Welcoming A (Not So) Tiny Girl Into This World

“I hope it’s going to be tonight, or tomorrow night.”

That’s what I kept on telling people whenever they asked when Ratu, the pregnant Sumatran rhino, would give birth. Based on calculation from Ratu’s gestation period of Andatu (Ratu’s first calf), she was due last week but there was still no obvious sign of when she would deliver the calf, so all we could do was to wait and see, apart from ultrasound-ing her every few days.

We didn’t sleep well in the last week, worried that Ratu would give birth any night and I had spent some nights going to bed at 2 a.m and waking up at 6.30 a.m only to monitor her condition. However, last week I had a hunch that she would give birth later that night so I took a nap. It was also an educated guess because she showed some behavioral change. So I took a two-hour nap hoping to see a Sumatran rhino calf that night, but unfortunately the pregnant mother changed her mind and wanted to keep her baby inside for a little bit more. That night, I couldn’t sleep and stayed awake watching a rhino sleep soundly through the night. Tricky girl!

Days went by, she was getting more and more restless, and so were we! We were hoping every single day that the calf would be born that night. I communicated with her and did a couple of BodyTalk sessions, only to find out that she did not feel safe with bright lights surrounding her forested enclosure (there were a couple of floodlights installed). I tried to address this issue but some of the staff insisted that the lights were needed. A couple of BodyTalk sessions really calmed her down though, and addressed some of her stress resulted from human’s fear.

Then yesterday, I got another hunch. This one was merely a hunch and there was no educated guess. I successfully took a three-hour nap yesterday afternoon (a piece of cake if you haven’t had enough sleep in the last 6 days) and thought if Ratu was not going to give birth that night or the following morning, I’d spend another sleepless night watching her sleeping and wallowing in the mud – the last thing I wanted to do that night. Well, it was around midnight and Ratu seemed to be restless and sleeping less, so I thought that was a good sign … before she slept again and there was no sign of labor (again! She tricked me twice, that girl!). I waited and waited and waited for almost 3 hours, and she was still sleeping. I started feeling frustrated because of the floodlights, I did not know why but I guess that was a mirror of Ratu’s frustration that I felt. At 3 a.m I was getting sleepy and finally decided to give up, but before going to bed I uploaded a silly picture/status on my Instagram, showing how frustrated I am waiting for Ratu’s calf every night.

Just after the picture was uploaded, Ratu decided to wake up and walked around her enclosure. I decided to wait a little bit more, but she went behind a big tree and stayed there. It was dark (probably the darkest site where she could avoid the floodlights) and I could not see a thing. I was about to give up again when I heard report that her water broke and there were signs of first stage labor! I was so excited and all the sleepiness suddenly evaporated into thin air!

No words can describe how precious the moments are. From the moment when the calf’s hind legs emerged (it was posterior longitudinal presentation, video here), followed by her small body and head covered in hair, to the moment she started to stand up, fell, stood up again, until finally made her first few steps in this world!! Nature is incredibly amazing, especially when we see an animal birth, they just knew what to do from the very second they are born into this world, without being told or taught by anyone of what they should do. They just knew instinctively. Ratu did not touch her calf for the first couple of hours, and I guessed it was to encourage the calf to stand up and walk towards her to suckle. If she had approached the calf, the calf would not have tried to stand up and walk while it was vital for the calf to use her muscles immediately.

Within less than an hour, the calf really did her best at standing up on her four feet for the first time. It took her less than an an hour and a half to start taking small baby steps, and within 3 hours after birth she had already started suckling. It was funny to see her sniffing Ratu’s belly randomly searching for the teats, not sure where to locate them.

Kudos to the new vet team at Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary! Read more about the birth on IRF’s official press release here.

So adorable.

So amazing.

So priceless.

Thank you Mother Earth. I hope we, the minority of humans, can continue to preserve the nature while the majority of us are destroying it, even though we are all guilty for that.

PS. I haven’t slept all night as I’m typing this post. Forgive me for a boring-and-not-so-lively story and awful grammar, but I do hope you enjoy the story 🙂

The first wefie! I don’t want to disturb the 3 hours old calf so in this case a CCTV wefie works fine as well 🙂

What Does The Bear Say?

Have you ever wondered what the bear in the famous “Funny bear walking like human” video say? To answer some questions from curious readers about my animal communication skill, here’s a short conversation that the bear and I had. Whether it’s an imaginary or a real conversation, only the bear and I know 🙂

Me: Isn’t it hard to balance yourself and walk on hind legs?
Bear: No, I’m comfortable doing it. It’s not difficult at all.
M: Why do you walk like that?
B: I feel more comfortable walking like this. It’s not wrong to walk like this, is it?
M: What do you mean ‘more comfortable’? Isn’t it easier for you to walk on four legs?
B: Look at my legs, they are very short! What can I see by standing on those short legs? I need better vision of my surrounding.
M: But you know what your enclosure look like. Why do you still need better vision?
B: So I know when food is approaching.
M: Don’t you get enough food already?
B: It’s never enough.
M: Then what can make you feel better?
B: Water. It’s very hot recently.
M: I mean what kind of food can make you feel better or less hungry?
B: Banana.

Do you have questions you want to ask the bear? Leave a comment below or contact us. I’ll convey your questions to the bear and publish the answers in the next few days.

How Does It Feel To Talk To Animals?

This is another common question that people ask regarding animal communication experience. One of my clients was surprised when I found out from his dog that he had stopped sending his dog for spine massage therapy. He looked at me in shocked and asked “How do you know? What did my dog say?” and I replied “She didn’t say anything but when I asked what could make her feel better, she shared this massage experience with me.” He had no clue about what I told him at that time and I had to explain in length to him about the animal communication techniques.

So to make people understand and to avoid similar confusion, I’d like to share my experience here. When I ‘talk’ to animals, do I hold conversation as when I talk to human? Do we exchange words in English? What do I experience?

Depends on the questions I ask, the animals will share their answers in different ways. They may share images, tastes, smells, physical and emotional feelings, and sounds. This experience may differ from person to person. Because I’m a visual person and good at visualizing, most information comes to me as images or videos. An animal communicator who is an empath will get different experience and information may come to them as physical and emotional feelings. On the contrary to popular belief, information as messages and long conversations are not common for me. There are a few possible factors for this and one of them could be the result of animals’ inability to speak human language.

Here are some examples the questions I ask and the common form of answers that I receive:

• How do you feel? → physical or emotional feelings (happy, worried, painful knee, numb in right elbow, etc)
• Where are you now? → images of what the animal probably see at the moment (near a lake, in front of big building, in a small alley next to a restaurant, etc)
• What do you want me to tell your masters? → messages (“I feel uncomfortable right now but I’ll be fine in a few days”, “They shouldn’t worry about me, I’ll be okay when they are out of town”, “I love everyone in the family especially the young brother but sorry I’m getting old and my time almost come”, etc)
• What can make you feel better? → physical feelings (feel of something warm on my back, feel of someone stroking my head) or taste (something tastes sweet and sour, something soft with mild meat smell) or images (a picture of certain fruit, a picture of soft cushion) or smell (lavender aroma, mint aroma).

Do the examples give you more understanding about communicating with animals? If you have experience communicating with animals or other sentient beings, either similar or different experience, please let us know and leave a comment below 🙂

Sentient Being Communication in Daily Life

When I tell people that I’m an animal communicator I get various response. While most people think I’m crazy and such thing doesn’t exist, some others think I’m an animal whisperer and can tell the animals to behave according to what I want. If you want to know what I’m thinking, both impressions are wrong.

Being an animal communicator means I can understand what the animal (or other sentient being) is trying to share, but I cannot give them order and tell them what to do. Just like understanding a crying baby: you know it wants milk, but you cannot tell them to stop crying. Did I just compare an animal to a human baby? Yes. I prefer the term ‘sentient being communication’ to ‘animal communication’ because universal language are used by all sentient beings, not only animals. We, as humans also use universal language in our daily life.

I am often asked by skeptics if animal communication really exists, what the proof is and what the scientific explanation is. My answer is always the same: It does exist and I can give you proof. There are a lot of natural phenomenons which cannot be explained by science (yet), but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

So for all of you who think such communication is not real, here are some proof of sentient being communication:

Proof no. 1: Two babies communicate with each other using a language that only they can understand. They speak no language, yet they understand and entertain each other. What kind of communication or language do they use?

If you think such communication only happens among human, here’s another proof that sentient being communication is universal:

Proof no. 2: Silent communication among buffaloes to save one of their herd members. How do the buffaloes tell each other about what happened and what they want to do? How do the leader give orders to his members to save the calf? FYI, it’s one of my favorite animal videos which I’ve watched a lot of times and it has been viewed over 76 million times on Youtube!

If you think sentient being communication is only practiced among individuals of the same species, here’s the last proof that human and animal can communicate:

Proof no. 3: A documentary by National Geographic about a human being who can communicate with wildlife. He is Kevin Richardson and is known as the lion whisperer.

After watching the video you might say “Well, he hand raised the lions. Of course they are nice to him.” Now I’ll ask you some questions: How many people hand raise wildlife? How many people have been attacked by the animals they raise? How many of them can interact with the animals like the guy in the video? Do you still think he’s not an animal communicator?

There are some things science cannot explain, but it doesn’t mean they do not exist. One of them is sentient being communication.

What Language does Animal Speak?

As an animal communicator, I’ve been asked numerous questions by friends and clients. Some of the very common questions are: Can you speak to my Thai dog? My cat is Balinese, how can you speak to her? Does the animal speak better English than I do? When you speak to animals, what language do you use?

All these questions lead to one bigger question: What language does animal speak?

Some may say animal language, others may call it sign language, body language, telepathic connection, or mind reading, but for me it’s simply universal language.

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time.  – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

Why do you call it universal language?

As the name suggests, because it’s so universal that everyone and every creature can understand, regardless of culture, race, ethnicity, nationality, and even regardless of species! There’s no language barrier when you communicate with nature. If it sounds too woo woo, please watch the video below to see that human and elephants can create strong bond and communicate well regardless of species difference.

If it’s universal why not everyone can hear what you hear?

The reason why only certain people can communicate with animals is because these people listen while others don’t. Some people even ignore the message they get. Unfortunately the number of people ignoring the messages is far greater than the number of people listening. Everyone is given the same ability, but it depends on the individual whether they want to develop it or kill it.

Animals speak to those who listen.

If you are still curious or haven’t fully understood yet, here’s a simple exercise to develop your animal communication skill: Next time when you see a baby, observe them and tell me what you think they want. Look into their eyes and tell me what they say. What feeling do you get? What emotion do you feel?

With the same method, observe a dog or a cat or an elephant or anything. Look into their eyes and tell me what it says. Most importantly: What kind of language do you use? Have you understood the universal language concept?

Please let other readers know your experience by commenting below.