Does your pet know what you're thinking? Rupert Sheldrake thinks so. As do animal communicators - they always say that they "talk" to animals by forming pictures in their head, which the animals can "read" and respond to in a similar manner. It may sound a bit out there, but just think about how cats disappear completely on the day they're supposed to be going to the vet, even though you apparently did nothing to give it away (like take out the carrier). But the thought was probably in your head. I think it's possible for all of us to talk to our pets this way; we just need to take the time to learn how. Regardless of how you feel about animal communication, I think you will find this book very interesting, and quite an eye opener. It really makes you think about how you communicate with your pets (and other animals) and look at "coincidences" in a new light.

Rupert Sheldrake is a world-renowned British biologist who has appeared on numerous TV shows, written for many of the leading newspapers in England, and has also written several books of which Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home is my absolute favorite. Sheldrake is perhaps best known for his theory of morphic fields and morphic resonance. He describes a morphic field as a social bond, which includes all the members of a group (such as a family, pack or hive), be it humans, animals or a mix of both. The morphic field is elastic, so that when a member of the group travels away from the rest, they are still connected and can communicate telepathically.

In doing research for "Dogs That Know...", Sheldrake interviewed thousands of animal owners and people who work with animals, and was told stories again and again that seem to confirm this theory - animals sensing when something happened to their owner even though he was far away, knowing way ahead of time when a family member is coming home, alerting their owners to impending seizures and many similar examples. The book is basically a collection of these amazing stories and case studies with Sheldrake's thoughts and explanations. There's the cat who rushes to the phone and paws the receiver every time it rings and it's her owner who's calling, but never when it's someone else, the dog who physically prevented his owner from committing suicide, the parrot who warned his owners of an air raid during WWII (by pointing with his wing and saying "Up There" repeatedly) hours before it happened... I wasn't able to put this spellbinding book down, and I bet you won't be either.