© Jeri Clausing / AP Heidi Schulman poses for a photo with her rescue dog, Bosco, in Santa Fe, N.M., who inspired her to develop The Original Dog Tarot.
It's the age old and seemingly unanswerable question: What in the world is my dog thinking? It's also one that has spawned a growing market not only of scientific research but of everything from decks of pet tarot cards to books by pet psychics.
Whether any one of them can provide real answers is a matter of opinion, but pet owners can spend a lot of time and money trying.
Andrea Gladstone and David Radis wanted to know more about what was going on in their rescue dog's head, so they bought The Original Dog Tarot, a set of 30 cards and a guidebook developed by Heidi Schulman, a freelance writer and former television news producer from Santa Fe, N.M.
They spread the deck on the floor, and asked LoLa why she chewed up her puppy training book and the Dog Tarot guide.
The answer they divined from the three cards she picked - The Cat, the Pack and Justice - was that she was insecure in her new home and wrecked the books to establish her security and see if they held grudges.
"For me it is more the fun of it than the life lessons to be learned. But I respect the tarot," said David Radis, of Encino, Calif. "I have done one reading for each of my dogs and they were both spot on. I spread the cards out and ask the dog to touch the cards with their nose or paw."
Not everyone consults the latest books for fun. Cathy, an entertainment paralegal in California who asked that her last name not be used, called on pet psychic Jocelyn Kessler, author of
The Secret Language of Dogs, to help her communicate with her 11-year-old lab Champ when he fell ill.
Comment: Charles and his brother Maurice Saatchi were instrumental in selling Margaret 'The Witch' Thatcher to the people of Britain in 1979.
The toxic influence of such nasty people really does permeate everything:
The Plot Against Art
Spitting Mad Jews and Angry Artists