Unbridled talk helps pets, says communicator

But like most people, Maggie needs help expressing her feelings clearly. So she turns to Sandy Lagno to help her tell her family what comforts her, what frightens her, what makes her purr.

Yes, purr.

Maggie's a cat.

A 10-year-old, 12-pound calico cat.

And Sandy Lagno is the animal communicator who interprets Maggie's cat thoughts into English.

Strange? Perhaps.

To some, it's not just strange, it's stupid, deceiving, absolutely not true.

But to others, it's a world they never thought they would experience, a world in which human and animal can sit down and catch up.

"It's wonderful to be able to check in with them," said Maggie's owner, Donna Kelly, who also uses Lagno to communicate with her dog, Snicker, and other cat, Bobbi.

During a recent communication session in her Corrales home, Kelly discovered that Snicker -- an Australian shepherd missing his front right leg -- has been feeling soreness in his left shoulder.

"He said it's not a big deal and you manage it real well," Lagno said as Snicker bounces from communicator to owner to communicator to a basket filled with an assortment of squeaky, fuzzy animal toys.

"He said not to worry."

Before you, well, snicker, Kelly said Snicker's massage therapist -- go with it, people -- has noticed some tightness in Snicker's left shoulder area.

"That would indicate why his left leg has been shaking," Kelly said.

Coincidence or clairvoyance?

Skeptics might say Lagno came to the sore-shoulder conclusion out of common sense: Snicker is without a right front leg, so, of course, he is putting added pressure on his left front leg.

Skeptics also say Lagno and other animal communicators are engaging in a fantasy.

"I think they're a little whacked-out," said veterinarian Richard Bolton of Bolton Animal Hospital in southeastern Albuquerque. "I just don't know anybody who said they can talk to animals and back it up with anything."

But proof doesn't come into play here. Animal communication, believers say, is all about faith.

"We will never know for sure," Kelly said of whether animals can really talk. "In the end, you have to go with what's in your heart.

Sandy Lagno admits she thought she was crazy when she first heard a horse talk to her.

The voice came to her one night in 1991 when she was working late as a horse trainer in upstate New York.

"I was braiding the horse's mane, and he's all over the place," she said. "He looked at me and it was so clear."

"It" was the horse's voice -- telling her to take his halter off.

"I was like, 'No way,' " she said.

But the horse was persistent. After the third time he asked, Lagno took off the halter.

"And he stood perfectly still, and I was able to finish braiding," she said.

It wasn't until 1997 that Lagno finally came out of the closet and admitted she was a bona-fide animal communicator.

Lagno began attending animal communication workshops to sharpen her skills and to be around people to whom she could relate -- and who did not think she was a freak.

It doesn't help that there is a slew of skeptics questioning communicators' motives -- and validity.

More and more veterinarians, however, are seeing the benefits of animal communication, one vet said.

"It's wonderful having the input of what the animal wants when the animal is sick, whether the animal wants the Western or alternative approach," said Cheryl Fox, owner of Animal Kingdom Healthcare, a homeopathic veterinary service in Albuquerque.

"More people are recognizing that in the veterinarian world."

So how does animal communication work exactly?

During her readings, Lagno sits quietly and listens to the animal -- who sends her messages telepathically -- all the while scribbling in a spiral notebook. She then reads her notes out loud.

Watching Lagno do a reading, you might think she is having a conversation with a baby just learning to make sounds.

"Oh, really?" she said to Snicker as Donna Kelly patiently waits in her chair to hear what her Australian shepherd has to say. "OK, OK, I'll tell them."

Maggie flicks her tail as she rouses from a nap next to Kelly's feet.

"All right, Maggie, we'll get to you," Lagno said to the calico, then looks at Kelly. "She said it's her turn to talk."

Animals do not have to be in Lagno's presence to be heard. For those clients who live out of town, Lagno conducts her readings over the telephone -- think Psychic Friends Network without Dionne Warwick.

When doing phone readings, Lagno asks the owners for the animal's age, name and species. How the messages come through is a complicated process to explain, Lagno said.

"It's this thing that comes in -- it's a mix of seeing and hearing and emotion -- then I translate it into words that a human can understand," said Lagno, who currently has about 40 regular clients and said she has seen somewhere between 350 and 400 clients over the past five years. "That can be hard to break it down in a way people can understand."

Often, Lagno said, an animal that has been sick begins to feel better after a session with her.

"Once they express themselves, there tends to be a sense of peace," she said. "Like people, they just want to be heard."