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How
Angel Animals Teach with Love
By
Allen and Linda Anderson
It took us a while to notice. Humans can be awfully dense sometimes.
But our yellow cockatiel, Sunshine, continued to be patient. After
a while, we began to understand how he was teaching Linda to
sing his birdsongs.
 Every
morning, we uncover the birdcage and Sunshine greets the day with
his customary, “I love you, Sweet Baby.” While Linda
makes breakfast, Sunshine whistles. Since his mate Sparkle died
a year ago, Linda has become careful to return Sunshine's
whistles. The vet told us that we are Sunshine's 'flock'
and we take our responsibility seriously. Birds whistle and expect
their flock to whistle back.
Recently we figured out Sunshine's loving way of training
his whistle partner. First, he starts with a very simple whistle
of only a few notes. Linda responds with exactly the same whistle.
Gradually he escalates and makes the whistles a bit more complicated.
Each time, Linda whistles back. She has to listen very carefully
to get the tune just right. Finally, Sunshine cuts loose with
some complex composition worthy of Mozart, trilling and riffing
like a jazz singer. By this time, Linda is completely outclassed.
Unlike most humans, who would give up in disgust at the inferior
ability of their partner, Sunshine grows very quiet while he waits
for Linda to return his symphonic whistle. When she doesn't,
he goes back to basics. He starts all over with a simple, two
or three-note whistle and waits for her to respond. These humans,
they sure do need a lot of persistent coaching.
Sunshine reminds us that animals, our angels in disguise, often
show by their examples how to treat others with kindness, respect,
and yes, absolute patience.
The
Man Who Lost His Fur
Lynn Hewitt
says that her cat Poog has the kind of expressive green eyes that
convey his intelligence and gentle heart. She writes about an
experience with her brother-in-law, Ron, Poog's favorite houseguest.
 “Ron
has a calm and determined manner. What Ron says and does, reflects
his inner feelings with a consistency and integrity that Poog
obviously understands and respects. Whenever Ron visits, Poog
behaves as if a royal prince has entered his realm.”
Ron customarily wears a baseball cap over his shaved, bald scalp.
On one occasion, Ron took off his cap when he came into the house.
This was the first time Poog had ever seen him without it. Since
the cat always paid the most worshipful attention to Ron, it was
with great dismay that Poog observed the change in his friend's
demeanor. The sight of hairless Ron caused Poog to begin moaning.
He circled Ron slowly and jumped up on the chair to look more
closely at the disaster that had been visited upon his hero. Poog's
sad eyes told the story of his empathy for a fallen prince who
had obviously endured a great disaster.
Lynn writes, “Poog clearly communicated horror and sympathy
for Ron's 'furless' head. It brought tears to the
eyes of several humans in the room as Poog slowly crept respectfully
up the arm of this honored guest and gently licked and kissed
his scalp in obvious sorrow and sympathy. There are greater tragedies
in a cat's world, but the shaving away of fur was certainly
a calamity Poog recognized. His sincere and gently offered condolence
remains a lesson in the innate character and virtues of our animal
friends, especially when their unique gifts of individuality are
consistently honored and nurtured with love and respect.”
A
Doggie Warning Dream
So often
humans think they are taking their dog companions for obedience
training. Those of us who have caught on to the folly of this
way of thinking know that it's the other way around. The dog
trains us, and we eventually figure out what we're supposed
to be doing.
What you may not have realized is that our angel animals continue
to teach us even after death. The following story from Noreen
A. McClusky, a freelance writer and animal communicator, is a
reminder that our animal friends never leave or forget us.
“Kiera was a lovely Harlequin Great Dane. Many years ago,
Keira passed over. But a few weeks back, an image of her woke
me out of a sound sleep. Keira's message to me in the dream
was an important one. She urged me that a certain loved one, my
sister, whom she'd adored, needed to go have a breast exam,
especially the right breast.
 “Since
I have learned to trust these kinds of spiritual experiences,
I phoned my sister. I relayed the important warning and left it
at that.
“A couple of days later, I received a return voicemail. 'Yeah,
I'd been putting it off,' my sister said, 'but I just
went and had the right breast lump biopsied. Thank God, it's
benign. I didn't tell anybody about the biopsy beforehand
because I didn't want people to panic. Tell Keira, thanks
for the nudge.'
“Listen to your dreams. So what if the still, small voice
used to bark!”
Allen
and Linda Anderson are co-editors of Angel Animals: Exploring Our Spiritual
Connection with Animals. Send story submissions to P.O. Box 26354, Minneapolis,
MN 55426 or email angelanimals@angelanimals.net.
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Animals
