Red hot pit: Animal communicators

The naming of cars is a delicate matter
It isn’t just one of your holiday games . . .

“I can tell what your dog is thinking. He’s thinking you’re crazy if you think I can tell what he’s thinking.”

I don’t know what the problem is? We’ve all seen those Ace Ventura documentaries.

You must be very, very happy!!! I know I am!

Just curious about something regarding so-called psychics in the US. In California, every psychic shop that I passed (never went in, of course) had a sign prominently displayed saying “for entertainment purposes only” or words to that effect. Of course that was required by law. So, is there any jurisdiction in the US where “pet psychics” are not required to have that “entertainment only” notice posted?

You mean Kate Upton? [SFW, but just barely]

More like Kate Updown.

I don’t know, but if they set up shop as a business, maybe. The ones I’ve been aware of, encountered, or were introduced to weren’t official businesses. They were just some woman who claimed to be an animal communicator. It’s very much a cottage industry.

IIRC wasn’t there a conviction back east a few years ago for a psychic based on the classic archaic-but-never-repealed law against witchcraft?

I don’t think this is the case I remember but here is one example.

Isn’t pretty much any house a dog sees some shade of blue? Maybe yellow?

I like woo people. They see truths before anyone else is ready to believe. Copernicus was a woo man too at one point wasn’t he? And Tesla? And Reagan?

He never learned cur-sive.

Yeah, this is part of why I went into it with an open mind. But my experience with that lost dog search a few years ago just showed me that if there are any people who actually do have this ability to psychically communicate with animals, they’re outnumbered by the scammers. I had two people at the same time telling me contradictory things about the dog. He supposedly told one lady that he wanted to go home, and also told the other lady that he didn’t like his home. Some other similar things also.

And then the one lady who was communicating with a completely unrelated person’s dead dog, let’s call him Shadow. After she chatted with Shadow for a while she asked him if he knew if Lostdog was still alive. Yes. Can you connect me to him so I can talk to him? Sure. Note not only is this a human-deaddog-livedog communication channel but the two dogs had never met!

Yeah… no.

Years ago I worked for a humane society as their educator, going into schools to teach about dog safety and pet care and the like. When I quit to pursue teaching full-time, I sat in on interviews for my replacement.

We sat down with one woman and asked her that most boring of intro questions: “So, tell us a little about yourself.”

For the next fifteen minutes–I timed it–she told us about her abilities to communicate psychically with animals.

She did not get the job.

There’s a talking dog joke here somewhere ending in “DiMaggio?”

“Let me try a canine-human mind meld. It’s an incredibly rare psychic power possessed only by me, and three other clerks at this store.”

I recall one from Tom the Dancing Bug – “Super Fun Pak Comix”:

GUY: I’ll bet you $10 this duck can talk!

BARTENDER: You’re on.

GUY: What’s a word for an incompetent physician?

DUCK: Charlatan.

BARTENDER: No, that’s too generalized.

DUCK: He’s right. Pay the man.