more about them. So that bond just immediately gets a lot stronger, and that's just beautiful. I just love enriching those relationships. I also talk about some hints about how to welcome a new animal to your household, particularly if you've already got existing animals. What happens when animals pass away and we have to say goodbye? Mm-hmm. And then I've spoken to a number of animals at zoos and in the wild, so just to get different I know a lot of people don't like zoos because they feel sorry for the animals in their enclosures and not living a wild life. But there's actually a lot of benefits if they're in what I call a conscious zoo, where they're very active about trying to enrich their environment and to simulate as normal a life in the wild as possible within the space that they have got. I also spoke to a number of wild animals just to get their perspective on what's happening in the real world, particularly things with like with hunting and poaching and a lot of things that, again, people may not be aware of. But I wanted to tell the stories from the animal's perspective. So when I tuned into groups of animals, I ended up getting like a spokes animal for each species to represent this, to represent this species and let me know what they wanted to share. Some of that was really harrowing, but it's just a reality that our animals are living with. And so at the end of the book, I've called it very positively Return to Eden, and I've just listed lots of different opportunities of how people can actually help animals. So from taking their animals to zoos, having pets, helping support animal conservation organizations, there's lots of things people can do that make a practical difference so that we can help conserve some of the animals. So all of that is a very long-winded answer, but I just wanted to get all of that information out in a book. And that's part of my effort in raising global awareness of the importance of animals.

Yeah.

And then my second book, um, which is completely different topic, um, which is Evolving Hearts and Souls: The Guide to Spiritual Awakening. Uh, when I had my spiritual awakening, I had no idea that that's what it actually was. I had my clairvoyant powers switch on, and I could be having a conversation with you, and suddenly I'd get images from your past and images from your future. And I'm thinking, what is this? What am I supposed to do with it? And at the time, New Age things weren't really in. So I spoke to a few people and they said, oh no, don't dabble in that. So I listened to them and I stopped. And then later someone found a flyer about spiritual development classes and they said, oh, I thought you might be interested in this. So I went along and of course my clairvoyance switched back on, healing, a whole lot of other gifts as well. And because I couldn't find anything at the time on what happens and how to explain what the weird things are that you're experiencing, I really wanted to write a book. So that's over 10 years of my experience with lots of stuff that's happened to me. It can be read in any order. Things about meditation, which is really important, spiritual guides, your energetic body healing, lots of different things. But a number of people have been activated by reading both of my books. So some people have had their animal communication channels switched back on. We can all talk to animals when we're children. If you look at little kids, they squat right down and talk the animal and they tell you what the animal is saying. And we just say, oh yes, dear, very nice. But they're actually telling the truth. But then as we get older, something happens and that channel just switches off. But we can open it up again and have, you know, real conversations with our animals. And that's just very exciting. So both the books give opportunities for those activations to happen as well. And it's just, I just wanted to share my knowledge and to help people understand more about their spiritual journey and to understand more about their animals.

And I think I really wanted to come back and highlight something that you've actually said there as it related to when we're younger, and certainly the way children, when they're in their innocent play and they're just doing their thing, they do converse with animals and they converse with their fairies and their spirits and everybody else. So it is— it is a natural part of who we actually are, but we do tend to get normalized or we pop ourselves in a box and we accept that perhaps we don't need to speak about those things quite so much. And I think we've had this conversation before, and I've certainly had it with lots of other girlfriends and connections around the world, that there is this shift around now in awareness where we are coming back to whether it's talking to our animals, but meditating and talking to our own guides or rediscovering the energy within and all those sorts of things. So that book that you've expressed certainly does tend to sound as though it's actually going to help people through that process. If you've suddenly found yourself like many of us where you're, you know, you're finding the energy and sort of weird stuff's going on again, or what seems weird but it's probably very normal and very, very natural when you actually get into the flow of it, I think that's a very exciting thing to really, really highlight. But we'll dive back into the, to the animal side of things. Mm-hmm. I know you've got some phenomenal stories, and we've certainly had a conversation around the gift of helping those animal parents through bereavement processes. So I'd love you to share some of the stories of that that you have, and then we'll sort of see which story and where we go next.

Okay. So some of your listeners are probably like me a few years ago, where I knew nothing about animal reincarnation. I've always been fascinated with how the ancient Egyptians understood reincarnation

and

didn't know why, but I didn't know that animals did it. And then one morning, one of my girls who'd been one of my communication teachers suddenly had a heart attack and died. And it was just so unexpected. She was fine one minute and the next minute she'd gone. And that was just a huge shock. She hadn't been unwell. She had nothing wrong with her heart. And I thought, oh my God, what did you do that for? Mm-hmm. And I had no idea how long I'd have to wait to talk to her. I was just so used to communicating with her, but I didn't know anything about the process with passing over because she was my first cat who I'd communicated with who'd passed over. But fortunately, I was able to connect with her on that day. And she just said— and I said, what did you do that for? And she said, oh, I needed a new body. Like, you know, doesn't everybody do that? Like, this is the tone. And she said, Don't be so sentimental. I'm coming back. And she knew that she had an opportunity to come back in a certain body, and she just decided that it was time to get rid of the old body and come back in the new one. Now, I was in a very privileged position that she could have just gone over to the other side and still kept talking to me from the other side and still kept teaching me, but she wanted to come back and be physically with me and her brothers.

Okay.

And so I just had to wait. And a lot of my friends thought I was absolutely crazy, and it was probably a very Unusual grief coping mechanism to think that your animal's going to come back again, but she did. Mm-hmm. And it was such a thrill to have her back. And I've just found she's done that so that I could understand the concept of it. And I've written about that in my book to help other animal parents. And now I've been able to work with a lot of animal parents because I've found with more and more of the conversations I'm having that when the animals know they can come back, And unfortunately, not every animal does in this lifetime, but they seem to know before they pass over or when they've passed over that there is a body available that they can come back in. So sometimes they come back as the same breed, but sometimes they swap. Sometimes they swap gender, and they're not very keen, some of them, on coming back as the opposite sex. Like, I've got to come back as a boy? Like, yeah. And they also know what fur pattern they're going to be as well. So I can tell the parents what to look for. And that's just been incredible, and I've just had it over and over again.

Wow.

So I think, um, and so my cat told me what she was going to look like. And so I rang up the breeder and I said, this is going to sound very weird, but you're going to have a girl kitten born who's going to look like this, and it's very important that she comes back to me. And the breeder said, don't worry, you'll get her. And she'd actually already been born at this stage, and I didn't know. And the breeder doesn't put any of her kittens up until they've had their 6 week medical check and she knows that they're actually okay. So that was just so exciting to go and meet her at 6 weeks. And then I had to wait till she was about 3 months before I could bring her home. Mm-hmm. But that's just been a phenomenal learning lesson for me and to help people cope with their grief as well when I have a conversation with the animal. So I think the story I shared with you was about a cat called Geisha who had a very strong bond with her mother. And she passed away. And so I had a mediumship conversation with her, and her mum had lots of questions for her, including was she going to be coming back in this lifetime.

Mm-hmm.

And she said yes, that she's coming back as a Scottie dog and that she was coming back as a boy. So that was very interesting. So I looked up Scottish Terriers while I was having the conversation with her and saw that they came in different color patterns. So I asked what color, and she said wheaten. which is a kind of cream color. Anyway, so I got all that information, and then I asked her at the end, was there anything that she wanted to tell her mum? And she said, tomatoes. And I said, what's tomatoes? And she said, it's a test. And I thought, some of these animals are really funny, and they give me a code word that their parents understand, but it makes no sense to me. Mm-hmm. And so I thought, I wonder if she wants to eat tomatoes. So I Googled, can dogs eat tomatoes? Because I had no idea. And on the page it said, yes, they can, as long as they're ripe and red and don't have any flowers or stems or leaves, because apparently they can be toxic. Unbelievably, on the page is a picture of a Scottie dog with a bowl of tomatoes. And this kind of weird synchronicity, coincidence, whatever you want to call it, just happens all the time. And I thought, wow, okay, that's absolute confirmation she's coming back as a Scottie dog. So I sent that link to her mum as well, just so that she could go and look at it. But anyway, when I told the mum the tomato, she said, oh, Annie, they're my favorite thing. I eat them every day, and the cat knows that. So that was the cat letting her know that I was definitely talking to her. So the mum was just so excited. So anyway, she's been on the hunt for this little Cream Wheat and the boy, and she's actually found him.

Oh.

Um, she's got photos of him, and he'll be coming home in a couple of weeks' time. So she's getting the house all puppy-proof and the outside yard puppy-proof, but she's so excited to have the soul of her cat back again in the dog.

And I'm just gonna say that, so we've actually gone from a cat owner with an exceptionally strong relationship and bond with a girl cat who now is transforming into a dog owner, and it's a boy dog. So there's quite a, you know, there's quite a transformation there and a stretch, but I can only imagine the heart felt welcoming that this pet parent or animal parent is going to have because she's— she knows she's got her friend back.

She's just so excited and so thrilled. She's seen photos of her, which she shared with me as well. So it's just— yeah, it's— I just love having stories like this because it really helps with the grief process as well. Because although you're grieving the physical presence that's no longer with you, There's just this huge sense of excitement and anticipation, like, what are you going to recognize about them? What are they going to do the same? What's going to be different? And whether it's some— whether it's a look in their eyes, whether it's the way they walk. My girl, when she comes back, used to hunch down all the time and walk as though she was scared someone was going to jump on her. She does exactly the same thing. And she used to sit up behind me on the recliner chair and play with my hair, and she's come back and she does exactly the same thing. Sometimes they look identical when they come back, and so I've had a few parents telling me they've accidentally called them their old name quite a few times because they just think it's the original animal who's there. So yeah, no, it's just absolutely lovely when that happens.

And what about the bereavement process for the, um, the animals that don't come back, that actually do pass, just pass over? How does that grief process work for them?

Yep. Grief is a really independent experience, so everyone's different. Some people don't want to talk to anybody about it and just want to, like, internalise their feelings and just process it themselves. Some people do go and seek support, like in pet loss groups, or go and talk to a counsellor or talk to their GP if they're having problems sleeping. So it affects people differently. And also, if they've had losses before that still haven't been dealt with, it can just kind of escalate those feelings as well, which just makes it a lot deeper, complex process.

Yeah.

Having the conversation with their animal is very healing, particularly if they don't know why the animal died. And sometimes people are carrying a lot of guilt and blame, like if they weren't there when the animal passed away and they've got no idea what happened. Our animals have very good medical knowledge, so I can ask and they can tell me. So one of my clients had had a dog that passed away suddenly and no one knew why. And when I asked the dog, he'd had a blood clot. So it's just something really random, very quick death, not painful, but nothing that anyone could have done about it. Yeah. So that gave the parents a lot of peace of mind and relief then, because they knew then that it was just something that had happened, which was unfortunate, but not their fault. So I think a lot of it is about asking the animal the questions, and that just alleviates a lot of the guilt or blame or remorse or regret.

And that—

Parents are holding on to. Our animals also feel grief as well. So for the animal who's passed away, they also feel grief because they're separated from their human family and their other animal family as well. And so it's an opportunity for them to say what they want to say to their parents, and it's just beautiful for them to say thank you for looking after them and loving them and playing games with them and all of those kind of things. They're just so appreciative, and sometimes that's their first chance to say anything to their parents. So it's healing on both sides to be able to do that.

Yeah.

The animals that are left behind also grieve. And again, it's hard being an animal parent because you're trying to cope with grief yourself. You've got your human family to support, but you've also got your animals to support. Now, your animals are intuitive enough to know that you're grieving, so they'll be trying to help you and comfort you, but they also need to have comforting. So I had one lady who had a cat and a rabbit, and the cat and the rabbit were best friends. And the cat used to go into the rabbit's hutch, and they'd spend lots of time in there together. It's very cute. But unfortunately, the rabbit passed away suddenly, and the cat was Absolutely bereft. And poor Mum didn't know what to do. He was just moping around, not happy at all, and just this very, very sad cat. And I just got this message that she needed to go and get a soft toy and put— roll it around in the straw in the hutch so it had the rabbit scent on it, like being a soother for him, a pacifier. Yeah. So she found— I think she ended up with something like a toy carrot. That was the best that she could find at the time as a soft toy. But very intelligently, she put some of the straw inside it, as well as rolling it around on site. And the cat loved it, took it everywhere with him. He was happy as Larry rolling around and playing with it. So that just really helped him with the grief process as well. So it's letting the parents know that impact so that they've just got that deeper insight into what's happening with everybody in the family. Yeah. And then I've just been developing a new program to support bereaved animal parents where I'm going to work with them for like an 8 to 12 week period, uh, just to help them with navigating through the grief process and getting more peace of mind. So it will include a couple of mediumship sessions where I ask questions on their behalf with their animal, but I also do distance healing. So as part of that process, I'll be sending them distance healing and heart healing. And doing a meditation session with them where they can actually go and meet their animal in spirit. And when, when they turn up in your dreams or in meditations, it's just so beautiful because you can actually feel them when you pick them up and you can hold them. You can hear them purring, or you can see them running along in front of you. And when they pass over, they go through a healing process, and often it's the physical issues that get healed first. So even if an animal was immobile before they died, as soon as they've been over on the other side, even for a couple of days, that's all been healed and they're running around as though they're back to puppyhood or kittenhood again. So it's just beautiful to see that. And I can tell the parents what I've seen when I've had the conversation too. Yeah. The other thing that helps parents is that our animals can come back and visit us on an energetic level. So once they've gone through a certain healing process, they come back and visit us, um, as a spiritual being. Sometimes they actually put on their physical body just so that we recognize them when in the house, because once they're a soul in spirit, it's not a physical body that's actually there. It's their soul essence. But they can somehow put on a physical body because I've had people saying they've seen their dog running up and down the corridor, so they can see them. Or you can hear them. So when my girl Cat passed away, before she came back, she used to come and visit us and I'd hear her meowing. So I'd know that she was there. And some people feel them. So you can actually feel them when they jump up onto the bed and they might come and pat your face or pat your arm. They do everything they can to let us know they've come to visit us because they see us grieving. And that, you know, it upsets them because they can't come and physically comfort us. Yeah. So coming energetically, they can do. And then they can leave little signs that they've been to visit. So they might move one of their toys into a different area or leave something so that you know that someone's been there. So that's really reassuring for parents as well.

Beautiful. And if we look now at the animal conversations, and we've talked about how some of those conversations certainly bring the blonde closer together and that they get into the space where they're more generous with their loving than what they have been before. So what are some of the funniest stories or the funniest quips or messages or perhaps even telling-offs that some of the pets need to tell us? So what do, you know, what do animals actually want to tell us?

Yeah, look, they're hilarious. A couple of funniest stories. I talked to a sulphur-crested cockatoo at a zoo. So for people who aren't familiar with Australian birds, it's a white bird and it's got a yellow crest on the back of the head, which which can stand up and come down again. And this was a bird that talked out loud, so he'd go, hello Charlie, hello Charlie. His name was Charlie, and he'd just say that. So when you're talking to animals, it's telepathic. So I don't say anything at all, so no one would know I was having a conversation. It's all in my head and in their head. And I tried talking to him and he didn't want to talk, and that's their free will. Mm-hmm. So I walked away and spoke to some other animals, and when I came back, his keeper had just been in there rearranging some tree branches for him, and he's going, hello Charlie, a lot. So he said to me, hi Charlie, hi Charlie. And I said, oh, would you like to talk out loud, would you? And I said out loud, what would you like to tell me? And he looked at me and he put his comb up and he stretched out his wings and he screeched and screeched and screeched as though I was doing something absolutely terrible to him. Then he put his comb down, folded down his wings, looked at me, and he said, haha. He knew exactly what was going on. That was just so funny.

Yeah.

Um, now, uh, a cat I've spoken with, uh, likes splashing water out of his water bowl, and a lot of them do. So the mum wanted me to find out what was going on, and he told me. And I said, do you want to tell her anything else? And he said, does she want an existential exposé on the physics of displacing a volume of water?

Okay.

And I thought, hmm, I think he may have been a professor in a previous lifetime. So that was very unexpected. Uh, and one of the most profound conversations I had with an animal who was in spirit was actually a blind cat. And he was a beautiful cat who died in very tragic circumstances. So Mum had lots of questions for him, and he answered all of them. And then during the conversation, he said to me, Rumpelteaser. And I'm thinking, what's Rumpelteaser? And then I'm thinking, is he trying to say Rumpelstiltskin and I haven't heard it properly? Uh, and if so, that makes no sense in the context of the conversation we're having. So I thought, maybe I've just misheard that. So I just kept on asking other questions. And then he said Rumpelteaser again, very definitely. So— I hadn't met his mum. I was just having a chat to her on Messenger, so I'd never seen her. We were just typing answers backwards and forwards. And so I typed, has he ever been called Rumpleteazer? And there was no response. And I thought, oh, mum's going to think I'm an absolutely crazy person. Yeah. And then she typed back, oh yes, I'd forgotten that. And apparently when she rescued him, he was living with a dog called Rumpel. And he used to get in trouble for teasing the dog, so he got called Rumple Teaser, and he couldn't even see the dog. Um, but that was his way of letting his mum know that I was definitely talking to him.

Yeah.

And that just blew her mind, getting that message. And for me, it was just so profound. And, and now this is just happening more and more, like the tomato story and a few other stories, that these animals are telling me a word that makes no sense to me. I can't interpret it. I don't understand it. But when I tell a parent, they know exactly what it is. And they know I've definitely tuned into their animal. And there's no rational explanation for how that word got into my head. It's such an unusual word. Mm-hmm. Apart from him telling me. And so I'm just used to the fact now that it sounds crazy when I say I hear animal voices in my head. Um, but that's just exactly how it works. And so I just have to work out now that, yes, okay, this is the code message. I just deliver it to the parents. And then they explained to me what it means.

What it means. Yeah. The significance of it. And isn't that such a beautiful way of our animals sort of almost evidence stacking that, you know, it's, it is true. I am here and I, this is, this is me telling you this. This is what I needed to say. This is what I wanted to share. This is how I need to support you. And all those sorts of things, which in itself is a beautiful, beautiful action. So. I loved hearing those stories when you told me them the first time, which has been great. So let's also talk about some of the behavioral issues that animals can have that we as animal owners and parents or new parents get to experience. And I know I've had different ones at different times, and you're just like, you know, you hit that frustration point. You don't understand. Because you're not conversing. You're trying to work out why this dog's doing, you know, or animal— in my case, it's been a dog at different times— you know, why do they do what they do? And often it's just a case of, you know, they're almost saying you're not actually listening, but I've got this to say. So tell us some stories around some of the behavioral stuff that you've done as well, please.

And that's a lovely question because if any of your listeners are interested, I'm actually doing a master's class tonight, a free masterclass, 8 PM Brisbane time. So if people are interested, I know you're going to put the email link up for them. They can just email me and I can send them the Zoom link to join in. Okay. So I'm talking exactly about animal behaviors and health issues from my experience as a communicator. So I'm not an animal behaviorist, but I've had lots of conversations to find out why they're doing certain things. So I spoke to a dog who was a rescue dog, and he'd been through a number of different foster homes. And his mum absolutely loved animals, so she had cats and dogs. And she'd lost a dog who was a very beloved dog for her. This wasn't a replacement dog, but she just felt that she wanted to have another boy dog to be with her girl dogs.

Yeah.

Anyway, this dog used to just get into trouble all the time. He'd try and lead his sister dogs astray, and she just couldn't understand why when she was trying to, you know, give him lots of love and help him feel really assured that nothing— that he was still being continually naughty. Anyway, when I spoke to him, he said that he'd learned from going from foster home to foster home that if he was naughty, he would get some interaction with the humans. So even though they might be telling him off, they'd be giving him some attention. And for him, getting some attention was more important than getting none at all.

And

so this was now a learned pattern of behavior that he was going to be at a foster home, he'd be naughty, they'd move him on to another home, he'd be naughty, they'd move him on to another home. And so when I explained to him that this is now his forever home and his mum absolutely loves him and she wants him to settle in and feel as though he is part of the family, he just said, I'm overwhelmed.

Mm-hmm.

That was such a huge thing for him to absorb. that he didn't have to go on being naughty, and he didn't just have to think, okay, there's no point developing bonds with all these people because I'm just going to get moved in a few weeks' time. So getting into that background is really interesting. I have spoken to a number of animals who have been abused, and then they've been adopted by their new family, and I'm just in awe of the fact that they're willing to trust humans to look after them and give them a second chance at life. Yeah. Because all our animals want is to be loved and to feel secure. Mm-hmm. So I spoke to a dog recently, and the mum had hoped that she would be able to support her, but the mum didn't know that the dog had been abused previously. And often they don't want to talk about abuse, like they, they just don't want to go there and deal with that all again, and I respect that. So if they don't want to answer questions that's their free will and we don't do that. But she actually opened up and told me what had happened, and so then I could explain that to her mum, and she had no idea. And that just changed her whole perception then of how she was interpreting the behaviors and startle reactions and all sorts of things, because it was triggering things that had happened before. Okay. And so she's totally changed now how she talks to the dog, and she just sent me an update the other day to say that the behavior has changed. They've made so much progress. Yeah. She's so happy with her. And even just knowing that your animal understands what you're saying changes everything as well, because then you can start talking to them knowing that they understand, and they really appreciate that. And I've had people I've told that to, like, I haven't even done a consultation with the animal. I've just said, you know, they understand everything you're saying, just talk to them as though they're doing that. And then they said, wow, The behaviors really change. They love knowing that you know that they understand everything that you're saying. Because they have free will, they don't necessarily do everything that you ask them. Like, don't hop up on the table, don't do this, don't do that. They'll do what they want to do, but they can certainly hear what you're saying. So that's really interesting as well.

Yeah, I think I've shared with you, and it's making me laugh because she's— my, uh, my dog Honey is with me all the time, and she's like my shadow, and I feel like I'm shadow. And I have my son here one week on, one week off. So the week when Rory's not here, I'm, you know, jabbering away to Honey. And, you know, she's the only one here because I work from home. So I'm jabbering away to her and talking to her about everything and, you know, conversing with her on that. And I can see towards the end of the week, she's going, I can't wait for Rory to get back. I've just really had enough. And I know I get towards Friday and she's like, I almost get the

verbal overload.

Oh my God, you're coming again. I heard that story on Tuesday. I don't really need to hear it again on Friday. And I get this look. And then, you know, then I see the difference when, you know, Rory comes on Sunday and she's— there's this difference in elevation, like, oh my God, thank God you're here. I'm going to get a break this week. And I remember seeing— I saw the facial expression a number of times, and then I understood the facial expression. And now we've just— she's just got up, she's just got this look now. It's just— and I go, is it timeout? I'm like, you know, it's enough. And I just get the, it's enough. Yeah. Which is just gorgeous.

Yeah. The other thing that I found with health issues is that sometimes animals take on our health symptoms for us.

That's right.

Because they're very sensitive to energetic frequencies, and we all vibrate at an energetic energetic frequency. And once we get sick, our frequency drops and our animals can detect that. So often before we know we're sick, they know. So, uh, they will come around and be a lot more affectionate and spend time with us because they want us to feel better as soon as possible. So my cat, who's in the picture behind me, um, when I was about to go on the retreat to write my books, I had a really bad chest infection. And I think he was really worried that I wasn't going to be well enough to be able to go, and he knew how important it was that I went. So the next thing, he's got a chest infection. Now he's an indoor cat. There's no one— no way he can, he can get an infection. The other cats were fine. I can't transmit it to him, but he was taking on some of the symptoms so that I would recover quicker. He hadn't worked out that would mean he had to go to the vets for 3 days in a row while I tried to get his temperature down and look after him. But he got better. And I got better. So I was well enough to go on the retreat and write the books. And that's just something they do to be of service. We haven't asked them to do that, and they just do it because they love us and they want to help us. And so when I found out, because a couple of them have done that, I've just said, please, can you just be healthy and happy? That will be much less stressful when I don't have to worry about you as well. Well, and when my girl cat did that, she said, are you sure? And like, she really wanted to be of service and do that, which is just lovely. So it's quite interesting now when people ask me about their animals with health issues, and I say, Hmm, does anyone else in the household have the same issue? And they go, yes. And so, yeah, it's just something that they do. And so sometimes I need to do some healing for the animal and the human to help them both get better. But it's finding out what's actually causing the problem that's the main thing, because yes, you can see the symptoms of something and you can treat the symptoms, but if you don't know the cause, it's not going to get better.

Yeah.

On the opposite side of that, I had a conversation with a dog who was very snappy and morose and totally different to his normal happy, bouncy, jerky behavior. And he'd gone and seen a vet and they'd put him on the equivalent of dog Valium, um, thinking he was depressed. And when I spoke to him, he said the medication made him feel vomitous and woozy. They were his 2 words. I've never forgotten it. And so I said, what's going on? And he said, mum's depressed. And the mum had lost 3 friends in close succession that all passed away, and she was grieving. And so her whole interaction with the dog had changed. Mm-hmm. And he was really upset that she wasn't well. And so that was his way of trying to indicate that something wasn't right. So when we sorted mum out, his behavior changed straight away. And then he could get weaned off his medication and they're both back to their normal patterns again. And it's something that's really important for animal parents to understand is that animals really rely on our routine. They thrive on our routine and to them, we're their world. So if we change what we do, it does affect them. So they love being told if something's going to change. Yes. Shift workers. If, you know, the dog's used to having a walk in the morning because the person works in the afternoon, and then they change shifts, that's a change in their routine. If you're bringing home another animal, you're bringing home a baby, you're bringing home a new partner, all of those things change the energy in the house. Yeah. And it affects your animals because they're used to having you to themselves, and now they have to share, and they— that's an adjustment process for them. So I've actually written a little guide about how to help welcome a new animal to your house household with less stress and more harmony if you've got existing animals. Because the one thing that really irritates them is you standing there with your new perfect little baby animal and drooling all over it and loving it in front of your animals that have been there giving you love for a lifetime. And so they would much prefer that you go and give your new animal some love out of their sight and still continue your normal interactions with them. Okay. They have one-on-one time with you. If they have walk time with you, you want to try and juggle your schedule to be able to still have your one-on-one time with them so that they feel secure. And you're also supporting a new animal. One of the really interesting things some of the animals have said to me is, oh, we must have done something wrong and mum doesn't love us anymore. And she's had to go and get a new animal to love. And that's not the story, but that's how they perceive it because they don't know what's happened. And so that's why telling them, even though you might feel funny saying to your cat, look, I want to get a new cat. How do you feel about that. Um, not that that's what you're planning to do, and saying, look, you've done nothing wrong, I still love you exactly the same, but I've got capacity in my heart to love another animal. And once you do that, then that really helps the integration. I've been lucky that I've been able to ask my cats how they'd feel, and they can tell me. Yeah. And really interestingly, when I got my little boy behind me, my other 2 cats were a lot older So it was a big change for them to have this very energetic, active dog running around all over the place. So I wanted to make sure they were happy about it, and they were. And I used to talk to him before he came home to me from the breeder, just to sort of help welcome him into the household. And I explained, oh, you've got a new brother and sister. And he said, oh, I know, they've already been talking to me.

Oh, bless. They knew.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

Just as we sort of wind up in the last few minutes, I just want to make sure if we can just pop the website across on the ticker so people know where we've got the website there. And on the website, if I've got this correct, Annie, you've got those 2 new downloadables, the one for bereaving parents and the one for new— other new parents or other new animals or changes. Is that correct? Do I have that right?

They go to my website. On the front page is the box that they can put their email address in to get the guide for welcoming a new animal. The page that's got the guide to support bereaved animal parents is a separate address. So if they want to email me, or they can message me through my website, and then I can email them the other guide if they'd like that. If they'd like information about my services, the animal communication readings or the mediumship readings, or my new mediumship program to support bereaved animals, they can also contact me through the website or through my email address. I'm happy to talk to them.

Brilliant. And on your website, do you also have the link to your podcast? And if not, can you tell us the name of your podcast? It

actually just come up on the screen now, which is lovely. Thank you for doing that. No, I'm just doing a whole lot of updates to the website at the moment. So the website The podcast is called What Animals Tell Me, and it's available on multiple podcast platforms, including Spotify. So there's 8 episodes up at the moment. So particularly for bereaved animal parents, episode 1 and 2 from series 1, I talk about signs of energetic visits from your animals, and I talk about reincarnation. So I'd recommend people listen to those.

Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing so much with us, Annie. It's been an absolute pleasure to have your insights, your experience, and those beautiful stories. And as Peter said, when we had the message come across the screen, Peter was sharing, sharing. It was incredibly insightful for him as somebody that was very spiritual and in different ways. So lots of great stories to share, lots of great insights on how we can actually converse with our animal friends at home and our buddies. at home. And so if you do have anybody that you know that is having an animal that's recently passed or is having some behavioral issues, or it's got an animal that's— or a family that's going to have some significant, significant changes coming up, then do reach out to Annie to find out how you can best support the entirety of your family, fur family and human family. as well. And for those that are going to be joining us on next week's show, we have another Anne on, um, all of which— whom we know. So we've got Anne McDowell coming on next week, and we're going to be talking about the stories that we tell ourselves to stay stuck. So we're going to be talking about dwelling and telling and how we can overcome that so we can actually live the life we want to love and how we can soar as well. So thank you once again, Annie, for sharing all of your tips and stories around what animal— animals tell us. And I'm sure all of the listeners were going to be looking and listening to their animals a little bit differently over the next few minutes and definitely over the next few coming weeks, etc. So for everyone out there that is an animal lover, And a pet or animal parent, I should say. Please do look and have a conversation with your animal and surprise yourself. So thank you very, very much, everyone. We look forward to seeing you again next week. Thank— if I can have— ask everyone to thank Annie and do reach out to Annie for any further support that you need with your animal family. Thank you very much. Thank you again.

Thank you.

That's it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for joining us, and I trust that you got some inspirational tips to move you forward. You can find this episode along with many more on your favorite streaming platform such as iHeartRadio, Spotify, iTunes, and more. See you next Thursday at 7 PM Eastern time for more Success Secrets Exposed with Sally A. Curtis.