I’ve been chosen to be a regular contributor to the new online magazine, Life As A Human. My latest article starts out:

The other day I saw an episode of The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. He’s the best I’ve seen when it comes to understanding a dog’s emotions, actions and thought processes. This time I began wondering how life could be different for us if we were more like dogs.

Read the rest of it here: If Humans Had Tails: Self-Esteem Lessons from Dog Shows.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

The other day, I saw an episode of The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. He’s the best I’ve seen when it comes to understanding a dog’s emotions, actions and thought processes, and this time I began wondering how life could be different for us if we were more like dogs.

Somebody brought him a “hopeless” case of a country dog who had moved to the city, and was scared to death every time he had to go outside for a walk. He would cower, he would run, and he would twist and strain at his leash — especially when confronted by a baby in a stroller.

Cesar will be the first to tell you that dogs NEED their walks, so stopping them altogether wasn’t an option.

Instead, Cesar did something really unique…

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It’s no secret that I’ve had a lot of pets in my time.

I used to have a lot of rodents — hamsters, gerbils, mice, guinea pigs, and a chinchilla — and rabbits (which are not rodents)… and then it was cats. Yup, I’ve still got a cat and a hamster.

And sometimes it’s fun to make your own stuff for the animals, just like making gifts for the family… especially since buying them ready-made can be pretty pricey.

I just wrote several articles for eHow that tell you how to make some necessities, and fun things, for your pets:

How to Build a Catwalk and a Cat Door

How to Make an Enclosed Cat Litter Box

DIY: Rabbit Cages

How to Build a Chincilla Cage

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

This weekend I lost a very special friend.

Mercury, who I considered to be my feline soulmate in many ways, was killed by a car right outside our house.

I didn’t want her to be an outdoor cat, even the part-time status she had, for that very reason.  But Mercury had a free spirit and a mind of her own, and she demanded again and again to go outside after we moved to the new house.

We let her out to make her happy, first thinking we had the yard adequately blocked off so she would stay within our fences.

That turned out to be not the case, as she immediately figured out how to jump over it… but she adapted so well, and was so at peace when she was allowed outside, that we couldn’t say no — no matter how much I tried to.

It’s that age-old dilemma: do you try to protect what you love by keeping it close, possibly smothering it in the process… or do you let it be free, both to happily do what it loves, and to also possibly make mistakes?

Well, we also knew that with Konan on the way, it would never work to force Mercury to stay indoors.  She would either demand more attention than we were able to give her with a new baby in the house, or be miserable, or both.

So we let her have her way.

And despite how it turned out, I know she appreciated it very much…

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Animals are dumb sometimes.

And Barry thinks ours are the dumbest of all.  I’m not sure I agree with that, but I see his point, because they sure do some dumb and crazy things sometimes.  Far too many to mention here!

But then again, their small brains often allow them to do things that we humans only wish we could… if only we could stop thinking about the drawbacks of it.

Last night our hamster, Mars, escaped from his cage for the second time.

The first time, he just worked and worked at the cage door, and eventually pushed it right open.  I found him the next morning hiding behind some books on the bottom shelf of one of my bookcases.

See, his cage is in my office, and I keep the door closed at night… so even though he had chewed away some bits of carpet in an attempt to get out of the room, apparently he couldn’t dig a hole big enough to squeeze under the door… so he found the most convenient hiding spot.

Why did he do it?

Because unlike us, he’s not confined to his comfort zone…

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Since today is Barry’s birthday, I’d like to share something very private with you.

Saturday night when I went to bed, Barry said he was right behind me… but instead, he got distracted by something special.

Yesterday morning he surprised me with a video that moved both of us to tears (yes, even Barry, often seen as the big tough guy around here, has a soft side!)

It was not only heart-warming, but synchronistic on many levels, and reminded me how magical the past year has been.

During that time, as we’ve been living together permanently, I’ve gotten to know Barry intimately in many different ways, and that has allowed me to see that my original pre-conceived notions about him were a little off too.

See, we weren’t a couple when we recorded and released Masters of the Secret. We were business partners who argued as much as we synced up (that’s what often happens when two super-passionate, vision-minded and driven people collaborate on something).

And even after we fell in love, he made it clear that he didn’t really like cats (something I loved) and that he loved sports (something I didn’t care for very much).

But perhaps it’s because he’s a Leo (and his 39th birthday is today — starting his last final year in his 30s, and a time of reflection for all humans as we question what’s important or not) but he has grown to not only like, but love our two cats (Mercury, who I brought with me from Toronto, and Jupiter, who we picked out together here).

He goes out of his way to do special things for them, and only gets angry at them when they show a stubborn streak — which, I suppose, is some twisted feline version of the mirror effect since, as a Leo, he has the same feline-inspired stubbornness.

That’s probably why he connected with this video in a way that never would have phased him a year ago.

Today’s also the anniversary of the day I left a lot behind (including a city I adored and some very special cats) in order to follow my heart.

Yes, it hurt — and sometimes the saying “No pain, no gain” is true, because we have to sacrifice something we love for the greater good, or so that we can move forward in other areas.

Now we have something even more amazing coming our way in three months — a little being that we created together.

And in the course of this whole process, I’ve learned that love truly has no limits — as shown in this moving video.

Grab a box of tissues, and go to the next page to check it out:

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For the past few weeks, Barry and I have been moving into our new house (the yellow color has already grown on him, and is starting to grow on me too).

Yes, we did the bulk of it already, but there have been some smaller things that we had to go back for as we’ve been slowly settling in around our normal routine.

It has certainly disrupted our business a bit (okay, actually a lot) because we’ve had to spend so much time away from the computers, buying new things that we need, fixing things up, taking care of the yard and garden, etc…

But we love the house, the 10-foot ceilings, the expansive square footage, the yard, the huge kitchen — everything about it.

And definitely, being in a more prosperous and expansive mindset is going to help us in many more ways down the road.

A couple of days ago, while taking a quick break from moving stuff (honestly, he’s doing all the heavy lifting and I’m just helping organize and clean) we were watching our new satellite TV service and a show came on about the wildlife in Toronto.

They featured raccoons and squirrels, both of which I used to raise from babies as a foster parent for the Humane Society, whenever they were orphaned and brought in to the shelter.

Funny thing though, I just assumed the three color types of Eastern Grey Squirrel (grey, black and brindle, which is halfway between the two) were available wherever squirrels lived.

I’ve been living in Oregon for a year, and have seen many grey squirrels — and really just didn’t give it a second thought as to why I hadn’t seen black ones, because they’re so ingrained in my reality that I thought they must be here too.

Turns out, those are unique to Toronto and surrounding area, and tourists love to stop and look at the black squirrels that hang out around the provincial parliament buildings (about two blocks from where I used to live).

Barry says he’s never seen a black squirrel before in his life. Wow!

Just one more of those instances where it pays to never assume (it makes an ASS out of U and ME).

It’s amazing how we go through life with blinders at times, not really noticing what’s around us, seeing what we want to see rather than what’s there, and taking things for granted.

I’m taking a vow not to do that with our new house. I love so much about it, that I’m going to appreciate those things as much as I can.

I love to eat my breakfast out on the deck, overlooking the English style garden. I feel grateful every morning to be able to watch the birds and the flowers, and the little creek that will have water in it during the winter.

And that’s the way to enjoy life… with eyes wide open, appreciating and loving what we have, and experiencing what’s there rather than what we assume must be.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Saturday evening, Barry and I took an impromptu drive through Colonial Valley, a nearby little oasis of wildlife that we had never visited before, but had heard all about the beauty.

And it was almost as good as going to the zoo… maybe even better, because we got to see animals in their wild habitat, calmly co-existing with humans (as well as a few that were domesticated, and also co-existing with humans).

The first deer I saw, bounding along the grass towards the road we were driving on, prompted me to gasp in delight — which scared the heck out of Barry, who was driving.

Right beside him were three more deer, casually grazing beside the road. We drove by slowly, and I took a couple of pictures from the car.

Then we came across the herd pictured above — nine of them all together — and I had to get out of the car to get closer for this picture, with one of them looking right at me.

By the end of the drive we had seen 16 deer in total… all within about the span of an hour or so. Who can say they’ve gone out for a casual drive and seen 16 deer within an hour? I was pretty impressed by the whole thing.

In fact, when Barry said whoever saw the next deer would be treated to dinner, I manifested the 16th one almost immediately.  I looked around, then straight ahead, and said, “There it is… crossing the road up ahead.” And there it was.

But it wasn’t just about deer…

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Today Barry and I picked up some plastic storage boxes at Wal-Mart, and one of them had a small cardboard rectangle inside… I’m not sure what the purpose of it was, since it wasn’t cushioning anything, but it fit loosely within the perimeter of the container.

A low semi-box inside a box. Or rather, a low wall that didn’t separate anything.

Barry put the cardboard piece on the floor in the dining room… and Jupiter immediately decided that it was a good place to hang out.

She kept going in there again and again… sometimes just relaxing, and sometimes using it as a vantage point, hunting blind and launch pad to attack Mercury from whenever the latter happened to stroll by.

It seemed to me that she somehow felt this low box — this wall that doesn’t separate anything — was a place of safety and comfort.

And beyond that, she seemed to think that as long as she was INSIDE the box… nobody outside could see her, and hence Mercury wouldn’t suspect the upcoming pounce.

Of course, kids play these kinds of pretend games all the time… but when I saw my cat doing it, it made me think of how adult people remain in their comfort zones with a false sense of security.

What makes it worse when people do it is they don’t advance through life to their full potential because of this sense of security they have — whether associated with a JOB, a habit, or remaining with a life partner that is completely wrong for them because it’s “easier” and “safer” to do so.

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What does it take to make a life-long dog lover, who has always disliked cats, into a bona fide cat lover?

You have to shift his (or her) values… through the power of love.

Dr. John F. Demartini – who I interviewed for Masters of the Secret — says that everything we do, everything we notice, everything we excel at, everything we succeed at, is based on our value system.

And so is love… you can’t love what you don’t value.

But sometimes loving another person makes you look at their values in a different light. And that means a shift in values based on that love.

Earlier this week, Barry and I took Jupiter out to the park on a leash for her first journey outside. And in this picture, you can see that he has genuinely turned into a cat lover over the last six months or so… and not just our own cats, but he loves looking at cats in the pet store now, and will even take an unannounced side trip there if we happen to be driving remotely nearby.

So how did that happen, when less than a year ago he said he hated cats?

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