Barking Through Silence: Intuitive Animal Communication

What if animals could talk outside of movies?

According to lifelong Rogers Park resident Hailey McNichols, they do. McNichols said as a child she realized she possessed an innate ability to understand animals, often feeling she connected better with them than with people.

“I just didn’t have the vocabulary of words of being able to communicate what I was feeling and connecting with,” McNichols said.

McNichols works as an Intuitive Animal Communicator, helping clients understand their pets’ behavior through conversations with the animals.

For anywhere from $20 to $150 dollars, McNichols will spend an hour answering client questions about their animal.

But talking to animals doesn’t always meld with societal norms.

“Society kind of poo poos it as being too woo woo or magical,” McNichols said.

Adulthood brought McNichols the confidence to embrace the animal communication skills she’d suppressed in her younger years. She attended Sterling College in Vermont, studying sustainable agriculture and draft horse management. She said closely working with horses reminded her how to connect with animals.

After graduating, the 33-year-old took animal whisperer to a deeper level as she studied intuitive animal communication — a spiritual methodology for connecting with animals and nature — under Renee Gallegos, an intuitive based in Colorado who’s been practicing for 25 years.

Teaching both online and in-person, as an exercise, Gallegos instructs her students to connect with her deceased cat, Louie, and answer questions verifiable only by her. 

When asked, “What was his favorite toy?” McNichols said despite never knowing Louie, the answer came to her in a vision from the cat’s perspective. She said she saw the toy go under the couch, allowing her to know the color and shape.

When Gallegos went to locate the toy to validate McNichols’ communication with Louie, she couldn’t find it. McNichols initially didn’t press further on where she believed the toy was. However, she said Louie wouldn’t let her remain silent on the topic, resulting in her emailing Gallegos the toy’s location after the class.

While toys lying forgotten under the couch seem commonplace, Gallegos said it’s a rare occurrence in her home. Gallegos said the extreme attention to minute details sets McNichols apart from the rest of the class. 

“She’s very intuitive, I was blown away,” Gallegos said.

Katie McCabe, a client of McNichols, said while she originally hired her as a dog walker McNichols’ level of care with her dog, Elliott, encouraged her to try animal communication. 

“Hailey is different than your average person,” McCabe said. “When you meet her you just know she understands nature, like plants and animals, a little bit differently.”

A typical session with McNichols lasts an hour, but the insight she provides can leave a lasting impression, according to McCabe. She said the growth in her relationship with Elliot has been compelling enough to warrant starting quarterly sessions with McNichols.

“I feel like communication is clearer,” McCabe said. “I feel like I know what he wants.” 

She said the session encouraged her to implement slight changes in her routine with Elliott, deepening their relationship by playing with a forgotten toy, including him in her daily meditation and talking to him as a friend.  

While she primarily works with dogs, McNichols said understanding behaviors and energies transcends species. 

Intuitive animal communication doesn’t rely on species, according to researchers at the University of Saskatchewan. Although currently under-researched,  interspecies communication is a phenomenon recognized across cultures, according to the study. 

Unlike their two-legged counterparts, McNichols said animals are upfront with their needs.

“Humans, we kind of have masks and suppress our feelings,” McNichols said. “Animals are just there. They either want to be around you or not around you. They are kind of like truth tellers.” 

Prior to the reading, clients provide McNichols with a list of questions for her to consider. A meditation space and “heart space” — practices of mindfulness and love — allow her to connect with animals, alive or dead, McNichols explained.

Not confined to the bounds of a physical space, McNichols holds the majority of her sessions over the phone. 

The capability of remote readings is available because animals experience time differently than humans — they live in the present, according to Gallegos.

“When you are connecting soul-to-soul, it doesn’t matter,” Gallegos said. “There is no time in that realm.” 

Speaking to animals isn’t just a skill for a select few, Gallegos said. For her, honing the craft simply comes from recognizing there’s more going on with animals.

“Animals are always sending us information, and sometimes we can pick it up, sometimes we don’t,” Gallegos said. “So, once you realize that there is that possibility of communicating with the animal, people see a huge shift in their relationship with their animal.”

While some may have more of a natural gift, anyone can learn, according to McNichols. 

“We all have this ability,” McNichols said. “It’s just, are we quiet enough to listen?”