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
animallovelanguages.
com.
And, more importantly, for ourpurposes here today, I am
(00:34):
serving as your friendlyneighborhood hostess for the
Let's Talk to Animals podcast,the podcast all species can
enjoy together.
And I am back.
If you listened to part one twoweeks ago, you are no doubt
here.
You're back here again to findout what happened next.
And if you are listening tothis episode and you haven't
listened to part one, you maywant to go back and listen to
(00:57):
that.
So when we left off two weeksago, Bruce had escaped and
effectively rewilded himself.
He had let me know that he wasready to try again to live as a
wild adult box turtle, and I hadhad no real option other than
(01:19):
to accept.
Not only did my heart want forhim what he wanted for himself,
but my life had transformed andchanged so dramatically during
the period of time when heescaped that I was no longer
living in the area.
My days were no longer reallymy own.
(01:42):
I was caring for my mom and Iwas trying to learn the new
skill of animal communication.
I was transitioning careers,dealing with losing a number of
loves who had been very, veryclose to me, all at once just
trying to pick up the pieces ofmy own life and figure out what
the heck.
So if you've ever gone throughsomething like that kind of a
(02:03):
dark night of the soulexperience, I'm sure that you
can relate to how chaotic andconfusing it often feels.
So I had just kind of acceptedfor lack of a better word that
my time caring for the magicthat is Bruce the Box Turtle was
(02:24):
done.
There really wasn't.
I couldn't bring him back, Ididn't know where he'd gone, he
didn't want to come back and Ididn't have the time to care for
another animal anyway.
That was just the reality ofwhat was unfolding in my life at
that moment in time.
And about four months after Imoved in with Mom, she was out
(02:49):
walking one day, and my mom haslived in the same neighborhood
for almost as long as I've beenalive, so that would be around
five decades to date.
She knows everyone and everyoneknows her and, more importantly,
they know her dog, Flash Gordon.
He's a standard wire-haireddachshund.
He loves to eat, he's veryfriendly and he lays down
anytime that she stops to talkto someone.
So he's pretty famous in theneighborhood.
(03:11):
I even go out sometimes and Iwalk and people don't know who I
am because I don't go out allthat much.
I work from home and my animalsare in the backyard, so that's
really where I am when I'moutside at home.
But when I walk Flash, a lot oftimes I will have people stop
and they will say, hi, FlashGordon.
And then they'll just drive onor bike on or walk on.
They won't even talk to me.
(03:32):
Once I had a neighbor stop andask me who I was, because they
were aware of who Flash Gordonwas and they were afraid that I
was trying to steal him becausethey did not see my mom anywhere
.
So just suffice it to say he'sa neighborhood celebrity.
So, anyway, mom was out walkingand she started chatting with a
(03:54):
neighbor, as she has the habitof doing, and this neighbor said
your daughter has turtles,doesn't she?
My mom said yes, she does.
She has a tortoise named Malti.
And the neighbor said well, mynext door neighbor just told me
he just had a clutch of babyturtles.
Well, when mom came home andtold me that I was all over her
(04:18):
to call this neighbor up andmake his acquaintance and find
out more about the baby turtles.
And what was so interesting isthat even while mom was in rehab
and even while I was in suchtransition moving out of my home
, moving all my stuff,renovating mom's home so that I
could move in with her I've kindof got a little mother-in-law,
(04:40):
I've got the mother-in-law suitehere at mom's house, and a few
turtles came through.
They just crossed my path,turtles that needed rescuing,
turtles that were in areas theyshouldn't have been and were in
harm's way.
And because everything was insuch flux with my life, with my
(05:01):
situation, with mom's health,with our home, I was not able to
provide a home for any of thesetortoises or turtles.
And I really wanted to, but itjust wasn't the right time.
And so something in me justalways felt that there was one
more family member that wassupposed to come and join us.
(05:23):
And when I heard about this nestof baby turtles, something in
me said I think I need to meetthese turtles.
I think this might be the oneI've been waiting for.
So finally my mom gets on thephone with the neighbor.
It turns out that he has aclutch of baby box turtles.
(05:45):
And I thought to myself you'vegot to be joking Like you can't
make this stuff up.
And it was so funny becausethis, this gentleman said to my
mom oh, your daughter wants aturtle.
How old is your daughterThinking?
I'm probably like five or 10 or15, maybe at the oldest, and my
mom says she's 52, 50.
(06:08):
I think I was 51 at the time.
He said well, I'm not gonna beable to meet with you until a
week from today and you can comeover and and hang out with them
.
He did not say he was giving mea turtle, he just said we can
come over and see them.
Well, it turns out he is veryinvested in box turtle rescue.
(06:29):
Now I probably should pause fora moment.
Those of you who may bewondering well, why didn't you
just go and buy a box turtle ifyou wanted a box turtle for a
pet?
And oh, that's a, that's atouchy question.
That's a touchy subject.
Box turtles are.
It's not legal to breed themfor sale here in Texas and in
many areas they are a veryvulnerable population.
(06:52):
And every turtle that's takenout of the wild which is usually
how box turtles enter the pettrade Well, every turtle that's
gone from the wild diminishesthe number of box turtles that
are available to find oneanother and breed, and because
box turtles are unique in manyways in that they don't emit any
kind of scent pheromones, tofind one another, the only way
(07:14):
that they can locate one anotherto breed is by sight.
So population density reallymatters when it comes to
survival of the wild box turtlepopulation, and so I was just
not going to purchase.
Yes, there are places you can goonline to purchase all kinds of
(07:36):
vulnerable, threatened andoutright endangered turtle and
tortoise species, but I wasn'tgoing to do that.
I wanted to rescue someonespecies but I wasn't going to do
that.
I wanted to rescue someone andI felt like, going through my
intuitive and animalcommunication studies and
practice, I felt like I would beguided, but I was just kind of
feeling my way through this.
If you've ever had a situationor a relationship unfold in your
(08:00):
life and you're like somethingabout this feels right, but I
don't have a lot of data orevidence to support that, you
can probably relate to thisstory.
So eventually we went over tothe neighbor and he turned out
to be someone who was reallyreally big in box turtle rescue,
and he was very involved, isvery involved, with one of the
big box turtle rescue groups.
(08:23):
And so turtles that arehabituated to humans through
wild, illegal capture and petkeeping, so to speak, and then
they either escape or they'rereleased, or eventually they
become unreleasable back intothe wild and so they have to go
somewhere.
A lot of times these turtleshave been injured, they've been
(08:43):
hit by cars, they've beenattacked by predators, they've
encountered poisons or toxins orphysical dangers, and they need
rehabilitation, they need care,they need medication, they need
patching up organizations thattend to these sorts of things.
(09:04):
And, as it turns out, a coupleof the box turtles that this
sweet man and his family hadrescued and were caring for well
, one of the females waspregnant, I mentioned it's not
legal to breed box turtles forthe pet trade, but if turtles do
what turtles do and they haveeggs, well then you just have
(09:27):
even more box turtles to carefor.
And that's exactly what hadhappened, and I had communicated
with the clutch just on the offchance, since he hadn't told us
he was giving us a turtle.
I just communicated the eveningbefore we were going to meet
them.
Really all week, if I'm beinghonest with you every night.
And I just said I'm looking fora box turtle who's willing to
(09:49):
be a captive companion animal,who's willing to be an
ambassador animal for theirspecies.
I also asked for a female ifpossible, because I wanted to be
able to allow the turtle tolive free range in the backyard
alongside Malty, my tortoise,and Malty wouldn't tolerate
(10:09):
another male.
I had watched her almost biteBruce's nose off once when he
got too close, so I wanted tomake sure that they would be
compatible.
So this is what I requested.
And when we got over to Eric'sto see his wonderful box turtle
area, I saw a tiny box turtlealready in a tiny little
(10:33):
container like a little to-gocontainer, if you can imagine
that and I realized that he wasgiving us a turtle.
This turtle was so tiny and sowild.
We're so used to most of uspuppies and kittens these are
the species that are the mostwidespread and typically the
(10:57):
most popular in the pet tradeand these species, for the most
part, if they are bred orrescued when very young, they
come to us kind ofpre-socialized to humans and
even seeking out human companyand human help and human love
and human companionship andhuman care.
Turtles are not like that.
They are wild and they staywild until their bread is
(11:20):
buttered on the side of behavingotherwise, buttered on the side
of behaving otherwise.
And so, essentially, when Ayocame to join our family, even
though I had communicated and Ihad requested a turtle that
wanted to be, or at least waswilling to serve, in a public
role as an ambassador on mysocial media, as the education
(11:42):
animal for the box turtle as awhole implied in that, as a
turtle that is outgoing andcamera-friendly and willing to
help folks fall in love with thespecies and become aware of
their presence in our world,even though I had requested
these things, what I got was aturtle who behaved exactly the
(12:06):
way that Bruce behaved when Ifirst rescued him.
This turtle wanted nothing todo with me and was terrified,
and I kind of chalked some ofthat up to babyhood.
That is definitely a hatchlingknee-jerk reaction.
This turtle was about sevenmonths old when he came to us
and what was so funny about Iowas I could not pick a name for
(12:29):
this turtle.
I didn't know gender, just likeI didn't know gender when Miss
Petal came home.
All I had was Pearl'sinstructions that he was coming
back as a ladybird and he wasgoing to be called Petal, but I
didn't have any DNA confirmationat the time that she came home
with me.
I did not know whether Io was aboy or a girl and because of
how box turtles mature, youdon't find out until they get to
(12:52):
be three or four years old andthey mature and they start to
display those secondarybehaviors, the mating behaviors.
So I was seeking kind of agender neutral name and I just I
remember lying in bed at night,awake, for hours just going
through names in my head andfinally one day I got tired of
(13:14):
this because I probably hadsearched for hours and had
looked at hundreds of names andfinally I asked this little
shell.
I said what name do you like?
And I heard this tiny littlevoice say I like IO.
I said okay, io, it is.
So IO proceeded to continue toavoid me and run and hide and I
(13:35):
was just kind of like, oh, letme just wait, let me just wait.
And so I'm waiting, and I'mwaiting, and I'm waiting, and
I'm waiting, and in the meantimewe build this big, beautiful
turtlearium in the backyard.
Io has always lived outdoors.
This is what's best for boxturtles, it's best for all
turtles, but it's really thebest way to avoid making any of
the kinds of all too common careand husbandry mistakes the kind
(13:59):
of mistakes I made with Maltywhen she was young that have
resulted in a lifetime ofmanaging certain conditions.
So I didn't want that to happenwith IO.
So we built this big, beautiful, very secure, professional
grade outdoor tritularium for IOand I would go in and we
planted all these wonderfullocal native grasses and plants
(14:24):
and I would feed life earthwormsand mealworms and pillbugs and
all the appropriate species andjust made sure that she I
thought it was a girl at thetime she had everything, and
still there was no realpersonality, there was no real
trust.
It was like I just didn't get aread on any personality and I
thought, gosh, is this turtleever going to warm up to me?
(14:47):
Well, that was in May of 2022when Io came home, and it was
really a couple of years of justhurry up and wait.
There wasn't a lot ofpersonality, there wasn't a lot
of interaction.
There was a lot of kind of afear response.
I didn't seem interested inanything except hiding and
(15:09):
looking for anything that moved,essentially, and I just kind of
said to myself well, I'm justgoing to do what I did with
Bruce and just let Ayo know it'smy honor to care for you.
You don't ever have to chooseto interact with me.
You don't have to be anambassador turtle.
If you don't want to, just letme know and just trying to kind
of make my peace with me.
(15:30):
You don't have to be anambassador turtle If you don't
want to, just let me know andjust trying to kind of make my
peace with that.
But it was not easy.
I'm not going to lie.
It wasn't easy after havingsuch a charismatic friendship,
really in a soul partnership,with Bruce.
Well, a couple of months ago, inAugust and early September, I
went on a bucket list trip toAlaska and this is a trip I had
(15:53):
been wanting to go on for yearsand after my dad passed and then
my precious soul bird passed inJanuary of 2023, and then Miss
Petal came two months later tojoin the family I had just had
about all of the disruption thatI could stand and I wasn't
putting things on a bucket listanymore.
(16:13):
I had seen too many people passaway, too many relationships
disintegrate in too short aperiod of time and I said forget
the bucket list.
If it's bucket list worthy, I'mdoing it as soon as possible.
And one of the things that Idid is I had met friends when I
(16:35):
was in Galapagos.
One of those friends lived inAlaska, which was also on the
bucket list.
So I said we're going, let's goto Alaska and I went.
I had a wonderful 10 day trip.
It was absolutely magical.
It was so much fun.
And when I got home from thattrip I got really, really sick.
I mean, I haven't been thatsick since Pearl passed.
(16:58):
What was so odd about it wasthat it was almost the same
illness, the same symptoms.
It wasn't quite as bad and Ididn't test positive for COVID,
but I had all of the samesymptoms and the impact was just
catastrophic and I couldn'trecover and I was taking all
these medications and all ofthese supplements and just kind
(17:22):
of trying to rest and I wasn'table to work and I was just
really, really sick.
And one night I had the idea toreach out to Bruce and to my
childhood red-eared slider,water turtle Red, and ask them
for help.
They're part of my spirit team.
(17:44):
Now.
When our animals pass intospirit, they join our light team
.
I talk about that a lot moreinside animal communication
adventure what a light teamlooks like, and what a light
team looks like for an animalcommunication student or
graduate.
The animals take the lead.
They are our partners, empathicfriends and teachers, our pets,
and they take the lead.
So I had the idea I was tryingeverything and nothing seemed to
(18:07):
be getting me over that hump,to starting to heal.
And so I remember opening up aline of conversation with Bruce
and Bruce telling me he hadpassed into spirit and I just
remember feeling so sad.
Here he was, he had finallyachieved his healthy, strong,
(18:28):
brave, wild box turtle life.
And then he passes and what heshared with me was so profound.
He said mom, why are you sad?
I had the life I wanted to liveat last, and you helped me
achieve that.
You got me strong and healthyand brave.
And I used to send himinstructions in my head.
I would talk to him and I wouldsay now remember, don't come
(18:50):
out during the daylight andstare at humans because they're
so interesting, or don't go inyards with dogs.
That's how he had been foundtwice before.
And I would give him all theseinstructions of what to do to
stay out of harm's way and stayout of reach of humans, and so
what he said to me was soprofound.
He said why are you sad?
I had the best life and, mom, Imet a lady turtle and we made
(19:15):
eggs and I'm carrying on my line.
I passed along my genes, I dideverything, I saw the world and
I was brave and strong, justlike I always wanted to be.
And I passed and I'm here andwe'll always be connected.
And then I fell asleep and whenI woke up the next morning I
(19:38):
felt better.
Couldn't really pinpoint why,but I just started to heal and I
felt well enough to go out andspend a little time with IO.
I kind of pulled back on doingthat because I kind of felt like
it just stressed IO out and Ididn't want to stress IO out, so
I just kind of would deliverthe food.
I was doing exactly what Iwould do with Bruce when he was
(20:00):
scared I would just deliver thefood and try to get out there as
fast as possible.
So I went out to deliver thefood and just hang out, and I
like to do what I call boxturtle safety checks to make
sure that everything is healthyin and around and under the
shell.
And there was somethingdifferent about Ayo.
Ayo came running out to meet me.
(20:21):
Ayo wanted his neck padded,which is something that Bruce
didn't let me do for three and ahalf years.
His head and neck, you can justpad it very lightly.
He wanted me to do that and hewanted to explore like he wanted
to climb on me.
It was so remarkably different.
It was like suddenly, overnight, it felt like this turtle had
(20:45):
grown a personality, and notonly a personality, but a
personality that I recognized.
And every day after that I wouldgo outside and I would take Io
out of his outdoor enclosure andwe would spend time together,
sometimes an hour, sometimes twohours.
I would just sit on the groundand he would climb on me and he
(21:13):
started to exhibit all of thesame personality, little quirks,
little things that really Iknew as Bruce's.
And then one day I noticed hiseyes were turning red and while
it's not a hundred percent,given, in most cases the box
turtles that have colorful eyesare typically male.
And Bruce had had red eyes andI started watching him and I
(21:38):
started recognizing what I callthe energetic signature of my
Bruce.
Shortly thereafter I saw thefirst secondary characteristics,
the mating behaviors, and thengot some visual confirmation of
what we will call for the sakeof this PG, kid-friendly channel
, the crown jewels.
(21:59):
And I knew that I was a boy andthat was the moment I
recognized that my Bruce hadcome back to me and he does all
of the things and it was soquick.
If it had come on gradually, Ithink I might have had a little
bit more reservation animalcommunication or no, because
it's not like I've done somekind of random controlled study
(22:21):
with 500 male versus female boxturtles or that I have any
awareness of whether this istypical box turtle behavior.
Other than my Bruce, the onlyother box turtle I know of that
behaves like this is Otis, theturtle from Garden State
Tortoise, and they are just asmuch in the dark as I am about
(22:42):
why their box turtle behaveslike this.
Bruce would climb on me, hewould cuddle under my neck and
under my chin.
He would let me pat his softhead and neck skin.
He would come up to me and wantto touch my nose and even stand
on his hind legs and I wouldsupport his little front paw so
(23:03):
he could stand up on his hindlegs.
Io began exhibiting all ofthese behaviors within a period
of a few days and his eyesturned red and I got visual
confirmation that he is in factmale and I just I said I know
this turtle, I know thisenergetic signature.
(23:23):
It's like we just know whensomebody is part of our family,
if you've ever had an experienceof meeting somebody, maybe
another human even for the firsttime, or a soul pet, and you
just know them.
And then there are other peoplethat maybe you've known for
years and you don't feel thatclose to them and you don't ever
(23:44):
feel like you get past.
Hey, how are you?
Oh, I'm fine, how are you?
It feels different with oursoul family.
With all of my studies and allof the many communication
sessions that I've done, I havelearned that a big part of this
is because, when our souls,regardless of species, make a
contract to embody together forshared learning and growth, we
(24:09):
practice in the soul space, inthe spirit dimension, and we
develop some cues so that whenwe're in our bodies we will
recognize one another.
And one of those cues is thisfeeling of instant connection
that our left brain, rational,logical mind cannot understand
(24:29):
or describe and it certainlycannot prove, but it also cannot
disprove it, and that is ahallmark of someone.
I call it the.
We have met before experiencebecause we have.
We've met in the soul space, inthe spirit dimension.
We have created a soulagreement to serve and love and
support one another and that iswhy when we meet in our bodies,
(24:52):
even if our species bodies lookvery different, we recognize one
another.
And let me tell you, Irecognized this soul who had
suddenly blown in to my littleturtle's body and I just had
never felt before like Ayo hadreally a personality, anything I
could really hang my hat on.
(25:13):
That felt like Ayo, like I hadno feelings that I really had
any closeness with this turtleor really knew anything about
this turtle.
The interaction was minimal, aIo's desire to interact was
minimal.
But in these few days after Ireached out to Bruce and he
(25:33):
shared that he was in spirit andhe had lived the life of his
dreams and that he was grateful.
And when I woke up that nextmorning, everything about my
turtle Io had changed and I knewin every way that a human can
know something, feel, sense,receive, comprehend, believe
(25:56):
that my Bruce is back.
So that is the amazing,miraculous, true story of how
Bruce, my soul box turtle,returned to me in a new body as
Io.
So now I am living with tworeincarnated pets and let me
tell you one of the most funthings and I'll post some video
(26:18):
links in the show notes so youcan catch some of my Instagram
or YouTube posts where Pearl andIo excuse me, where Petal and
Io are interacting with oneanother.
Well, they passed within acouple of years of each other.
And Bruce one of the hallmarksof Bruce's personality is his
fascination with Pearl.
(26:39):
He could not get enough ofPearl's company.
He wanted to be near Pearl'scage.
I would bring Pearl out in hissmall travel casa and we'd all
sit together on the lawn andBruce could spend the whole time
with his paws braced againstthe cage bars just staring at
Pearl.
And Pearl was so annoyed bythis behavior and he would bite
(27:01):
at Bruce and he would try totaste his claws and he would
kind of harass him.
Right?
Pearl was never scared of Bruce, he just was annoyed.
It was like this irritatingyounger brother annoyance.
If you've ever had a youngersibling who annoys you, you can
probably relate to that Well.
Watching Bruce and Pearlinteract as Io and Petal is
(27:23):
hysterically funny and eeriebecause it's the same exact
dynamic of the annoying youngerbrother, even though this time
Io is actually about a yearolder than Petal.
But it's the same exact dynamicand that was kind of the
linchpin, like the one thatsealed the case, so to speak.
(27:44):
I was like you gotta be jokingme, that's craziness.
So now I have Petal, pearl andIo, bruce, and we're all hanging
out together again and it hasbeen so much fun.
So if you've been listening tothis episode, first of all, I
hope you've enjoyed it.
It definitely took a lot longerto share the story.
(28:08):
I wasn't anticipating atwo-parter when I started
telling this story and sharingthis story with you.
But if you've been listeningand you've been enjoying this
and you've, at the same time,been feeling like, oh gosh, well
, maybe that just happened toher because she's an animal
communicator or she's more open,or she's more intuitive, or for
whatever reason, that your leftbrain mind is making up and
(28:30):
you're thinking that could neverhappen for me, I want you to
know that in my experience, thatis not accurate.
In fact, the longing to welcomea soul, pet and spirit back in a
new body, to share a new set ofadventures, that is typically
the hallmark of your intuition,waking up and tapping you on the
(28:52):
shoulder and saying your petwants to come back or your pet
is willing to come back.
They're just waiting for you toask, or they're waiting for you
to tune in and begin followingtheir clues.
And, in my experience, ittypically begins with this
longing, this feeling of beingincomplete, not having enough
(29:14):
time together or not being ableto experience all of the things
that you always thought youwould experience together.
That can be a soul agreementcontinuing to unfold, letting
you know that, yeah, matter offact, you haven't experienced
everything.
There is more to this story.
There's more to come, so Idon't want you to feel like
(29:38):
there's anything special ordifferent about me.
The only thing that separates,perhaps, me from you is just the
amount of time and money I havespent learning how to
communicate with animals andunpacking my own journey for my
own benefit and the benefit ofthe pet parent clients that I
work with, who are in theprocess of calling their soul
(30:00):
pets back to them through petreincarnation.
And it can happen for all of us.
It can happen for you and yoursoul pet too.
So I want to encourage you totake a listen to some of the
episodes I've recorded thatspecifically focus on pet
reincarnation and you will knowwhich ones those episodes are
because they mentioned petreincarnation in the title of
(30:21):
the episodes.
You can just do a search andcheck out the episodes that pop
up.
And I also want to encourageyou to reach out to me and let
me know and perhaps considerscheduling a session so we can
talk with your soul pet and getclarity either get clarification
or confirmation of clues, signs, symbology, inner hunches or
(30:48):
knowings you have alreadyreceived, or we can ask your pet
to share their signs, theirclues with you.
So if this is something that'son your heart, these stories,
(31:11):
the stories I shared about PetalPearl, which you can also do a
search on Petal and Pearl, andyou can find the episodes I
recorded to share that story infull.
I shared it in just littleparts in this dual episode, but
you can listen to the wholestory of that and also consider
(31:34):
that if it's possible for me, ifit's possible for the many pet
parents who I have helped andwho I am helping and supporting
to call their pets back to themthrough pet reincarnation, it is
absolutely possible for you too.
So allow that to sit with you,allow that to percolate and see
(31:57):
how your heart resonates and ifit is a yes, if this is
something that you are longingfor, if this is on your bucket
list of bucket lists to reunitewith your soul pet in this
lifetime in their new body,please do reach out to me.
You can always reach me atanimallovelanguagescom.
Let me know and let's talk withyour pet and find out how to
(32:22):
start or continue that processof creating your own miracle
story of joyful reunion.
So it has absolutely been myhonor and my joy to share this
two-parter story with you.
I hope it is something that youhave found encouraging and
heartwarming, especially if youare someone who is missing your
(32:45):
pet and spirit or who iswatching your pet age and
wondering when it's your time togo.
Will you be able to come backto me so we can talk a lot more
about that?
If you've enjoyed this episode,please do leave a review on your
favorite streaming platform.
It means the world to me.
It lets me know the content youwant more of and, of course,
(33:08):
it's the joy and the fun ofconnection, which is why I do it
right.
Otherwise, I'm just standing ina room talking to myself.
So I'm sending you and yourinner species, family, hearing
and spirit, all of my love.
I will be back in two weekswith a fresh new episode of
let's Talk to Animals and fornow, I send you all my best and
(33:29):
all my love.
Okay, bye for now.