This story was originally published on my vet school blog, “Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5.”
I once took a course in telepathic animal communication, which, I realize, could be considered completely loopy and off the deep end.
I prefer to keep an open mind about this sort of thing, realizing that we humans have a tendency to define reality in very dogmatic terms, only to realize, centuries or millennia later, that reality isn’t always as it seems. Take the earth being flat, for example.
While I entered the class suspecting that it is possible for other people to communicate with animals, I didn’t hold out great hopes for myself. I listened carefully to the teacher’s stories and instructions, and, fascinating though they were, still didn’t expect anything more than hallucinations on my part.
Our first exercise was to communicate with her dog, Jake, and ask what his favorite food was.
“Say the first thing that pops into your head, and don’t self-edit!” our instructor called out.
I tuned in to Jake: I asked him what his favorite food was and envisioned an empty dog dish, hoping that he would return an image of the dish filled with his favorite food.
BAM! A very vivid picture popped up, of a silver fish, somewhat like an elongated “Jesus fish.”
The little devil on my shoulder sneered, “Yeah, right. His favorite food is probably beef.”
But then the little angel piped up, “Don’t self-edit!”
Our teacher went around the room, asking us to share what we’d received. There were a lot of beefs, a few chickens, and some wet dog foods, but no silver fishes. I was beginning to feel like a moron.
“LaShelle, how about you? What did you get?”
“Um, a silver fish?” was my feeble reply.
“Huh,” my instructor said.
Huh?
“Have you ever seen a mackerel?” she asked.
“No…”
“Go home and look it up online,” she said. “It’s a silver fish, and that’s what Jake had for breakfast this morning.”
That was astonishing in and of itself, but even more astonishing was when I got home and found a picture of a mackerel online. It was the exact same fish.
Holy mackerel!
