“Everything has a rational thought,” says Zimmerman, who believes she can help pet owners by using her “gift” to tell them how their pets are feeling and what they are thinking.
“When I touch them, I get quick little flashes of their thoughts. It’s like seeing a black and white photo in your head for a few seconds and it’s purely my words but it’s their thoughts,” explains Zimmerman during a visit she recently made to my home. Zimmerman says animals, which are by nature non-verbal, use mental pictures as a means of communication. And they know their masters best, perhaps better than we know ourselves. “They are much more in tune with us than we are with them because we play such a huge role in their lives.”
Zimmerman arrives at my door wearing a dark blue sweatshirt featuring a picture of two cats playing in the snow. She is here for an interview and a reading of my dog, a 13 year old mixed breed named Fozzie, who greets Zimmerman the same way she does all new people-with a wagging tail.
We move into my office so I can take notes during our talk. Zimmerman sits on the floor with Fozzie, first offering her a new toy-a brightly-colored fabric rope. But before she pulls the toy out of her bag, Zimmerman correctly comments, “We aren’t much of a cloth toy lover, are we?”
I’ve read all about Zimmerman before our meeting on her website, Donetta Animal Communicator.com. She first realized her “gift” as a young child. In fact, Zimmerman says she can’t remember a time when she couldn’t communicate with animals. She believes her ability is a heightened sense she developed to compensate for severe hearing loss and dyslexia, which went undiagnosed as a child. “I really believe everyone can communicate with animals but I have a special need. I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t do it. It was easier for a long time to talk to the cat or the dog,” remembers Zimmerman.
She strokes Fozzie’s gray, thinning fur and murmurs “Aren’t you a beautiful dog? Aren’t you a good girl?” repeatedly throughout the reading. Before she begins, she asks for Fozzie’s name and her age but that is the only information I've given her.
Zimmerman tells me that food is a big deal to Fozzie (for the record, we knew that!) and that if Fozzie had her way, there would be food in her bowl all the time. Fozzie is happy, she says, knows she’s been with us for a long time, and considers herself the primary babysitter of our two daughters. She tells Zimmerman that she enjoys the freedom she has to roam the house without confinement, even when no one is home with her. Zimmerman has only seen the front portion of our house-she would have no way to know if I keep a crate in another area. I don’t.
Zimmerman tells me that Fozzie’s long-range vision is fading, and that she’s lost more than half of her hearing (also true). Finally, Zimmerman says Fozzie has “rescue gratitude”, a sense that her life could have turned out much differently had we not saved her. We did adopt Fozzie at the age of three months from the SPCA. We were told that her mother had abandoned her and her siblings shortly after birth.
Zimmerman claims she can read wild animals or strange animals. She does not have to touch an animal to get a picture of their thoughts. Horse trainers and owners are among her most regular clients and she has worked for several zoos across the country, although she won't publicize names, because of possible negative public reaction to her visits.
Her oddest client, says Zimmerman, was a tarantula owned by a small boy in another Cincinnati neighborhood. He had heard Donetta could talk to animals and asked her to do a reading on a whim. The tarantula corrently told her it had lived in three homes of different sizes and that it disliked the dark.
Upon hearing this story, my daughters ask Zimmerman if she would be willing to read their goldfish. She follows the girls into their respective bedrooms and places her hands on their one gallon tanks, each containing one fish. My eldest daughter’s goldfish is a male, says Zimmerman, and enjoys living by himself because he doesn’t have to share food. He remembers a time when there was more than one fish in the tank (which is correct). My youngest daughter has a female goldfish who tells Zimmerman that she remembers being picked on by other goldfish at the pet store.
Zimmerman does not charge a set fee for her services. She is grateful for gas money and donations, which she passes on to animal charities. But Zimmerman will do a reading for free if a person is unable to pay, because she says all pet owners love their animals the same, no matter their wealth. (For the record, I did pay Zimmerman a small fee).
Zimmer believes her services are particularly useful when an owner is trying to decide whether to euthanize their pet. Zimmerman says she can tell when an animal is done with living and is ready to move on, and when it still has the will to fight and recover.
I ask Zimmerman how she reacts to people who think she’s a fake or who object to her readings for religious reasons. “I don’t try to educate people that don’t want to believe or listen. I don’t push my thinking on anybody.”
Whether you believe she’s telling the truth or not, there is no denying that Zimmerman has dedicated herselfto enhancing the relationship between animals and their caretakers. And pet lovers can't argue with that.
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