Journey into the Extraordinary: A Cop turned Animal Whisperer

Ever wondered if it's possible to communicate with animals? Well, our guest, Karen Anderson, has proven it's more than possible. This former police officer turned animal communicator, author, and counselor joins us today to share her extraordinary journey. From humble beginnings, believing her ability to understand pets was normal, to using her animal communication skills to help solve crimes, Karen's tale is nothing short of inspiring.

Imagine if you could hear your pet's thoughts or even connect with them after they've passed on. Karen does just that and she'll share some heartwarming stories that underline this profound bond we share with our pets. One such account involves bringing comfort to a grieving client whose cat had passed away, revealing that the cat was still with her during a painful recovery period. It's stories like these that highlight the depth of the connections we form with our animal companions and how they can offer immense solace even in the most difficult times.

The final part of our chat takes us on a spiritual exploration of the relationship between humans and their pets. Karen shares her belief that animals teach us valuable life lessons and how they continue to accompany us in spirit even after their passing. We swap stories of how pets can aid in coping with grief and the signs people have received from their companions after they've moved on. If you've ever loved an animal, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Prepare for a journey that will deepen your understanding of the unique bond we share with our four-legged (and more) friends.

For more, visit https://www.karenanderson.net

Hosted by Douglas James Cottrell. This episode was produced by Paul Hughes, with co-production by Jack Bialik and audio engineering by Doug M Cottrell.

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, Dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, www. douglasjamescotrell. com, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, Dr Douglas James Cotrell.

Douglas James Cottrell: 0:42

Welcome everyone. Today I have an amazing guest who is going to talk about her very unusual gift but very important to all of us, all of us who love pets. I'm a dog person myself. I know many of us are cat people and I've also had horses, and I lived in the country for a little bit back in the day when I moved out of this city, and there's an amazing synergy we have with animals, and today's guest, Karen Anderson, is going to tell us all about her amazing discovery of this really unique and wonderful ability to be able to communicate with animals and have them communicate with us and much, much more. Karen's background is like all of us started off humbly. She when was a young person. She had some experiences. She grew up and became a police officer number one in her class, she had her own business and she's written several books, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that. But first, welcome to the show, karen. It's great to have you here today. Thank you for being our guest.

Karen Anderson: 1:49

And thank you so much, Douglas. This is just such a joy and I'm excited to share some of my stories with you.

Douglas James Cottrell: 1:56

Well, our audience is, you know, we. We explore the human consciousness and we and we attempt to expand and understand what that is. Nobody really knows, but we have people like yourself who have unique abilities tapping into that consciousness. I alluded to the idea when I read your bio and your press kit that you were a child and you had these amazing abilities to communicate with animals or to know things, so I can just leave it open to that. Tell us about those times. And, of course, many of us who are intuitive have had those cringe moments where we say something to an adult and they tell us that's not right, don't do that. Or maybe they even give us a little encouragement with the back of their head back in my day. But anyway, tell us about that time. What are your memories of those times as a child?

Karen Anderson: 2:51

Well, my very first memories is far back. My very, very first experience was understanding our family pets and just knowing what they needed or knowing what they were telling me. You know very simplistic topics. You know nothing on the level that I would do today, of course, but that of a five or six year old child. You know what the animal likes, what they dislike, just very simple things like that. But I thought everybody had this ability because I grew up on Disney films all the animals talk, or they did back in the 60s. All the animals could talk. So it never occurred to me as a very young child that in real life animals wouldn't have that ability. So it wasn't until I started sharing information that there's no way I could have known with my parents that I felt immediate shame or I was doing something wrong or stop it or made them very uncomfortable. I just learned very quickly that it was not okay and I shouldn't tell them what I was doing. So I just kept it a secret.

Douglas James Cottrell: 4:09

Well, I find that's amazing. I remember what was it? Jiminy Cricket or something. Jimmy, you know the conscience guy. I remember Pinnochio. I remember Donald Duck and Porky Pig talking Bugs Bunny. You know, and I could just see when you said that, that you were a child and you're seeing these animals communicating and you are actually doing that. As a child, you knew when they wanted something, they wanted some water to be let out. You just knew things. You didn't think it that it would be a natural connection. That is an amazing revelation. I would never have put that together, but you live that moment. And, of course, when you tell your parents you know the kitty cats snut well it's, it's got something a furball or whatever it would be right your parents will look at you like you know witchcraft. What's going on here? You know you scared the heck out of them. Maybe I don't know, but hi, as you said, you went within. Right, you learn not to to communicate or actually ex-describe what was happening, but you still kept up your communications with the animals.

Karen Anderson: 5:16

I did and because I love the animals so much. I wasn't so much into human friends, I was more into animal friends and I was a rescuer. I would rescue every animal that needed help or was astray or was hurt, and that was my life. So it was all about the animals as far back as I can remember and just being able to know what they needed and what they wanted and and keeping that from everyone else, just, you know, kept it to myself and then, just like anything else in childhood, it just kind of went away after a while. I wasn't tapping in or, you know, paying attention. I guess as much just growing up and life happens.

Douglas James Cottrell: 5:57

Yeah, living your life. So tell us a little bit about your background. I find that you know people on a spiritual path have these times in their life where we call them difficult times, or wake up times, if you will, and you had a business.

Karen Anderson: 6:14

Yes, well, I used to be in the mortgage industry and I really never liked it very much. It was very hard, you know, it was feast or famine. When things were good, it was really good, but when things were bad interest rates were high, it was really bad, and I felt a sense of fish out of water that I didn't quite belong. I was definitely not feeling that this was my passion or what I wanted to do. And then I had a situation arise where my business partner was embezzling from the company and I found it by chance. He was on vacation at the time, so I had to dip into the accounting and discovered his transactions that said one thing in the computer but said something else on the actual checks.

Douglas James Cottrell: 7:15

Just like the rug got pulled out from underneath you. All that trust and it's going wow yeah, he was a.

Karen Anderson: 7:22

He was a friend. You know, we were, we were close, so this was like such a betrayal, and it was at that moment where I realized that I was getting a lot of nudges from some unseen force.

Douglas James Cottrell: 7:44

I call it a nudge and I put my elbow like that.

Karen Anderson: 7:49

Karen over the head. There were so many indicators for me to stop doing that and to to really go within and try to figure out who I was. I was lost. I had no idea who I was when I wanted it was just the grind of corporate America and trying to, you know, get the next bonus check or, you know, get to the next level of success in business in the mortgage industry, and it just wasn't fun. It was very left me very empty and it was unfulfilling and so I filed bankruptcy. I was completely destroyed by his embezzling. I had to close down the business and I found myself very humbly with without work and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to go. I was so lost and I was out in my horse corral one day up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where I lived in a little town called Bailey, and I was mucking stalls, cleaning out the horse stalls.

Douglas James Cottrell: 8:53

People who don't know what mucking means. Yes, that's, that's the wrong end of a shovel, actually and I had this epiphany.

Karen Anderson: 9:06

I had this spiritual download, if you will, and all of a sudden the light bulbs just went off around me and I suddenly realized that I was pretty good at scooping things and I loved animals and how many people didn't like to do that. So I decided to become the corral gal and I put a little ad in the little throwaway paper and I would go around and scoop poop for a living.

Douglas James Cottrell: 9:40

Well, I'm sure there was lots of opportunities for business.

Karen Anderson: 9:48

Talk about humbly trying to find yourself. It was, but you know what I loved it. I was back breaking, don't get me wrong back breaking, but I absolutely loved being around the animals and being outside and being with them and communing with them again. And guess what started percolating back up again. All of those abilities started coming back because I was no longer focused on all the drama of the mortgage industry. I was now focused on the animals and just being with them and try and figure out what is in here and where should I go, what should I do. So that's where it all started. And then, of course, you know how do you get from the corral gal to. You know what I was doing later on, and, being police officer, I started volunteering for the local animal control facility in Bailey, which was under the umbrella of the sheriff's department.

Douglas James Cottrell: 10:53

I feel another cosmic nudge coming up here.

Karen Anderson: 10:57

I had never, ever been involved with any kind of civil service before. I had never had anything to do with, you know, a county type situation like that. But I started riding along with the animal control officers loved it, helping animals. My heart just filled with joy to go rescue them out of bad situations or get them off the roadway, or, you know, just being there as my job to help the animals volunteer job. I was a volunteer. And then I started riding along with the deputies who were also part of, you know, the same organization, and I just felt a calling. I felt like this is what I needed to do. I wanted to give something back to my community and to the human element and make something out of myself as a civil servant.

Douglas James Cottrell: 11:52

So I did very well. I read in your bio you took the course and you graduated number one in your class or unit.

Karen Anderson: 12:01

I did pretty shocking because there were only four women in the entire class and I was number one in upon graduation.

Douglas James Cottrell: 12:11

The whole class.

Karen Anderson: 12:12

I know.

Douglas James Cottrell: 12:12

Crazy.

Karen Anderson: 12:13

How did. I do that. I even have to go back and like check my certificates. Did I really do that? I really did that.

Douglas James Cottrell: 12:23

You're really good at what you were doing. You had an edge, I'm sure, from above, but anyway, congratulations on that. Thank you Extremely difficult for women and with all those big, tough deputies or sheriff deputies, I just admire that Good for you. So you're out riding around. You're now, you know, on the regular paycheck. You got a badge on. You're wearing a gun maybe. So tell us how you went from there to the next stage in your life.

Karen Anderson: 12:52

So of course, you know every law enforcement officer out there. If you're very good and paying attention to your surroundings, you become very intuitive. They won't call it intuition, I'll call it gut feelings.

Douglas James Cottrell: 13:07

You know, I have friends who are policemen. They tell me how they just drive in circles until they pick up. You know a gut feeling. And then all right in front of them is the bad guy in the car. They find them yeah. I mean bureaucracy you gotta say it's intuition.

Karen Anderson: 13:24

But anyway you found it, it is, it is.

Douglas James Cottrell: 13:27

Wow, that's fantastic.

Karen Anderson: 13:29

Yep, it's intuition and they would you know any good officer has very highly tuned in senses. You have to, you have to.

Douglas James Cottrell: 13:42

It's just for political reasons, or police senses, or whatever you and I can call them intuition or clairvoyance, but that's beside the point. Right? Clear sense, yeah, okay, go ahead.

Karen Anderson: 13:51

Oh, so I'm really trying to be a very good police officer and in doing so I was also practicing animal communication on the side with my pets at home. So I had an interest in animal communication because I loved animals. I just wanted to understand them on a higher level and I felt like you know, I do this as a kid. You know where did that go and it's I started remembering. I call it a spiritual awakening, but I remembered that I could do this and I had to get all the adult stuff out of my head because all that programming tells you that's crazy, you can't do that.

Karen Anderson: 14:32

You know people will think you're nuts. You know just all of that ego stuff. I had to get past all that, which was not easy, and retrain my brain because I was in mortgage, which is all you know left brain percentages, interest rates, you know amortization charts, loan amounts, you know down payments it's all financial stuff. The animal communication and spiritual awakening was, you know, I guess, a different part of your brain, or right side, I guess they call the creative side. So it was all about retraining my brain and just being more open to that ability that was percolating up from childhood. And then craziness set in when I started to receive messages from animals on crime scenes.

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Whoa.

Karen Anderson: 15:28

Unprovoked, I wasn't trying, it just started happening and that's what set sent me over the edge. It just blew me away and I thought whoa, if, if animals on a crime scene can tell me where the who, the aggressor was, or what actually happened, what else can they tell me? And I was hooked and then I just dove in.

Douglas James Cottrell: 15:54

Let's expand on that, because I can hear all my people listening on my audience say how did she do that? Where the cricket's talking to her, was there a rabbit? How? But what was there? A bird in the tree Was there. But you're talking about the animals in the house, perhaps the pets, and I will go ahead explain how did that happen.

Karen Anderson: 16:12

Okay, so the first experience I had, again very unprovoked, and I've shared this story in my books as well. I documented this because it's it's unbelievable, even to me. When I tell the story again, I think, man, that sounds really crazy, but it's what happened. So I was on a call, there was a rollover vehicle and the suspect had fled on foot and it was. He was thought to be a foul and with a warrant, armed and dangerous.

Karen Anderson: 16:48

Oh gosh we arrive on scene at night, summertime, pitch black, 8000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. There's no street lights, it's just whatever ambient light there is, and I was told by my sergeant to stay on perimeter Perimeters where they stuck me all the time because I was new, I was a rookie and they don't want me to screw anything up, so they don't want you shooting anybody, shoot any shadows.

Douglas James Cottrell: 17:20

Okay, so there you are. You're standing there, I think. I think I know what you're going to say next. There you are. Because you're getting your hand. By the way, you know.

Karen Anderson: 17:28

Oh yeah, so there I am.

Douglas James Cottrell: 17:31

I'm not caring at the very time. Okay, what happened on?

Karen Anderson: 17:33

perimeter, sitting in my patrol car going, okay, they, they all left. They went to my left and to go look for a suspect, and so I'm in this open fields, kind of like a sitting duck in my patrol car, and I thought, you know, this really isn't good, because lights are on your white.

Douglas James Cottrell: 17:52

open your clothes, yeah.

Karen Anderson: 17:54

So there I am. So I got out of the vehicle and it was again summertime, so it was warm out. And as I'm sitting there, I'm by myself, I'm getting more and more nervous and I'm thinking I am. You know, where is this guy? How am I going to find him? You know what? If he's here? Oh my gosh, what do I do if I find him? And just as I had these random thoughts in my head, a herd of deer that were going through this field. The deer popped up its head and made eye contact with me and it wasn't afraid. It knew I wasn't going to hurt it or anything. And this thought entered my head of logs over by the logs.

Douglas James Cottrell: 18:38

Right over there.

Karen Anderson: 18:40

To my right and the deer were all looking to my right, where all the police activity was to the left. So here I am in the pitch blackness. I heard this voice in my head. It was my voice, but it wasn't my thought. I wasn't thinking logs. I was thinking oh my gosh, what am I going to do if I find this guy? That's what I was thinking.

Douglas James Cottrell: 19:03

And now you're right.

Karen Anderson: 19:05

So I sneak around, I draw my weapon and somewhere I found this commanding voice to order the suspect to come out with his hands up. And there these two little hands pop up.

Douglas James Cottrell: 19:19

Wow.

Karen Anderson: 19:21

So yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell: 19:24

Back in the in hand cuffs. Now right, you got it, that was crazy, because where did that come from?

Karen Anderson: 19:32

I mean, I thought about it and I questioned it so many times like how did that happen? How's that even possible? But remember, I was practicing animal communication on the side.

Douglas James Cottrell: 19:42

Well, first of all, I think you had a question in your mind when is he? And the herd of deer came by and answered the question for you through some divine communication. And then your higher self was talking to you or something, and you went over and in a commanding voice Wow, you know, come on out. Holy moly. So I could. From my experience, I could see several different amazing talents. You have, first of all, the courage for you to do that. You know, like you're just kind of breezing by that Karen, but that armed and dangerous suspect in the dark hiding behind logs, and you walk up to him and say come on out. So, as I said, did you put handcuffs on a poem in the car?

Karen Anderson: 20:31

So yeah, I cuffed him. I got him cuffed and on the ground and cuffed and I radioed to my you know the radio's right here.

Douglas James Cottrell: 20:40

That's for what it was. What did those colleagues, those other officers, say when they found out Karen cuffed the guy? You called him because of the language right?

Karen Anderson: 20:50

So remember, I'm the only female officer there you got to remember.

Douglas James Cottrell: 20:54

I hardly wait to what happened. The voice club.

Karen Anderson: 20:57

So they, of course they come racing back over lights and sirens and everybody's like, you know, just pumping. Adrenaline is pumping and you know I've got the situation under control and my heart was beating out of my chest. I mean you can just imagine how much adrenaline there is going on. And once he was in the patrol car, you know everybody's pat me on the back. Hey Anderson, great job. How'd you find him? How'd you know where he was?

Douglas James Cottrell: 21:25

You didn't dare say. I heard a deer came by and wanted to wave that me. No, that's right. Yes, that's the wrong way to keep. Okay, so that is an amazing story. Not only did the deer you know what would you call it bird dog, where he was, or give you the heads up, intuitively you must your popularity down at the precinct or the sheriff's office was went through the roof the next day.

Karen Anderson: 21:52

Oh, I kind of got off perimeter after that call.

Douglas James Cottrell: 21:58

Well, because I have, I always wanted to be a policeman and I have friends and stuff. I'm just going to back up and say you're courage to go and do that. You know something was inside of you, was also motivating you, that spirit within kind of thing, Because maybe somebody else would have. When the deer said something, you might have got on the radio and said, hey, I think he's over here. But instead you just went through naturally, through the instinctively I guess I can call that through the motions. Your training took over. Whatever you're intuition was still cooking. I like it, the voice that came down. That is divine. That's connection to the high, high dimensions or high self. So you obviously have more than simple communication with animals. You're like tuned in and you know you've got a. You've got several books out the pet I can't forget here, all creatures. I like the title the amazing afterlife of animals. Let's talk a little bit about that.

Douglas James Cottrell: 22:59

We're going to take a short break, we'll be right back.

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Douglas James Cottrell: 24:14

So just before the break, karen, we were talking about this amazing experience you had where, here you are a police officer, you're a novice police officer, but you're fully equipped, you're trained and you're on perimeter. You arrest a bad guy that's reported to be armed and dangerous. You come back to the station and everybody's patting you on this back and there's male dominated police station. So I think during the break you asked what was I thinking? So what were you thinking back then? How did you get from being a police officer and expanding into what you do now?

Karen Anderson: 24:51

You know, I think the whole part of it is I didn't think, I didn't think about it, I didn't. I let go of the outcome and I just followed my heart. I went where I was drawn or where I felt pulled and I followed my passion and my passion was leading me to where I needed to be. And once I let go of the outcome, I just trusted and that's had like a snowball effect in my entire life. There were a lot of bumps along the way. I mean it was not an easy path, but I've never chosen easy. So I wasn't about to start, but it was so different than what I had been doing but I would love it. I just couldn't get enough.

Karen Anderson: 25:39

And back then this was the late 90s and there wasn't the resources we have now and you know, there was no social media, there was nothing. Back then I just had to go into bookstores to try to figure out, you know, what was happening to me and how to sharpen my skills. I really had no clue what was happening. I knew something incredible was happening to me and it fascinated me. So I just tried to practice as much as I could, understand as much as possible, read as many books as I could, and that led me to developing my animal communication abilities.

Douglas James Cottrell: 26:21

While you're on a spiritual path, obviously right from when you were a child, because you came into the world with spiritual gifts and abilities, like all, can I say, the spiritual people in books, from the Bible to the Quran, to the Gita, to all these books talk about spiritual experiences and always a life of challenge, difficulty and service. So you're already, you were on the path and you were alone as a child and you were, of course the dark forces were trying to get, get you off the path of having a marvelous spiritual ability to communicate with animals and I love this story about there. You are on the job and a deer says over there behind the logs is where the bad guy is. You must have had other experiences along the way in your career as a police officer, but if you tell us a little more, I'm sure the audience would love to hear a couple more of these amazing stories. Not to break you up, but I just think that's the amount of courage you took to do that. You know the worst thing for a police officer going down a dark alley at night, knowing there's a bad guy at the other end of the alley and he's got a gun. And as an officer you still have to go. Most people wouldn't go down there. They they, not me call 911. So that's to me we're having that affinity with people who risked their lives like that for the public good. Obviously in you your spiritual wellness and capabilities were protecting you. But where I want to go with this is if you might have had a few more of those experiences.

Douglas James Cottrell: 28:02

But somewhere along the line you made the transition from being an animal whisperer I think it's the term now put out there horse whispers, dog whisper or something like that. That was before those terms come out here you were having these communications telepathically or or audibly or whatever, and tell us a little bit how you had the. You didn't say much to the, to the sheriff or the deputies, I'm sure. But there was to say how did you know that? You know and you say, well, see that little kitty cat over there. He told me that the bad guy was behind the curtain or something like that. But how did you get through your career? How long were you a police officer and how did you make the transition to being this amazing, a self employed person? Author, counselor and lecturer.

Karen Anderson: 28:48

My law enforcement career was not long. It was only about three years total. But when you work in a small department you do everything. There's no divisions, there's no you know, you don't hand it off to someone else to take it. We had this saying you you catch them, you clean them. You had to take it all the way you know, through the end, into court or whatever you were doing with that particular case. So it was a very condensed career and I felt that I was being pulled toward animal communication. So once again, I followed that. I listened to that and not to mention just that. But also I was getting older. I was already 36 when I entered the police academy. That's kind of, you know, pushing the envelope.

Douglas James Cottrell: 29:46

Yeah, it's pretty hard running down these climate over fences and stuff when you're like 40 years old or something, I think we can all think of that.

Karen Anderson: 29:56

I had about 25 pounds worth of gear on me, between the vest and all the other equipment that you have on the belt, and I was at 8000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. The suspects are getting younger and I was, you know, pushing 40. And I thought you know this. I got to think about where my heart is and what do I want to do. If it weren't for law enforcement, I don't know that my abilities would have progressed as fast as they did, but I started following my true passion, which was the animals, and that was my decision to leave law enforcement and to go full time into animal communication. And this is all I share all of these stories in my book. So it wasn't always easy. During that time there was a lot of pushback from loved ones and I wanted to talk about that a little bit with you, because Else, which book were you referring to?

Karen Anderson: 30:56

The Hero creatures and the amazing afterlife of animals have this pathway that I took and all the pushback I got, especially from those the closest to me. They try to talk me out of it left and right, that you know what are you doing. You're crazy enough to be a cop and now you're going to go talk to dead animals. You know what the heck is the matter with you.

Douglas James Cottrell: 31:20

What about the pension and the holidays and the security? And you're saying this is my spiritual path. Like all spiritual masters, spiritual people? There comes that point Karen, myself as well where you just have this inner knowing that this is what you should do. And look at all the help you're doing now.

Karen Anderson: 31:39

I mean I know, I know that's the, that's the silver lining of it, so I had to disregard everybody.

Announcer: 31:48

And basic.

Karen Anderson: 31:49

Yeah, I had to just follow my heart and it was very, very lonely journey. There were times when I felt like I was, you know, just on my own, constantly sailing against the wind and hitting massive waves, but I just kept going. I don't know the driver where that came from, but I just was on this course and I was going and no one was going to stop me. I don't care what they said. I've been called every name in the book and you know to go into the realm of intuitive work and energy work and animal communication. You know you deal with a lot of people that first of all, they don't believe in it or they think that you're just trying to scam them.

Karen Anderson: 32:31

I came from the evidential background, being a police officer, so I became what I turned an evidential medium, meaning I own. My goal was to get evidential messages that could only be validated and verified by my client, so that I could literally prove beyond a shadow of it out that I was definitely communicating with their loved one. So that was my. My goal and my dream was to be the best that I could be in this evidential mediumship. Now it's a term, it's out there, but I was doing this so long ago that I just I didn't want to give general information like, oh, your dog or your cat loves you and they miss you, and they had a good life.

Douglas James Cottrell: 33:15

You're too smart for that. I have a motto. Basically I felt the same and come across it. My motto is faith is built upon belief and belief is built upon evidence. And, like you, when I was doing stuff for people back in the 70s, I would, you know, say, go to the doctor and find out what I said was true or whatever. Whatever was it was, you know, look for the truth, don't believe me, verify it. And that is a mark of you being in harmony with your high self. You were looking for the evidence so that in your mind and your good heart and your consciousness there was no doubt, there was no like flowery, you know, like making stuff. You know this was it. This is the facts.

Douglas James Cottrell: 33:59

And you had the evidence again because you're, you know your, your background, as a police officer, perhaps, or as also going back to your accounting days, well, you know being, let's find out those things. Your path was sort of guided from above and I'm not trying to tell your story here. I'm suggesting that you and I and everybody else who's intuitive has had similar things. For the people who don't know, they're in the darkness. But that challenge that you met and you didn't stop. I compliment you again, because with the same courage you persevered. The Good Book says a prophet is never honored in their own land, nor are they honored by their own family, and that's a test to be a prophet. So you're on the way of being a prophet, you know.

Karen Anderson: 34:43

There's kind of goosebumps on that one.

Douglas James Cottrell: 34:45

Yeah, well, that's me working on being clairvoyant now, or I'm being intuitive is a better, easier word to say it, so you've got this word. I love that term Evidential. You know what? Did you call it? Communication or reading, so what's?

Karen Anderson: 35:00

your evidential mediumship.

Douglas James Cottrell: 35:02

I would drop the mediumship because you're more clairvoyant. Okay, there's not somebody between you and the animals, they're coming. That's more clairvoyant, that's a higher level of communication. If I might give you or offer that to you, oh sure. We'll be right back after this.

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Great idea. I love talking to him like chatting with a long lost friend. He's like tapped into a ton of wisdom, loads of spiritual insight, and he's on point. Oh, now what? I can't find his number.

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Seriously In this day and age. Ready 519-471-1110. Call from anywhere in the country If you need more info. I found his website too. It's DouglasJamesCottrellStorecom.

Douglas James Cottrell: 36:33

Today's guest is Karen Anderson. Tell us a little bit at this point. How can people get a hold of you right now?

Karen Anderson: 36:41

Right now, the easiest way to get me is through my website, which is simply my name, karenandersonnet. Although I am no longer conducting private consultations. I retired from that several years ago to focus on coaching, animal communication and writing. I have several hand selected very gifted animal communicators that I refer all of my clients to, so you can reach out to me for recommendations on a session, and I don't have a podcast, but it's so funny that you have mentioned that because I've been kicking that around in my head for a while now, so I'm getting messages from above that maybe that's in the future.

Douglas James Cottrell: 37:31

Some people like me who live in the future all the time, every day maybe just kind of like seeing things for you out there as well, so people can go to KarenAnderson. Would you spell Anderson for people, just to make surenet KarenAnderson Right.

Karen Anderson: 37:47

It's A-N-D-E-R-S-O-Nnet, and, of course, all of my books are on Amazon worldwide. Two of them are on Audible, and the pet I can't forget, which is my latest release, is. I'm very proud of this book. It's a compilation of so many heartwarming and insightful stories. If you have recently lost a pet, or if you have an elderly pet that is maybe in its golden years, this book will help you understand how to find more signs, to receive more signs, raise your vibration to be open to receiving signs, how signs are sent from the afterlife. It's all about signs and that our loved ones never leave us. They're always with us, especially during our darkest times, and our pets love us more than anything, and that love has to be somewhere. It doesn't just end when the physical body ends. So that book the pet I can't forget is all about these incredible and amazing stories. Plus, there are afterlife sessions that I conducted where you can actually hear some of the life-changing messages I received during actual afterlife communication.

Douglas James Cottrell: 39:11

How about you give us one of those stories right now, just to let everybody know?

Karen Anderson: 39:15

Yes, and I do want to share one very powerful story for you. This is in my book the Amazing Afterlife of Animals. I just want to share it because it truly shows how much our animals love us, to the point of more so than they care about themselves at a certain degree. So all my sessions were done over the phone. We didn't have Zoom back then. I was always on the phone and my client had called in and she was very distraught because she had recently lost her beloved cat.

Karen Anderson: 39:52

Now, this cat she had found as a stray. It came into her life when she was really sad and lonely and they became very, very close companions. It was kind of an outdoor indoor cat and one day she was on her way to work. She was in a hurry, she was late for a meeting, so she backed out of the garage and she inadvertently hit the cat. Now, the cat survived so, however, later it succumbed to its injuries from that incident. So of course she was riddled with guilt and overwhelmed by grief and feeling responsible that she had killed her cat and she contacted me for an afterlife communication. So I opened up the session with the cat. I only used a photo that was my connection.

Karen Anderson: 40:46

That's like having their cell phone number. I dial them up, I dial up their energy through their photo and it's a process. It's just kind of I like seeing their faces. It lets me focus on them more. It lets me focus on their energy if I can see a picture of them. So the cat came through very upbeat and happy and balanced and beautiful and so much love for his mom, and I'm sharing all this information. I call you moms and dads, not owners, Because if anyone owns anyone, they own our hearts. So I call you moms and dads.

Douglas James Cottrell: 41:22

I love it. That's great.

Karen Anderson: 41:25

And we were sharing beautiful messages back and forth, but during the session, this cat kept showing me. Now, remember, all I had was the cat's name, age, and I knew that it had recently passed. I didn't know anything else. This cat kept showing me and, not to be graphic, but it kept showing me an amputated leg. It wasn't gross or icky or anything like that, but don't forget, I was a cop. I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. So I kept seeing this amputated leg, but it was a human leg and I thought, well, the cat must just be showing me that it got this injury. And I didn't want to say anything because she was already so upset. I didn't want to talk about the cat's injury. I didn't tell her anything. Two more times this cat flashed that image at me. Like Karen, I'm sending you this for a reason. So I have a rule, Douglas.

Douglas James Cottrell: 42:25

Three times Three times Okay.

Karen Anderson: 42:30

So I finally said very delicately, I said I'm so sorry, I don't mean to cause you any upset, but did your cat lose a leg? Was a leg amputated because of this accident? Total silence. And then she started sobbing, I mean like gasping sobbing, and I thought, oh my gosh, I've really done it. I shouldn't have said anything. Why did I do that?

Douglas James Cottrell: 43:04

However.

Karen Anderson: 43:06

She could finally catch her breath. All she could say was thank you so much, thank you so much, I needed this, thank you so much. And I thought what? How would you want to hear that? She says no, no. I said I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. She goes no, no, no, karen, I need this is what I needed to hear. And I said well, did your cat lose a limb? And she says no. Three months after the cat passed away, she was in a horrible car accident and she had her leg amputated and during the recovery phase in the hospital bed she felt the cat laying next to her phantom leg.

Douglas James Cottrell: 43:55

Wow, fantastic. Now I've had similar experiences and I'm sorry I got ahead of you a little bit by saying you know three times, but I had a very similar experience and this is all about you, not me. But I likewise saw a man who had no legs and I was giving some information about this man and I was saying, well, he's got no legs to stand on, maybe feeling a little nervous, you know, I was making stuff up and the lady turned out to be quite intuitive herself and she waved her finger at me. She says Douglas, you're not telling me everything. You see, this man has no legs, he was in a train accident and that was my lesson, and so you had this lesson and I've learned. I'll pass this on to you, karen, it's because I like you so much. When I get in situations like that, I say no, I'm going to tell you.

Douglas James Cottrell: 44:55

I could be right, it could be wrong, but I'm gonna tell you what I see yeah and I once had a business man and I said something to him and I said I have no ideas what this means. And he says I know exactly what that means. Just like that he says thank you. And that was it. 15 minutes into the consultation he had his answer and gone. So I'm passing it back on to you as being along.

Douglas James Cottrell: 45:17

That way of becoming a prophet is that if you see strange things and you will in order to, in order to feel comfortable about it, you said could be right, it could be wrong. I teach this to students as well. And then I say I have no idea what it means, but this is what I see. You made that lady's heart jump because she knew exactly that you were tuning into that animal and everything you were saying was the gospel. I applaud you and you did have, sooner or later, you know you kind of after the third little nudge you did, you did say it, you didn't hold it, you didn't let it go back or go by.

Karen Anderson: 45:55

I still to this day get that same feeling that I got when I delivered that message, because I could feel her move from that deep place of darkness to where she was really understanding that her cat was there with her in spirit and she wasn't alone and he was there by her side during her recovery and that it was more concerned about her than it was about what she had done to him. Because, remember, the whole thing was she felt guilty for causing his death. That never came up. He never mentioned it. All he talked about was his concern for her.

Karen Anderson: 46:40

It's a beautiful story and it's powerful because the things that keep us up at night of things we could have done or should have done for our pets or why didn't I take them in sooner, or why didn't I give them that medicine, or why didn't I take them to specialist, or I waited too long, or I waited, didn't wait long enough it's never an issue with our animals. Those are human thoughts. Those are not in our companions minds. It doesn't serve them, so it doesn't even come up. They are so much better at this than we are.

Karen Anderson: 47:17

As far as what really matters, you know we stressed about things that don't matter and the animals bring us right back down to what's so important, and it sounds so cliche and corny, but it's the love that you shared with them. That's what's important, that's what they always come back to and that's what matters. So you could have had something to do with their final moments, unintentionally, and they don't ever see it that way. They don't judge us judging as a human trait, not an animal trait. They don't blame us. Blame as a human trait, not an animal trait. We don't have to ask their forgiveness. You ask an animal what is forgiveness and they'll kind of look at you like I forgive this.

Douglas James Cottrell: 48:10

That's a human thing now again, because you talk to the animals. You're telling us what they think or feel or what their thoughts are. So it's not like intellectual conjection here. You're telling us the animals is what they say, like what are you talking about? Forgiveness, that was yesterday, wasn't it? Hey, what's in my bowl today? You know I'm stiffening the door. What's out there? I want to go out today. Never mind, it was pouring rain and snowing yesterday. Looks kind of neat out there today. So you're telling us this from the from the animals perspective. So people should pay attention now. Do they come back in other lives? I'm asking a rhetorical question do they come back in? Do they re incarnate back in in our lives?

Karen Anderson: 48:56

some do, some don't, and it's it's really hard to prove and, of course, me being evidential, I always look for the proof. So the proof comes through your heart and how you feel the connection with that animal returning, you'll know, there will be no doubt in your mind. You'll have a sense of feeling, a download or an impression. You will know when your companion comes back to you, because it will be an undeniable thing that only you can prove. You know I might be able to validate a few things, like you know they're showing me this or they're saying that they used to do this or whatever they want to tell me. But only you know what's in your heart and what you're feeling. And if that is the soul being recognized by your higher self, your souls will recognize each other, even if the exterior is different makes sense.

Douglas James Cottrell: 49:57

I'm thinking of some stories clients would tell me. A lady had a cat. The cat was climbing up the curtains all the time, across the curtain, ride up on the bookshelf. And the lady said to me you know, if I didn't know better I'd swear that cat was a monkey. And I said monkey. I wonder if he was a monkey in his past life. On another occasion somebody was talking about a dog and he said oh, he looks like a bear. He walks like a bear. Look at him. You know he's a large. It doesn't look like a bear. And everybody's going yeah, he looks like a bear. Well, maybe in another life he was a bear.

Douglas James Cottrell: 50:41

And people are seeing this. They're intuitively looking at this or getting the impressions, but they they haven't put it together that what they're really seeing is the energy from a previous time. So animals can come back from their own incarnations, I guess, and be a monkey one time and a cat the next, or be an elephant one time and a mouse the next. I don't know. You know the idea that people come back in your life and some do and some don't. I guess the some that the ones that don't move on, they are. They have other things to do. I have sort of an understanding of a consciousness in the animal kingdom. What do you think about that?

Karen Anderson: 51:17

yeah, I truly believe that and my belief is, douglas, if it's in the highest and best for that particular soul's growth to reincarnate, as you know, come back again as a cat, a dog or whatever they want to come back as that, that is possible. I don't think there's a rule book. I don't think there's someone standing there with a checklist and saying up your dog, you can only come back as a dog, or you're a cat or you know, you can only be a cat, you're human, you can only be a human. I think it's you know, way more in depth than that.

Karen Anderson: 51:49

And if it's in the highest and best for your soul's progression in the spiritual sense to expand and evolve and have those experiences, who's to say you can't come back as something else or a different species? I'm certainly not going to put my name down on something that says that can never happen, no way, no way. I never say never and I and I never say always, because there there's, you can't lock yourself in like that. You just there's so much out there we don't even know. You know I've only scratched the tip of the iceberg with my experiences and I've been doing this for 26 years and I still feel like I have so much more to learn and there's so much wisdom that the animals can share with us, mostly about how to be a better human. I love that the animals teach us how to be how to be better humans.

Karen Anderson: 52:43

You know they, they have taught me so much about life in the afterlife there's there's so more accepting of their eventual passing out of physical form into spirit form than we are. They have this sense or knowing that the soul continues, that most humans fear, and animals seem to be very accepting of this. Now don't get me wrong. I've never met an animal that has wanted to die. And you know there's a very strong will to survive. And those of us that have had animals that we've cared for you'll know that they'll kind of fight to the last breath. They'll do everything that they can. But that's mother nature, instinct, evolution, that's all those things rolled into one. But they truly have an acceptance of their progression as a physical and spiritual being that I think we have a lot to learn from them.

Douglas James Cottrell: 53:46

I know there's therapy pets or pets that we can do that too. There are people who love their animals more than themselves. There's this throughout history. Animals have always been, you know, associated with the clan, the tribe in the cave, you know, around the campfire back in the days. Animals have always had this special relationship with us. No matter what some people like reptiles and some people like birds, and it's a preference for the person Animals always had this integral relationship with us. Give us another story. We have about another 10 minutes or so left. Tell us another wonderful story that you were going to mention earlier about pets and how they can help us along the way.

Karen Anderson: 54:31

Oh well, absolutely so. You know, one of the things that happens to us when we lose a beloved companion is and this has happened to me, I speak from experiences you know, grief can overwhelm us and it can stagnate us and keep us in a very dark place, if we allow it. These are choices we have to make. You know, grief is an action, it's movement. We're not meant to stay there. It's a temporary place and our animals can show us that. You know, it's part of loving someone and having to say goodbye it's part of our journey. But we're not supposed to stay there indefinitely. We're supposed to experience that because loss is part of your journey with your companion and it's supposed to hurt. You love something that deeply yes, it's going to hurt when they're no longer physically there with you.

Douglas James Cottrell: 55:35

But they do come back, right, I mean they do. I'm coming back on that lady in the hospital and she could feel them on the bed. I've had other people talk to me. They could feel like they're kitty cat walking across their bed.

Karen Anderson: 55:47

Yes, yes, and my new book, the Pet I Can't Forget, is full of stories about people having experiences just like that. Some have found, you know, very unusual objects placed in, like right in their pathway or right where they were going to step or right where they were going to walk. There's one story in the book where the mom, the cat's mom was just picking up the cremated remains and very distraught and was asking for some kind of sign, or just let me know that you're okay. She walks out to her car and there's a giant feather, like six inch long feather, plastered to the side of her tire, not where she drove over it, but on the side a six inch long feather. It's like how did that get there? Incredible signs, you know.

Karen Anderson: 56:47

Finding a lot of the stories will share what I call sky signs, where you will ask for a sign and you look up and you see a rainbow, or you see a cloud formation in the shape of your beloved companion, or maybe you see a lot of bird messengers. Birds are messengers of spirit. They love to come in and let you know that your loved one is near. So many people have experienced that, along with dream visitations, where you have this incredibly realistic dream where you wake up expecting to see your companion right there, because you felt them. You could feel their fur or feathers or whoever you had, whoever your loved one was, and it was so real. That's because it is real. It's a real visitation and that's one of the most common ways that they come to us, because our minds are in a relaxed state and we're more open to receiving that visitation than when we're in our cluttery, busy, noisy, conscious, alert state.

Karen Anderson: 57:57

I have a lot of people write to me saying I haven't received a sign. I'm heartbroken. Why haven't I gotten a sign? And I write about this too that some animals don't necessarily feel the need to send a sign, especially the ones that are around us the most.

Karen Anderson: 58:19

You're with us 24, seven, or they're about there's no clocks in the afterlife but On the other side that's right, they don't feel the need to gather up a bunch of energy to send a sign, because they're around you all the time and you become desensitized to their presence. Because it merges with yours and it's so familiar, you just don't pick up on it, you don't sense it, you don't feel it.

Douglas James Cottrell: 58:46

What do you think of this idea? You lose a pet, you grieve, time goes by, you're never going to have another dog or cat like puppy. And then all of a sudden you have a dream and there's puppy, but now a younger, whatever puppy. And then let's say, your dog was white and now this is a black dog in your dream and it looks just like your puppy dog, same thing, whatever. Looking at you. No, I could look at you. And then somewhere somebody comes up and says look at this wonderful puppy. He's looking for a home. And you look at it. That's the one in my dream.

Karen Anderson: 59:25

Oh yes.

Douglas James Cottrell: 59:26

You think that's a little sign from the first one to say I'm coming back.

Karen Anderson: 59:32

Oh yes, they will often do that. They'll send so many new into your life and my best recommendation is pay attention to what's happening around you, because there are signs. Grieve can be like a heavy blanket so you can miss them. If you are deeply grieving and I'm one of the worst when I'm grieving I go down the rabbit hole and it's like leave me alone. I just want to be in this little rabbit hole and don't talk to me, don't look at me. I just want to be in pain, leave me alone. But if you start paying attention to all the signs and start connecting the dots to all the unusual things that are happening around you, these little we call them coincidences they're not. This is synchronicity is going. Hey, pay attention, I'm with you, I'm around you. It could be a song, it could be a billboard, it could be the license plate in front of you, it could be something written on someone's shirt. I mean, there's so many ways that our loved ones send these spirit messages and if you just pay attention and if you don't discount them, then you will open a door to receive more messages. And this is what's so important. Even if you think you're not receiving them, I'll bet you anything. You are, I'll bet you anything. You're getting messages, but for whatever reason, the grief or the sadness or whatever it's blocking you. But I guarantee you there are signs and messages there, even this one.

Karen Anderson: 1:00:59

If you have a sudden overwhelming surge of emotion thinking about your companion, you may think that's you just missing your companion. It's not. What happens is you're thinking about your companion. It draws them in like a moth to the flame. Your higher self, your soul, recognizes their presence and there's this total, overwhelming rush of emotions, uncontrollable emotions. That you think is just you thinking about them. It's not. It's your souls recognizing each other, going hey, I'm here, yeah, I know you're here, I just felt you. And then that upwelling of emotions that will strike you at the strangest time, like driving down the road or in the grocery store or when you least expect it. Boom, that's a sign. That's your body having a physical reaction to the presence of your loved one.

Karen Anderson: 1:01:56

So I guarantee you you're getting signs and messages. You just don't realize it or you want to discount it because it hurts too much. That's another thing. We put up protective shields to stop ourselves from feeling more pain because it hurts. It's horrible. So I'm almost I can't say always, but almost all the time they do send us signs. We just have to know what to look for and thank them. Be sure you say thank you, I got that, thank you, I felt that, thank you, I saw that and asked for more.

Douglas James Cottrell: 1:02:35

Well said, well said. I know people in my world have had similar experiences with their pets and they say I always know when puppies around I he had a peculiar smell about him or I could hear a little bell tingle that was the bell they had on their collar and they have these signs. So well said. They keep people abreast of that. The animals they drop in on you and again, when you're shopping or driving a car you're in kind of like a meditative state, you're not in your thinking state, unless you're angry, of course and so they're dropping in. So that's well said. I mean, they love us. They do come back. I've had my own dreams about animals that we're going to come. We're going to come in my life and it's happened. But before we end the show, I see that you have a non-profit sanctuary. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Karen Anderson: 1:03:31

I would love to. So. Going back to childhood now. I rescued animals my whole life and it was always a dream of mine to have an animal sanctuary, and I made that dream happen, and I am the CEO and founder of Painted Rain Ranch Animal Sanctuary. We are a non-profit charitable organization and what we do is we rescue the pets nobody else wants, the ones that are overlooked at the shelters because of their age or their health issues, maybe their special needs, maybe they've just been abandoned, strayed, and you know many are overlooked because they might have a missing limb or they might be blind, or they might have to be diabetic or whatever.

Karen Anderson: 1:04:25

I bring them here to our ranch. I live in eastern Washington on 30 acres. It's beautiful, green trees all around, rolling hills, open fields and pastures, and they live out the rest of their natural life here on the ranch with my husband and I, and we are passionate about giving these animals a second chance in a forever loving home. They'll never be adopted out. They stay here. This is their home, they're part of the family and they live a very happy and spoiled life here with us, and all the proceeds from my books and my online beginners course for animal communication the proceeds go to the non-profit. So I have completely devoted myself and my life and my work to help the animals in need.

Douglas James Cottrell: 1:05:32

Today's guest was Karen Anderson. Go to her website and you'll find several books that you can purchase somewhere on Amazon. You can donate or you can find out more about the painted rain ranch animal sanctuary.

Karen Anderson: 1:05:49

Karen Anderson done that.

Douglas James Cottrell: 1:05:50

It's been amazing to have you on the show today, karen. You've had an amazing career. You are a courageous woman. You are a saint in the making. Let me put it that this comes to my mind as I say that. So thank you very much for being on the show.

Karen Anderson: 1:06:06

Thank you so much. I appreciate this opportunity to share so much.

Douglas James Cottrell: 1:06:10

You're very welcome. You've been listening to the Douglas James Cottrell show. We'll be back next week with more light and we will encourage you. Remember the journey is just beginning. I'm your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell. Until next time, may God bless you with peace and prosperity. Take care, my friends. God bless.

Announcer: 1:06:32

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