Transcript :

Eileen Garfinkel: It’s very hard to explain how I hear the animal. It’s almost like a dream.Eileen: I ask my angels, and the angels of JB, to be present and I ask divine presence to create for us a sacred and safe space. I ask divine protection around Sara, around Tootsie, around myself, around my cat and around all my apartment. Eileen: I can feel her heart (thumping sound) you know, for the anxiety. Yeah, aww.. Eileen: This cat is filled with fear. Sara: I know, it makes me like…uhhh… Eileen: Oh, it makes you cry. Sara: Yeah, it makes tears well up. Eileen: When people ask what I do for a living I always say I’m an intuitive animal communicator. It usually comes to me as just a knowing about what the animal is feeling or if there are problems in the family what those problems might be. My mother got a puppy for me and I had been going through sexual abuse at the time from her boyfriend who is also pretty sadistic. He would do things like he would hold her snout until she cried and then he would laugh. At some point I realized that we were both being abused. She loved me so much that sometimes I think that if it wasn’t for her in my life I might have tried to end my life as a young child. Eileen: I would sing to her, I would sing (sings), “Amelia, I just met a cat named Amelia.” And every time I would sing she would open her mouth, she would open her mouth (opens mouth)….. like singing with me, but no sound, meowing the whole time. Only to that song, to “Amelia.” (singing) “Amelia, I just met a cat named Amelia. And suddenly that name will never be the same to me.” Eileen: When a person is abused and really hurt as a child there’s two ways you can go. You can strike out forever and be angry and resentful or what I did, and it took years for me to do that, is I developed a compassion for those who have no voice, for those that are defenseless. And that’s what led me initially to seek out the company of animals because I identified with them. Eileen: I had to turn inward for solace. And I had to find that place that was safe within myself.

more info: For Eileen Garfinkel, knowing what was going to happen before it did was an ability she had from an early age. She describes hearing her boyfriend’s steps before he entered a room and knowing what kind of cat she’d get years before she even met her. Though she always had a connection with animals, Garfinkel never had a pet as an adult because she worked long hours. But visions of a striped cat with golden green eyes kept occupying her mind. One day, Garfinkel went in search of the cat she knew in her mind, eventually finding her at a shelter. The cat, named Amelia, became the namesake for her pet communication business, Dreams of Amelia. Eschewing the name “pet psychic,” Garfinkel thinks of herself more as a vessel by which pets can communicate with their owners. When preparing for a session with a pet—typically a cat or dog—she says a prayer and lights candles and sage to cleanse the air. She feels the animal’s emotions, feelings and physical symptoms in a way that’s difficult for her to describe: “It’s like a dream,” she said. Her clients seek her out to help solve behavioral or health issues, though Garfinkel is quick to add that she isn’t a medical doctor. She described communicating with one pet whose owners were struggling with whether to euthanize it; surprisingly, she said the cat had made peace with its impending death. Garfinkel said her bond with animals came from a traumatic childhood; she relates to their vulnerability and wants to become a “voice for the voiceless.” //