KIM SHERIDAN: “Even if you don’t have pets, this episode teaches a bundle about life after death. Do animals go to the afterlife? What evidence exists for it? And what signs and signals can our departed pets send us from the spirit world? These are the questions I discuss with Kim Sheridan, author of Animals And The Afterlife. Kim also answers: Do our pets in spirit watch over and guide us? How do they feel about us getting a new pet? And can they return again as a future pet? We also talk about euthanasia, the purpose of a pet’s life, and animal communication. Kim proved to be a smart and interesting expert on the afterlife with some brilliant spiritual insights. Very cool episode!” ~ Bob Olson, Afterlife TV
If you’d like to watch this video, Animals and the Afterlife: Do Pets Have Souls?, visit www.afterlifetv.com/?p=2294
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
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Bob: Hey everybody! Bob Olson here with Afterlife TV. You can find us at Afterlifetv.com. This is where we search for evidence of life after death and ask the meaningful questions around that subject. Today’s subject is one that I think I covered in the very first Afterlife TV episode back in 2011. That was like the fall of 2011. We haven’t done it again and yet so many people are interested in this subject. They should be because a lot of us believe that our pets and the animals in our life are like family members. We have the author of this book here. I’ll show it to you, Animals and the Afterlife: True Stories of Our Best Friends’ Journey Beyond Death. My tongue just does not want to work with me today but that’s okay. We already had to restart and we had some laughs with our guest here, Kim Sheridan. Thanks for joining us.
Kim Sheridan: Thanks so much for having me. I greatly appreciate it.
Bob: I appreciate your patience for me having to start over.
Kim: It’s actually been fun and entertaining. So that’s great.
Bob: I have a feeling it’s probably going to be this way through the whole thing so anyways. Audience, understand that what my brain is thinking and what my mouth is saying could be two different things. It just is going to add to the joy of this. This is a subject that is really meaningful to a lot of people. You know that because of the success of your book but I know that you also recognize. It’s interesting how there are different sections of society. Some people think animals are like possessions and others consider them family members. What do you have to say about that, Kim?
Kim: I’d say they’re family members. Absolutely. Everyone who has one in their family would say the same thing.
Bob: Yeah. When you were doing this research, you were collecting people’s stories, many, many stories. I don’t know how many you’ve got in here but collecting a lot of peoples’ stories. The ones that went in the book, look how thick this book is. You must have had a lot of extras above that. When you’re doing something like that, you must come across so many people that feel that way that it’s hard to remember that there are others who don’t feel that way about their animals in their life. Is that true?
Kim: That’s true as far as yes, when you’re exposed to that. However it’s interesting how many had stories of their own about other people in their lives who didn’t feel that way.
Bob: Yeah. Right, that’s true. That’s an interesting concept. We have people who have pets and animals in their life they treat them like family but some of the other family members even might not feel the same way and might not treat them the same. That would be an issue, wouldn’t it?
Kim: It is but the interesting this is, for most normal human beings after they’ve spent an appreciable amount of time with an animal, their perception is completely changed. I’ve had a lot of people confide to me that wow, I was just taking care of this dog temporarily for a friend or family member while they were going through something and before you know it, I got so darn attached that I didn’t want to give him back. I hear that kind of thing a lot. There’s just something about them that once a person is really with them, there’s that connection that looking into the eyes. The eyes are the door to the soul and there’s that connection that’s beyond words. Anyone who’s had that is never the same after that.
Bob: Very well said. Yeah, interesting. What kind of animals are we talking about? You talk about animals in the afterlife. Is there a place where this stops? I don’t know if insects are considered animals. What kind of animals are we talking about in your book?
Kim: The majority of the stories are definitely dogs and cats. They’re the most common animals that people have in their lives. There’s also fish, rats, birds, horses, bunnies, and all the common animals that are considered pets. Some of the stories have had farm animals and wild animals. It kind of runs the gamut.
Bob: That makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t know. I guess some people, I don’t even know if a spider’s an insect. I’m not an expert on these things but some people have pet spiders, right?
Kim: Absolutely. Although I have not collected any stories specifically about insects, based on what I have collected I would say that that would carry through. Living extension being has a soul. The body is irrelevant to the fact that it has a soul.
Bob: I’m going to say it right off. It surprises you when you first start reading your book. At least for me, I was like maybe I want to get one of these as a pet. You have an affinity with rats. You say you call them ratties which is a nicer way of saying it. Ever since you were young, right?
Kim: Yes, since I was five years old was when I got the first pet rat in my life. I was never the same. It’s interesting. My family was at one of my father’s business associate’s house just visiting and they had a bunch of animals, all sorts of animals including rats. There was just something about those rats that instantly connected. To me, they were like little miniature dogs. There was that same kind of friendliness, that wanting to connect with humanity that dogs have with humans. I felt that in a rat. It was just a smaller little body. I said, "Can I have one?"
Bob: It sounds really cute the way you describe some of the ones you had in your life. They would cuddle up to you. You even had one, great story about one that grieved when you accidentally or non-intentionally took something away from them and didn’t know that it was going to bother, was it him or her?
Kim: She, June.
Bob: It was June, right?
Kim: June was actually who inspired the entire book.
Bob: The first time you became aware that June was experiencing a type of grief, right?
Kim: Absolutely, the emotions I began to see expressed by these, in my case, rats and other animals was unmistakable. I think it’s very interesting that rats are what came into my life from an early age. The message I feel that they almost send is there’s a soul in everybody. People would expect a book like this to have been derived from a relationship with a dog or a cat, something considered a more common pet. The fact that the whole book was inspired by a rat, I feel speaks volumes just about the fact that a soul is a soul regardless of the type of body. That carries through to the everyday emotions, the grief, the happiness, the anger. I’ve seen all of it in little rats. Having free range rats as I do, meaning they don’t live in cages, you really see their real personality come out.
They’re kind of in charge of their own destiny. There’s nothing like it. I mean, there’s nothing like having that kind of connection with an animal where you’re really getting to know their individual personality. I think the other reason it’s very interesting and appropriate that rats are what initially inspired all of my work in this is that rats have very short lifespans. Throughout my life, I’ve had the experience of loss, loving and losing an animal over and over and over. In one lifespan of a dog or a cat, we’re talking countless rats. It’s been a real interesting experience in seeing multiple different types of personalities and also going through the loss and the grieving process multiple times.
Bob: I thought that was a very significant part of your story because you’re talking about the afterlife here and when you have a pet that only lasts two or three years on average you said, you’re going to go through a lot of them. A lot of people, for many reasons might be hesitant to get another rat or another pet of any sort that was typically only going to live two or three years. How did you wrap your mind around that so that you were willing to continue, knowing that that was going to be the end result?
Kim: Life kind of forced me. From that first rat at the age of five, it was like every couple of years. For a while it was every year that the schoolteacher at the end of the year would just take me aside and say the classroom pet, because the classroom pet was often a rat, they would say, "I would like for you to take the classroom pet home as your own" because they knew and sensed that I had that connection. So they just kept coming to me. I didn’t go seeking them. They came to me. Then even as an adult, after June passed, the inspiration for all of this again, my first thought was I could never go through this again. This is too painful. That’s it, no more. Then of course there comes the call. There’s a rat who needs a home. I can’t take credit for continually diving back in. They come to me.
Bob: Definitely but it seems to me that you have that mentality, a very spiritual mentality that you accept what comes into your life. Certainly you could have said no and you chose not to because you felt as though in this or all these particular cases that it came into your life for a reason. I’m going to skip ahead because I actually had a question that I was going to mention later on. You mention in your book and I think it’s a great message about this idea that animals show up in people’s lives to help them heal an aspect of themselves. Grief would be one example of that that a lot of our viewers could relate to. It’s not just related to grief. It’s all sorts of things they help with. Can you elaborate on that?
Kim: Many times a person will have a pattern in their life or something they need to experience and yes, an animal will come into their life that will help them to bring in whatever that experience is. There’s also many cases of people with a particular a health challenge and an animal will come into their life with that same challenge. The person’s attention becomes taking care of the animal. In taking care of the animal, they end up taking care of themselves. It’s a very mutual relationship. I think it’s very beautiful.
Bob: It is beautiful. There’s so many levels of it. This is a multi-level experience that we can really grow from when we have an awareness of what’s going on between us and our pets. One of the comments I make with both myself and my friends that have pets, especially cats and dogs is, oh my goodness, we do so much more for them. I’m willing to spend more money on them. My dog eats better than I do. I’m very cautious that she eats good food and has good nutrition. Every once in a while it reminds me that this is something that if I’m willing to do it for her, I need to do for myself. That’s kind of what you’re talking about here.
Kim: That’s what I’m talking about exactly and you put that into perfect words. I hear that from so many people.
Bob: That’s interesting. I actually heard a story once through a counselor where someone had kind of a rare form of cancer. The dog ended up getting the same thing. When she learned this lesson and stopped trying to take care of the dog more than herself and started to take care of herself equally, they both healed. I thought that was a real-life story. I knew it was a real-life story at least for me whether other people believe it or not. It was like wow that really speaks volumes.
Kim: It does, absolutely.
Bob: We’ll go back. I find this really fascinating. You write this book. Let’s show it again, Animals and the Afterlife. My mouth is now working for me. True Stories of Our Best Friends’ Journey Beyond Death. It reminds me a little bit of a Chicken Soup for the Soul around this subject, a lot of other people’s stories. I love your notes. You have notes in there to really drive home the lessons that maybe people would miss within the story itself. The point I was going to make is you’re really geared towards being a naturopath in your life. This is your professional calling. You are not a professional animal communicator. Am I correct about that?
Kim: That’s correct.
Bob: People don’t need to call her for readings. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of those, right? I know you taught yourself or allowed others to help teach you how to communicate with animals on your own, right? You know how to do that?
Kim: Yes.
Bob: You’ve always been gifted since a child, right?
Kim: More so as child. I think a lot of us when we get older and "educated" we shut that part of ourselves off. I certainly did. It was only through this loss in my life, of this animal named June that all began to awaken again in a really profound way.
Bob: What did you do to sort of teach yourself how to communicate? Really what it comes down to is we all can do it but to learn to trust yourself that what you’re getting is real. What did you do to make that happen?
Kim: I actually first went to see professional animal communicators because I had heard about them but I was very skeptical. I actually came at all of this as a skeptic. It’s interesting. I kind of have this dual thing going on inside me. On one hand throughout my life I’ve had very interesting psychic type experiences that my logical mind was always trying to wrap around and figure out how I could explain this away. I had this really curious skeptical nature, personally analyzing these things that I can’t explain away from a "rational perspective". When I started looking into this, I first went in and I tested animal communicators. I took June around and I had her talk to different animal communicators. I didn’t tell them I was talking to other animal communicators.
I wanted to see if they were all saying the same things and they were. It was beyond any kind of a coincidence or chance so I was testing them. They passed and so I began then taking some workshops with professional animal communicators who teach people how to awaken that innate ability. Like anything else, I think some people are inherently better at things than others. It’s just like Mozart began playing the piano at a young age. We all come in with those specialties however I feel that anyone can awaken this ability to a degree. Like you said, the biggest part is learning to trust. That’s the hardest part by far. It’s interesting also in writing my book, I began having very profound what you would call medium experiences. In other words, contacts with departed animals on the other side.
As I was working on the book which originally was over 1000 pages, as you mentioned there were more stories than I could fit, I spent a year just editing them down to where it could actually fit in one book. These experiences were coming to me. It was almost like the animals in spirit were helping to write the book and I was just blown away. These weren’t things, like some people put up a shingle and they can do things on demand, for me it was just coming at me. I had no choice but to pay attention.
Bob: I love that part of that story because certainly I’m not one of these people but there’s a lot of people out there that think that if you were an animal communicator and all you were trying to do was get more clients. There’s nothing wrong with that, to write a book so people get to know you better and understand your work. I’m all for that. I’m the first person in line to recommend that but you’re not. It’s interesting how this book comes from a different place because of it. I also really, truly believe that the more we mesh ourselves in doing anything whether it be meditation or communicating with animals alive or dead, the more we do it the more things open up for us. Here you are working on a book.
I know books take years. Here you are, constantly working and working and work. Before you know it, you recognize that you’re channeling a lot of information that’s coming through. Then it’s the awareness that you’re doing it. Sometimes you don’t even know you’re doing it and then all of a sudden you are. I imagine that was probably the case for you. Do you do this for friends and family members even though you don’t do it professionally?
Kim: If something comes up, I’ll share it with them. It’s not something that I go out of my way to do and I always am the first to say that I don’t do this on demand. They come to me with a message or they don’t. There have been some times over the years where I’ve been put on the spot in the middle of a TV interview. All of a sudden one of the crew asks me to tell them where their missing dog is. I say, "I already told you before we started rolling that I don’t do that". There’s a pressure so I do it. When I’m put in those situations, the information does come through. However, that’s not my calling. We all have a calling. I feel that I’m more of a spokesperson that this is a message that needs to get out. Then I am happy to share with people references to animal communicators that I’ve used over the years and who I can vouch for.
Bob: Perfect. I like that and I understand. I feel an affinity to that myself. You wrote that some of your early experiences as a child were uncanny in that you experienced a lot of loss, a lot of people and animals dying, but you always became aware of it after the fact. You were never really part of the dying process. It seemed to me that you believe there’s a value in experiencing the dying process. I was wondering if you could tell us about that.
Kim: Do you mean as far as experiencing the dying process of the animal?
Bob: Yeah, you and I are talking about animals so yeah. I’ll use the example and set you up for this. You had brought a pet to be put to sleep and you waited out in the waiting room. Then you recognized how you regretted that and the next time that happened and you were in that situation, you were with the animal while it happened. I’m referring to that in that second experience is a completely different experience. I’m wondering what you gained from it.
Kim: I understand. It’s interesting. What I’ve gained from going through the actual dying process with an animal, which I do over and over and over because I do animal rescues so a lot of the animals that come to me are already very sick and old, it’s almost as if they’ve come to me as an animal hospice so to speak. For me, what I’ve come away from it feeling is that death is birth because anyone who’s been at a live birth knows there’s a lot of crying, screaming, pain and joy and all of those things of bringing a life into this world. All of those same emotions are usually involved in the death. It’s painful, but it’s beautiful. Sometimes when you’re at the bedside you see things, you see lights, you see these little after-death communications already coming in.
I’ve seen a lot of parallels between watching a human die and watching an animal die. I had a close friend die a number of years ago and shortly before he passed, we saw him looking up and speaking to someone we couldn’t see who was clearly coming to get him, having certain postures and reaching out in certain happy expression like I’m going home. I’ve seen that exact same expression and those exact same mannerisms when watching an animal pass. It’s amazing. I want to bring up a point here that I feel is very important because anyone who’s lost an animal often beats themselves up for something they feel they did wrong. That’s the most painful part of all, the guilt and just abusing yourself emotionally.
I can say that from a very personal level thinking I should have euthanized or I shouldn’t have euthanized. I should have been there or I wasn’t there. On the one hand we’re talking about the beauty of being there at the death, I want to point out that if someone isn’t there at the death they didn’t do anything wrong. There are many deaths where I was present and there have been many deaths where I wasn’t. Sometimes the animal can’t leave if that bond is too strong. They need you to step away so they can move on. Those times when we step away and I’ve had those times, you go to get a drink or you haven’t slept in 48 hours because you’ve been doing around the clock care for a dying animal.
The one time you step away to go get a drink or something, that’s when they pass. We have to remind ourselves not to say darn it, why did I go just then and spend the next six months doing it over in our head. Why didn’t I stay? Instead we need to think we needed to leave because they couldn’t leave until we did. They needed us to walk away so they could have their exit process in their own way.
Bob: Very important and very well said. An important message and I’m glad you brought that up. Since we’re talking about euthanasia and we’ll go into that next, what I do want to say is maybe you can shed some light on this because I’m not even aware. Melissa and I had a cat maybe five years ago roughly. She was 21 years old and we just woke up one Sunday morning and we knew she was ready to go. She was ready to pass. Because it was a Sunday here in Maine, the closest emergency room, being that all the vets were closed, was about 40 minutes away, we really didn’t want to put her through that trauma of throwing her in the car and bringing her up there. We really didn’t know what we were doing but we were just sort of with her. It took hours. It took maybe three and a half hours before she passed.
We were giving her little drops of water because we could tell that her mouth was getting dry. My biggest fear through the whole thing was that she was going to be in too much pain and there would be no one there to help her out of that pain. It really didn’t happen. There was no indication of that with our cat, Pesky. In the end, she ended up dying on my lap. At the very end, sort of stretched and I think there were maybe some physiological aspects to that but she sort of gave this one last stretch and this one last meow. It was kind of a nice meow. It wasn’t like any kind of a screech or anything. It was a very pleasing meow as if she was just okay, here I go. I’m leaving my body. It was a beautiful experience that I went through. I agree with you. If people don’t have that, that’s fine.
My question to you is, are there some issues around experiencing that and going through that? Is it safer if you’re going to try to do that at a vet center or something in case there is some pain that they end up going through or is my experience pretty typical and it’s unlikely that you would need that?
Kim: The experiences run the gamut. I feel that often when we’re at end of life care of a loved one we have two parallel tracks running. Number one we’re scared, confused and we don’t know what to do exactly but whatever it is, we want to do it right. I also feel there’s a higher more spiritual track going on simultaneously that we’re not aware of. That is the spirit guides of the animal or human whoever’s passed. We’re talking about animals in this case. They’re guiding the whole thing, guiding where we are, how we handle all of it, and how they pass. What I like to tell people, again because beating one’s self up and guilt after the loss of an animal is the most common emotion that comes up.
I like to remind people that we all have our plan that we come in with. We all have our life plan. Our birth and our death are predestined basically. That animal has their life journey and we’re a part of their journey. We don’t have that kind of power where we’re going to mess it up, if you know what I’m saying. Their guides are in because when any of us are passing, we have help from the other side coming in to help with the transition kind of like I guess you would call midwives. They have that. While we want to listen to our intuition or also listen to just common sense, we also need to remind ourselves that there is someone else in the spiritual realm assisting. To ask for assistance from them is only a good thing.
Bob: Yeah, very well said. Let’s talk about euthanasia. It was going to be one of the last things I asked you, but we’ve already arrived there. Then we can go back to some of the other stuff. I’m just going to throw three questions at you. You can do whatever you want. My questions that I wondered about with you is how do you feel about euthanasia? Is there a right or wrong time for it? What advice do you have for people who are facing that decision? These are a lot of the questions that come up with people.
Kim: Again, it depends on the situation. I have been involved in both. I’ve been involved in euthanasia and I’ve also been involved in putting off euthanasia and letting it happen naturally. I’ve also been involved in thinking I did the wrong thing, thinking that I allowed the animal to suffer by not wanting to intervene too soon. I’ve also been through the experience of thinking I intervened too soon and wish I had let the animal go through their own process. There’s no right or wrong way. Again, I feel I can’t emphasize enough the importance of asking, of whatever someone does, praying, meditating, asking for help from the spiritual realm in this. They do listen and they do hear these requests. They will come in and assist and they’ll even help in the decision-making process.
Sometimes if you don’t know, you ask for a sign. Some kind of a sign will come. Someone will say something at the right moment to help you think yes, this is how we need to be handling this. One thing that I do feel is important is many times if someone is in a clinical situation, the people in the clinical situation are just "doing their jobs" and they have a certain way they think it needs to be done. If our intuition is telling us no, this doesn’t feel right, I feel it’s important to listen to that. That is assistance from the spiritual realm letting us know no, this is how this needs to happen in this case.
Bob: Excellent advice. Maybe not everybody knows this. For some I’m sure it seems like common knowledge. If people do go to the vet to have them put to sleep, it’s okay to request to be with them while that happens, correct?
Kim: Absolutely, and if they say it’s not okay, then it’s time to go somewhere else.
Bob: That’s right. Does that happen? Are you aware of any situation where that actually happened? They didn’t want them there, didn’t want the owners there?
Kim: I’ve heard stories. I can’t validate it but I’ve heard it mentioned before. Every time I’ve heard it, the person has said, "I’m leaving". It’s not okay.
Bob: What’s interesting is also that I don’t think people recognize how much power we have to just ask for things. I know of someone who actually went through this experience and she had music playing and candles burning. She just made a really calm and peaceful experience. Even if that was calm and peaceful for her, our animals feel those things.
Kim: Absolutely.
Bob: That’s something, just the fact that I mentioned it. This is common. Our animals have a great intuitive connection with their family members, do they not?
Kim: Absolutely, and most of the time what I find is that the animal who is passing is more concerned about their person than about themselves. Because they don’t have verbal language like we do, they’re much more in tune telepathically, intuitively and all of that. They’re really feeling what we’re feeling. Many times we think they’re just suffering and miserable. Maybe their outer body is going through some of that but their spirit and even their mind is actually worried about us and worried about us being okay. Sometimes that’s why they don’t pass until we leave the room because they just can’t bring themselves to do it when we’re there. It’s almost like we’re holding them back. The other thing we have to remember is the moment they have that moment that you mentioned earlier with your cat and that meow. I call it the battle cry so to speak.
I’ve seen that before too. It’s almost like it’s the animal version of yippee, because they’re leaping out of this body that for whatever reason is worn out, it’s spent, its time is up and it’s reached its expiration date. They’re very much still alive and well and they’re leaping out. They’re still there and that’s why always after death communications I’ve compiled in the book, that’s what those stem from in my opinion. They’ve left their body and we’re just a mess. We’re "I shoulda, coulda, woulda blah blah blah" crying and they’re like no, you don’t understand. This is great. I feel great. I love you. I can still see you. We’re still connected. It’s all good. They want us to know that. I feel that’s the crux of the message we receive from them in the afterlife.
Bob: That’s a great interpretation. This is the issue with all of talking about spirit communication with people or animals. So much is left up to interpretation. Here we are experiencing the dying process of a pet. I think shows like this are important to hear people like you who have talked to so many people that have had experiences with their pet in this way to really show them a different perspective so they don’t make that interpretation that is based in fear. They make the interpretation that is based on some knowledge or research that you have done and a different perspective that they’re actually communicating a positive message to us. It’s not a bad thing. Thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. I’m going to go through just a couple of easy questions I had. People are still wondering these things and you know it because you wrote about it in your book. Let’s just start off with what’s some of the evidence that exists that animals go to the afterlife?
Kim: There’s a lot of categories and, as you know having read my book, I’ve broken it down into the different categories. It starts with as we’ve already touched on, animal communicators bringing through very specific messages that the animals want the person to know that there’s no way the animal communicator could know. Skeptics will say, well, they’re just reading the person’s mind. In saying that, they’re admitting that there’s such a thing as telepathy, a), and b) there’s many cases that they’ll bring through information that the person actually doesn’t know off the top of their head and they go back and verify it later. It turns out to be very accurate. Those are messages in fact that the same applies to mediums, messages coming through mediums about a departed pet.
There have been many cases where they’ve come through not only with very specific data but in some cases warning us about something coming up in the future. That really implies that the animals are now acting as a spirit guide in a way, watching over their person and wanting to make sure they’re okay. Then there are the experiences of people who have had near-death experiences and many times seeing not only departed humans but also departed animals on the other side. Many times these people had no religious or spiritual beliefs whatsoever before it happened. After they’ve had this experience their life has changed profoundly. Many of these people have seen not only departed pets but also wild animals and what are considered farm animals. Their whole perception is blown. It’s not like they’re seeing what they expected to see.
I feel the stories that really bring this point home are the people who see something that not only didn’t they expect to see but didn’t believe. They’ve had a shift in belief because of the experience. As far as near-death experiences, some people say it’s just a dying brain throwing out random images. The skeptics are always trying to find something to drive home the point that we’re not spirits. We’re bodies and when we’re dead, that’s it. There are so many cases of people with near-death experiences who had the experience of when they’ve left their body, seeing what’s going on below and mentioning it later. There’s no way they could know that unless they had literally been outside their body and looking down to see what is going on. Then there are experiences of people that are everyday experiences.
These are the ones I focused on the most because I really wanted to validate the point that anyone can have an after death communication. You don’t need to be a professional psychic or medium. You don’t have to have a near-death experience. People have after death communications from beloved animals all the time. Sometimes they’ll feel them. They’ll feel them jump up on them. They’ll hear them, a meow, a bark or whatever. They’ll smell them and whatever their familiar scent was. Sometimes they’ll see them, what we would consider a ghost. There are even cases of solid visitations where they actually can touch them and pet them. Those are rare because it’s hard for spirits to slow down its energy enough to make that connection to where we in the really hard dense physical world can feel them but it has happened.
Then there’s the more subtle signs that are just as valid, the messages, the signs like a song coming on at a certain time or a butterfly appearing out of nowhere. All of these things like dreams, messages in dreams, visions, the gamut. People have had all of these experiences. Many times they come away not only changed but also at least in the early days, many people were afraid to talk about them. They didn’t want people to think they were crazy. When I started my research many years ago, part of what I feel was happening was that people were telling me that they felt validated for the first time and that it was okay to talk about this. They were happy that someone didn’t think they were crazy and was listening. I always tell people not to let people talk them out of their experiences.
If they have these experiences, really own them. If there’s a skeptic or someone who feels threatened by it for whatever reason that goes against their religion or dogma whatever, just remove yourself from that person because they’re not in a position to speak. They haven’t had the experience you have. They can’t tell you what you did or didn’t experience. Only you know that. One final thing I’ll say to really bring the point home for skeptics is that many of these experiences have happened not just from someone who has lost a departed animal but often third-party witnesses who see the animal, not knowing the animal has died and finding out later that what they’ve seen was an animal who died two weeks before and they’re describing them. How do you explain that away?
It’s not like there is a coping mechanism of someone trying to make peace with all of it. This is an outsider. I think part of why that happens is because if someone doesn’t know an animal has departed, their guard is down. It’s easier to see through the veil so to speak if you don’t know that what you’re seeing is through the veil. You know what I’m saying? You’re just like oh, there’s a dog. As soon as you know that died dog died, you’re not going to see him anymore because then your mind is going to say no that this can’t be.
Bob: I think those last two things that you mentioned, when they mention that the pet is aware of you doing something that just happened yesterday and then this where other people find out that the pet is deceased and they didn’t even know it, these are those things that really help people get over their skepticism when it happens to them. One of the things I’ve always said is when it comes to these kinds of things, hearing other peoples stories is typically not going to be enough to bring someone from a skeptic to what I call a knower. You have to have a personal experience yourself. If you’re there with an animal communicator and they’re telling you these things that you did yesterday. You know no one else knows. You know the animal communicator certainly doesn’t know what you were doing yesterday. There’s no way they could find out.
That’s really great evidence for you and it creates a personal experience that can help you lead from skepticism to knowing. I think these things are really important. You mentioned dreams. I think a lot of people have pets come to them in their dreams. My wife has those. Do you experience, is that a very common one?
Kim: That’s a very common one actually because when we’re sleeping, the veil is thinner. Our guard is down. Our logical mind is shut off. We’re more open to spiritual experiences. Dreams are two things. Sometimes it’s just the mind working things out. If we have an upsetting dream, it doesn’t mean that our departed animal is mad at us or anything like that. It’s usually us working through our own grief. When we have a dream that’s a spiritual encounter from the other side, we know it. It’s knowing. It’s not like a normal dream. It’s like something profound has happened. We wake up thinking, did I dream that or did that really happen. It’s that real. It’s that tangible. There have been cases such as with myself where sometimes two people will have the same dream simultaneously.
It’s like an animal’s way of letting you know that you’re not just dreaming this because I’m visiting him and I’m visiting you. I’m telling you both the same thing so pay attention. It’s very profound when these things happen. Again my message for people is don’t expect the heavens to open up, hear trumpets, see a full Technicolor vision of your animal because often these things are more subtle. It’s a real stretch of vibration for someone in spirit to slow down to the density of someone in the physical realm to make that connection. Whatever we would receive from them, we need to validate and know that was a real sign. If we set ourselves up with really high expectations then we’re going to be disappointed. We’re going to miss the very real and profound experiences that are happening but in a more subtle way.
Bob: You just bring up so many great points there. I want to reiterate the idea that when it’s a loving beautiful message and it makes you feel good when you leave, that’s more likely going to be a dream visitation. If it’s something that makes you fearful, I highly agree that it’s more likely that your brain is trying to process something like you said earlier, guilt that you might be feeling, fears, whatever it may be. Your brain trying to process things and that’s usually when we have those negative fearful sort of dreams. Dream visitations are usually just lovely. Things that you’ll remember very clearly 30 years later is what I hear. When people have dream visitations they’re beautiful. You also mentioned earlier about how they’re communicating by telepathy. I’ve had many comments. How does a dog communicate when they can’t speak English? You know that kind of a thing. What do you normally tell people about that? They’re just communicating with their mind, right?
Kim: Correct, it’s often done. It’s more visual in a way. I would say in a way it’s sometimes just a knowing. It’s a feeling. It’s also very visual which is why hen people want to communicate with their animals like tell them when I’m going to be dying, you actually send a mental picture of you leaving a door or closing a door. Once they’re gone you’re safe. It gets dark and it gets light. It gets dark and it gets light for a certain number of days. This other person is coming in and taking care of them. You kind of just go through the whole thing in your mind and they’re going to see that because that’s how telepathy works. Then they’re going to know. However many days and nights you show them in your mind that you’re going to be gone so the person’s going to be there taking care of them.
When you come to the last day where you said you’re coming back, they will act very differently. Many people have attested to this. I’ve seen it myself. They’ll be at the window. They’ll be looking at you expectantly like you said this is the day so this is the day. They clearly got that message. Many times even though we’re not hearing what they’re saying because we’re dense, they’re very much picking up on what we’re saying. Now, they won’t always do what we say. If we say don’t jump on the sofa, very often we’re saying jumping on the sofa. We’re picturing them jumping on the sofa. They’re seeing jump on the sofa. They’re getting what we’re saying but we’re just not saying it right or maybe they just really want to jump on the sofa and they’re like yeah, you’re a pushover. I’m going to do it anyway and I’m going to get away with it.
Bob: That’s a great point. Think about what you do want and not what you don’t want. That goes with so much that we learn about the power of thought, the law of attraction and all that. Be careful about what it is that you’re thinking about and how it is you’re trying to communicate with your pets in this particular case. I know a lot of my guests can’t remember everything that they wrote in their books and I’m the same way. It’s like you get called on something and you’re like what did I say about that. In this particular case though I thought it was really significant, and if you don’t remember it, just tell me. You said something about when a family member gets a message and you didn’t, whether it be a sign, a signal, one of the many ones that you talked about earlier or a dream visitation. Do you remember what you said about that? People who feel bad because they didn’t get one but their sister did.
Kim: Correct, many times the person who wants the message the most doesn’t seem to get it. It’s very frustrating. I think a part of that is when like with anything else, when we try too hard, we’re trying to force it. We’re shutting it off or we’re looking like I mentioned earlier. We’re looking for something big, loud and profound. Meanwhile, the messages are flying at us and we’re missing them all. Other times, it doesn’t always happen. I haven’t received an after death communication from every animal who has passed in a very tangible way. I feel that’s why there are people who come in with the gift of mediumship or animal communication. Their job is to bridge that gap. It doesn’t mean we did something wrong. It just means that for whatever reason, that animal is not getting through with a message that we’re picking up on.
It’s like sometimes you call someone on your cell phone. You have a perfect signal and you can have a great conversation. Other times you can’t understand because it’s cutting out and the phone goes dead. I like to say that after death communications are like cell phone calls or like Wi-Fi. They’re not as reliable as Ethernet. We need to not take it personally. The other thing I will say is that oftentimes it’s the person, the family member or the friend or someone else who has the experience because that person is more far removed. They aren’t as tense and tight. They’re just relaxed and doing their own thing. Their guard is down. These things usually come through when our guard is down.
That’s the biggest challenge is when we’re going through grief and trying to force something to tell us they’re okay. Our guard is not down. We’re on alert, red-alert. Again, that’s why I suggest to people that they seek outside help if they really need some comfort. Don’t take the talents of a medium or an animal communicator too lightly, because they provide a tremendous gift to the world.
Bob: A lot of times I think that maybe they don’t come through on purpose because they know they know that you’ll go to an animal communicator and it will just be more clear that way. Where if maybe they did come to you in your dreams, you wouldn’t go but it’s not going to be as powerful then as if you did go have a one-hour reading where they could communicate a lot more than they could in that dream.
Kim: Thank you. You brought up an excellent point with that because many times, if we have our own after death contact, it’s basically a hello. I love you. I’m still around and we’re good. You know what I mean? If they want to get more through to you, you’re going to get a much more detailed message even health advice, even a warning whatever it is through a medium that can really translate all of that.
Bob: Recently and I don’t know if it was yesterday or the day before, I had what was probably just to me a profound though about the difference between a desire and a need. I was thinking that desire is filled with love, joy and enthusiasm. Need is filled with a lot of times fear, worry and dense negative feeling of I need that. I need that. It’s a completely different energy than desire is. In the way that you described really needing to get a message through, you can see how that’s much more like this when you need something. It’s like this when you’re having a desire. You’re looking forward to it or you’re open to it. I don’t know. I had that thought the other day and I thought wow! This sort of spoke to that. The other thing I want is say is it was a great message that you had on this in your book on this subject.
A great perspective to have, and this is me paraphrasing you, but a great perspective to have is that when a family member gets a message from a deceased pet, the whole family is getting that message. They’re getting that message. They’re giving the message to the whole family. This is one of those things. I ran down to my wife, Melissa, and I was like listen to what she said about this. It’s a great perspective to think that they are getting the message to you. They just did it through somebody else, right?
Kim: Thank you. Thank you for bringing that point home. Yes.
Bob: I loved that. I thought that was really well said. I do want to ask because a lot of people think, I wonder if my departed pets are watching over me or maybe even sometimes guiding me like our deceased relatives sometimes will do in spirit. What do you think?
Kim: Absolutely, I’ve seen many cases of this. It’s interesting. Sometimes people will get a contact right at the time where it’s going to alter how they do something. There’s even a case in the book you may remember of a cat warning a woman that her tires are worn out and she’s going to have a serious accident if she doesn’t get those tires taken care of. I’ve seen enough of these cases to know that they really are looking out for our best interests. Many times we’ll think why did an animal die young or life is so cruel. Many times it’s because their purpose is to be in spirit, having that higher perspective to help us out through a difficult time or whatever. It’s not that they died young in a tragic way. It’s that their journey here in the physical life is complete and now they have a really important spiritual journey.
Bob: Yeah, I’ve heard it suggested that animals, especially pets because this would be different for animals in the wild obviously but animals that are pets, they live with humans. Maybe a big part of the purpose for their life is to help us with our growth in many ways. I know we kind of touched upon that earlier but what do you think about that? Do you think that’s true or do you think it’s more just all about them? They’re having this experience with humans and so that’s part of their soul growth? Or do you think it’s a combination of the two?
Kim: I feel it’s a combination of the two. To touch on what you said first, you may have seen that bumper sticker I see quite often that says who rescued who? I think that kind of sums it up because many times we think that here we are taking care of them and aren’t we wonderful. We went and got this animal out of this terrible situation and gave them a great home. Meanwhile they are just transforming our life, filling us with love, teaching us unconditional love and all of these other things. So yes, I feel that it’s very mutual and many times it’s swayed in the direction of they’re helping us more than we’re helping them.
Bob: It’s so true. I actually did just saw that somewhere, maybe it was on your website or something. I was on there and saw that. It’s comical but it’s also some truth in it. How do our pets in spirit feel about us getting a new pet?
Kim: They’re all for it. That’s one of the biggest things we often go through is the guilt, like, oh my gosh, I could never bring another animal. That was his dog bed. How could I do this? Again, they’re coming from a higher spiritual level and they’re coming from a place of true unconditional love. They want us to be happy. Very often bringing another animal into our lives makes us happy and helps us feel complete. Also many times, there’s another animal who needs a home. We need to have that for whatever reason. Our soul paths need to cross and we need to have an experience together. They’ll again be facilitating all of that from spirit. It may sound very bizarre but there have been so many cases of this and you can just see many times even temporarily the new animal will behave very much like the departed animal.
I feel this is a case of often what you would call a walk-in. Many times it’s just temporary where the new animal is acting as a host so the old animal can show you very visually with a body that I’m still around. Look! Watch this! See this trick I used to do? I’m doing it now in this new body. Many times when that happens, it will only be for a short while. Then the new animal’s "real personality" will come through. Rather than being disappointed that they didn’t stay, you want to know that it was the whole purpose for them to just come through temporarily to let us know I’m around. I’m kind of watching this whole thing. Now you and this new animal are having a wonderful experience together. I’m not gone forever. I’m still around. We will be reunited in a very literal way when the time is right.
Bob: That’s a great perspective that I have not heard before. I love that. My next question was going to be, if you believe a departed pet can return to someone as a future pet? I’ve always wondered. I’ve heard the question a million times and I always thought what’s the point. I think they served their purpose while they were here. That’s a really unique perspective. Is that how you would have answered that question?
Kim: Well, not necessarily. That’s part of how I would answer it because those are cases that happened. Often that’s when the new animal comes in who was already alive when the former animal departed. There have been also many cases where a new animal will come in who was born after the former animal passed. Many times they’ll come into a person’s life in a very, you know you feel like there’s something bigger going on. "Coincidences" happen to bring this other animal into your life. The new animal will have the exact same personality. Sometimes they look the same. Other times they don’t. When they look the same, it’s almost like a hey look, it’s me. The most profound thing and I’ve collected so many stories about this. Again, I was skeptical at the beginning.
I experienced it myself eventually and I have since many times. Other people who often this is outside of their religious beliefs system, but they get this new animal and they’re like this is the same animal in a new body coming to have another experience with me. I say it makes all the sense in the world. How cool would the world be if we had a being who has an average lifespan of anywhere from let’s say ten to twenty-some odd years, thinking of dogs and cats but of course less than that with rats or other animals and more than that with others. You get the idea but rarely as long as an average human lifespan. How sad is it that we can only have that experience for that set amount of time and then their body wears out because that’s their biology? Then that’s it.
While I have emphasized many times their next leg of their journey is in spirit, there are other times where they’re ready to jump in and do it again. When people have these experiences, they know it’s the same animal. There have been cases where they get a cat in their life but they used to have a dog. Now the cat is hanging its head out the window and sticking its tongue out like the dog. Or the dog will go and dig up the bone in the exact spot or sit in a strange way in a certain chair that only that animal would do, not like normal "behaviors" that that species would be expected to engage in. It’s really unique uncanny things and when people see this, they’re like oh my gosh, he’s back. I cannot tell you the joy people go through when they let me know that their beloved animal has returned to them in a new body. There’s really nothing like it.
Bob: That’s very cool. I think I have to make a point. I just did a video report on my version of what I think the difference is between a spirit and a soul. Just because I think I’m going to end up getting questions about it because of the subject matter, what I would say about it, is that I think it’s the same soul of the pet which is the whole self and who we are, wholly and our higher self. I always look at that for a new life, that soul creates a new spirit, we would have a new body. In this particular case, that makes perfect sense because I do believe that we can always recognize there’s certain signature characteristics of the soul that come through in every lifetime that that soul creates with a new spirit. We’re able to see them.
This is why people are able to have past life regressions and go, yeah, it was a different sex and it was a different person and everything else, but I recognized it was my wife from this lifetime. I could tell by the eyes or their mannerisms or whatever it may be. I think that what you’re saying makes perfect sense to me based on that. The soul can create another spirit that could become like you said, a different animal. It could be instead of a dog, it could be a cat or whatever it may be, to sort of continue on to whatever they didn’t have time to finish with the previous life. It’s beautiful and I know a lot of people believe it. It’s not just that they want to believe it. They’ve seen evidence of it. I think they need to be acknowledged for it.
I love that you acknowledge these people in that way and go, you’re not crazy. I believe you. It’s frustrating when you know something in your heart and then other people are just telling you you’re being silly, isn’t it?
Kim: Absolutely, I tell people, especially when they’re going through that initial grieving period, "Steer clear of those people. You don’t owe them your time. If they’re not going to be supportive, they’re not worthy of spending any time with you." It’s a very sensitive time and a very sensitive experience. If someone’s not going to be sensitive to that, in my opinion we just need to remove ourselves from them and find someone who is sensitive and who is supportive.
Bob: The growth process is like that. We change. We grow. We become new people. Sometimes the other people in our life don’t grow with us. That’s how we’re no longer resonating and we ended up moving on in separate directions. That’s okay. That’s what life is all about. There’s another question that I think could be answered pretty briefly. Some people worry that after their pet’s passing, I feel silly asking it. It’s not a silly question. It’s just that the pet won’t know how to find them if they move.
Kim: It’s amazing how often people ask that question. What I like to equate it to is anyone who’s had a near-death experience has had the unique experience of knowing what it’s like to think about a place and instantly be there or to think about a person and instantly be with that person. When we’re in spirit, we can do this because we’re not bound down by gravity and all of this. We’re like boom. We can be anywhere at any time. They have that connection with us, it doesn’t matter if we move across town or halfway around the world. They’re going to find us and that’s not something that we need to give a moment’s worry. I understand that because we’re coming from a lifetime of maps, trying to find directions, knowing where we are, getting lost in a store, or missing someone. It’s not like that in spirit. They have a real advantage over us. They can find us wherever we are.
Bob: Exactly. That’s great. I think the last one is people typically ask this about people. They’re all the same questions. How do pets typically show themselves to animal communicators or in dreams? Do they look the way they looked when they passed or at some other time in their life?
Kim: They usually look, you know they say when we pass and we’re in the afterlife that we look like we’re 35? I would say they look like they’re their lifespan equivalent of 35. That’s what I hear. They’re fully matured but they’re dialed in. They’re in their glory. Obviously 35 someone just picked that out of a hat. That could be any age but they look really great and they feel great. Whatever they had going down with them when they were passing, that’s all behind them. In their mind that was just a blip on the radar and they’re over it.
Bob: You said it great in the book. I’m going to try to remember that. The way they felt in the prime of their life. I thought I have to remember how to say that because I always say when they felt most vigorous and healthy and alive. The prime of their life, that pretty much says it right there.
Kim: Thank you. Yeah, well said.
Bob: Well said by you. Could you just share this one story? There’s two reasons for it. One, it’s just a beautiful story. Two, it reminds people to think twice when they’re in this situation. Can you tell us the story of Boris, Maggie’s beloved cat?
Kim: Yes, Boris was from all accounts, dead. Boris was a dead cat in the middle of a busy road. My husband and I were driving by and a bunch of other cars were driving by. Everyone was going really fast. We thought oh my God, there’s a dead cat in the middle of the road. This is so disrespectful. If there were a dead human body in the middle of the road, people would be pulling over. This would be a big thing. Why is it okay just because it’s in a cat body? We pulled over. We stopped traffic. People were not happy with us. We got called a lot of names. We keep certain rescue materials in our vehicle just because you never know when you’re going to find someone in need.
We went out to just get the cat’s body. As I’m running through traffic carrying the body and my husband is blocking people so we don’t get killed in the process and making sure it’s all safe, I noticed the cat’s breathing. He’s got blood coming out of his mouth so we raced him to the pet emergency. Long story short, intensive hospital stay, lots of intensive care, we were constantly coming and visiting with herbs and nutritional support, Boris healed beautifully from this experience and went to live with a wonderful friend of ours named Maggie. She’s actually since gone on to the afterlife herself and I’m sure she was greeted by a whole menagerie of grateful animals. Boris went on to live the rest of his life with Maggie and her husband and just had a wonderful life.
This all stemmed from what we thought was just taking a dead cat and giving them some respect. That’s a reminder to all of us that if it looks like someone is dead, it doesn’t mean they are.
Bob: I love where that started. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. That’s why I wanted you to tell that story. I’m one of those people who will stop. I had the perspective that you had, not that I don’t think of it. We drive by dead raccoons or porcupines, whatever and I think the same thing. We would not leave these animals on the side of the road if they were people, these souls on the side of the road if they were people. I often stop if it’s a dog or a cat. It might be someone’s pet. Just to make sure it is dead because I can’t imagine seeing one of them suffering. I don’t want to see them suffering so get them the help if at all possible even if it would be to euthanize them because there’s nothing that could be done. I don’t know what I would do if I came across…
Obviously you bring them to the vet. I don’t think I would try giving them CPR or anything. That would be a picture right there. I’ve done this so many times and of course, there was always rigor mortis had set in. It was clear that they had passed. This story made me think I’m doing the right thing. Now you’re giving me another reason to do it, two more reasons to do it. One, just out of respect for that spirit and also for the fact that maybe one of them might be alone. I’m sure that many of them are. I’m sure people are driving by animals that have been hit by cars or whatever that are still alive and they could be saved. It’s kind of sad when you think about it. Your story is a happy story so thanks for sharing that. I’m going to show everybody your book. Once again, Animals in the Afterlife: True Stories of Our Best Friends’ Journey Beyond Death. How many stories do you have in there? Do you know?
Kim: I’ve never actually counted. I’m going to say around a hundred.
Bob: There’s just so many and they’re beautiful. Like I said, if you’re the kind of person who likes the Chicken Soup for the Soul books which have sold, I don’t even know, billions of copies of books and so many people do, this is just story after story of not only heartwarming stories but stories we can learn from. That’s where you learned most of your wisdom that you know about this, correct?
Kim: Correct.
Bob: Through other people’s stories, I love it. Your website is going to be below this video in the show notes but it’s kimsheridan.com, correct?
Kim: Yes.
Bob: What else? Anything else that you want to tell us about that maybe people should check out?
Kim: Just in general I want to let people know that this is a subject to be taken sensitively. In other words, if someone’s not going through this themselves to remember that if someone else is going through this and to really honor that. If you hear that a coworker’s dog died for example, maybe give them some flowers, a sympathy card or give them a hug. This is a profound loss. Many times this is a deeper loss than the loss of a human. Many times that connection with an animal, that unconditional love is even more profound than with most of the humans in many people’s lives. I just encourage everyone to honor that. To pay attention to nudges from spirits no matter how subtle they may be because they’re very real and very profound.
The more we open ourselves to them, the more they’re able to come through. The final thing I will mention is that I’m currently working on a film based on all of this. Also, there will eventually be a book too. If anyone has had these stories, they can feel free to contact me through the website to share their experience. Hopefully I can give them a voice in a larger way.
Bob: Beautiful, that’s great. Kimsheridan.com you can go there. You can share your experience with her. Maybe it will end up in the next book. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your stories with us, your wisdom, adding comfort to all of us who have known that experience of grieving the loss of a beloved pet and continue with your work. Good luck with it. It was really nice to meet you.
Kim: Thank you and thanks so much for what you do. It’s a real service for the world. Thanks for having me.
Bob: Thanks, Kim. Bye-bye now.
Kim: Bye-bye.
Afterlife TV is presented by Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher Bob Olson, who is the author of Answers about the Afterlife: A Private Investigator’s 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death.
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