First off, let me assure you I was raised a skeptic. Born to a military physician's family, I was well schooled in logic, reason, and scientific method; we did not brake for psychics.

But in adulthood, my skepticism has wavered. Once I saw a psychic who revealed things about me no stranger could know, and more than once I've picked up intuitive messages that seemed to come from somewhere else. Communication that science can't yet explain clearly occurs; mental telepathy between humans has been well documented. But whether it also occurs between species, as animal communicators insist, is a question that confounds even the most open minds. I wanted to know.

A dozen of us gathered one cold Saturday at an unheated stable where horses, goats, cats, dogs, and chickens were available for discourse. I was the sole skeptic. The other participan