In Memoriam: Maya McLendon-Kunz, 1997-2010

Maya was our beloved queen cat.  She belonged to my partner from kittenhood, then adopted me at age 3 or 4 in 2000.  She was always completely herself: demanding, beautiful, proud, wise, confident and more than a little bit snarky.  Over the years we became best friends, and she took a great part in teaching me, and others, how to communicate with animals.  For several years, she also had her own highly opinionated advice column on my site.

Holiday Sale!

Know someone who would like to understand their pet better? Treat your friends, your loved ones or yourself to an animal communication session with me at 20% off. That’s right, between now and December 31st, I am offering a 20% discount on all consultations and gift cards. This means a ½-hour communication session for $40, 45 minutes for $60 or an hour for $80.

When treating your friends, opt for a personalized hard copy gift card or email notice – both nondenominational and appropriate for any holiday or birthday. Cards are good until December 31, 2011. And don’t worry – if you just want to treat yourself, I won’t tell!

Interested? Contact me at info@animaltalker.com or 917-607-8630.

Winterizing for Animals

As the weather changes for those of us in temperate climates, I notice animals putting on winter coats, eating more and snuggling up in cozy places – whether that is a special nest or their person’s lap. The tree squirrels in our local park spent the recent last gasp of warm weather busily stashing winter foods and preparing their dreys (nests), while my cats at home have been howling for more wet food and curling up with me on their favourite “mommy blanket” – a deep, furry throw that reminds them of their mama cats’ bellies. Have you noticed the critters around you preparing, too?

Of course, you can also help your animal friends prepare for and get through cold weather. Here are some ways:

Read an Interview with Gretchen on Floppycats.com

I'm excited to share that I've recently completed an interview with Floppycats.com. Floppycats.com is dedicated to Ragdoll cats and general cat health care and well being. It provides the most accurate, up-to-date and knowledgeable Ragdoll Cat Info, or the floppy cat.

In this interview, you can find out about how I started as an animal communicator, how I practice, and what I think of issues such as why animal communication is valuable, and why veterinarians should consider using animal communication as one of their tools.

I hope you enjoy the interview, and check out Floppycats.com for articles on cat care, product reviews and even cat product giveaways.

What to do with your leftover pumpkins

After Halloween, Big Cat Rescue, a non profit educational sanctuary in Tampa, FL, gets pumpkins from local businesses and gives them to the sanctuary cats to play with. It's wonderful to see these majestic creatures, some of whom have been been abused, abandoned, bred to be pets, retired from performing acts, or saved from being slaughtered for fur coats, having a wonderful time exercising with and eating their pumpkins. You can see what great health and spirits the staff at BCR keeps the cats in, and you get a chance to see that the same play stalking behaviour your house cat engages in is alive and well in even the largest felines. Meanwhile, BCR attract a human audience they can educate about these animals and the issues facing them in captivity and in the wild.



To find out more BCR, check out their website or Facebook page

The Cat’s Purr

How and why cats purr has long been a mystery. In fact, it’s only within the last few decades that scientists have thoroughly studied purring and come to some understanding about it. Of course, those scientists don’t generally ask the cats themselves! So, I thought it would be fun to take some of the current scientific theory on purring and ask some cats what they thought of it via animal communication.


1. Why do cats purr?

Although many people think cats purr mainly when they’re happy or soothing their kittens, any veterinary professional or long-time cat owner will tell you that sometimes cats purr when they are sick or injured. So, is purring just used to express affection, or to comfort the weak or stressed?

Back in Business

Hi, friends, and welcome to my new site and blog.

I’m happy to be resuming my animal communication business. It’s been a busy three years. I worked hard and became a Licensed Veterinary Technician. Along the way, I had ups and downs, but very much enjoyed learning about the science and art of veterinary care.

I really enjoyed getting more hands-on experience with farm animals, along with the opportunities to work with exotic species during my internships at the Prospect Park Zoo and a local animal hospital that has specialists in birds and reptiles. I got to see how busy hospitals and shelters work, how technological and pharmaceutical advances in veterinary medicine are making big strides, and how specialty practices for one species provide focused care. Most of all, I got to see how veterinarians, techs and administrators work with animals and clients, and how animals and clients view being at the vet hospital.

I feel privileged to now be able to apply all this information to my animal communication sessions. I hope that, along with my knowledge of various alternative treatments, this will make your and your companion animals’ experiences with me more well-rounded, and help you understand how to work with your vet.

In the upcoming weeks I will be posting updates, news and thoughts on various animal- and communication-related issues. Please feel free to browse my site at www.animaltalker.com. If you've never heard of animal communication and how it works, you might be interested in the What Is It? and FAQ sections of my website.

If you'd like to know more about me and my work as an animal communicator, check out the About Gretchen section. Examples of clients and cases I've worked with can be found in Testimonials. You may also find out about the structure of my consultations and healing work on this site. And, for fun and information, you can always check out a cat's-eye view of things in Ask Maya, and explore other sites related to animals in Links.

Finally, feel free to contact me! Best wishes to all animals and the humans who love them,

Fun with dog training

I can't resist putting up this amazing video by OK GO featuring dozens of dog training behaviors in one take.



According to Roland Sonnenburg, the person from Talented Animals that coordinated this, "We had 12 trainers, two furniture movers, 12 dogs, one goat, 38 buckets, and a bunch of furniture, all of which needed to move around and be in the right place at the right time without anyone stepping in front of camera."

One of the keys to the success of the filming was that the dogs actually started to have fun doing their behaviors. It's a wonderful example of people and animals communicating and working together with time, caring and patience. See the Gizmodo article for more photos and interviews about how the video was made.