Blossom Flower's post reminded me of this story that I just have to tell.
 
Blossom Flower wrote:
>It's also common for people to say they see or hear things or had some
>strange phenomenom like a "visit" from a dead loved one when they are
>experiencing something traumatic or stressful in their lives.
 
My grandmother firmly believed in ghosts.  When she was a child, she
woke up one night to her mother shouting, "Go away!  Go away, John!"
John was her father, who was away in the war (some Czech war).
Apparently, her mother saw John (rather, an apparition of John) leaning
over the baby's bassinet.  The baby had been born after he'd gone off to
war.  Great-grandma told the kids, "Your father is dead."  A week later
they received his personal effects; he had died the day she saw him
hovering over the baby.
 
I think we do have psychic connections with those we love.  I experienced
great restlessness and a sense that something was terribly wrong the day
my mother died -- before I'd been told that she'd died.  (No, I've never
seen my mother's, nor anyone's, ghost).
 
Does this psychic connection include our pets?  Maybe.  Though I've never
had any sense like the one with my mother with any of my ferrets -- even
with Balthazar, with whom I had a very powerful bond (he died at the
vet's while I was getting ready to go visit him).  Though I do have a
ferret ghost story (at least that's what I believe).  Our Ralph had a
ball with a bell in it that was *his*.  He wouldn't let any other ferrets
play with it.  He even screamed at his best buddy, Marshmallow, because
Marsh was trying to play with the ball.  After Ralph died, Eric said, "I
think Ralph would want the other ferrets to have his ball." I disagreed.
I wanted to put the ball up next to Ralph's ashes, but I let Eric give
the other ferrets the ball.  Within a day or two the bell in the ball was
broken.  I like to believe it was Ralph coming back and sabotaging the
ball because he didn't want anyone else to play with it.  It could just
as easily have been a coincidence, I suppose.  But no one has played with
Ralph's ball since.
 
So why, if I believe that, am I skeptical about animal communication?  I
don't really know.  As others have pointed out, faith is a weird thing.
I don't think people shouldn't use animal communicators if they believe
in them.  My concern is that people keep in mind that animals can't
understand things in human terms because they're not human.  A ferret
might feel like he's dying (and, indeed, want to die) when he's just
dehydrated.  He doesn't know how to fix it, but we do, and so we have
a responsibility to do so, regardless of what the animal might "say" to
an AC about what he wishes.  Beyond that, knock yourself out.  Have a
good time.  It harms no one.
 
--Mary & the Fuzzies
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
Mary & The Modern Ferrets
Trixie, Koosh, & Gabby
Read my blog --
http://www.modernferretblog.com/mary
[Posted in FML issue 4107]