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Those are the types of questions Dr. Jean Hollenstein’s 15-year-old son struggles with. Taffy, a 15-year-old cocker spaniel, has liver problems, said Hollenstein, a veterinarian.
The teen asked his mother to contact Joan Stokes, an animal communicator based in St. Cloud, for insight.
“Animals know so much more than we do,” Stokes said. “When I communicate with them about death, they see life and death as walking through a door. It’s just the other side of the door.“
Stokes said interest in pet communicators has grown; pet communicators bridge the gap between pets and their owners and bring the two closer together.
“People really want to know ... what’s going on with them,” Stokes said. “The number one question people ask is ’Is my animal happy?’ I would say 99 percent of the answers are that they are happy if their people are happy.“
Hollenstein has worked with Stokes at her practice in Glenwood, and believes Stokes provides valuable information about behavioral and sometimes medical issues.
Stokes visits Glacial Ridge Veterinary Clinic four times a year, and it’s not difficult to fill the classes, Hollenstein said.
“It’s been interesting,” Hollenstein said. “I felt she was very respectful.“
Hollenstein recalled a case of a cat constantly vomiting. She ran tests and took X-rays with no luck. And then she contacted Stokes.
“Joan thought there was a piece of cloth (inside the cat),” Hollenstein said.
Stokes said she felt a sensation in her digestive track when working on the cat; animals talk in pictures and in feelings to her, she said. Sure enough, after closer examination, Hollenstein found a piece of sisal, which is commonly used on scratching posts.
“I would have never found it,” Hollenstein said. “The cat cleared right up afterward.“
Melrose psychic Glenna Dietrich is just beginning to market her services.
She focuses on animals, consulting with clients through e-mails and phone calls.
It’s difficult to explain how a pet communicator works, Dietrich said.
She mainly uses two techniques to tune into the animal: tapping on acupuncture points on the animal’s body or on a proxy and magnetic therapy to balance the animal’s central nervous system.
“It’s a gift for me,” Dietrich said. “I connect (with pets) on some sort of level. It’s a feeling. Over the years, I know how to interpret those feelings.“
Behavioral outbursts can result from anything from a cry for attention to a change in food.
Sometimes an event, such as a birth of a child, can cause an animal to act out, she said.
“My purpose is to heal relationships between people and animals,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich is working with a Newfoundland who lost a canine companion. The surviving dog withdrew, Dietrich said.
Through her work as a pet communicator, Dietrich found the dog was confused of where she fit into the family after the other dog’s death, she said.
It doesn’t take a pet communicator to talk with animals — anyone can do it; it just takes quieting of the mind and a connecting of hearts, she said.
“People who love their animals have the ability to interpret those feelings,” Dietrich said. “They just don’t know how to.”
