Manchester woman talks with animals - alive and dead
By Theresa Tighe
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

When Sasha, an elegant greyhound, died, she sent her mistress, Jan
Healey of
Fenton, orders from beyond the grave for dealing with her grief: Get a
puppy
and get a boyfriend.
That is what Cathy Hughes of Manchester, who claims to communicate
telepathically with animals, told Healey after Sasha's death.

Healey said Sasha's concern for her helped her handle her grief. Healey
said,
"I believe Cathy has a gift."
Hughes hopes that eventually she will be able to communicate with
animals as a
full-time job as part of an animal clinic that includes nutritionists
and massage and aroma therapists for animals. For now she does three or
four communications a week and works as an insurance agent. Of average
height, she
has unusually large blue eyes, carefully arranged long brown hair and a
comforting presence. She dresses conservatively but in rich colors.
Although her love of animals predominates her life, she doesn't have a
pet of her own.

She would like a dog, but she lives in Manchester with her sister and
says her
sister is afraid of dogs. Hughes says she can communicate telepathically
with animals, insects and humans. To communicate, she stills her mind,
sits in a quiet place and gets
into a meditative state. She studies a picture of the animal. The animal
can be living or dead. She says she begins to hear an interior voice,
feel an emotion or see a mental image. She holds a conversation in her
mind with the animal, which she writes down or types on the computer.

When she mentally approaches the animal, she says something such as: "My
name is Cathy. Your mom asked me to talk to you. Even though we have
never met, I want you to know that I love you and you can trust me. Do
you feel like talking to me?"
Hughes said that most of the time the animal says something such as
"Yes, I've
been waiting."

But not always. A cat told her no. Hughes said she could sense that the
cat was too angry to talk. A dog said, "I'm kind of busy." Once, Hughes
said, she was overwhelmed with a feeling of crabbiness. It came from a
dog with a prickly nature. Sometimes Hughes says, she feels so much
sadness that she begins crying. Once she said the feeling came from a
very sad and lonely, deaf dog that wanted a companion.
Animal telepathy is a hot topic. A search of the Internet produced
956,000 entries on the subject. There is even a "Complete Idiot's Guide
to Pet Psychic Communication."

Still Hughes knows of only one other animal communicator in St. Louis.
She said that communicator worked only with live animals.
Hughes said she had started about seven years ago. She would pet-sit
dogs, mostly greyhounds. She is a member of Rescued Racers of St. Louis.
She would hear a small voice in her mind saying things such as "That's
not how my mom fixes my food." Hughes was embarrassed to tell anyone.
But then two years ago she went to a workshop on the subject. Amelia
Kinkade, the author of "Straight
From the Horse's Mouth," was the speaker. Hughes said, "Things just
started clicking."
She said working with animals had broadened her life.

"I feel I am growing more spiritually, that I am more accepting of
people and their animals," she said.

"People think (dogs, cats, horses) are just dumb animals, when they are
smarter
than we are. They have so much to teach us."