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who needed a home; and I told myself that perhaps June didn’t think she wanted a rat companion, but if she just met Susie she’d change her mind. So I arranged for Susie to come over and meet June.
    At first, I was struck by Susie’s appearance. She looked just like a smaller, younger version of June. Then I was struck by the difference between them. Though Susie was a very sweet little rat, I didn’t feel the instant connection I had felt upon first meeting June. I somehow knew in my heart that she wasn’t going to work out.
    I brought June out to meet Susie. June’s reaction said it all. She had a shocked, betrayed look on her face and immediately ran to a far corner of the room. She kept her back to me and didn’t respond to me at all, which wasn’t like her. She was not trembling in fear of this new rat; rather, she was displaying the same behavior I had seen before when she was upset about something, such as when I had dismantled her nest. I felt terrible about this and told Susie’s temporary caretaker that we couldn’t keep her. (She found a great home with another couple; they adored Susie and let her sleep with them at night. I was relieved.)
    I apologized profusely to June, and things quickly returned to normal. However, the next day, she was very lethargic and didn’t want to get out of bed. I felt guilty, thinking she was still upset about the Susie incident. I looked her in the eye and asked her what was wrong. Instantly, I heard her response.
    “I hurt,” she said, and I immediately understood what she meant: She was in pain—physical pain. She didn’t say it verbally, of course, but I definitely “heard” the words telepathically, in what clearly sounded to me like it must have been “June’s voice.” I was quite startled at this unexpected communication.
    Then I began to question myself. I called an animal communicator to find out what was really wrong with June, still convinced that she was upset with me, and that she was depressed rather than in pain. I told the animal communicator nothing of my experience, now having dismissed the whole thing.
    “She’s in pain,” said the animal communicator, confirming what June had already clearly told me. I got more details about why she was suddenly in pain—she had hurt herself—so I prepared some natural remedies and June quickly recovered.
    I T HAD TAKEN ME A LONG TIME to accept the validity of telepathic animal communication. Over time, I had become quite certain of the reality. However, the idea of me being able to do it was another matter entirely. It was one of those things that other people could do, but not me .
    I got past the denial and ultimately felt overwhelmingly grateful for having received my first clear communication from June without the assistance of a professional animal communicator. It wasn’t until later that day that it fully sank in.
    My God, I thought to myself, I really am communicating with her . I stared at June in half disbelief. Until this point, it had been somewhat of a game—a sort of “that would be great if we really could talk with the animals, so for fun, I’ll entertain the idea that we can.” I had truly wanted to believe, but the skeptic in me somehow couldn’t accept it completely. Now I was convinced. This wasn’t science fiction; I was a rational human being, and this was reality.

     

 
    - C HAPTER 4 -
    The Next Step
     
Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.
    —P YTHAGORAS
     
    A LTHOUGH J AMETH AND I had been together for years, we’d never had an actual wedding. We’d had neither the time nor the money for a big wedding when we first met; so we had gone out to the woods and privately exchanged rings and vows, and that was that.
    We’d been planning to have an actual ceremony—in the company of family and friends—ever since, but we were always waiting for enough time and financial resources to do so. Now we realized that conditions might never be perfect, and we did