Heartfelt Connections with Anne Beall on WGN Radio

Dr. Anne Beall is on my Steve Dale’s Pet World, WGN Radio show HERE to discuss her book  Heartfelt Connections: How Animals and Humans Help Each Other .

Dr. Anne Beall

She explains she got the idea for this book as a cat colony caretaker. So, even caring for feral or community cats, kept strictly outdoors – and unable to be touched – she says they still became a member of her family.How does that happen. She discusses how even some neighbors bonded with those cats (neighbors she bonded with as a result). So  Beall started to think about the connections we have with animals, and even beyond dogs and cats.

We talk relationships people have with animals and the connections we forge. Sometimes they are surprising – like a condor who flies home to see the man who helped to raise him. Another example is Norman, who is a therapy pig in Texas – and Beall discusses the good work this pig does to help others.

Beall says one issue that animals talk to us all the time, and we’re not paying attention to what they’re saying.

We talk about the heartfelt connections of dogs, in particular, in the Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy programs, noting that these dogs seem more sensitive to human meeds in a way we aren’t. “I saw miracles,” Beall says.

“People say, oh we have pets because they love us unconditionally. I actually think it’s the reverse. We have pets so we can love them unconditionally. I think human beings can be disappointing to us. I think we have high expectations of them. We often struggle with human relationships. I don’t think we struggle as much with our animal relationships. At some level we understand them and they understand us. We love them unconditionally, and they do the same.” 

I also answer a reader question about a dog who now wears a diaper due to submissive urination.

Here’s the Facebook Live we did – if you want to watch Beall.

You can check out Beall April 24, at noon (CDT) talking about trap-neuter-release and community cats, and her book “Community Cats: A Journey Into the World of Feral Cats” in a  Facebook Live. If you haven’t already check out my Facebook Fan Page, ‘like me.’

Hear Beall in a WGN Radio podcast as we talk about her book, “Cinderella Didn’t Live Happily Ever After: The Hidden Messages of Fairy Tales”