Animal Magnetism

By Kristen Peterson

Monday, Feb. 26, 2001 | 8:44 a.m.

On a recent cool evening, Bjay and Reggie C. Breese parked their Ford truck behind an Albertson's grocery store and watched a half-dozen cats scatter in the headlights.

"They're out here in force," Breese said as he unloaded from the back of the truck a 20-pound bag of Smarty Cat food and two jugs of water used to feed a colony of feral cats (wild cats without a proper home) living behind the store.

As the two walked around to the back of the building, where a small, wooden nook shelters a feeding site, a couple of cautious black cats crept out from behind stacks of crates.

"Here comes some guys," Bjay (who asked that her full name not be used for the story) said. "Hi, kids. How are you tonight? What's your complaints?"

Bjay, a cat-lover and a self-proclaimed psychic, is the founder of Cat Savers Inc., a nonprofit organization formed two years ago to care for feral cats.

Every other night, Bjay, her 16-year-old Maltese dog Angel, and eight volunteers, including Breese, feed and trap homeless cats living in colonies in alleys and behind stores. The cats are spayed or neutered, then returned to their sites.

"We probably feed about 400 to 500 cats on the street (each time)," Bjay said. "There's a lot of people all over town doing this," she added, noting that other unincorporated groups feed cats independently.

"A lot of people feel that feral cats are better off dead," she said. "Well, I don't believe they've asked them."

Bjay has. On any given night the 56-year-old will sit and listen to them -- pick their brains, so to speak.

As an interspecies communicator, she's also known as a pet psychic and, to some humans, as "The Love Psychic," because of her work with relationships.

She works with energies and telepathic communication to get in touch with animals and to psychically read people's pets. She said she has been talking with animals and bugs since she was a child, and working as a psychic since she was 19.

From an office in her Las Vegas home Bjay takes dozens of calls each week from people wanting to know whether their animal is happy. Others want to know why their pet is having behavioral problems.

Some people even call with questions about themselves -- especially when or if they'll ever find their soul mate, Bjay said.

How it works

With a ball-point pen and a yellow notepad, she writes down the name of the subject -- four-legged or two -- then proceeds.

"He's a little bit confused with his name," she said of Rudy, this reporter's brown-and-tan, tiger-striped feline.

This is true. Rudy came to my door as a well-groomed, hungry, neutered and declawed stray.

After rattling off a long list of names, attempts to lock into his prior identity were fruitless. So he became Rudy (which is probably not at all similar to his previous name).

"He's not needy," Bjay continued, trying to home in on Rudy's demand for attention. "He's possessive. He may appear to be needy but that's just an act. He's manipulative."

Next, she sensed a tooth problem.

Again, this is true. Rudy -- unlike his brother Charlie, who was also a stray -- has a thick layer of plaque covering his fangs and a severe case of halitosis, enough to cause both of his veterinarians to suggest that his teeth be cleaned professionally. Recently I purchased a home dental kit to see what I could do.

Hmmmm. All of this information without the cat present?

It's all about the energy, Bjay said. "I don't have to touch them. You're a medium through your pet."

But when she does speak directly to the source -- the Fidos and Muffys -- they talk back to her.

"Animals think in pictures," Bjay said. "They're telepathic. They send messages."

Do some people tell her she's crazy for devoting so much time to animals?

"Yeah, they do," she said. But, "I've long (ago) quit trying to seek approval from humans. I think I'm past that."

The concept of animal telepathy is nothing new. American Indians are said to have talked with animals.

St. Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint who lived from 1182-1226, is also known as someone who spoke with animals.

Today animal psychics across the country are called upon to use their telepathic ways to find lost pets, determine whether a pet is happy or to find the causes of a critter's ailments.

At animaltalk.net, more than 50 interspecies telepathic communicators are listed by region. The website is posted by Penelope Smith, an animal communicator, lecturer and author of "Animal Talk: Interspecies Telepathic Communication" and "When Animals Speak."

Prices for communicators range anywhere from $20 for a half-hour session, to hundreds of dollars per hour.

If you believe

Kari Gulvin, who lives in Washington state, paid $70 to have Bjay conduct a reading on Lady, her 4-year-old cocker spaniel that was experiencing chronic diarrhea and blood in her stool.

After ringing up $400 in veterinary bills, Gulvin took the advice of both her mother and her veterinarian to try a pet psychic.

Bjay, well-known in Washington (her former residence, where she still gives lectures and workshops), was recommended to Gulvin and 1 1/2 years ago the two -- er, three -- connected.

"She said that Lady had separation anxiety," Gulvin said in a phone interview. "She said (Lady) was worried about how long we were going to be gone (whenever they would leave the house) and whether we loved her.

"(Lady's) ultimate concern always is whether we love her," Gulvin said, adding that concern is also the cause of the dog's stomach problems.

Bjay also told Gulvin to feed Lady boiled chicken mixed with rice (a common remedy for loose bowels) and feed that to her henceforth.

"I thought it was insane but I did it, and her diarrhea went away in two days," Gulvin said. "She's totally right on with the animals."

And people, it seems. Gulvin said Bjay has since predicted the exact cost of Gulvin's mother's divorce, advised Gulvin's husband on career choices, and was so accurate in her son's psychic reading that Gulvin started crying.

"Don't ask me how she does it," she said.

Not everyone needs to pay for the skills of a trained psychic to understand their pets. With a clear mind and effective visualization, communicating with animals can be learned, Bjay said.

Imagine an empty clear glass bowl, she suggested. Do this and you've taken steps to open the lines of communication between you and your cat. A whole new relationship begins.

The cat will imagine food in the dish and send the message to you, she said. Meanwhile you throw a little imaginary chicken cordon bleu or steamed salmon into this mental bowl and watch to see if the cat turns to you.

"It's going to startle them because all the sudden you're thinking their language," Bjay said.

But Dr. Stephen Zawistowski, chair of the Animal Behavior Society's Board of Professional Certification in New York, said he doesn't believe that people are exchanging pictures and messages with their furry friends.

"I'm a skeptic in the sense that I'm a scientist," Zawistowksi said. "I've studied animal behavior for a quarter of a century. I know that animals do remarkable things without needing to imply telepathic relationships.

"What we know is that animals (and people) can read us," he said. "An animal can come into the living room and know which one of is going to give him a pretzel."

They have incredible sensory abilities and understand body language well, he said. "Animals are incredibly good at doing this because this is how they communicate with one another.

"It seems telepathic, but it's not telepathic," he added. "One of the reasons these things happen is because we're living in a society more secular in nature. (Yet) there's a part of the psyche that wants to have a spiritual element. If I'm having a spiritual relationship with my cat, I'd like to have it higher than whether or not it's peeing on the floor."

Back on the streets

But for Bjay, her psychic abilities are about more than finding out about urinary or behavioral problems of other people's pets.

Her heart is with the ferals.

When money is flowing and space is abundant, the feral cats are trapped and taken to FLOCK -- For the Love of Cats and Kittens -- a sanctuary in Sloan for feral cats and abandoned pets, or they are adopted out.

Between January and May of last year, Bjay said Cat Savers Inc. adopted out 186 animals at local pet stores.

Adoptions are on hold as the group focuses on fund-raising efforts to cover the cost of the cats' food and medical bills.

Revenue is being generated through the the project of building carpeted, multilevel cat trees (or kitty condominiums) and selling them at half of the price of condos sold in pet stores. Breese, Bjay's partner, builds the trees with carpet donated by Carpet Barn.

"They're built from the cat's point-of-view," Bjay said. "These are what the cats want. I can ask the cats and the cats will tell me what they want.

"They really will tell you what they like."