Goldston: Psychic Claims to Close Gap Between Pets, Humans

Linda Goldston
December 1, 2007

Ever wish you could ask your dog what’s on her mind? Or talk to your cat who has passed on?

Sonya Fitzpatrick says she can, and I must say the celebrity animal communicator is pretty convincing. She was certainly different from the animal psychic I interviewed years ago who told me my late dog, Max, a 100-pound husky-shepherd mix, wanted a parakeet of his own. I didn’t follow that advice because I knew Max would just eat it.

We talked by phone for nearly an hour this week, and I – allegedly – got to hear from my late dog, Lucy, the bearded collie comedian; my indoor cats; an old beat-up stray I feed outside; and two 6-month-old kittens I’m taming and hope to have adopted out together. (I’ll tell you more about the kittens very soon on my blog.)

Lucy “is around you all the time,” Sonya said. “She’s never been away from you.”

She said my sweet Lucy wanted me to know she hung around as long as she could – 18 years – and felt badly that she became incontinent at the end.

“She said she was so sorry, that she had always been very clean in the house,” Sonya said. “That bothered her more than anything else.”

According to Sonya, Lucy never forgot the groomer who cut her fur too short – way too short! – and said, “I never went there again.” Which is true. And she did appear to be embarrassed that day.

Now some could say that Sonya played the odds by saying that my dog Lucy felt badly about having accidents in the housein her 18th year, because old dogs do have trouble with that.

But even I talked to Lucy about that at the time. It did bother her, very much, but I couldn’t have cared less. I knew it wasn’t her fault and told her that repeatedly.

I have touched on some of these topics in my column over the years, but others I have never mentioned in print.
Sonya also said Lucy talked about when we moved, how much better she liked the new place and yard. And it was true, we had a wonderful two years there.

When Sonya asked for the names of the cats I have now, she said Lucy told her: “Bouncer was very rude. He was very rude, that cat, but I loved him.”

Lucy was fond of “accidentally” stepping on the cats if she thought they were being too uppity – or getting too close to me – and Bouncer always batted her in the nose when that happened.

Much to my surprise, Sonya asked if I had a marmalade cat and an old black cat?

Butch, the marmalade colored cat, and “Old Black Guy” showed up in my yard all bruised and battered, Butch with a gash in his neck, “Old Black Guy” with an infection in his eyes and a bad cough. They’re doing great now and Butch has been neutered.

“They’re telling you, ‘Thank you, thank you,’ ” Sonya said. “They know you’ve helped them and they want to stay with you. The old black guy asked, ‘If you move, will you take me with you?’ He said someone left him and moved.”

Jack and Jake, the two kittens I’m taming “want to go together” when they’re adopted, she said. I couldn’t agree more with that; they are bookends, feline yin and yang.

Most surprising of all was when Sonya said, “Your mother is here and wants to know why you haven’t sized her ring.”

When I went back to Tennessee for my father’s funeral in September, I finally got my mother’s diamond ring out of a safe deposit box and have worn it ever since. Once I put it on, I couldn’t get it off. “That’s why she wants you to have it sized,” Sonya said.

Pretty amazing, really.

Since the end of her television show, “The Animal Psychic,” formerly on the Animal Planet channel, Sonya has been busy with other projects and does private telephone readings from her home in Texas, which she shares with 10 cats and dogs. She says her celebrity clients include Demi Moore, Ellen DeGeneres, Candice Bergen, Jennifer Aniston and Minnie Driver.

She has a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio – Sirius Stars, Channel 102 – on Tuesdays called “Animal Intuition.” She said she receives about 4,000 calls during the two hours she’s on but can only accept 15 to 20 calls for readings.

Her fees are steep for private readings – $300 for a half hour. For more information, check her Web site at www.sonyafitzpatrick.com. I’ll also have more about her on my blog.

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