Angel Animals & You
An interview with Allen and Linda Anderson
by Tim Miejan
Allen and Linda Anderson, both writers and instructors at The Loft Literary Center
in Minneapolis, are the authors of three books on the spiritual and loving nature
of animals: Angel Animals: Exploring Our Spiritual Connection with Animals; God's
Messengers: What Animals Teach Us about the Divine; and the just-released Angel Cats:
Divine Messengers of Comfort. So as I walked up the walk of their St. Louis Park
home, I expected an outright zoo as I entered the door. Not so. Sunshine, the lively
cockatiel, was announcing my arrival with vigor, but the three other animal residents
were nowhere to be found -- at least for a few minutes.
Cuddles Anderson, a beautiful 4-year-old black cat with white paws, known as the
"hostess with the mostest," shyly greeted me after I sat down. Speedy,
a 10-year-old tabby who reigns over the home like a king, silently checked me out
about a half-hour later from the security of the kitchen, and Taylor, a joyous yellow
lab, bounded my direction as I was leaving.
It is always a joy to visit a home where pets are regarded as members of the family,
as more than a decoration sitting on the couch, and the Andersons clearly value the
companionship and gifts that their animal friends provide. Founders of The Angel
Animals Network, Allen and Linda share the stories of people who value the connection
of animals in their lives. Their work has been featured on NBC's The Today Show and
on ABC's Peter Jennings Nightly News, and they have been interviewed by London newspapers
and the BBC. They spoke with Edge Life about their personal connection with animals
and the inspiring path they have taken.
Allen and Linda Anderson will speak on "The Angel Animals Network" from
3-5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Edge Life Expo 2004. The Angel Animals Network is
dedicated to increasing love and respect for all life -- one story at a time. Allen
and Linda will talk about the power of story and how it changes consciousness. Advance
Tickets: $17 through Nov. 18. Day of Event: $20 . Tickets are now available at Uptowntix.com.
Call (612) 604-4466 or toll-free 1 (866) 390-EDGE (3343). Sales tax and services
charges additional.
For each one of you, what was your first memory of a deep connection with an animal?
Allen Anderson: My first memory was when I was very young. My father was in the
Air Force and we were in Japan. We had a black Cocker Spaniel who was getting old.
I remember really connecting with the animal when I was 6 or 7, or maybe younger.
It's a vague memory, but I do remember the animal and I spending a lot of time together.
Blackie -- it wasn't a very original name -- was getting older and we found out she
was going blind in both eyes. I was very protective of her. Blackie had long black
hair. He died one day when I was in kindergarten. I came home and it was a very sad
time. More recently, I have a much more clear memory of Prana, my Golden Retriever.
She was very sweet, loving, and was always there for us, for me.
Linda Anderson: Our family had this little mutt named George, and we were
all close to him. It was a long time ago when dogs would be outside more. It wasn't
like now where you have to keep everybody inside. George was such a funny dog and
he was a...what can I say...kind of a macho sort of guy, and all the females in the
neighborhood all had puppies that looked like little George.
Allen Anderson: It was at a time when no one knew any better.
Linda Anderson: But, my personal dog was a little dog named Tiny, a little
teeny, tiny terrier. Oh, I adored that dog. I think I was about 12 or 13 years old
and I just remember hurrying home from school so I could play with her. I carried
her everywhere because she was a little dog, and she slept with me. That was really
the first personal close connection I had with a pet. And like Allen, early in our
marriage we met Prana, and she was such a wonderful dog. She was just pure love in
a dog's body.
Allen Anderson: But, Linda also had Mugsy.
Linda Anderson: Mugsy!
Allen Anderson: Mugsy was her soul mate.
Linda Anderson: Yeah, how could I forget Mugsy? I had him for 21 years, if
you can believe that, and he was with me through all the ups and downs of my early
younger life. I got him at a cat shelter.
Mugsy was declawed. There were all these cats in this big room and they were all
scared of him. And the way he hissed at them was like, "Ha, ha! I got out of
here and you didn't. You thought you had it over me because I didn't have claws,
but look! I'm the one that got out of here." Oh, gosh, he was such a character.
He was so funny and affectionate, but he only loved me. Even after I met Allen and
any other pets that we had, and our children, I was it. I was his focus.
Do you find that rescued animals are thankful?
Linda Anderson: You just don't see that kind of gratitude on this earth. When
people rescue an animal, it's just amazing. But Mugsy actually reincarnated and came
back as Feisty. That was a wonderful experience.
How did you know that Mugsy was back?
Linda Anderson: Before he left, I asked him if he wanted to come back. I said,
"If you want to come back, I'd love to have you. We were together for all these
years, but you have to tell me you're here and how to find you." So one day,
maybe three years after he left, I was taking a nap. It was a Saturday afternoon.
I don't remember the dream, but I woke up from the nap and I came running out and
I said to Allen, "Mugsy's back." I just knew it, and I said he's at the
Humane Society.
I thought, "I'm so grateful to have a husband who I could say something like
that to and he doesn't go, 'Oh, yeah, you're nuts!'" So we hurried over to the
Humane Society about a half an hour before closing. Of course, I had no idea who
Mugsy is. There were just a few little kittens left. I knew he had to be in a kitten's
body, because I felt he was coming in like that.
There was a couple with a little girl had a cat that they were going to adopt. I
had a sense that that might be Mugsy, because when I went to say hello to him, he
turned his head. That's something Mugsy would do. I got this distinct impression
that he was acting like he always did when I was away. If I had been gone for a while,
he would turn his head and wouldn't look at me and wouldn't talk to me for at least
a couple hours.
And so I looked at him and I said, "You're the one that went away, not me! I
didn't go away, so why are you turning your head like that?" And he just wouldn't
even look at me.
The family was planning to adopt him, and they were in a separate room with him.
Meanwhile, I was looking at other cats and nothing was feeling right.
I was about ready to give up. It was 15 minutes before closing. Then the family came
back and said, "Are you still interested in this cat, because he doesn't like
us. He doesn't like kids. He doesn't like this little girl at all."
And I said, "Oh, that has to be Mugsy, because Mugsy just didn't like kids at
all." And so I took him in and we sat in the room with him. Well, he was just
all over me. He knew he almost blew it, because it was15 minutes before closing and
he almost went with another family. He was just hugging me and purring and kissing.
I kept looking at his eyes and saying, "Is that you, Mugsy? Is that you, Mugsy?"
and he would just lick me and kiss me. So we ran out and said, "We have to adopt
this cat." With 10 minutes to spare, we got him adopted.
When Mugsy was here, he had a couple of favorite spots that he really liked. One
was a rocking chair upstairs and one was a window upstairs. So, here's this little
teeny, teeny, tiny kitten and we bring him into the house and he immediately goes
to the door, runs upstairs and crawls up and gets on that rocking chair. It's the
first place he goes, and he just looks at me like, "I'm back." And then
he goes to that window that was his. You just knew it was him.
He was acting like Mugsy, because Mugsy didn't like our dog, Prana, at that time,
because he didn't like anybody. So this kitten is immediately hissing at Prana. It
took about a week, and Prana was so sweet. In this new kitty body, Mugsy had a different
personality and he could respond to Prana's love. We called him Feisty, and Feisty
and Prana were the best of friends. They just loved each other so much, and Feisty
was the sweetest, most loving cat. It was like he had the opportunity to come back
into this household and to receive the love that he couldn't receive in the old Mugsy
body personality. In this body, Feisty, he could receive the love. It was just a
wonderful sight to behold.
Was your love of animals something the two of you shared when you were developing
a relationship?
Allen Anderson: Well, I just remember Mugsy being tolerant of me, compared to
other people that Linda knew. He actually allowed me to be around and I got to pet
him a couple times. So, that was the first sign that it might work.
Linda and I both loved animals, but I don't think it was as intense as later on when
we grew as a couple, when we wanted to help change the way people view life and animals
around them.
Linda Anderson: I think it wasn't until we got Prana. That was our first animal
together, and then, of course, we had Feisty and various cats and dogs and birds.
In time, the feeling that we wanted to do something to bring an awareness about the
spiritual nature of animals really began to solidify. That started to develop after
our children were grown and we were filling our empty nest with our pets.
Allen Anderson: A lot of people look at the world the way it is and they want
to do something that makes a difference and makes it better. Linda and I have always
been that way about treating animals or life or children or anything that's in our
universe in a positive, uplifting way that isn't going to be destructive. If that
catches on even just a little bit, because of a story someone reads or an example
someone hears when we share these stories, that's why we're doing it and that's why
we want to continue working this way. I guess I'm not saying it the best way. Linda
and I want to make a little bit of a difference while we're here in this world --
a difference in a positive way. That's when we decided together as a couple that
this was how we were going to do it.
Linda Anderson: But, we didn't meet over a dog, like some people do. You hear
all these stories where people are out walking their dogs and that's how they met
(laughter). That wasn't quite it.
Allen Anderson: We just got permission from Mugsy!
Linda Anderson: Just permission! And when permission was granted, that was
quite a big deal!
What changes have you noticed in the role that animals are playing in the lives
of people now?
Linda Anderson: Gosh, I think there's been a big change. Animals are part of
the family. Not all people, of course, but most people just accept that you have
your human children and you have your furry children, and it wasn't always that way.
Not like it is now.
We had a first-hand experience with that. There are nursing homes now that have resident
pets. The first time we did a workshop at one of those places, we came in so naïve.
We're bouncing around and we're putting up our pictures and we're ready to tell our
stories. Dogs were lined up in the back of the room like they were coming to the
workshop, and they were all excited.
So, we're walking around and talking to people and we're saying, "Oh, you must
really love living with the dogs and having the cats."
And they said, "Oh, those dogs are so filthy."
These were farm people who never had to live with a pet in the home. It was their
kids, their baby boomer kids, who thought it would be really neat to put mom and
dad in a nursing home where there were resident pets. There were some people who
had bonded with the animals, but for the most part they were complaining, "And
that dog tried to eat my food off my tray." It was just awful. So we had to
stand there and do this presentation and wondered what we were going to do. So, we
started telling stories. Some people were falling asleep and others were asking the
nurses to take them back to their rooms.
Finally, this woman, a member of the staff, raises her hand and says, "I would
like to chime in here." And she started telling stories about how the animals,
the dogs and the cats, at various times had come into her nurse's station and have
alerted her that somebody was in trouble. Other staff members then chimed in, noting
that these animals actually saved the lives of people when machinery had stopped
or someone had fallen, and the animal would just keep after the nurse until she went
to go check on them.
After the staff members told their stories, everything started to change. People
started to listen to our stories, and when we finished the workshop, the dogs came
running up from the back of the room with thank you nuzzles, like they were saying,
"Oh, thank you for telling them." After the talk, ice cream was served,
and we noticed that some of the people let the animals have a little bit of their
ice cream. So, it had made a difference, but that was a real vivid example of the
difference in the generations.
Allen Anderson: There's another interesting thing. In our last newsletter,
we wrote a little paragraph about what was going on with the hurricane shelters in
Florida. Initially, some of the shelters we not allowing pets, and they were about
20 percent full. The moment they changed their policy and allowed pets, they were
packed. People weren't going to leave their pets at home during the hurricane. Would
you leave anybody at home in danger of the house being blown away and the animal's
lives being in danger?
It's surprising that we even start off the idea of a shelter with no pets, but that
shows the difference between how we view things and how maybe 20 or 30 years ago
people viewed things.
So many books have been written about how our civilization came from a place where
there was a sense identity with nature, or being able to communicate with nature
and living with the animals in a natural way. Now, as we get more and more into a
world of insanity, we want to return to a deep connection with that natural world
around us that's far beyond words or mental or emotion. It's something spiritual.
And with that connection, there seems to be a better life, a better viewpoint, a
better way of dealing with problems, a better everything, because you are no longer
isolated. It's you connected with everything around you on a spiritual level. Maybe
it's just a swinging of the pendulum back to a viewpoint that we may have lost ages
ago.
Do you believe that some animals are angels?
Linda Anderson: Yes, from the standpoint of angels being messengers and also
from the standpoint of animals being souls who just happen to be wearing these furry,
feathery bodies in this lifetime. I suppose that there could be some animals that
are actually angels that took animal form. We certainly have received stories from
people who have said that. It hasn't been our experience, but we've received such
stories from people.
But what we do see is an angelic nature of animals that doesn't seem to be marred
by our human tendency to overthink everything. Their hearts are so open.
How did the Angel Animal Network come into being?
Allen Anderson: Linda and I and Taylor were walking around Lake Harriet in 1996.
Taylor is a yellow lab who had a goofy grin on her face and people were commenting
on her goofy grin. She's a sweet dog. She isn't goofy. I shouldn't say anything bad,
but she had such a joyful expression.
Linda Anderson: But, it does look a little goofy.
Allen Anderson: She's just happy. She just loves life.
We've always been interested in spirituality and we've always loved animals. We've
learned so much from Taylor, from Prana and from the other animals in our lives about
how to be better in life and get more love in life. We've seen this outpouring of
love and joy and just energy, the exuberance for the day-to-day things that people
normally -- because of the mind and the mental set -- tend to back off from. So we
came up with this brilliant idea. I think Linda first mentioned it, because she's
brilliant.
She says, "You know, I'd like to find out if people are having the same type
of experiences that we're having."
So we came up with some questions. Are you learning unconditional love from an animal
or pet? Has an animal taught you spiritual qualities, such as courage or compassion?
What spiritual lessons are you learning?
I made up some posters with our address on them, went to the grocery store and coffee
shop and posted them, and I also went on the Internet to a newsgroup involving animals
and asked the same questions. Within 45 to 60 days, we had hundreds of stories coming
in, people having profound experiences with animals -- incredible experiences, things
that they just maybe felt like they would be ridiculed if they talked about it. We
were asking the right questions. We were tapping into something and were giving people
an outlet for these feelings. We decided to start a bimonthly printed newsletter
to share the stories, because we really wanted to get them out there.
That's how Angel Animals started, with the concept of it becoming a network that
might include all aspects of media, to get the stories out there any way possible.
Linda Anderson: We stopped the printed newsletter, but we have an online
newsletter called "The Angel Animal Story of the Week" and we have thousands
of subscribers all over the world. So it's a building process. Eventually our goal
is to do something similar to a wire service to get stories out to the media, because
the media's so powerful in terms of shaping people's opinions, as we see all the
time. We've looked into TV and radio, with a few nibbles with TV.
Allen Anderson: The goal is to get these stories out there any way possible.
If people read a story and they change their viewpoint even slightly about the animals
around them, the pets in their lives, and they have a more loving viewpoint, then
we've succeeded. We really hope to make a difference.
Linda Anderson: What we're about is changing attitudes, and also reinforcing
attitudes. There are a lot of people who have had spiritual experiences and almost
invariably they'll say, "Well, you know, I didn't want to tell anybody this."
They really are afraid of being ridiculed. When they realize that they are definitely
not alone, that thousands and perhaps millions of others are having similar experiences,
they will feel more free to talk about it. We're constantly telling people to tell
your story, write your story and don't be afraid to talk about it. This is how people
will understand that animals are sentient beings and that they actually are our spiritual
partners on this earth.
We realized that we had so many stories that we would have to write a book to get
more of these stories out to people. So we did a proposal and our first book was
called Angel Animals. The second one was God's Messengers: What Animals Teach us
about the Divine, and Angel Cats was just released. Angel Dogs will come out next
year, along with a book and other materials to help people to deal with the loss
of a pet, from a spiritual perspective.
When I think of my pets, I don't call them ETs, but I think of them as other beings,
you know, just in a different form. If you think of it that way, the world is a different
place, you know?
Linda Anderson: It's very different, and you really have to be different in the
world when you start thinking that way. You can't just go around with your blinders
on thinking you're the only sentient creature that's walking around here.
Allen Anderson: And they're just as intelligent as we are, just in a different
way. They are completely aware, totally understanding.
Linda Anderson: They're thinking and feeling. Scientists get very angry when
you talk about this kind of thing, because they say you're anthropomorphizing. We
do tend to project human characteristics on animals, and that actually limits them,
because animals have so many different ways of looking at things that aren't the
human way of looking at it. We are not aware of the scope of their abilities by so
overtly projecting our human thoughts and feelings onto them.
I'm not sure that we even understand the full extent of what our pets understand,
of what cats and dogs can do.
Linda Anderson: We don't. We do the best we can and they put up with us. They
say, "Well, you know, some day they might figure it out."
Allen Anderson: "But, I'll be patient."
What do you plan to share with people who come to the Edge Life Expo to hear you
talk? What can they expect to hear?
Linda Anderson: It's a time for people to think about and make the connections
between what they're experiencing with animals and their spiritual life. They can
start to understand the role the animals are playing in their lives. It actually
is such a wonderful lightbulb moment for people when they start to make the connection
between this dog or this cat or this fish or this bird coming into their life at
an important time in their life. And then, how did that animal interact with what
was going on? What was the role the animal played in that? Then they suddenly get
the interconnection of all life, and they suddenly understand that they thought they
had been alone and abandoned but weren't, that God or the Divine sent a messenger:
the Angel Animal. It's just wonderful when they make that connection.
Allen Anderson: We really do want, as best we can, to make it as interactive
as we can. Our goal is to present a lot of information, but understand that lightbulbs
are going to be turning on. In our other workshops and other presentations on Angel
Animals, there is a point when you can tell that listeners are really feeling like,
"Oh, this is about me and my life and where I'm at right now." What we
want to do is to make sure that it's about each individual in the room.
And you create a safe space for people to share their stories?
Linda Anderson: Yes, absolutely. And they love it, and we love it. People come
and they know they don't have to be embarrassed and they completely feel at ease.
There's a lot of laughter, there's a lot of just reflection, and we find that at
the end of these events people are transformed, because they feel so much gratitude
for a relationship that they may not have realized had such a strong spiritual component
to it.
And then when they get home it's a different experience for them.
Linda Anderson: Totally. It's one of connectedness. They begin to realize that
those things that they thought were all separate pieces in their lives actually have
a golden thread that's running through them. That's a wonderful thing when you realize
that.
Allen Anderson: All of us have had times in our lives when we've felt alone
and isolated, abandoned. Maybe it was because of the cruelty of people in our lives
-- friends or family or whatever else -- and we've just felt, "I'm here
all alone." And it could be tears, it could be just an anger, and it could be
any number of things. And at that time, who's going to reach that individual? It's
not going to be another person. Because people hurt you -- at least in that mindset
at that moment -- when you're undergoing that crisis. It's going to be someone else,
and that someone often it is a little kitty or a dog or maybe a nature walk, or a
dolphin. Somehow, some way, that which is around us reaches us when we're not allowing
our fellow human to reach us. A messenger has come to help us open our heart just
a little bit and help us to get past the hurt, the pain, the anger, all the things
that close us down and keep us from really becoming everything we can be in life.
Linda Anderson: I read this beautiful story the other day about a Northern
Cheyenne Indian who was talking about how the wolves were teaching their songs to
the Indians, the indigenous people. The people had forgotten their songs, and the
wolves had kept the songs for them. I think that's what happens when people come
to this kind of a workshop. They realize that the animals have kept their songs for
them, and if they would listen, they would hear their song again. They would learn
their song again and they would have that connection with nature once again that
they used to have. It's a beautiful thing that animals do for us.
Also, we get into a lot of stories about after-death experiences with animals. I
would say that most people, not just a few, have some kind of significant after-death
experience with an animal they loved. They will either discount it or they will be
too afraid to talk about it, but something will happen that they sort of forget about.
They come to an event like ours and hear these stories, and they get a validation
that what they experienced actually happened. Then they realize that there was a
soul in an animal body and that only the physical body is gone. The soul, that spirit,
is still with you -- that love is still with you.
For more information, visit Angelanimals.net. Allen and Linda Anderson love to
receive your stories. Share yours and it will be shared with others around the world.
Subscribe to their free online newsletter that is sent out each week.
Tim Miejan is editor of Edge Life. Contact him at (651) 578-8969, toll-free 1 (888)
776-5687 or e-mail editor@edgelife.net
Copyright ©
2004 Tim Miejan
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