Yes, you read that title right. Anel and I had a conversation with Bootsie. “How?” asked no one. Let me explain…

A few months back, someone I follow on Instagram posted a story about how she contacted Keao, an animal communicator, and had a conversation with her dog. Um, what? Excuse me, but I needed that ASAP. I thought Anel would think I was nuts, but he was shockingly into it and even wanted to be there for it.

Over the last 18 months or so, Boots has been losing his hearing and we’ve been really curious about what that has been like for him. We’ve figured out ways to communicate, but we know it must be a big change for our boy.

He’s also very aware of the baby coming soon and has started acting in the same ways that he acted before Amalia was born. Towards the end of my pregnancy with Amalia, he would eat things off the counter (which he never does) and follow me around anxiously all day and night. He started these behaviors early in this pregnancy as if he knew what was coming, and we’ve been giving him CBD drops daily which has made a huge difference but he’s still definitely anxious about leaving me alone. So we were excited to ask Keao about that too.

Boots is a deeply soulful dog. You can see it just from looking into his eyes. He understands emotions better than many humans, and I knew that he would be very communicative with us.

So we booked a call, and a month later we got on Zoom with Keao. She was very nice and warm and we immediately felt comfortable talking to her. I thought it might feel weird but it didn’t at all. Boots was in the living room with us and as soon as she started “connecting” with him, he lay down next to us on the floor and didn’t move for the entire time.

The first thing we asked about was his hearing. She sort of “tapped in” to him and that is when he lay down and was totally calm. She explained that the way she communicates with animals clarvoyantly is that they show her through images what they’re trying to convey. Pretty cool!

Anyway we asked about his deafness and if there was anything we could do to support him. He communicated that he wants to learn more sign language and loves learning. He also mentioned a clicker, which is a little contraption we used to train him as a puppy. He said he can hear that noise so it’s good for when he’s off-leash or in the backyard and we’re trying to call him to us. We brought it out again after the call and it’s worked! He can hear it when I take him on trails or the beach whereas when I would call him before, he couldn’t hear me.

He also showed her that he has pressure and inflammation in his right ear and right sinus area, but that it doesn’t hurt. It just feels like pressure and cloudiness. Whenever we touch that ear or side of his face, he jumps or yelps so that made a lot of sense. We ended up emailing our vet about this and he told us to get drops to put in his ear for the inflammation which seem to be helping.

We then asked about his feelings in relation to my pregnancy, and she told us that he feels like he needs to protect me and the baby when Anel isn’t around. This is so true because the second Anel leaves the house, he’s all over me. He comes and sits just outside our bedroom door until I wake up and follows me all day long. She told us that we should keep reiterating that we’re all safe and he doesn’t have to worry.

Then I thought to ask her one more thing… about his aggression towards other male dogs. It’s a more recent issue but I can’t off-leash him at the dog park anymore unless we’re alone which really only happens on cold days. She said that he was showing her something traumatic that happened to him at 3.5 years old with a man and another dog. I got goosebumps because at exactly that age, we had a crazy experience.

I was walking him (off-leash) at the dog park when he and another male dog got into a little scuffle. They were both being aggressive but there was no biting or anything like that. It was a situation where each owner would usually call their dog and apologize and it would be done with. But instead, the other dog’s owner, a man, kicked Boots hard in the torso with his boot and he flew across the grass. Boots is 90 pounds of pure muscle so to kick him that hard is a feat.

But of course, being me, I apologized to him over and over even though I was crying over Bootsie getting kicked. But then the man started yelling and swearing at me, calling me a stupid b*tch and worse…

I had the weirdest out of body experience and literally watched it happen from another planet. It was so shocking and weird and I walked away sobbing and shaking as he continued to yell at me. When I came around the loop again, he was sitting in front of my car so I called Anel and he said to call the cops. I didn’t because that felt like overkill, but when I looped around again, he was gone and animal control was there.

The guy came towards me and I immediately started crying again and told him what happened. I was visibly shaking and he told me that his friend was a police officer nearby and that we should call him. He immediately realized that Boots wasn’t a real threat and helped me figure out the siutation.

But Boots and I were definitely left a bit traumatized and apparently that had a lasting effect on him. Keao told us that he’s more aggressive now to protect me.

Then she told me something interesting that I hadn’t even expressed to Boots or Anel but think about daily. I have to keep him on-leash around dogs he doesn’t know in case he gets aggressive and I always feel so much guilt that he doesn’t get enough off-leash time. But he communicated to her that he is happy on the leash and that I shouldn’t feel bad about that. That was great news!

We spoke with Keao (and Boots?) for about 30 minutes so I’m sure I’m forgetting other things he told us but those were the big ones that stood out. It was such a special experience to be able to communicate with our boy on a deeper level. I realize that half of you reading this will probably think this is all horse sh*t but I will just say this: don’t knock it ’til ya try it!

If you’ve lost a furry friend, Keao also communicates with animals who have passed.