- avantikabalendra
[Transcript] Episode 1
In this first episode, we invite you to get to know us as we embark on an amazing journey into the inner life of animals and nature. Both of us, Avantika and Barbara, are extremely passionate about this topic and we are more than excited to introduce you to the world we care so much about: the world of animals, nature and our beloved Mother Earth.
We will talk about our own personal backgrounds and how we came to know one another and then enter into the creation of this podcast. And we will let you know what's ahead: our future guests, topics we will discuss, and what you might learn from joining us on this podcast.
Our greatest hope is that we will become a community of like-hearted, like-minded souls and together we can change the way human beings perceive all living beings. We are extremely excited to have you join us on this incredible journey. Thank you for your attention, your love and your curiosity.
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Podcast website: www.animalsanduspodcast.com
Barbara's website:www.barbarashor.com
Instagram:instagram.com/animalsanduspodcast
Facebook:facebook.com/animalsanduspodcast
Twitter:twitter.com/animals_and_us
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hello and welcome to animals and us
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voices of a new paradigm this is episode
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number one
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my name is ivantika
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and i'm barbara
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welcome to our show we're happy to have
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you with us yes we truly are so excited
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to have you here today if you've
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stumbled upon our show we hope that
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you're someone who feels a strong
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connection to animals and the
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environment and to nature
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maybe you've always felt very connected
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or maybe something new that you're
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developing and exploring
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perhaps you're someone who works closely
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with animals in some capacity or you're
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someone who just really cares about them
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and has a really deep bond with them
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well wherever you come from and however
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you feel about animals
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we want to welcome you
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and we hope that you'll walk away with
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some food for thought
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maybe with your awareness slightly
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expanded or maybe with just some new
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interests and intriguing ideas that you
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can think about and apply in your own
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life
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barbara and i and many others out there
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really believe that animals have the
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capacity to think to feel
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to have consciousness and to even
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communicate with us and i'm not just
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talking about communicating through body
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language or through sounds that they
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make or through other obvious ways of
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communicating that we all know about
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i'm talking here about
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a very soul-to-soul connection that can
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happen between animals and humans
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through which we can actually
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communicate and exchange information
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so we'll talk more about that later in
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this episode and we'll definitely get
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really deep into that in later episodes
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but what's really important to stress
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here
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is the fact that they are conscious
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beings
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that they have thoughts
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they have emotions they have
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intelligence and when we are able to tap
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into all of that information and
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understand it
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we
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can be absolutely amazed by what we can
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learn about them and from them and so on
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that note i would love to properly
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introduce you to my co-host dr barbara
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shore
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uh barbara is a retired veterinarian who
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has worked with animals in many
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different capacities and i really mean
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that she has had so many different roles
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and interesting jobs in the past she's
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traveled a lot and she really has a
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wealth of information
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about animals and she really relates to
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them emotionally
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mentally psychologically and spiritually
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and in fact about 30 years ago she
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realized that she had the incredible
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ability to even communicate with them
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exchange thoughts with them and learn
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from them
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so barbara can you tell us how all this
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happened maybe you can walk us through
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your journey a little bit
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sure thanks avantika
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well like many of us i've always loved
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animals and i graduated with a biology
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degree from university of colorado
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and from there
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i did behavior research or ethology
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which is the study of behavior and
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and wildlife
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i did behavior research with wolves and
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coyotes in indiana of all places
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and
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i spent about a year there
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learning about these animals and falling
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in love with them
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and after that i became a dog trainer
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for a few years
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and that was fascinating too
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but it led me to vet school
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and i became a veterinarian
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i knew that there was more that i wanted
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to do with animals than
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be a trainer or study them so i went to
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that school
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and
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in vet school my passion for wildlife
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continued
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and i did some really interesting things
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during my time in school
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where i took care of raptors or birds of
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prey
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i volunteered with the colorado division
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of wildlife i worked at the denver zoo
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for several years
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and also worked with dogs cats horses
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and birds and everything else
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wow it sounds like you did so much
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during your time in vet school barbara
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and so where did you go after that where
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did life take you after you finished bed
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school
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after i graduated from vet school which
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was colorado state university
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i went into private practice and i
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worked in a few
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private practices which was great
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but then i was accepted into a residency
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program at the university of california
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davis
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and it was quite a wonderful prestigious
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program
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headed by dr murray fowler who was
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considered the father of zoo medicine at
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that time
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and i was the sole resident
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in a large ward where we treated many
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kinds of
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animals the program was called
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residency and not in non-domestic animal
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medicine
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and we treated all kinds of animals from
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from
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birds to snakes to rabbits
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and then we treated larger animals and
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zoo animals we treated we were the
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veterinarians for the sacramento zoo and
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mickey grove zoo in california
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and we treated many animals that had
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been injured wildlife
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as well as domestic
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companion animals
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and it was quite a huge
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huge learning experience
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from there i went to
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the california department of fish and
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game now called department of fish and
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wildlife
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where i did a deer project
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where i had a big truck and i would
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drive the mountain roads of northern
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california
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looking for roadkill deer these are deer
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that had been hit in the road
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and it was a research project to
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determine the condition of the deer
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herds
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because
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you can look at the fat on different
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tissues and determine what kind of
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condition those animals
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were in when they died
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and
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after a couple years of doing this it
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was springtime
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and in the springtime the deer of course
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had their little babies
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and i would be driving the roads and
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find a mother deer with her two babies
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by her side in the road killed in the
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road and
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i just broke into tears
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i
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what i realized many years later is that
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these deer
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spiritually anyway emotionally were my
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teachers
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and they were helping me wake up to my
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own sensitivity my own gentleness
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for so many years going through
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veterinary school and then the residency
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and working with wildlife i had shut my
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emotional self down i had to be this
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tough little
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macho character
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to do what i had to do
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and it was suppressing a really
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important sweet part of myself that i
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wasn't even aware of
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and so
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after that
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things changed for me and it opened me
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up to
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my own emotional healing to my spiritual
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evolution to a whole new world
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and after i came back from
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this residency i spent a year in africa
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working with wildlife in africa and i
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did a
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study with cape buffalo i did a study
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with
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african wild dogs or they're also called
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cape hunting dogs or painted wolves
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and that truly was the best year of my
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life it was just magical
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but i wanted to be kind of normal again
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so i came back to colorado and went into
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a veterinary practice and i worked there
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for a while
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until i decided i had to leave
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so i left
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it's so interesting that you describe
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coming back and
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and kind of what having this desire to
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do something a bit normal that's that's
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interesting so can you tell us a little
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bit more about that like that process of
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coming back into veterinary practice and
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knowing that it just didn't feel right
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for you you know what was
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what were your feelings and emotions at
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that time and help you know
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motivating you to
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leave that practice
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as i said the deer had helped me to find
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my
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sensitivity
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and when i was in veterinary practice
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i could feel the emotions of the animals
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and and the people and and it was taxing
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at times
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at the same time i realized there's so
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much more to the animals than i had been
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taught to believe
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so
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i wanted to find out what that was about
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i wanted to know about the root cause of
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disease
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what really
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makes animals tick what are they
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thinking what are they feeling what is
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the
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underlying cause of some of these things
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that we consider diseases that may just
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be symptomatic of something much deeper