Doctor Dolittle learned the language of animals

Doctor Dolittle is one of the most famous characters in literature who knows the language of animals. He did not get the gift of talking to animals in some miraculous way: he learned it from a parrot. At first, he was convinced that only parrots could speak. However, he realized that all other animals communicate with each other too, but it’s just that humans do not understand them. The doctor gradually learned the language of animals by listening to them and observing them carefully and patiently. He came to realize that animals communicate in various ways. They talk not only with their mouths but also with their legs, tails, and ears.

Once he learned the language of animals, Dr. Dolittle could address them and understand everything they would say. The animals finally had a doctor who understood what they wanted and how they felt.

Mary Poppins: the only adult who could talk to animals

In J. Travers’ famous “Mary Poppins” novel, toddler twins Barbara and John could understand the language of sunlight, wind, and even a starling bird sitting on a window sill next to their crib. The children are horrified when the bird informs them that they will soon forget all this and that they will not be able to talk to him when they grow up. The starling’s prophecy was fulfilled because, after their first birthdays, the children lost the ability to talk to the bird.

“There never was a human being that remembered after the age of one — at the very latest — except, of course, Her.”  “You’ll hear all right,” Mary Poppins tells John and Barbara, “but you won’t understand.”

The only adult person who hadn’t forgotten how to talk to animals was Mary Poppins. On one occasion, she translates to a neighbor what his dog is telling him. The dog decided to run away from home if the owner did not meet all his conditions. Thanks to Mary Poppins, the dog owner finally understood the demands of his dog, which he did not like at all, but since he had no choice, he fulfilled all the wishes of the little rebel.

Animals, like infants, utilize vast communication without words, through gesture, expression, smell, sound, and touch. Language has disabled this other type of communication and complicated the relationship between man and the unarticulated animal world.

Margit Coates: a real person who could talk to animals

People who claim to be able to talk to animals are not just fictional literary characters: they really do exist. The most famous among them is Margit Coates, a person who intuitively communicates with animals and can heal them. It could be said that she is a modern and real-life Dr. Dolittle. Margit Coates is the co-founder of the clinic for ancestral treatment of animals and the author of six books, among which the most famous are “Communicating with Animals” and “The Voice of Animals: 10 Life-Healing Lessons We Can Learn From Animals“.

“. As a child, she used to tell people that, “a dog said this, a cat said that, a bird said this and that,” and everyone considered her a strange child.

Animals are sentient beings who can suffer, like humans, for a variety of reasons: illness, migration, abuse, loss of a human or animal friend, feelings of neglect, and more. However, people do not understand their language and therefore disregard their feelings.

Who can talk to animals?

Coates learned from the practice of communicating with animals that there is a universal language, universal knowledge, and consciousness. It doesn’t matter what language the cat, the dog, or the horse is used to, whether it is Croatian, Spanish, or English — the language is universal. It is a language we are all capable of communicating. Animals do not have the ability to verbally express themselves to humans, but they still speak. Margit Coates claims that everyone can hear the voice of animals. It requires practice, being mindful, listening, and witnessing the story the animal has. Over the last 30 years or so, a number of studies have shown that animals have intuition and a telepathic connection with their owners.

Coates says that all animals express themselves in the same way. We capture extrasensory information that transcends our senses. This means that we can receive information without rational thought and without thinking. When we increase our awareness, we can hear this extrasensory information.

A story about Rex the dog

It is not enough just to satisfy primary needs, but animals, as well as humans, have other needs: understanding, love, sincerity, and tenderness. There is a well-known story about a dog named Rex who suddenly became depressed. The owners took him to the vet and checked everything: blood tests, x-rays, everything. There was nothing to indicate why the dog was depressed. The dog stopped eating and his owners had to feed him by hand. They eventually took the dog to Margit Coates who immediately established that the dog was depressed. The dog looked sad, his ears hung down, and his snout was drooping.

 

Margit Coates soon realized the reasons for his depression from talking to the dog. The dog said to her: “Why did they send me away from them? Why was I punished? What did I do wrong? They sent me to a place where I was completely alone. That woman was not good to me. I felt very depressed there. Then my owners came back, but they never explained to me what had happened. After that, they got a new puppy. Then I felt like I was being punished again for something.”

Indeed, the owners went on holiday to Australia and took the dog into the care of a woman who looks after pets. The dog felt rejected. They hurt his feelings because they didn’t explain anything to him. They acted as if nothing had happened, and a dog is like a child — a sentient being — and you have to explain to him what is going on. They are like humans, even though they do not have a human form.

The owners realized that in the future they had to talk to the dog and explain everything to their companion. After they explained everything to him, the dog relaxed and fell asleep peacefully. He wanted someone to hear his story and understand it. When he woke up he was happy as before. “Thank you for giving us our dog back!” the owners wrote at the end of the letter sent to Margit Coates after therapy.

This really shows the complex relationship between man and animal. Man constantly gives orders to the animal, but the animal does not always react to them in the way that man would like. This is where the frustration comes in because an animal reacts to people as they are. Coates concludes that humans cannot pretend in front of an animal either. We cannot pretend not to be angry, upset, or distraught. We cannot pretend to be what we are not. If a man says one thing and thinks and feels another, the animal will recognize it. From animals, one can learn that honesty and naturalness are the best and fundamental conditions for good communication.

 

A boy talking to animals

In my book “The Donkey Doctor” the main character is a boy who had a special gift to talk to animals and understand how they feel. Unlike John and Barbara from the story about Mary Poppins who forgot the language of animals as soon as they turned one, the boy in the story The Donkey Doctor” is able to talk to animals even when he grew up.

To see an animal suffer, you don’t need to have a special talent, it is seen in many ways, the desire to escape, the facial expression, the voices it emits, the body language. People just don’t want to see what’s obvious because that would mean they have to change the life habits and attitudes that are so pleasurable to them.