Our Time: She learned to talk to the animals

I talked to my dog last week.

No, that's not correct. My dog, a Boston Terrier rescue dog I've had for seven years, talked to me through an animal communicator.

He told me he loved me and that he takes care of me. He called me "mom."

He also said he wanted to go for more walks and he said he wanted more "green" treats.

Now, I figure the animal communicator, Frances Greenspan, could easily learn Winston, my dog, rarely goes for walks because I have some mobility issues right now. But she couldn't know about the "Greenies" I ran out of two weeks ago.

Which kind of gives me the willies.

And also raises the question of why anyone wants to talk to their dogs and cats anyway?

"Animal lovers want to know more about their pets," she says.

Interestingly, most of her clients are animal lovers 50-plus. These pet people, says petboomers.com, spend $41 billion a year on their animals, more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries in the world.

The older you are, the more you consider your pet "family," says the Web site, pointing out 87 percent of boomers think of cats and dogs in the same category as children.

Which brings me back to Winston and Greenspan.

She "talked" to my dog before she came to the house, she says. She "tapped into" him from afar, learning that he loves his food but is bored and wants more interaction with other dogs.

Considering Winston's "interaction" usually consists of proving he is the alpha male, I'm not sure he's going to get that wish fulfilled. I'm not excited about reeling him in on a short leash whenever another guy dog goes by.

Winston doesn't know how old he is, Greenspan says, because dogs have no time sense. He does remember his first family left him — they had to move out of their house in a hurry. And he says the reason he nips at feet is because he's afraid of feet. His first owners tripped over him many times, he says.

Greenspan is an ISO consultant who lost her job for the first time around 2001. She decided to try another career and studied the psychic field. She became a dog groomer because she loved animals and found herself a calming influence on dogs, she says.

Then, one day, one of her dogs "talked" to her — and since then her life has not been the same.

Today she talks about being an animal communicator on her Web site, franceswgreenspan.com. The same site also talks about her animal illustrations and the many community college extension classes and programs she teaches about how to sell on E-Bay.

Winston and I have a different relationship now. I feel guilty if I don't take him for a walk. But I feel comforted when he snuggles up to me in bed.

"He will always be in your heart," Greenspan says. She believes animals stay around us after they die; that they remain part of our "soul group."

"They come for a special reason in our lives and as we have a time on

Earth, they have their time," she says.

Of course, not all animals talk all the time.

Greenspan owns two cats who rarely speak to her, she says.

"They're like most kids," she says. "They talk to other animal communicators, not their mom."

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.