How Developing My Intuition Has Made Me a Better Pet Parent

Intuition is a prized survival tool for both wild animals and our domesticated companion animals. Out of all the species alive on Earth right now, only one species downplays the importance of intuitive development - homo sapiens.

That's right, human animals just like you and me. So if you are not too sure how intuition can help you care for or parent your pet, you are in very good company! Most humans just haven't learned why intuition matters, let alone how to activate their inner iOS (intuitive operating system).

This podcast episode will begin to change that. I share six KEY ways that developing my intuitive abilities has radically improved my ability to care for my animal family members in the ways they want and need (rather than the ways I think they want and need).

Today I can't imagine caring for my companion animals without the help and guidance of my intuition. By the end of this podcast, you will understand why. 

Want to begin (or continue) your pet parent intuitive development journey? This month, for the first time ever, I'm offering a FREE LIVE webinar, "Intuitive Development for Pet Parents." Three days/times are available. Learn more and pick your preferred date and time here (spaces are limited so act fast to claim your seat!): https://www.animallovelanguages.com/idpp

Chapters

• 0:12 Intuition in Pet Parenting
• 15:26 Intuition in Pet Parenting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to. Let's Talk to Animals. My name is Shannon Cutts. I am an animal intuitive and sensitive Reiki master practitioner and an animal communication teacher with Animal Calm. I am first and foremost, however, a pet parent. You may have picked up that little chirpy, chirpy greeting. That is my soul bird, miss Petal, and I share her story in a different episode of the podcast, but today I want to welcome you to a conversation around intuition.

Speaker 1: 0:48

And when I was dreaming up today's podcast episode and I was thinking about what do I want to share about intuition, about why it has become such a trusted, such a special, such an indispensable tool in my pet parent toolkit, I almost found myself at a loss for words, because intuition has changed my pet parenting game so profoundly that I almost feel emotional, like I'm talking about somebody or something I just so love and rely on and appreciate and value and feel so grateful for. It has had so many positive ripple effects, not just in how I take care of. When I say parent a pet, what I mean is how I care for them, care of. When I say parent a pet, what I mean is how I care for them, tend to them, befriend the animals in my inner species family at all levels of their being, of who they are body, mind, heart, soul, spirit, intuition has been a game changer, a turning point in my ability to do that for each of the animals in my interspecies family, as well as other animals who temporarily crossed my path my rescue kitten Momo, who's now living his very best life with his kitten sibling and his forever family as an example of that, the wild animals in my space as we try to manage our shared living situation together. But most definitely the animals in my current interspecies family and that includes my soul bird Petal, who never misses an episode of let's Talk to Animals, never misses a chance to contribute Her wisdom and knowledge.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Also are Dachshund Flash Gordon he's a standard wire-haired Dachshund and his bestie, my red-footed tortoise Malti, and my box turtle, my three-toed eastern hybrid box turtle. My three-toed eastern hybrid box turtle Io. So those are the members of my current interspecies family and my ability to be of service to each one of them in all of the different ways. They need me. They need my love, my care, my support to help them live their best lives, especially in a companion animal setting where, let's face it, we humans make most of the choices we have most of the control, whether we particularly want to or not. That's just how life flows when they're living in our home, by our rules and immersed in our preferences and our choices. And so, of course, each one of the animals in my current interspecies family. They have different needs, they have different genetics, different physiognomy, they have different metabolisms, they have different species, temperaments and preferences and habits, and so it's a lot right. Learning for and caring for all these beautiful animals that we share our homes and our lives with, and intuition, has had a profound impact on how I am able to show up for each one of my beloved animals, and this often gets overlooked when we're speaking about our pets and taking good care of them and wanting to be our best for them. It's also made me a better me, and that has its own ripple effect that benefits them as well. So this is like a really emotional, important topic for me. It's one that I have been excited to unpack with you, and I hope that you enjoy today's episode. Please do let me know if you have questions about intuition for pet parenting, if you have questions about intuitive development for yourself. I'm actually hosting a free live webinar for this very thing coming up soon and you'll hear a little bit more about that a little later on in our episode.

Speaker 1: 5:07

But let's for now, let's just dive in, shall we? Let's just get into it, and I want to start with the word intuition itself. I've always kind of had a fascination with words and their origins, definitely a recognition that our own species cooked up all of these words that we now use with such trust and often very little conscious thought to unpack them and trace them back to their source and really understand if we're even using them correctly. And so when I took the time to research the word intuition, I traced it back and I realized it actually translates directly to me an inner teacher. So I have come to think of intuition as an inner coach or GPS system that's always going to do its utmost to steer me in a direction for the highest and best good of me and of everyone. So intuition always essentially has my best and the best of everyone in my life at heart. And that's something key, because intuition does not work through our head brain, our left brain, our 3D, logical, analytical brain.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Intuition, our inner teacher, connects with us through our heart brain. And if you're not familiar, this is something we talk a lot more about inside my animal communication adventure student program. We talk a lot about the different brains and their different responsibilities. And the head brain that's really good. It's very logical. It helps me do things like research a word and its origins and its meaning and its literal translation. The heart brain is what helps me use what I learn, I feel. I don't think I feel. Of course, emotion is energy in motion. So I'm sensing the flow of energy through my body, in and through the world of those I've committed to and care for, and I am endeavoring to pick up on those energetic cues as a part of this inner GPS.

Speaker 1: 7:18

You can think of it like a personal coach who's always on call right inside you, or a nav system, a navigation system that, if we tune into it, will direct us with precision and accuracy and trustworthiness to the highest and best outcome of any situation, the highest and best destination for all concerned. So intuition is really our inner teacher and studying intuition has given me the awareness of this. And with awareness has come the curiosity. We talk a lot about that inside my student program as well. The curiosity, noticing, getting curious, wondering. It's like, hmm, okay, the theory is I have this inner teacher. I have an inner GPS system and maybe I should check this out, see if it holds water, take it for a test drive, see what it can do. And so that's exactly how my intuitive journey has unfolded to date is just trying it out, noticing, getting curious about, before I make a decision, if I've got a few options on the table. How do I feel about these? How's my body moving? How do I interact emotionally, energetically, what is my energy in motion like when I ponder or try on for size, different possibilities? So really just trying it out.

Speaker 1: 8:57

It's like when we learn to drive at first we're not really sure how all of these bells and whistles and these gears work together, and so at first it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of concentration Okay, I need to do my turn signal. Okay, especially when it comes to parallel parking. I've failed my first driving test because I couldn't parallel park. Now it's like one of my superpowers, I am really good at parallel parking. So it takes the time it takes for us to kind of put it all together. So that's what we're doing At first, we're just testing out the theory, we're getting curious. Oh, I have an inner teacher of intuition Okay, how might that work? And we just start drawing some more of our awareness towards intuition. That was where I started and my world has opened up so much since then and now I can parallel park the crap out of most pet parenting decisions because I've taken the time to learn, to practice my intuition.

Speaker 1: 9:58

I also learned something vital and important that makes it so much easier to use my inner GPS, my inner nav system, which is that I understand what activates the inner GPS, like when we have a phone. You have your smartphone here and you're like okay, I need to go somewhere. So you navigate to whatever map app you prefer Google Maps, apple Maps, whatever you're using and you type in your destination and that's how the app understands where you want to go and what sets of directions to offer you. Sometimes it even offers you a few different routes that you can take, but without understanding where you want to go, it's not going to be very useful. Intuition is the same way. It is activated by identifying your destination. The destination for a pet parent, at least, if you're me is the love bond, the connection that I have with each of my pets Now, the word pet when I ask the animals what the word pet means because of the definition, when I traced that word back to its source, essentially translated as a possession of little consequence and I was like, no, that doesn't describe how I feel about my pets.

Speaker 1: 11:16

And so I decided well, I'm an animal communicator, I can ask the animals what does that word mean? Why do we use it so prolifically in most parts of the world? And they said well, we're your partners, empathic friends and teachers. This I can get behind, because this is exactly my experience. This has exactly been my experience of all of the animals I have included in my world to date, all of the cherished members of my interspecies family. They have absolutely been my partners, my empathic friends and my greatest teachers. In fact, I wrote a whole book about all the lessons that my soul bird Pearl taught me, called Love and Feathers. What a Palm-Sized Parrot has Taught Me About Life, love and Healthy Self-Esteem. So if that has been an accurate way to describe my relationships with my pets to date and so that is.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Ultimately, the destination is to protect, strengthen, deepen the bond that we have with our pets Now by doing our very best to show them love, care for them. So that's the destination. I want to do my very best. I want to make the best choice. I want to choose the best food, the best toys, the best environment, the best veterinary care, the best enrichment, the best of everything. That is my inner GPS destination for every decision.

Speaker 1: 12:59

So when we identify that, that it's activated. This intuition is activated through the love bond that we have and the expression of that being to just go above and beyond to get 10 stars as a pet parent, then our intuition knows where and how to guide us. So that's been the second big aha moment for me in terms of changing my effectiveness as a pet parent for the better, giving me amplified abilities and helping me to be of the highest service to my pets, to give them what they want and need, not what I think they want and need. Because, again, intuition doesn't work through thinking, it doesn't work through logicking, it works through energy and motion, through emotion, through feeling, through that love bond and the intention to serve with love, to support with love, to love in the way that our pet wants and needs to be loved, not in the way that we think they would prefer to be cared for and loved.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Of course, the third aha moment is if I hadn't explored intuition itself, I would never have learned that the pets themselves the souls of the animals who choose life with humans they do so very intentionally and with a very specific service-oriented reason of their own to be our partners, empathic friends and teachers. And that just brought up so much gratitude in me that I was like, oh my gosh, now I really want to go over the top and just show you every single day through my actions, demonstrate love for you in the way that you want and need to be loved, every single day through the choices I make, through the actions that I take, and I would never have really perceived the difference. I don't think, because every day, most of us humans, we look out our window and we see many, many animals, birds, insects, mammals, reptiles that have chosen to live a wildlife. Maybe they share space with us, but outside of that they're not seeking to have a connection with us. And so that probably describes the majority of animal beings, non-human animal beings that we share this planet with.

Speaker 1: 15:26

But there's a special subsection of animals who have deliberately chosen to incarnate, to come into a physical form, for the express purpose of sharing life. Sharing their life with us. That's a high calling, because that is not an easy life. And animals that choose to live with us to be our companions and often our greatest confidants, our best friends and, for certain, our partners and our teachers. They have to give up a lot of control. They have to give up a lot of freedom, Most of their rights, often their impulses, the natural course of an animal. In the wild they would be seeking mates, having families. Many of our companion animals never get the chance to do that, so they have to give up a lot to keep company with us, to spend time with us, to spend a whole lifetime with us, and that is huge.

Speaker 1: 16:31

When I think of would I be willing to give up my freedoms, my instincts, my ability to create a home space that works for me and relationships with others of my kind? To keep company with somebody of another species who maybe never takes the time to even really understand me or get to know me? That's a big ask. So it's a big deal. We look at our pet companions and we recognize wow, they really are giving us so much agency and control over their lives, their very lives, and doing so willingly. They could have chosen to incarnate as a wild animal. Instead they chose a life with us. It's kind of jaw dropping when you really think about it.

Speaker 1: 17:22

And without choosing to develop my intuition, to study intuition, to practice with my intuition, learn how to use my inner nav system, my inner teacher, I don't know that I would have tapped in so deeply to what it's like to be my pet in our shared life together, in our world together, and the awe and the wonder and the humility that I have found. In many ways it actually takes the pressure off because I realize I'm just not that important. I mean, I am very, very important in my pet's life, don't get me wrong as are you in your pet's life, but in another way it's like this whole shell of belief that we humans have constructed that we are the best, the most important, the apex predator, the owners of the planet, whatever. All of that starts to crumble down and we realize actually we need our pets more than they need us. Not only are they often our only link back to our own inner wild and the fact that we do belong here and we are more alike than different, than all the other species on this planet and that's a topic for animal communication adventure or another podcast episode, but they're often our only link to even our ancestry.

Speaker 1: 18:38

When most of us had a much more organic work-life partnership with animals as our equals and the value of their lives, we literally relied on them for our survival, for transportation, for growing and catching food, for shelter, for warmth, for all kinds of different things. And today, being a pet parent can feel so artificial and so hierarchical, and for those of us who are sensitive and empathic, it can feel so wrong somehow, but we're not sure how or why or what to do to fix it. Well, intuition is the answer, because it has brought everything back into balance in my animal family. Take me down a few pegs to make me recognize what an awesome, humbling responsibility I have and what humility my animals are exhibiting to me every day by allowing me to learn how to care for them. Mistakes and all bad days and all misunderstandings and all, they are really putting themselves on the line to help me evolve, to help me grow and learn, as my late best friend Marcy used to love to say, to grow in wisdom and learn to love better, which I believe is a Tara Brock quote. She said it all the time and I use it all the time and always makes me think of her as well as makes me so aspirational as to the kind of human I want to be and hope to be for my animals, for other humans, even for myself, especially for myself.

Speaker 1: 20:16

So embarking on my intuitive development journey has really given me back a feeling of connection, a likeness, humility, equality. That feels so much better than just perceiving our species as kind of like an invasive species that's destroying the planet. I used to maybe you can relate to this I used to kind of want to change species. I just didn't like my own species very much, and now that I've recognized the awesome amount of power that my pet family has willingly relinquished to me, it's made me so much kinder, more grateful and more careful in how I use that power.

Speaker 1: 21:00

Along with great power which we have as pet parents, which our pets have willingly given to us, whether we realized it or specifically asked for it or not, we have it. Along with great power comes great responsibility. Tapping into that makes us more careful and it, for me, activated a real desire to really partner with my inner teacher, with my intuition, and with that love bond, because with that love bond comes a link to my animals, my pet's heart, their emotion, their energy, and learning how to read or how to sense or how to intuit or receive their energetic state tells me a lot about what's best for them, tells me about what they want, what they need, what they prefer, what feels better, what potentially will work better when I'm tuned in with their energy. So this has really been a precursor for me to learning animal communication, and it feels like it is the reason why I became proficient so quickly, because I started my intuitive development journey many years before I started my journey to becoming an animal communication professional. So I had many, many years of intuitive development under my belt before I ever added the skill set of animal communication to my toolkit. So the intuitive development definitely feels like, and has always felt like it was a necessary foundation for animal communication and perhaps more importantly, for living the kind of life I want to live to, being the kind of human and the kind of pet parent that I aspire to be.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Pursuing the intuitive path also helped me really tune in over time again, with plenty of practice, to the inner system of what I call lives, and sometimes those vibes are coming from within me. Sometimes those vibes are also coming from my animal and their preferences and choices. Over time, I have learned that this is a very trustworthy system and you may be listening to this and thinking, yes, but how does this work and how do I start tuning in? And that's what we're going to talk about in the Intuitive Development for Pet Parents webinar, so you definitely want to sign up for that. I'm going to give you practical examples. I'm going to give you practical examples and I'm going to give you experiences and we're really going to talk about how to begin or continue your own intuitive development for your pet's highest and best good, for your highest and best good and for the highest and best good of your entire inner species family. So another huge benefit why find the time to learn something else when I already have so much that I'm working on, or I've already spent so much time learning so many things it's like? Well, it actually ends up saving time because you can make fast decisions when you understand what you're feeling and sensing, versus heading up into your head and spinning your wheels. You can learn so much so quickly when you learn to tune in to how you are feeling about something, when you really learn this world of intuitive living, intuitive pet parenting?

Speaker 1: 25:45

It can be easy to wonder are you sure that I'm intuitive? Maybe you've received feedback in your life that you are not an intuitive person. Maybe you have tried in the past to activate or follow your intuition and you felt stuck or stalled out. So you may come into this experience thinking, well, I'm just not an intuitive person. And the truth is is that if you were not intuitive, you would not be breathing, because there are aspects of intuition that are hardwired into your sympathetic nervous system and that really points to our third brain, the gut brain. We'll talk about that more, but you wouldn't be alive because you would have missed the warning signs of your fight or flight sympathetic nervous system trying to keep you alive, trying to keep you safe. There is an aspect to intuition that is all about making sure that you eat and don't get eaten, and so every single human animal, just like every single non-human animal, is, in fact, intuitive.

Speaker 1: 27:08

The issue arises around how we are raised, educated and trained. So you have this, what I call your IOS, your intuitive operating system, already pre-installed inside you. What we are going to do inside of intuitive development for pet parents webinar, and what we are going to do inside of Intuitive Development for Pet Parents webinar, and what we continue in my Animal Communication Adventure student program is I'm going to teach you how to locate that program, unzip it, install it and then take it out for a test drive. And do this every single day and learn experience by experience, choice by choice, decision by decision, conversation by conversation, how to use your inner iOS nav system and how to trust it to help make every decision, whether it's a tiny little decision of well, what color collar should I choose, or it's a huge decision like does my pet want to pass it home or should I take my pet to the veterinary clinic. So there are no decisions where intuition does not work. There are no choices where intuition does not work and there are very few options in your pet's world where they don't have a preference.

Speaker 1: 28:29

And so, when you start learning to use your intuitive operating system to develop your intuition as a pet parent, there are no situations where this skillset, this tool in your toolkit, will not be invaluable, will not build your bond with your pet. You will experience, perhaps for the first time ever, the depth of the partnership that's possible for you and your pet, how much they have to contribute to the conversation around their own care, their own needs, their own wishes, and we can start to receive these requests and these requirements and act on them with trust. And then we get to witness the payoff, which is the deeper bond, the deeper trust that we share with our animal and that they feel towards us. And finally this can't be overstated All of the tools that I've learned, really with the motivation to be a better parent to my pet, to navigate health challenges, behavior issues, likes, dislikes, even end-of-life transition issues, reincarnation questions, every single bit of it I can also apply to every aspect of my own life.

Speaker 1: 30:01

This has been huge because for many years I was one of those humans who often felt like everybody else got a manual for how to succeed as an adult human in this world. And I guess they ran out when it came to me because I never got one and so much of what I tried and how I tried it never seemed to pan out. I wondered sometimes am I just a prototype for the real humans? Well, this is the manual, this is it. So when you embark on this intuitive development learning journey, you are getting that manual and you are learning exactly how to create your dream life and your dream relationship with your precious pet, your partner, empathic friend and teacher.

Speaker 1: 30:57

So I hope you've enjoyed this little snapshot of intuitive development and how it has made me so much better in my ability to care for and parent my pet in a way that really fits their dreams, their wishes, their needs and honor them for their sacrifices, for their humility and for their love for me. So when we decide to activate our inner GPS, our intuition, our inner teacher, we begin to see the whole world and every relationship, every connection we have, especially those we cherish the most, with fresh eyes and new possibilities. And I cannot imagine even my very day-to-day life with my pets without having intuition as my trustworthy guide. It has taken so much of the weight of the responsibility off of me and made me aware of and willing to receive all the help that is there and all of the wisdom that my pet has to share and wants to share with me.

Speaker 1: 32:21

So I have included the link to the Intuitive Development for Pet Parents webinar in the show notes. I am offering this three different times. I sincerely hope you will join us this is the first time that I have done this, welcoming you to the webinar and if you've enjoyed this episode, please do leave a review on your streaming platform, on Apple Podcasts, wherever you like to listen. It sure does help me know what you're most interested in hearing about and I just love to hear from you, so please do. If you're listening to this podcast over on socials, tag me. You can find me at Animal Love Languages on Facebook or at Love and Feathers and Shells on Instagram. So I look forward to hearing from you and definitely check out the show notes for the webinar links, and I will see you very soon for a fresh new episode of let's Talk to Animals. Okay, all my love. Bye for now.