December 4, 2024 • 39 mins
Share your thoughts & ideas! ✨
It is amazing enough to be living with ONE reincarnated pet in the family. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine our interspecies family would include TWO reincarnated pets.
If you have ever had a pet go missing, this episode was recorded just for you. It can be a horrifying experience, especially when the missing pet is not recovered.
In this episode, I walk you through how I dealt with the disappearance of first one animal and then another, how their stories intertwined and how I worked with animal communicators in my pre-animal communication days.
(Spoiler alert: this is a two-parter - so you will definitely want to give this episode a listen before part 2 comes out in two weeks!)
Mentioned in this episode:
- Moses redfoot tortoise is a research shellebrity: https://improbable.com/2011/12/26/viva-anna-wilkinson-tortoise-cognitionist/
- Bruce box turtle channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm--vYGv0Dt56PoOTwHycXbDkHhuEfA50
- Malti redfoot tortoise: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm--vYGv0Dt5PRoqv6_KJKoE4QrVwRm7b
Get your free pet reincarnation guide: https://www.animallovelanguages.com/petreincarnation 👀
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Head over to Schedule (pssst Join our Weekly Love Letter & get $25 off) ❤️
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shannon Cutts (00:12):
Welcome to let's Talk to Animals.
My name is Shannon Cutts.
I'm an animal sensitive andintuitive, a Reiki master
practitioner and an animalcommunication teacher with
Animal Love Languages.
com, and, more importantly forour purposes, today I am serving
as your friendly neighborhoodhostess for the Let's Talk to
(00:33):
Animals podcast, the podcast allspecies can enjoy together.
And if you heard that adorablelittle chirpy chirpy chirp, then
you just met my co-hostess, mysoul bird, Petal Pearl, and I've
shared her story on otherrecent episodes of Let's Talk to
Animals, so you can always goand search for that.
(00:55):
Today.
I have a very special, deeplypersonal story, and this podcast
episode has been some time inthe making.
In fact, it's a story thatspans several years of my life
and I offer it to you today,especially if you're listening
(01:18):
and you're missing your petwho's passed into spirit and
you're wishing with all of yourheart that they could come back
to you in a new body.
We call this in the field petreincarnation and rewinding.
Several years ago, when I firstreceived information about my
(01:39):
own intuitive abilities and myanimal communication abilities
and I started studying andpracticing animal communication,
if you had told me back thenthat I would eventually be
specializing in petreincarnation among other areas
of specialization in the field.
I would not have believed you.
I really had my hands full justlearning my craft.
(02:02):
I was just so excited and soall of my vision was simply on
learning my craft and practicingit.
I wasn't even beginning todream of some of the different
special areas where I couldextend my newfound knowledge and
skillset.
And it really wasn't until myPearl, my soul bird of 24 years,
(02:27):
passed into spirit unexpectedlyone morning that my journey to
truly specialize in petreincarnation officially began.
And I really felt that call andI felt the animals inspiring me
and guiding me and teaching me.
I started to notice that myclients, my pet parent clients,
(02:49):
often would seek me out for petreincarnation related questions
and issues.
And the path unfolded, and whenmy Petal came back to me after
my Pearl died, I kind of thoughtthat that would be my big story
to tell about my personalexperiences with pet
(03:12):
reincarnation.
Of course, just a tiny tidbitof Petal Pearl's story is that
this is the fourth time that mybaby soul bird has come back to
me.
Right, you were my childhoodparakeet, perky, you were my
first cockatiel love, Jacob, youwere my Pearl and now you are
Miss Petal.
But not so long ago Iexperienced miracle number two,
(03:38):
and this all the while as I'vebeen helping pet parents work,
with their own intuitiveguidance and their bond with
their pet, to call their petsback to them through pet
reincarnation.
All of a sudden, a secondmiracle story unfolded in my own
life, and that's the story thatPetal and I are going to share
(03:59):
with you today.
So if you've been a part of myworld and my community for more
than maybe a couple of years now, you may still remember my
wonderful, charismatic rescuedbox turtle, Bruce.
Now Bruce when he first came tome.
And box turtles, of course,they're those turtles that are
(04:22):
famous for closing up completelyfront back and all the sides
into their shells and not comingout unless they absolutely want
to and they feel safe to do so.
So that is where the box turtlegets its name, and I had been
in love with box turtles eversince I saw a video of one on
(04:43):
Facebook, but I didn't reallyhave any plans to adopt a box
turtle of my own, so the factthat Bruce came into my life at
all felt like such a gift andsuch a miracle, and it's only in
hindsight, looking back now,that I can see the trajectory
(05:04):
and the wisdom.
And that's what I love about2020 hindsight.
Often it gets a bad rap becausewe look back and maybe there
are some regrets.
But I look back and I see somuch gratitude, so many lessons
and I see how so many of themoving parts in my life, at each
step along the way, that maybedidn't make sense, maybe much
(05:26):
sense or any sense at the time,now make so much sense and have
opened my heart beyond mywildest imagining to animal
wisdom, animal teachings andanimal empathy and love.
So what happened is I decidedone day, very impulsively I've
kept water turtles all my lifeand I'm very familiar with their
(05:48):
care needs and very comfortabletaking care of water turtles,
but I'd never cared for atortoise, a land turtle, and one
day I had had maybe you canrelate if this has ever happened
to you I had a big fight withmy then partner and we split up
and I was on Craig's list of allplaces and I was supposed to be
(06:11):
looking for garage apartments,because back in the day, that's
where you went to look forgarage apartments in my area.
So I was supposed to be lookingfor garage apartments.
But I was in a bit of a snitand so instead I typed in
turtles and up popped the cutestface I can't even begin to tell
you this red dotted face andthe caption read baby tortoises
(06:36):
in need of rehoming.
And of course, me being in myimpulsive ah how hard could it
be?
Mode of mildly to veryirritated with the whole
situation and how my life wasgoing at that point, I
immediately typed out a messageto volunteer my home and of
course I thought I was rescuinga baby tortoise.
(06:57):
Turns out I was purchasing one,and that was the day that Malti
tortoise, my now 10-year-oldred-footed tortoise, came home
to stay.
And Malti, from the start, wasvery independent, very
headstrong, very determined,very smart and very strong.
(07:21):
And because at the time I livedin a place I was in a garage
apartment, of course I finallyfound one and I had a beautiful
inside home, but I didn't haveany outdoor space where I could
set up a turtlearium or anyplace for her to safely run
around in an enclosedenvironment.
So every day I would take heroutside.
And she's just a little babytortoise.
(07:42):
She's about the size of an oldschool flip phone at this point,
for those of you who rememberthose, or if you look at your
smartphone and you cut it inhalf.
Theoretically, that's about thesize Malti was back then, and
so I would bring out my laptopand I worked from home a lot of
days, so I would just work outon the lawn.
I was a writer, a freelancewriter, and so I would just do
(08:02):
my work, write my articles,while Malti ran around.
Never in my wildest dreams did Iever expect that Malti would
run away from me.
So one day I was out on thelawn as usual with her and I
looked down for a moment and Iswear it was just a moment and
when I looked up she was nowhereto be seen and I got up, threw
(08:24):
my laptop down, got up, startedrunning around looking for her,
could not find her anywhere.
She's only a year old.
She's really tiny still.
She's got really short legs.
I mean I look at my pinkyfinger and her back legs, which
are her longest legs at the time, were probably like half the
length of my pinky finger.
So like, really seriously, howfar could she get?
(08:45):
But she was gone, and so Istarted to hyperventilate, I
started to freak out and Istarted to sob and I called my
mom and, like Malti's gone, momcame rushing over and got me
organized and we startedprinting up flyers and there was
this huge field across thestreet from the house I was
(09:07):
living in and lots and lots ofundeveloped land.
So it wasn't your usual in andout kind of pretty easy to
search for multi.
It was really scary.
There was a lot of undevelopedland, a lot of critters and
characters around and it was nottoo far away from the freeway.
So I were really I was reallyscared and we started posting
(09:33):
flyers and looking everywhereand accosting all of our
neighbors out walking andknocking on doors and it had
only been about an hour after weposted a whole bunch of flyers
and right around the coupleblock area where a whole bunch
of flyers and right around thecouple block area near where I
lived that I got a phone calland the woman on the end sounded
really excited and she said Ithink I found your lost turtle.
(09:54):
And of course on the flyer Ihad posted my cross street.
Everybody knew the house I livedin anyway because it was a kind
of an iconic historic house andso, just posting the cross
street, it was pretty clearwhere I was living and I posted
my phone number and I printed upa big I mean just a huge full
color photo of Malti's red andorange and yellow dotted face.
(10:18):
So she's so distinctive lookingand I was just so excited.
I was like, oh my goodness,she's so distinctive looking and
I was just so excited.
I was like, oh my goodness.
And so the woman told us whereto go and it was far, like it
was several blocks, and Ithought this doesn't.
(10:41):
I just don't see how my littletiny baby hatchling tortoise
could have gotten that far sofast.
But I'm willing to believe inmiracles.
So we got in the car and droveover there and when we got out
the woman was still standingthere with her dog and she said
my dog found your tortoise.
And another woman was standingthere as well and this other
woman handed me a tan colored,tightly closed turtle that was
(11:06):
clearly not Malti.
Bruce and Malti look nothingalike.
They're not the same species.
There was no resemblancewhatsoever.
And as I held this tightlyclosed shell between my palms,
the woman whose yard it turnedout to be started explaining
(11:29):
that her grandson had a littlehabit, a bad habit.
She thought it was adorable.
I thought it was a really badhabit for lots and lots of
turtle welfare-related reasons.
But when he would find a turtlehe would bring it to grandma
and release it in grandma's yard, and unfortunately, grandma had
(11:51):
a couple of big dogs and sothose turtles that were released
into grandma's yard were keento escape, and that's exactly
what this turtle had been tryingto do.
I learned later that it wasjust the time of year when box
turtles, who are a hibernatingspecies, would emerge and go out
(12:14):
to seek mates and replenish,eat their food, drink water,
start their spring season.
That's exactly what this turtlehad been trying to do.
When the woman's neighbor'sdogs spotted the turtle and
started to bark and harass thisturtle, and I said to the woman
(12:34):
thank you so much for calling me, but this is not my missing
turtle.
And the woman whose yard it wassaid to me oh, you lost a
turtle.
Well here, do you want this one?
And handed the turtle back tome again.
And now, keep in mind, at thispoint in time I had not yet
(12:54):
discovered that I was havingtwo-way conversations with
animals.
I was still in the habit ofhiring animal communicators and
I had been doing that for years,but I had no awareness that I
was intuitive or psychic or thatI had any ability to receive
animal messages directly.
So all I remember is holdingthis turtle in my hands between
(13:20):
my palms.
I had one palm under theturtle's plastron on the lower
shell and my other palm wascurved over the turtle's
carapace, the upper shell.
And I remember feeling so sadand thinking inside my head One
turtle doesn't replace anotherand he's not yours to give.
(13:40):
This animal is free and wildand animals are not ours, humans
to give.
Of course I didn't say any ofthis out loud.
It was just this profoundfeeling of sadness and I felt
such a deep respect for thisshell, this being between my
palms, and I just thought, no, Imean, the only thing that came
(14:04):
out of my mouth was thank you no.
Of course, I was raised in theSouth, I was raised to be polite
, and so I just said thank youno and handed the turtle back to
the woman whose yard it was,and mom and I got back in the
car and went home and continuedour search and in the meantime,
because we were not gettinganywhere, I hired two different
(14:26):
animal communicators to help mefind Malty.
My normal communicator that Ihad been working with, didn't
have time to do much more than abrief check-in and some dowsing
which, if you're not familiar,is working with a pendulum or
other type of indicator to get asense of geographic location.
And so I had to find someoneelse to help me continue.
(14:49):
So my first communicator that Iwas in the habit of hiring, my
first choice.
All she really told me wasmulti-headed north, and she's
not far away.
So then I started to huntaround looking for another
communicator who could help mefind Malty.
And what was so interesting atthis point is I'd never hired a
(15:09):
communicator to work on amissing animal case before.
So I wasn't aware of how manycommunicators there are out
there in the world who believethat only certain species can
converse with humans or have theintelligence to hold a
conversation.
And I spoke with severalcommunicators who told me they
(15:30):
only work with dogs, cats andhorses, because those are the
only species that cancommunicate.
And I just thought to myselfthat's not true.
So I kept searching.
Nobody was calling me back, andfinally I got a call from the
most wonderful communicator andshe said well, of course,
turtles and tortoises cancommunicate and I would be happy
(15:53):
to help you.
And so she and I went to workand she gave me the same basic
information that my first choicecommunicator had given me, that
Malti went North and she wasn'tfar away.
She also told me that Maltibecause she was so tiny and she
was in very tall on mode areashe had lost her geolocation
(16:15):
bearings.
Turtles and tortoises have verystrong ability to connect with
the magnetic coordinates of ourplanet and they're very, very
good at finding their way aroundand remembering where they've
been.
In fact, there's some reallycool scientific studies, with
red-footed tortoises inparticular, that show that they
(16:36):
outperform mice and rats andchimpanzees at computer
simulation tests and maze tests.
So I'll post some of those foryou in the show notes if you're
curious to learn more, becausethey are fascinating.
But Malti, because she was sotiny and this was her first big
adventure she just had kind oflost her bearings, and so that
(16:57):
was really our challenge was totry to help her find her
geolocation center again and gether to a structure where maybe
I could find her.
And she also told thecommunicator that she was still
in the process of decidingwhether she wanted to be a
companion turtle.
She had not gotten lost.
And here was another area thatwas so interesting because I
(17:17):
said to the communicator that Iwas working with.
I said I get this feeling thatmaybe Malti wanted to be free or
she wanted to go explore andsee what else there was out
there for her.
And the communicator said sheabsolutely is trying to decide
whether she wants to be acaptive tortoise or whether she
(17:38):
wants to be free.
And I said, as much as my heartwould hurt, that's her choice.
And again, this is mepre-animal communication.
But I was just having thesefeelings Like it's her choice.
As much as it will hurt me,it's her life, it's her choice.
I don't own her.
I have no agency to decide forher what her life is going to be
(18:03):
like.
So let's see if we can find outwhat she needs to bring her
home.
So six more days went by and Imean it was excruciating.
It's all I did.
My parents ended up helping mewith rent that month because I
lost so much time working,because I was always out looking
(18:24):
for malty and we were havingthese epic.
They now have gone down inhistory at least in Houston
history as the epic Memorial Dayfloods of 2015.
You can look it up on theinternet and I was out in the
pouring rain.
I mean, we had flooding allover the city, we had these huge
puddles and I just keptthinking how is little tiny
(18:46):
Malti going to survive?
Well, on the seventh day, oneweek had gone by and I was
losing hope.
On the seventh day, I gotanother phone call and I had
woken up that morning justfeeling so demoralized, so
exhausted.
I kept trying to talk to Maltiinside my head and just saying I
(19:09):
am going to find you, I'm yourmom, I'm going to find you, I'll
make everything, all theaccommodations you need.
I, just I really.
Well, I can't stop looking foryou.
But I was feeling sodemoralized and just so
depressed and defeated.
Really, to be honest, when I getthis phone call and again,
because of the historic natureof the house that I lived in
(19:32):
that intersection, everybodykind of knew where I lived, just
by my cross streets I get thisphone call from a very excited
young woman and she says to me Ihave your missing tortoise.
And I thought, oh goodness, atlast.
She said I'm driving over toyour house right now.
So they come racing around thecorner and pull up at the curb.
(19:55):
The woman gets out and she'sholding a turtle between her
hands and she hands him to meand she says here.
And immediately I looked at thetan colored shell and I said to
her this is not, this is not mymissing tortoise.
And her face fell.
(20:15):
Oh, she had been so excited.
And she just she said you know,we saw this turtle step about
to step off the curb and crossthis really, really busy street.
We knew he was going to getcrushed.
We pulled over, we grabbed himand we came over to your house
right away.
And you have to understand, justto give you some context, the
area I lived in was becomingincreasingly urbanized and so we
(20:39):
almost never saw turtles ortortoises out.
It used to be something thatpeople in that area would see,
but it was very uncommon.
And certainly seeing afull-grown adult turtle trying
to cross a busy street in broaddaylight, that's very unusual in
that area.
And so, as she said that, Ilooked more closely at this
(21:03):
particular shell and I realizedI recognize this turtle.
Oh, my goodness, this is thesame turtle that I got a call
about six days ago and all Icould think of was there's
something here again pre animalcommunication.
(21:23):
But I just felt like thiscouldn't possibly be a
coincidence, and the woman wasso disappointed, and so I said
to her well, this isn't mymissing turtle, but kind of have
an empty area where Malty usedto be, and so why don't I take
this turtle and I'll just fosterhim or her until I can find
(21:46):
suitable arrangements, while thewoman immediately brightened up
clearly she's a big fan ofhappy endings and she and her
husband went off to enjoy theirday.
And I walked upstairs with thisnew tan colored shell and
thought what did I just committo?
And I looked at this turtle andof course I shared with you
earlier the box turtles canclose their shells completely
(22:08):
and they do this and they areable to avoid predation,
raccoons, even dogs.
It takes 50 pounds or more ofpressure to open a box turtle
shell manually.
They are very strong.
Those muscles are very, verystrong.
This terrified shell.
He cracked open his littlecarapace and his plastron and
(22:32):
all I could see were thesebeautiful little red eyes
staring at me and I just thought, okay, if I'm really not meant
to find Malti, then I will carefor you until we can figure
something out.
Then I went and I got onFacebook and I had a friend in
India who was an intuitive andan animal communicator and he
(22:53):
had messaged me and he said goout, you will find your missing
tortoise today.
Look to the north.
And so I left the turtle thatwould be named Bruce in my
office and I grabbed my walkingstick and my sunglasses and hat
and I walked outside and 15minutes later I found Malti
(23:17):
hiding under a flowering bushalongside a neighbor's driveway,
just one block to the northeastfrom where I was living.
That's how close she had beenand that's how Bruce joined our
family.
Bruce was a feral rescue, whichmeant Bruce had originally been
wild, and because box turtlesare so prized in the pet trade
(23:40):
and they're so charismatic andthey're so interesting and
they're so intelligent, a lot ofpeople will find them,
especially young kids, andthey'll pick them up and they'll
take them home until they gettired of them or they forget
that they have them or theturtle manages to escape.
But box turtles have a reallystrong need to stay close to the
(24:01):
geographic range where theywere born, and so Bruce, if he
had been released again, wouldhave continued wandering,
looking for home and nobody knewwhere his home, his original
birth site, was.
And later, when I was able tocommunicate with Bruce, I really
did get this impression thathis original home was no longer
(24:23):
viable.
In other words, we had pouredconcrete on it, we had turned it
into something, so heessentially was what a
rehabilitator would haveconsidered unreleasable.
What was so interesting wasthat when I really convened with
the animal communicatorafterwards and I asked her can I
just hire you for an additionalsession to talk to this new
(24:44):
turtle?
Because now I've got Malti backand I've got this new turtle, I
don't know if this is a boy ora girl.
I'm pretty sure from thepictures I've seen on the
internet that this is a boxturtle, a three-toed box turtle,
a Texas three-toed box turtle.
But I'm not.
He just is behaving like hewants to stay, like he climbed
(25:05):
up on top of Maltese big stuffedalligator, which is this
ridiculous giant alligatorstuffed animal that I bought for
Maltese to hide under when shewas a hatchling and he crawled
up on top of it and he kind ofplanted himself right on the top
of it and he just looked at meand it was like I just feel like
this turtle is telling me thathe is home.
(25:26):
And she said he is.
That's why he was walking inyour direction, that is why he
tried to cross that busy street.
He was geolocating to you andif you're listening to this and
you're thinking, how on earthcould that be possible?
Ask yourself how it could bepossible that animals could help
(25:47):
us detect seizures or heartattacks or anxiety, that animals
could trek across the countryto reunite with their people
after being separated by anatural disaster.
Animals can geolocate thehumans that they want to be with
and this turtle had doneexactly that and she said none
(26:09):
of that ridiculous stuff.
He wants a really strong namelike Bruce.
I said, well, that wasn't whereI was headed, but if that's the
name that he wants, then okay.
(26:30):
So I actually named him Bruceafter the shark and finding Nemo
.
That never knew his father andthat became kind of part of his
persona, his personality,because that's actually true for
Bruce.
But the first three years ofBruce's life with us I had to
move twice before I found asuitable outdoor area for this
(26:51):
adult, feral, rescued box turtleto live, because Bruce could
not tolerate living indoors.
He wouldn't stay in anystructure that I put him in.
He was an incredible climber,he could climb out of just about
anything, total escape artistand very, very restless indoors.
So I had to house him outdoorsand he needed a large structure,
(27:14):
so I had to move several timesbefore we found accommodations
that would suit him.
And all the while, as I wascaring for him, he was just
terrified of me.
He was so scared of me.
He did not want anything to dowith me.
He did not understand how to bewith a human in a way that
wouldn't be scary, and so I usedto bring him his food every day
(27:36):
.
It was such a challenge evengetting him to eat, because I
couldn't find anything that herecognized, and after some time
of trial and error, I finallygave him some fresh steamed
salmon fish that I had that mymom had made, and he loved that.
He fell in love with it, andafter that I would try to bring
him things like that, along withsome wildlife prey, every other
(28:00):
day, because that's what theyneed, that's what these animals
eat, and if I was going to carefor him, I was going to care for
him in a way that worked forhim, and so I used to bring him
his food on a big food rockevery day, so it would look as
naturalistic as possible, and Iwould come up to his enclosure,
which was like six feet by threefeet.
(28:22):
It was pretty big, and he wouldrun away from me and I would
quickly put his food rock inwith all of his food on it and I
would say to him you never haveto interact with me, you never
have to like me, you never haveto be sociable with me.
It is such an honor for me tocare for you.
I love you just the way you areand all you have to do, please,
(28:47):
is eat the food, drink thewater and be a healthy box
turtle and I will care for youfor the rest of your life.
And when he was ready tohibernate even though that was
total fear factor for me I wastotally freaked out.
It can be very dangerous if youdon't know what you're doing.
To hibernate a captive turtle.
We got through it the firstyear.
We got through it the secondyear.
(29:08):
We got through it the thirdyear.
In the meantime I'd had to moveagain.
And the third year he was inhibernation.
We had a terrible winter.
We had such an intense freezeand I was so scared because box
turtles do pretty well inhibernation in a certain
(29:28):
temperature range, but when itstarts to creep down past the
30s into the 20s, you're reallyin a danger zone and a lot of
box turtles, a lot ofhibernating animals don't make
it through hibernation season.
And so I would go out.
I installed a red light bulbabove his outdoor enclosure to
(29:48):
kind of warm up the ambient air.
I added extra insulation.
I would go out and I would juststand there and talk to him and
just say I hope you're okay inthere.
I just try to add prayer, justanything I could do.
Still wasn't talking to animals, but I was just talking to him
just because I needed somethingto do and I would just say
(30:09):
please, make it, please make it,please make it.
And somehow I don't knowexactly what happened.
But when he woke up that spring, what happened?
But when he woke up that springthis is year number three
something had changed.
He became like a puppy with ashell.
(30:31):
It's like he finally decided totrust me, finally overrode all
those years of trauma andrelocation and mishandling and
possibly abuse and hunger andfear, and he decided that maybe
he couldn't trust all the humansin this world, but he could
trust me and he became the mostcharismatic, playful, loving,
(30:51):
lovable box turtle.
He would climb all the way upme and cuddle under my neck,
under my chin.
He loved the camera and thecamera loved him and he would
run up to it.
And just if you're familiarwith Otis the box turtle from
Garden State Tortoise, he'sbecome a media celebrity.
(31:11):
Bruce was like that and hebecame an internet sensation.
I can't tell you how fast myInstagram account grew once I
started filming Bruce.
Everybody fell in love withBruce, most of all me.
So we had about three and a halfblissful years and then I could
sense that Bruce was gettingrestless and he wanted more
(31:32):
space and I did not have morespace.
So I tried to jerry-rig hisenclosure together with Malti's
old enclosure, because she hadoutgrown it.
By this time Redfoot tortoisesget pretty big and I tried to
put it together into a 20-footby 3-foot enclosure that he
could run around in.
I was getting pulled constantly.
(31:55):
My dad was getting very sickand I was not available the way
I had been, and he startedbiting me and he started
escaping.
He was so good at escaping hemanaged to crawl up the side,
cry, open the top one of thehatch doors at the very top of
this enclosure, fall six feet tothe ground and wander away, and
(32:22):
I found him.
After several days search, Ifound him and still after I
found him, returned him.
He continued biting, so I hadto pull back on my handling him
and interacting with him.
And then my dad got sicker and Ijust wasn't home, and one night
we had a really torrentialrainstorm and by that time my
(32:46):
dad had passed and my mom hadhad an epic unexpected fall and
had broken her femur and herleft wrist, and so I was living
with her in the hospital andthen at rehab.
And one day I came home tocheck on Bruce and the bottom
had fallen out of his enclosurein the middle where I joined the
(33:07):
two together, and he hadescaped again, and while I tried
to look for him, my mom neededme.
I had two other animals andactually three, because I was
caring for my mom's dachshund aswell and I was never able to
find him again.
And it was one of the mostheart-wrenching times in my life
.
I lost my best friend Marcyunexpectedly.
(33:30):
I lost my dad unexpectedly, myrelationship of 15 years had
ended and I had walked away, andthen Bruce escaped and I ended
up moving, giving up my home andmoving in with mom to help her,
and my whole life just changed.
Almost it felt like overnight,but it was really over a period
(33:52):
of about six months and I just Ijust thought I was never going
to have a box turtle ever again.
I would get calls and textsevery so often from someone who
would say they had seen Bruce,but they were never able to
capture him or give me any moreinformation, and so it was just
(34:14):
a very dark, very hard, sadperiod in my life, and I
understood that Bruce wanted tobe free and what was so
interesting about the timing ofit all and the energy of it all.
By then I had started learninganimal communication and so I
(34:38):
had begun practicing and havingtwo-way conversations and I
talked to Bruce myself and Iasked him.
Of course I felt so close tothe situation and just
emotionally very compromised,but I did my best to ask and I
said do you want to be free?
And he said yes, I want to befree.
(34:58):
When I came to you I wasstarving and scared and I felt
very weak and incapable ofliving a wild life in the area
that I was in, and I just hadlost confidence in myself.
And now I'm strong and I'm wellfed and I'm healthy and I can
(35:22):
do it and I want to experiencethat.
I want to know for myself thatI can live a strong, brave,
happy, wild, adult box turtlelife.
And I asked several of my animalcommunication mentors and
colleagues to also tune in andthey would report back and say,
yes, he wants to be free, thisis his choice.
(35:45):
He knew that you were nevergoing to be able to let him go,
cause I used to try.
I used to say, if you'll justhang on a little longer, I'll
release you, and he was right.
I don't think I would have beenable to do it.
It would have just been so hardto watch him walk away.
So he took his life into hisown paws and claws and he had
(36:07):
every right to do it.
But it was so very difficultand I never really stopped
grieving.
And if you've ever had ananimal go missing or pass and
you haven't had that closure, Ifeel very sure that you
empathize.
You understand what thatfeeling is like.
And so that is where I thoughtmy story with Bruce would end.
(36:34):
And because we're getting upthere and I like to keep these
episodes around 30 to 45 minutes, I'm going to do something a
little unusual for me and I'mgoing to leave you with a
cliffhanger, and we're going tocontinue this story with a part
two that you will have in twoweeks time.
(36:55):
So thank you so much forlistening.
I can't wait to share part twoand the grand finale, or the
continual unfolding, shall I say, of my story with Bruce in part
two.
If you've enjoyed this episode,please do leave me a review on
(37:15):
your favorite streaming platform.
It really helps my podcastcontinue, it helps encourage me
to keep making episodes, ithelps me answer your questions
and it's a way for me to hearfrom you and know what you're
interested in learning moreabout, and it's just always so
fun to connect with you.
(37:36):
So please do leave a review andI will be back with you in two
weeks for the continuation of mystory, my adventures with Bruce
.
So all my love.
Bye for now.
Welcome to let's Talk to Animals.
My name is Shannon Cutts.
I'm an animal sensitive andintuitive, a Reiki master
practitioner and an animalcommunication teacher with
Animal Love Languages.
com, and, more importantly forour purposes, today I am serving
as your friendly neighborhoodhostess for the Let's Talk to
(00:33):
Animals podcast, the podcast allspecies can enjoy together.
And if you heard that adorablelittle chirpy chirpy chirp, then
you just met my co-hostess, mysoul bird, Petal Pearl, and I've
shared her story on otherrecent episodes of Let's Talk to
Animals, so you can always goand search for that.
(00:55):
Today.
I have a very special, deeplypersonal story, and this podcast
episode has been some time inthe making.
In fact, it's a story thatspans several years of my life
and I offer it to you today,especially if you're listening
(01:18):
and you're missing your petwho's passed into spirit and
you're wishing with all of yourheart that they could come back
to you in a new body.
We call this in the field petreincarnation and rewinding.
Several years ago, when I firstreceived information about my
(01:39):
own intuitive abilities and myanimal communication abilities
and I started studying andpracticing animal communication,
if you had told me back thenthat I would eventually be
specializing in petreincarnation among other areas
of specialization in the field.
I would not have believed you.
I really had my hands full justlearning my craft.
(02:02):
I was just so excited and soall of my vision was simply on
learning my craft and practicingit.
I wasn't even beginning todream of some of the different
special areas where I couldextend my newfound knowledge and
skillset.
And it really wasn't until myPearl, my soul bird of 24 years,
(02:27):
passed into spirit unexpectedlyone morning that my journey to
truly specialize in petreincarnation officially began.
And I really felt that call andI felt the animals inspiring me
and guiding me and teaching me.
I started to notice that myclients, my pet parent clients,
(02:49):
often would seek me out for petreincarnation related questions
and issues.
And the path unfolded, and whenmy Petal came back to me after
my Pearl died, I kind of thoughtthat that would be my big story
to tell about my personalexperiences with pet
(03:12):
reincarnation.
Of course, just a tiny tidbitof Petal Pearl's story is that
this is the fourth time that mybaby soul bird has come back to
me.
Right, you were my childhoodparakeet, perky, you were my
first cockatiel love, Jacob, youwere my Pearl and now you are
Miss Petal.
But not so long ago Iexperienced miracle number two,
(03:38):
and this all the while as I'vebeen helping pet parents work,
with their own intuitiveguidance and their bond with
their pet, to call their petsback to them through pet
reincarnation.
All of a sudden, a secondmiracle story unfolded in my own
life, and that's the story thatPetal and I are going to share
(03:59):
with you today.
So if you've been a part of myworld and my community for more
than maybe a couple of years now, you may still remember my
wonderful, charismatic rescuedbox turtle, Bruce.
Now Bruce when he first came tome.
And box turtles, of course,they're those turtles that are
(04:22):
famous for closing up completelyfront back and all the sides
into their shells and not comingout unless they absolutely want
to and they feel safe to do so.
So that is where the box turtlegets its name, and I had been
in love with box turtles eversince I saw a video of one on
(04:43):
Facebook, but I didn't reallyhave any plans to adopt a box
turtle of my own, so the factthat Bruce came into my life at
all felt like such a gift andsuch a miracle, and it's only in
hindsight, looking back now,that I can see the trajectory
(05:04):
and the wisdom.
And that's what I love about2020 hindsight.
Often it gets a bad rap becausewe look back and maybe there
are some regrets.
But I look back and I see somuch gratitude, so many lessons
and I see how so many of themoving parts in my life, at each
step along the way, that maybedidn't make sense, maybe much
(05:26):
sense or any sense at the time,now make so much sense and have
opened my heart beyond mywildest imagining to animal
wisdom, animal teachings andanimal empathy and love.
So what happened is I decidedone day, very impulsively I've
kept water turtles all my lifeand I'm very familiar with their
(05:48):
care needs and very comfortabletaking care of water turtles,
but I'd never cared for atortoise, a land turtle, and one
day I had had maybe you canrelate if this has ever happened
to you I had a big fight withmy then partner and we split up
and I was on Craig's list of allplaces and I was supposed to be
(06:11):
looking for garage apartments,because back in the day, that's
where you went to look forgarage apartments in my area.
So I was supposed to be lookingfor garage apartments.
But I was in a bit of a snitand so instead I typed in
turtles and up popped the cutestface I can't even begin to tell
you this red dotted face andthe caption read baby tortoises
(06:36):
in need of rehoming.
And of course, me being in myimpulsive ah how hard could it
be?
Mode of mildly to veryirritated with the whole
situation and how my life wasgoing at that point, I
immediately typed out a messageto volunteer my home and of
course I thought I was rescuinga baby tortoise.
(06:57):
Turns out I was purchasing one,and that was the day that Malti
tortoise, my now 10-year-oldred-footed tortoise, came home
to stay.
And Malti, from the start, wasvery independent, very
headstrong, very determined,very smart and very strong.
(07:21):
And because at the time I livedin a place I was in a garage
apartment, of course I finallyfound one and I had a beautiful
inside home, but I didn't haveany outdoor space where I could
set up a turtlearium or anyplace for her to safely run
around in an enclosedenvironment.
So every day I would take heroutside.
And she's just a little babytortoise.
(07:42):
She's about the size of an oldschool flip phone at this point,
for those of you who rememberthose, or if you look at your
smartphone and you cut it inhalf.
Theoretically, that's about thesize Malti was back then, and
so I would bring out my laptopand I worked from home a lot of
days, so I would just work outon the lawn.
I was a writer, a freelancewriter, and so I would just do
(08:02):
my work, write my articles,while Malti ran around.
Never in my wildest dreams did Iever expect that Malti would
run away from me.
So one day I was out on thelawn as usual with her and I
looked down for a moment and Iswear it was just a moment and
when I looked up she was nowhereto be seen and I got up, threw
(08:24):
my laptop down, got up, startedrunning around looking for her,
could not find her anywhere.
She's only a year old.
She's really tiny still.
She's got really short legs.
I mean I look at my pinkyfinger and her back legs, which
are her longest legs at the time, were probably like half the
length of my pinky finger.
So like, really seriously, howfar could she get?
(08:45):
But she was gone, and so Istarted to hyperventilate, I
started to freak out and Istarted to sob and I called my
mom and, like Malti's gone, momcame rushing over and got me
organized and we startedprinting up flyers and there was
this huge field across thestreet from the house I was
(09:07):
living in and lots and lots ofundeveloped land.
So it wasn't your usual in andout kind of pretty easy to
search for multi.
It was really scary.
There was a lot of undevelopedland, a lot of critters and
characters around and it was nottoo far away from the freeway.
So I were really I was reallyscared and we started posting
(09:33):
flyers and looking everywhereand accosting all of our
neighbors out walking andknocking on doors and it had
only been about an hour after weposted a whole bunch of flyers
and right around the coupleblock area where a whole bunch
of flyers and right around thecouple block area near where I
lived that I got a phone calland the woman on the end sounded
really excited and she said Ithink I found your lost turtle.
(09:54):
And of course on the flyer Ihad posted my cross street.
Everybody knew the house I livedin anyway because it was a kind
of an iconic historic house andso, just posting the cross
street, it was pretty clearwhere I was living and I posted
my phone number and I printed upa big I mean just a huge full
color photo of Malti's red andorange and yellow dotted face.
(10:18):
So she's so distinctive lookingand I was just so excited.
I was like, oh my goodness,she's so distinctive looking and
I was just so excited.
I was like, oh my goodness.
And so the woman told us whereto go and it was far, like it
was several blocks, and Ithought this doesn't.
(10:41):
I just don't see how my littletiny baby hatchling tortoise
could have gotten that far sofast.
But I'm willing to believe inmiracles.
So we got in the car and droveover there and when we got out
the woman was still standingthere with her dog and she said
my dog found your tortoise.
And another woman was standingthere as well and this other
woman handed me a tan colored,tightly closed turtle that was
(11:06):
clearly not Malti.
Bruce and Malti look nothingalike.
They're not the same species.
There was no resemblancewhatsoever.
And as I held this tightlyclosed shell between my palms,
the woman whose yard it turnedout to be started explaining
(11:29):
that her grandson had a littlehabit, a bad habit.
She thought it was adorable.
I thought it was a really badhabit for lots and lots of
turtle welfare-related reasons.
But when he would find a turtlehe would bring it to grandma
and release it in grandma's yard, and unfortunately, grandma had
(11:51):
a couple of big dogs and sothose turtles that were released
into grandma's yard were keento escape, and that's exactly
what this turtle had been tryingto do.
I learned later that it wasjust the time of year when box
turtles, who are a hibernatingspecies, would emerge and go out
(12:14):
to seek mates and replenish,eat their food, drink water,
start their spring season.
That's exactly what this turtlehad been trying to do.
When the woman's neighbor'sdogs spotted the turtle and
started to bark and harass thisturtle, and I said to the woman
(12:34):
thank you so much for calling me, but this is not my missing
turtle.
And the woman whose yard it wassaid to me oh, you lost a
turtle.
Well here, do you want this one?
And handed the turtle back tome again.
And now, keep in mind, at thispoint in time I had not yet
(12:54):
discovered that I was havingtwo-way conversations with
animals.
I was still in the habit ofhiring animal communicators and
I had been doing that for years,but I had no awareness that I
was intuitive or psychic or thatI had any ability to receive
animal messages directly.
So all I remember is holdingthis turtle in my hands between
(13:20):
my palms.
I had one palm under theturtle's plastron on the lower
shell and my other palm wascurved over the turtle's
carapace, the upper shell.
And I remember feeling so sadand thinking inside my head One
turtle doesn't replace anotherand he's not yours to give.
(13:40):
This animal is free and wildand animals are not ours, humans
to give.
Of course I didn't say any ofthis out loud.
It was just this profoundfeeling of sadness and I felt
such a deep respect for thisshell, this being between my
palms, and I just thought, no, Imean, the only thing that came
(14:04):
out of my mouth was thank you no.
Of course, I was raised in theSouth, I was raised to be polite
, and so I just said thank youno and handed the turtle back to
the woman whose yard it was,and mom and I got back in the
car and went home and continuedour search and in the meantime,
because we were not gettinganywhere, I hired two different
(14:26):
animal communicators to help mefind Malty.
My normal communicator that Ihad been working with, didn't
have time to do much more than abrief check-in and some dowsing
which, if you're not familiar,is working with a pendulum or
other type of indicator to get asense of geographic location.
And so I had to find someoneelse to help me continue.
(14:49):
So my first communicator that Iwas in the habit of hiring, my
first choice.
All she really told me wasmulti-headed north, and she's
not far away.
So then I started to huntaround looking for another
communicator who could help mefind Malty.
And what was so interesting atthis point is I'd never hired a
(15:09):
communicator to work on amissing animal case before.
So I wasn't aware of how manycommunicators there are out
there in the world who believethat only certain species can
converse with humans or have theintelligence to hold a
conversation.
And I spoke with severalcommunicators who told me they
(15:30):
only work with dogs, cats andhorses, because those are the
only species that cancommunicate.
And I just thought to myselfthat's not true.
So I kept searching.
Nobody was calling me back, andfinally I got a call from the
most wonderful communicator andshe said well, of course,
turtles and tortoises cancommunicate and I would be happy
(15:53):
to help you.
And so she and I went to workand she gave me the same basic
information that my first choicecommunicator had given me, that
Malti went North and she wasn'tfar away.
She also told me that Maltibecause she was so tiny and she
was in very tall on mode areashe had lost her geolocation
(16:15):
bearings.
Turtles and tortoises have verystrong ability to connect with
the magnetic coordinates of ourplanet and they're very, very
good at finding their way aroundand remembering where they've
been.
In fact, there's some reallycool scientific studies, with
red-footed tortoises inparticular, that show that they
(16:36):
outperform mice and rats andchimpanzees at computer
simulation tests and maze tests.
So I'll post some of those foryou in the show notes if you're
curious to learn more, becausethey are fascinating.
But Malti, because she was sotiny and this was her first big
adventure she just had kind oflost her bearings, and so that
(16:57):
was really our challenge was totry to help her find her
geolocation center again and gether to a structure where maybe
I could find her.
And she also told thecommunicator that she was still
in the process of decidingwhether she wanted to be a
companion turtle.
She had not gotten lost.
And here was another area thatwas so interesting because I
(17:17):
said to the communicator that Iwas working with.
I said I get this feeling thatmaybe Malti wanted to be free or
she wanted to go explore andsee what else there was out
there for her.
And the communicator said sheabsolutely is trying to decide
whether she wants to be acaptive tortoise or whether she
(17:38):
wants to be free.
And I said, as much as my heartwould hurt, that's her choice.
And again, this is mepre-animal communication.
But I was just having thesefeelings Like it's her choice.
As much as it will hurt me,it's her life, it's her choice.
I don't own her.
I have no agency to decide forher what her life is going to be
(18:03):
like.
So let's see if we can find outwhat she needs to bring her
home.
So six more days went by and Imean it was excruciating.
It's all I did.
My parents ended up helping mewith rent that month because I
lost so much time working,because I was always out looking
(18:24):
for malty and we were havingthese epic.
They now have gone down inhistory at least in Houston
history as the epic Memorial Dayfloods of 2015.
You can look it up on theinternet and I was out in the
pouring rain.
I mean, we had flooding allover the city, we had these huge
puddles and I just keptthinking how is little tiny
(18:46):
Malti going to survive?
Well, on the seventh day, oneweek had gone by and I was
losing hope.
On the seventh day, I gotanother phone call and I had
woken up that morning justfeeling so demoralized, so
exhausted.
I kept trying to talk to Maltiinside my head and just saying I
(19:09):
am going to find you, I'm yourmom, I'm going to find you, I'll
make everything, all theaccommodations you need.
I, just I really.
Well, I can't stop looking foryou.
But I was feeling sodemoralized and just so
depressed and defeated.
Really, to be honest, when I getthis phone call and again,
because of the historic natureof the house that I lived in
(19:32):
that intersection, everybodykind of knew where I lived, just
by my cross streets I get thisphone call from a very excited
young woman and she says to me Ihave your missing tortoise.
And I thought, oh goodness, atlast.
She said I'm driving over toyour house right now.
So they come racing around thecorner and pull up at the curb.
(19:55):
The woman gets out and she'sholding a turtle between her
hands and she hands him to meand she says here.
And immediately I looked at thetan colored shell and I said to
her this is not, this is not mymissing tortoise.
And her face fell.
(20:15):
Oh, she had been so excited.
And she just she said you know,we saw this turtle step about
to step off the curb and crossthis really, really busy street.
We knew he was going to getcrushed.
We pulled over, we grabbed himand we came over to your house
right away.
And you have to understand, justto give you some context, the
area I lived in was becomingincreasingly urbanized and so we
(20:39):
almost never saw turtles ortortoises out.
It used to be something thatpeople in that area would see,
but it was very uncommon.
And certainly seeing afull-grown adult turtle trying
to cross a busy street in broaddaylight, that's very unusual in
that area.
And so, as she said that, Ilooked more closely at this
(21:03):
particular shell and I realizedI recognize this turtle.
Oh, my goodness, this is thesame turtle that I got a call
about six days ago and all Icould think of was there's
something here again pre animalcommunication.
(21:23):
But I just felt like thiscouldn't possibly be a
coincidence, and the woman wasso disappointed, and so I said
to her well, this isn't mymissing turtle, but kind of have
an empty area where Malty usedto be, and so why don't I take
this turtle and I'll just fosterhim or her until I can find
(21:46):
suitable arrangements, while thewoman immediately brightened up
clearly she's a big fan ofhappy endings and she and her
husband went off to enjoy theirday.
And I walked upstairs with thisnew tan colored shell and
thought what did I just committo?
And I looked at this turtle andof course I shared with you
earlier the box turtles canclose their shells completely
(22:08):
and they do this and they areable to avoid predation,
raccoons, even dogs.
It takes 50 pounds or more ofpressure to open a box turtle
shell manually.
They are very strong.
Those muscles are very, verystrong.
This terrified shell.
He cracked open his littlecarapace and his plastron and
(22:32):
all I could see were thesebeautiful little red eyes
staring at me and I just thought, okay, if I'm really not meant
to find Malti, then I will carefor you until we can figure
something out.
Then I went and I got onFacebook and I had a friend in
India who was an intuitive andan animal communicator and he
(22:53):
had messaged me and he said goout, you will find your missing
tortoise today.
Look to the north.
And so I left the turtle thatwould be named Bruce in my
office and I grabbed my walkingstick and my sunglasses and hat
and I walked outside and 15minutes later I found Malti
(23:17):
hiding under a flowering bushalongside a neighbor's driveway,
just one block to the northeastfrom where I was living.
That's how close she had beenand that's how Bruce joined our
family.
Bruce was a feral rescue, whichmeant Bruce had originally been
wild, and because box turtlesare so prized in the pet trade
(23:40):
and they're so charismatic andthey're so interesting and
they're so intelligent, a lot ofpeople will find them,
especially young kids, andthey'll pick them up and they'll
take them home until they gettired of them or they forget
that they have them or theturtle manages to escape.
But box turtles have a reallystrong need to stay close to the
(24:01):
geographic range where theywere born, and so Bruce, if he
had been released again, wouldhave continued wandering,
looking for home and nobody knewwhere his home, his original
birth site, was.
And later, when I was able tocommunicate with Bruce, I really
did get this impression thathis original home was no longer
(24:23):
viable.
In other words, we had pouredconcrete on it, we had turned it
into something, so heessentially was what a
rehabilitator would haveconsidered unreleasable.
What was so interesting wasthat when I really convened with
the animal communicatorafterwards and I asked her can I
just hire you for an additionalsession to talk to this new
(24:44):
turtle?
Because now I've got Malti backand I've got this new turtle, I
don't know if this is a boy ora girl.
I'm pretty sure from thepictures I've seen on the
internet that this is a boxturtle, a three-toed box turtle,
a Texas three-toed box turtle.
But I'm not.
He just is behaving like hewants to stay, like he climbed
(25:05):
up on top of Maltese big stuffedalligator, which is this
ridiculous giant alligatorstuffed animal that I bought for
Maltese to hide under when shewas a hatchling and he crawled
up on top of it and he kind ofplanted himself right on the top
of it and he just looked at meand it was like I just feel like
this turtle is telling me thathe is home.
(25:26):
And she said he is.
That's why he was walking inyour direction, that is why he
tried to cross that busy street.
He was geolocating to you andif you're listening to this and
you're thinking, how on earthcould that be possible?
Ask yourself how it could bepossible that animals could help
(25:47):
us detect seizures or heartattacks or anxiety, that animals
could trek across the countryto reunite with their people
after being separated by anatural disaster.
Animals can geolocate thehumans that they want to be with
and this turtle had doneexactly that and she said none
(26:09):
of that ridiculous stuff.
He wants a really strong namelike Bruce.
I said, well, that wasn't whereI was headed, but if that's the
name that he wants, then okay.
(26:30):
So I actually named him Bruceafter the shark and finding Nemo
.
That never knew his father andthat became kind of part of his
persona, his personality,because that's actually true for
Bruce.
But the first three years ofBruce's life with us I had to
move twice before I found asuitable outdoor area for this
(26:51):
adult, feral, rescued box turtleto live, because Bruce could
not tolerate living indoors.
He wouldn't stay in anystructure that I put him in.
He was an incredible climber,he could climb out of just about
anything, total escape artistand very, very restless indoors.
So I had to house him outdoorsand he needed a large structure,
(27:14):
so I had to move several timesbefore we found accommodations
that would suit him.
And all the while, as I wascaring for him, he was just
terrified of me.
He was so scared of me.
He did not want anything to dowith me.
He did not understand how to bewith a human in a way that
wouldn't be scary, and so I usedto bring him his food every day
(27:36):
.
It was such a challenge evengetting him to eat, because I
couldn't find anything that herecognized, and after some time
of trial and error, I finallygave him some fresh steamed
salmon fish that I had that mymom had made, and he loved that.
He fell in love with it, andafter that I would try to bring
him things like that, along withsome wildlife prey, every other
(28:00):
day, because that's what theyneed, that's what these animals
eat, and if I was going to carefor him, I was going to care for
him in a way that worked forhim, and so I used to bring him
his food on a big food rockevery day, so it would look as
naturalistic as possible, and Iwould come up to his enclosure,
which was like six feet by threefeet.
(28:22):
It was pretty big, and he wouldrun away from me and I would
quickly put his food rock inwith all of his food on it and I
would say to him you never haveto interact with me, you never
have to like me, you never haveto be sociable with me.
It is such an honor for me tocare for you.
I love you just the way you areand all you have to do, please,
(28:47):
is eat the food, drink thewater and be a healthy box
turtle and I will care for youfor the rest of your life.
And when he was ready tohibernate even though that was
total fear factor for me I wastotally freaked out.
It can be very dangerous if youdon't know what you're doing.
To hibernate a captive turtle.
We got through it the firstyear.
We got through it the secondyear.
(29:08):
We got through it the thirdyear.
In the meantime I'd had to moveagain.
And the third year he was inhibernation.
We had a terrible winter.
We had such an intense freezeand I was so scared because box
turtles do pretty well inhibernation in a certain
(29:28):
temperature range, but when itstarts to creep down past the
30s into the 20s, you're reallyin a danger zone and a lot of
box turtles, a lot ofhibernating animals don't make
it through hibernation season.
And so I would go out.
I installed a red light bulbabove his outdoor enclosure to
(29:48):
kind of warm up the ambient air.
I added extra insulation.
I would go out and I would juststand there and talk to him and
just say I hope you're okay inthere.
I just try to add prayer, justanything I could do.
Still wasn't talking to animals, but I was just talking to him
just because I needed somethingto do and I would just say
(30:09):
please, make it, please make it,please make it.
And somehow I don't knowexactly what happened.
But when he woke up that spring, what happened?
But when he woke up that springthis is year number three
something had changed.
He became like a puppy with ashell.
(30:31):
It's like he finally decided totrust me, finally overrode all
those years of trauma andrelocation and mishandling and
possibly abuse and hunger andfear, and he decided that maybe
he couldn't trust all the humansin this world, but he could
trust me and he became the mostcharismatic, playful, loving,
(30:51):
lovable box turtle.
He would climb all the way upme and cuddle under my neck,
under my chin.
He loved the camera and thecamera loved him and he would
run up to it.
And just if you're familiarwith Otis the box turtle from
Garden State Tortoise, he'sbecome a media celebrity.
(31:11):
Bruce was like that and hebecame an internet sensation.
I can't tell you how fast myInstagram account grew once I
started filming Bruce.
Everybody fell in love withBruce, most of all me.
So we had about three and a halfblissful years and then I could
sense that Bruce was gettingrestless and he wanted more
(31:32):
space and I did not have morespace.
So I tried to jerry-rig hisenclosure together with Malti's
old enclosure, because she hadoutgrown it.
By this time Redfoot tortoisesget pretty big and I tried to
put it together into a 20-footby 3-foot enclosure that he
could run around in.
I was getting pulled constantly.
(31:55):
My dad was getting very sickand I was not available the way
I had been, and he startedbiting me and he started
escaping.
He was so good at escaping hemanaged to crawl up the side,
cry, open the top one of thehatch doors at the very top of
this enclosure, fall six feet tothe ground and wander away, and
(32:22):
I found him.
After several days search, Ifound him and still after I
found him, returned him.
He continued biting, so I hadto pull back on my handling him
and interacting with him.
And then my dad got sicker and Ijust wasn't home, and one night
we had a really torrentialrainstorm and by that time my
(32:46):
dad had passed and my mom hadhad an epic unexpected fall and
had broken her femur and herleft wrist, and so I was living
with her in the hospital andthen at rehab.
And one day I came home tocheck on Bruce and the bottom
had fallen out of his enclosurein the middle where I joined the
(33:07):
two together, and he hadescaped again, and while I tried
to look for him, my mom neededme.
I had two other animals andactually three, because I was
caring for my mom's dachshund aswell and I was never able to
find him again.
And it was one of the mostheart-wrenching times in my life
.
I lost my best friend Marcyunexpectedly.
(33:30):
I lost my dad unexpectedly, myrelationship of 15 years had
ended and I had walked away, andthen Bruce escaped and I ended
up moving, giving up my home andmoving in with mom to help her,
and my whole life just changed.
Almost it felt like overnight,but it was really over a period
(33:52):
of about six months and I just Ijust thought I was never going
to have a box turtle ever again.
I would get calls and textsevery so often from someone who
would say they had seen Bruce,but they were never able to
capture him or give me any moreinformation, and so it was just
(34:14):
a very dark, very hard, sadperiod in my life, and I
understood that Bruce wanted tobe free and what was so
interesting about the timing ofit all and the energy of it all.
By then I had started learninganimal communication and so I
(34:38):
had begun practicing and havingtwo-way conversations and I
talked to Bruce myself and Iasked him.
Of course I felt so close tothe situation and just
emotionally very compromised,but I did my best to ask and I
said do you want to be free?
And he said yes, I want to befree.
(34:58):
When I came to you I wasstarving and scared and I felt
very weak and incapable ofliving a wild life in the area
that I was in, and I just hadlost confidence in myself.
And now I'm strong and I'm wellfed and I'm healthy and I can
(35:22):
do it and I want to experiencethat.
I want to know for myself thatI can live a strong, brave,
happy, wild, adult box turtlelife.
And I asked several of my animalcommunication mentors and
colleagues to also tune in andthey would report back and say,
yes, he wants to be free, thisis his choice.
(35:45):
He knew that you were nevergoing to be able to let him go,
cause I used to try.
I used to say, if you'll justhang on a little longer, I'll
release you, and he was right.
I don't think I would have beenable to do it.
It would have just been so hardto watch him walk away.
So he took his life into hisown paws and claws and he had
(36:07):
every right to do it.
But it was so very difficultand I never really stopped
grieving.
And if you've ever had ananimal go missing or pass and
you haven't had that closure, Ifeel very sure that you
empathize.
You understand what thatfeeling is like.
And so that is where I thoughtmy story with Bruce would end.
(36:34):
And because we're getting upthere and I like to keep these
episodes around 30 to 45 minutes, I'm going to do something a
little unusual for me and I'mgoing to leave you with a
cliffhanger, and we're going tocontinue this story with a part
two that you will have in twoweeks time.
(36:55):
So thank you so much forlistening.
I can't wait to share part twoand the grand finale, or the
continual unfolding, shall I say, of my story with Bruce in part
two.
If you've enjoyed this episode,please do leave me a review on
(37:15):
your favorite streaming platform.
It really helps my podcastcontinue, it helps encourage me
to keep making episodes, ithelps me answer your questions
and it's a way for me to hearfrom you and know what you're
interested in learning moreabout, and it's just always so
fun to connect with you.
(37:36):
So please do leave a review andI will be back with you in two
weeks for the continuation of mystory, my adventures with Bruce
.
So all my love.
Bye for now.
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