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Shawna Rodrigues: 00:00

Do you have someone in your life who routinely says that they love animals more than people? I certainly have more than one person I know who feels that way. I'm guessing they also have a pet. A dog or a cat, perhaps? An animal that you've heard about a time or two? This animal, whom they love more than most, if not all humans, is someone they spend the majority of their time with. During the pandemic, it was who they may have spent all of their time with. Now, imagine losing that. Losing who you spend the most of your time with, who unconditionally comforts you, who is integral to every morning when you wake up, each evening and all of your routines. Can you imagine how devastating that would be? This episode is a conversation on that close bond, that deep loss. And this week, we're largely focusing on how we, as friends and loved ones, can be of support during that time of loss and how we need to understand how deep that bond truly is. Next week, we will also speak more directly to those who've experienced that loss. But honestly, that experience is interwoven pretty deeply into both of these episodes, because that loss is huge, and that grief takes up at least two episodes. Thank you for being here for this.

Shawna Rodrigues: 01:30

Welcome to The Grit Show, where our focus is growth on purpose. I'm your host, Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm honored to be part of this community as we journey together with our grit intact to learn more about how to thrive and how to get the most out of life. It means a lot that you are here today. As you listen, I encourage you to think of who may appreciate the tidbits of knowledge we are sharing and to take a moment to pass this along to them. Everyone appreciates a friend that thinks of them, and these conversations are meant to be shared and to spark even more connections. I am so excited about the guests that we have with us today.

Shawna Rodrigues: 02:10

Rachel Augusta is a celebrity animal medical intuitive who helps pets worldwide heal physically and emotionally by performing energetic surgery on injured disease in aging animals. Isn't that incredible? She's been called upon by Hollywood's biggest stars and MMA fighters for their own health and the well-being of their animals. She's been featured in The New York Times, CNN, BBC, and was the subject of a feature cover story for People magazine, which just tells you how important her messages are and how widely they are received. Rachel has brought pets back to life after being given mere hours to live, and many of them are still thriving today. She has such a gift. In addition to helping animals live their best lives, she helps those in hospice and their families by performing end of life ceremonies and officiating memorial services where people can honor their furry best friends in a comforting and sacred way. Grief is one of her favorite topics because so many are forced to isolate and suffer alone. And this is the reason why I was so excited to make the connection with Rachel and invite her to talk with us today. So welcome, Rachel. Thank you for being here.

Rachel Augusta: 03:19

Thank you, Shawna. I feel like we were meant to meet and have this conversation.

Shawna Rodrigues: 03:26

I agree because this has been in the back of my mind since I started my podcast over a year ago that we need to have a conversation around pets and grief and the importance around that. And then you disappeared right when I was at the point, I was like, I need to find someone. And there you were, and you were the perfect person. So, thank you so much for being the gift to all of us today to share with us your experience and what you can share with us about grief and people that are going through that.

Rachel Augusta: 03:55

Thank you.

Shawna Rodrigues: 03:56

Tell us a little bit about how you've come into this amazing work that you do. How did you get led to this?

Rachel Augusta: 04:03

Yeah, it was very personal. So, my soul companion was a kitty of mine. Her name is Holly, and she's my sole companion because she was really with me through really, really great times in my life and extremely difficult times. Those big shifts and changes you have, and then you have one person who's kind of your constant through all of them. That was Holly, and she got really super sick. Just kind of immediate overnight truthfully how it works for most animals, they have spent thousands of years mastering the ability of masking illness. They know how to hide it, so they will hide it from us until they're so sick they can't anymore. And that's what happened. And her vet basically was like, she's old. She's going to die in two weeks. Then you have no options. There you go. And, like, no bedside manner. And that immediately threw me into this position of knowing that if anyone was going to help Holly in any way, it would have to be me. And the next day, somebody I know sent me an email and was like, hey, have you heard about this class that's being taught at the university of how to build up animals’ immune systems and work with them? And I was like, no. And also, it's really weird that you're sending this to me because I don't work with animals. At the time, I was in the process of working on a manufacturing company, clothing manufacturing company, and totally unrelated to what I do in the world or what I used to do in the world. And it was just one of those moments where I was like, okay, you sent that to me because I needed to have that information. And so, I attended this class. And to make this long story short, Holly ended up living for another three years.

Shawna Rodrigues: 06:07

Wow.

Rachel Augusta: 06:08

And not just like, surviving, but thriving. It was a Hollywood ending to this story. And so many people at the time, you know, friends, everybody has animals living with them. Almost everybody was like, what did you do? What is going on? And people started bringing me their animals to help them. And all of a sudden, I was like, I think this has to be my job. And because it's become my full-time job, I should start charging. Otherwise, I'm going to be houseless. I guess clothing manufacturing is not what I'm supposed to be doing right now.

Shawna Rodrigues: 06:46

Not your calling.

Rachel Augusta: 06:47

It's not my calling. And it just turned into this. And honestly, it was because most of my friends saw what happened with Holly and started bringing me their animals. And so many times, people are looking for their purpose in life, searching and seeking and looking, and everybody's like, you know your purpose. You found it. And I'm like, actually, it kind of forced itself on me. And I'm really good at what I do, and I enjoy doing it, but it's not something I would have chosen for myself, even though it's very much needed. And so that's how I got into it. And it's a thriving business, I believe, because it is very needed. Because the truth is, we all love Western medicine, and Western medicine is great, and I am so grateful for hospitals and veterinary clinics. And if you're in a car crash and you've broke your legs, like, that is the time you need to go to the hospital. But there's a lot of gaps, and doctors aren't nutritionists, and they don't know about the immune system, or they won't talk to you about it. And so, I look at hospitals and veterinary clinics as like, we want to go there and get a diagnosis if we can. A lot of times with animals, we can't. But if we can get a diagnosis and then we can figure out how to get the brain and the body to start working with one another, which is something that Western medicine doesn't do, and that's okay. They're not supposed to do everything. Just like there's a lot of different realms of therapy.

Shawna Rodrigues: 08:19

Well, that's great, because the unique thing about you do is it didn't really exist as a field before for you to even know it was an option.

Rachel Augusta: 08:27

Exactly. It didn't exist. And I have now people contacting me from around the world and a lot of teenagers asking me if I will help train them to do what I do because they want to work with animals, but not necessarily in veterinary.

Shawna Rodrigues: 08:43

Oh, wow.

Rachel Augusta: 08:45

Yeah. So, it's really interesting. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues: 08:49

The wisdom you're using about animals, I think, is stuff that we all can value and integrate into our experience. Because you're right, most people I knew do have pets, especially I live in Oregon. Everyone has dogs. A few people have cats. Yes.

Rachel Augusta: 09:04

Yeah, everyone has animals. And then, you know, two people will say, like, yeah, but where does the intuitive part? Like, did you learn that in school? And, you know, how does that play a role? You know, I've even had people ask me, like, were you born an Indigo child? Which I always just think is kind of a funny question. The truth is that we're all intuitive. Like, we're born with intuition. It's part of our instinct, you know. When the hair goes up on the back of your neck, that's your instinct telling you something doesn't feel right, but it does require training to learn to listen to yourself. What's interesting is, after I got into this work of working with animals, and I use my body to figure out where things aren't working in their body, if there's cancer in the body, I can use my body to kind of feel around and be like, oh, I feel it in the left lung. I found out after I had been doing this that my great grandma did the same thing and her specialty was tumors and cancer, but nobody had told me that until after I had been doing this for years.

Shawna Rodrigues: 10:12

Oh, wow. That's amazing.

Rachel Augusta: 10:16

Yeah, it's amazing, it's witchy, it's mystical. It might make you go BS, but it's true. And I love it. And I love knowing that this person I've never met, had no connection, I mean, we're of the same family. She's my great grandma, but I don't know her. I never knew her. And I'm doing the same work in the world that she did, in a way.

Shawna Rodrigues: 10:44

Yes. And that part of that is potentially ingrained in some part of you.

Rachel Augusta: 10:49

Yeah, so that's how I got into it.

Shawna Rodrigues: 10:52

That's incredible. I love that awareness of the intuition and the connection. I think there's so much in the quantum realm that we don't know how everything is connected and we feel it, but there is more of a scientific basis to all of that than a lot of people realize. That when we do talk about intuition and the way that we respond to things and connect to animals or connect to others, that when we feel those things and trust those things, that that type of sensing and connecting is just beyond current levels of explanation, even though it's actually something very real. And I'm sure everyone you've worked with can attest to that, and your experience has shown that. And so, for people that are looking for those things to be open to that and to realize that there's things that are outside of what can be explained. And years ago, there's even more things we couldn't explain.

Rachel Augusta: 11:37

Right. And truthfully, some of my favorite testimonies and reviews are from people that are like, I absolutely do not believe in what you do, but it is the only thing that works. And I'm like, that might be the best testimonial I've ever gotten. Thank you. And truthfully, people do not come to me necessarily because they believe in a medical intuitive. They come to me because they're desperate in the same way that I was because Western medicine can't help them, because their vet is shrugging their shoulders, because, you know, to get a diagnosis for a human can be very, very hard, it can be very grueling, it can require a ton of tests. I know people who've had aches and pains in their body and it took two years before they discovered it was cancer with lots and lots of badgering of their doctors. And we know less about dogs and we know even less about cats. And so sometimes you can't get a diagnosis unless we were to just completely cut them open and dig through everything, which obviously is not something that someone's going to do. And so, when they come to me, it's not like, oh, TADA, a medical intuitive, we've been looking for you. They're like, so you're our last resort, and we need your help. And a lot of times it's the thing that clicks and puts everything back together.

Shawna Rodrigues: 13:00

When I love to, the element you have of the animals don't let you know that something's wrong until the absolute they can't mask it any further level and typically it's something significant. On that same token, I think you're tapping into animals and their history is not necessarily linked to Western medicine like humans are. And so, some of the answers for them may be things that are more natural and in flow and in different things. And it's complicated because even when you're doing interventions, medical interventions with animals, there's a lot of times I've been with friends when they're making decisions and they don't know because it's a gamble. Like, I could spend all this money on this treatment and it may or may not make a difference, and it might just make things more uncomfortable for the animal because they've gone through this surgery and we won't actually know more or we won't be able to help them. And so, there's really hard decisions to be made, even with the veterinarian Western view of healing animals. Whereas for all of time animals have been healing themselves or when they've lived their good lives and they go off alone and transition type of thing. And so, it's one of these things where having a different option is just a beautiful thing, period. To have a different way of looking at things and having people who love and care for their animals to feel like I can do something, I can connect with something, and the immune system and this intuitive way of looking at things is just beautiful.

Rachel Augusta: 14:24

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that's beautifully said. Yes.

Shawna Rodrigues: 14:29

The big reason I was so excited to find you is that there's two cats that live in my house and one of them has been my partner’s for more years I can count, I think it's like ten or eleven now, and I keep thinking it's like only seven or eight, but a very long time. He's had his cat and then I have a cat that I've took in for my niece that has stayed with us because my partner fell in love with him. So, my first thing, to be totally honest, I am not the key audience for this, as someone who's had their animal be their person, but I am surrounded by people like that. And when they've lost their pets and I've seen that, especially when they've had a pet that has gone through a very difficult time with them, which I think just elevates it to a whole different level, when that was your solace, these challenging times. I've been the friend knowing that this loss is an enormous loss and a huge impact for them and a huge grievance that they're trying to resolve and get to the other side of. Even if I haven't experienced things to that level, I can recognize that level and wanting to be that friend to be of support. So, our conversation today is the twofold of helping the folks that their pets are their person. They like animals better than people. I know plenty of people that will say that. That should define if you have somebody that says I like animals more than people when they lose their pet, they're going to grieve more than they would grieve a person. So, acknowledge that, but also being the friend on the outside who can recognize that but still not always being sure how to support and do that. So that's why I'm so excited to have this conversation, so I can be a better friend and so those folks can have a resource.

Rachel Augusta: 16:07

Well, that's really beautiful and that already advances you beyond most people. The fact that you can say, I'm not that person who's had that sort of experience a relationship with somebody of a different species, but I recognize that those relationships are really important. That alone is more than what most humans are willing to do for their friends and family members. So that's really beautiful.

Shawna Rodrigues: 16:41

So sad. I know I have dog nephews and nieces that are like my nephews and nieces because they are the children to my siblings and I have friends who their animals are that dear to them. And so, I definitely see that and know that loss and want to make sure that they get a place.

Rachel Augusta: 16:58

They're part of the family. Yes, they're part of the family. And just recognizing that is so important and I have so much to say about that. You know, just that alone that people don't understand. They think when a cat or dog dies, they're like, I don't get it, it's just a cat, it's just a dog. But they're not recognizing the relationship. I know a lot of people who have grieved more over the passing of “just a cat or just a dog” than they did their parents. And it's because it is the relationship. It is the bond between those two people that it was the time spent and shared that person's grieving. And if you didn't have a close relationship with your parents or it was distant or it was abusive or whatever it was, you might not grieve them in the same way that you would a constant companion who's with you through all of the good times and all of the bad times. And one of the things I try and remind people of is some people might not even understand that bond. I don't understand how you could be so close to a cat. And what I want to say is that animals will give us the friendship that most humans are incapable of delivering.

Shawna Rodrigues: 18:24

And consistently.

Rachel Augusta: 18:26

Consistently. They are not sitting on their cell phone scrolling social media while you're having a conversation with them. It's rare to sit with somebody now who isn't constantly looking at their phone, constantly looking at their smartwatch, oh, I have a text. You'll be telling them something, and all of a sudden, they're deleting notifications and you're like, it's disruptive. And I know they don't intend for it to be, but it is disruptive, and it does take away from the moment, especially if you're crying over a breakup or like you're in these spaces and your friend's like, hold on, I'm getting a text. And animals don't do that to you. They sit with you and they don't judge you. Okay, well, cats might, but not vocally. You might get a side eye, but they're just sitting with you and breathing with you and letting you feel however you need to feel. They're not trying to correct it. They're not trying to tell you you're wrong. They're not interrupting you with phone calls. They're just sitting with you. And that if you think about it, that is why we fall so deeply in love with them, because that friendship, it's rooted in comfort and peace.

Shawna Rodrigues: 19:51

Yes, and they sense. Like humans don't always sense or see when you need support and when you're going through a hard time, because a lot of us have been very good at masking it. And I'm going to out my fiancé, so hopefully he lets me keep this in the podcast. But he has a great attitude. He's a happy guy. He's on it. He's supportive. He's there for everything. His cat can tell. Like yesterday we got some upsetting news, and when we sat on the couch to talk about it, like, I make jokes about the fact that his cat comes right between us and gets up in his face and it's like right there with him. But just because we're having a heavy conversation about stuff that's happening, his cat is right there. And his cat has been right there for a decade, and I haven't been in his life for the past decade. We have a history from way back then, but for the past decade, every time he's gone to work and been strong and been there for everyone and been on top of everything. But the second he comes home, his cat knows when he needs support and is right there, even if it's annoying, he’s right there to connect with him and knows that he needs something and that he's feeling something and other humans don't get that and don't always get that every single time, like animals, sunset and get on top of that.

Rachel Augusta: 21:07

They totally do. In fact, for a long time, we've known that animals can smell our emotions. They can smell diabetes. They can smell cancer on us. Their noses are spectacular. But not only can they smell our emotions. Studies prove that they feel that our emotions with us. And so, when we are stressed, they're worried for us and feel this deep need to help bring comfort to us, and they do. A cat's purr is the same vibration as an ohm tuner and it calms your nervous system. And so, his cat is like, move out of the way, Shawna. I got this.

Shawna Rodrigues: 21:51

I got this. I’ll take care of this. You think you guys need to connect right now? I need to take care of him right now because this is upsetting news.

Rachel Augusta: 21:58

I regulate the nervous system. They are, you know, the best friends. And the word even calling them like, oh, my pet, it doesn't do service to that friendship, right? But then when you say, oh, my fur baby, it makes people angry. They're like, that's not a child. How dare you compare them to a human child? And the truth is that people are just trying to figure out how to describe a beautiful friendship, and they don't really know how. And so, to say, well, they're my pet, but that doesn't feel right, because they're more than that, and you're like, they're my fur baby. But then also, I know you're not my baby, but some people do think of them as their babies, and I think each relationship is different. My relationship with Holly, she was my sole companion. And when I say that, people are like, whoa, that seems kind of strong. They're not even really sure how to process that. And now I live with my cat, Sugar Pants, who is delightful, and I love her, and I call her my Saturday night. She's my Saturday night plans. She's always ready, and she's my little ride or die. She's my little friend who's like, I'm up for anything. And people have asked me, do you consider her a child? I'm like, no, I don't. I may have Holly, because we don't know how to describe it. You know, like, I don't know. She's my best friend. I don't know how to describe this. But it's like, you're ridiculed. I've seen so many people teased for being, like, your best friend's a dog, your best friend's a horse, your best friend's a cat. Don't you have any human friends? I mean, I see the joke in it.

Shawna Rodrigues: 23:39

Yeah, my human friends suck sometimes. My animal friends never do. That's what people I know would tell you. Yes.

Rachel Augusta: 23:44

Right. And for me, with Sugar Pants, she's an adventure cat. She's hiked in more state parks than most Americans I know. She lived with me, and we did van life together. She's my little bud. And when I'm stressed out, her response is to not come and lay on me and purr and give me love. Her response is to get me to laugh. And so, she will do these ridiculous things, and it just kind of reminds me of the naughty friend you had in junior high, where you're like, we're going to go get in trouble together. That's why I always laugh with her. I'm like, you're my Saturday night and when people ask, like, she's my little ride or die. And we have different experiences together, but it's like, to say, like, oh, she’s, my pet. I'm like, that doesn't really describe the relationship. But calling her a fur baby doesn't really describe my relationship with her either. So, I think at its basis is why people have a hard time understanding the grief around animals, because they don't necessarily understand the friendship, or the human might not know how to describe the guardian, the person who lived with them. They're not just a pet. They weren't just this person I shared a house with, a roommate. They were my constant companion, really.

Shawna Rodrigues: 25:09

Yeah. And I think that with my partner and his cat that he's been with for ten years, that there's like, a handful of people that get that Hobbes is his ride or die, right? That they get that. And there's a lot of people that would just never imagine that he has a cat and would never imagine that he was attached to a cat. And when something happens to Hobbes, he will be devastated because that cat has been with him. His ride or die is a great way to say it. His sole companion for so long and been so supportive. He has a tattoo on the back of his calf that's Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes. So, he has a tattoo of his cat, and he jokes like he would never put a woman’s, you know, but he has a tattoo of his cat because his connection with his cat is something that's very unique and not something that he ever intended. Like, it was a rescue cat, and somebody at work said, oh, he's like, I don't want a cat. I don't want a cat. And then when you just have these experiences, the animals are with you in your home, like, he lived alone, and that cat was the one that was there for him whenever he would need somebody, like, they grow on you.

Rachel Augusta: 26:11

Totally. And I think that even in rescues, some of those situations or relationships can be even deeper, right? Because if you get a puppy or kitten from a breeder and you bring them into your house, that's one thing. But if you are adopting someone who's been very mistreated and very misused and has lost their ability to trust humans, and then together, you begin building that trust once you've brought them into your home, which is very common with most rescues. It seals the love deal, period. Like, it can take months, years for an animal to learn to trust you. And then once they do, there's no going back. They trust you implicitly. And the work and the love and the patience that had to go into helping somebody understand that you're safe and that you're not going to hurt them in the same way that they've been hurt is really beautiful and really rewarding because the human gets to experience this new space with this animal of trust and it's really beautiful. I know Hobbes name now. I don't even know your fiancé’s name.

Shawna Rodrigues: 27:40

His name is Robie. But Hobbes is more important for this conversation.

Rachel Augusta: 27:43

I was like, it's so perfect. People know Sugar Pants name and they don't know my name, but a lot of people laugh. They're like, I did not plan to have a cat. And then, they're here. They live here now, and now we're best friends and we're a dog. And it just happens that way. And I find so many people who end up finding dogs along the side of the road and then they're like, it's really weird, but I feel like this is my little soul person. Like, we're going through the same things together of learning how to trust, learning how to work through our anxiety in group spaces. And I'm giving them advice that actually I need to be giving to myself. And so, yeah, it's really beautiful. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues: 28:26

I think my niece was the first person that when she was young, she would not remember my friends’ names. The adults that I was friends with, she'd remember their pets. And so that's when I started to recognize that animals can be more important than people. She was the first person that introduced me to that concept. And she's grown now. She's an adult now. She has kids of her own. But when she was little, that's when I first started to get that concept and my siblings with their pets. And then I have a very dear friend. She's so dear that when I did have a cat, that when I went through a challenging time, had been my cat and died very suddenly. And when that cat died, she drove three and a half hours to come be with me and bury that I'm going to cry talking about it, to bury that cat with me. And then somebody else was a tenant in my house, gave me flowers when that happened. And for me, knowing that my connection to that animal is probably the strongest I've had because of what I went through when I had that cat. But the outpouring I got because I'm surrounded by people who get how important animals are was so important, they made me go, I hope I'm doing justice for other people when they lose their important connections, you know.

Rachel Augusta: 29:33

That's really beautiful. That's really beautiful. And I'm so glad you experienced that. Everybody has different experiences and it really does depend on your community. And I feel like I should just say really quick, I'm in the business of trying to save lives. But the truth is that there's only one promise in this world, and that the promise is that none of us get to stay. We're all leaving. And you can't heal age, and sometimes you can't get ahead of a disease. And so, I end up spending a lot of my day on the phone with people who are crying. And I will tell you that I am not an expert in grief. I did not go to school, but I am an expert in grief because I have experienced it. And everything I know is through my own experience. And everything I say was not learned in a book, but just something I have experienced. And when I lost Holly, I ended up being very isolated because I didn't have that community you had. The people who I thought would show up disappeared, and strangers appeared and filled those spaces, which was shocking and beautiful and sad. And I did have some close friends who did know how to come in, but I ended up isolating a lot because people would say really painful things, thinking that they were helping. I think the thing around grief, you gave a couple of examples of where you felt like, really loved and held, and it was that your niece drove for hours to come and help you bury the body. That's beautiful. And that somebody brought you flowers, and that's really beautiful. And neither one of those things or neither one of those instances was anybody trying to stop you or trying to fix you and make you feel better, because, as we know, you cannot fix someone's grief. You can't. It's not your job. And I think that, when it comes to animals, it's just recognizing that although this might just seem like a cat to you, this may be this person's best friend. And with your fiancé and with a lot of people, our animals are the ones we go to when we're stressed and depressed and sad. And so, when we lose them, we no longer have that space. It just goes away. And so, it's recognizing that the person who is grieving an animal has lost a very best friend. And that's how we should all look at it. Regardless of how we want to classify that friendship. They've lost a very close best friend. And the second part is that you can't fix it. And it's about just being in that space and being in those emotions. And there's one of your more recent shows that I listen to, is just about allowing yourself to feel the feelings you need to feel. And when you're grieving, allowing yourself to feel whatever it is you need to feel. And if you want to support somebody, allowing them to feel whatever it is they need to feel. It's really that simple.

Shawna Rodrigues: 33:00

This is such an important conversation and we really need more time to cover it. So, we are going to keep diving in and spread this into two episodes. So, everyone who is listening, come back next week. Or if you're listening to this after the final week of August 2023, just jump ahead to episode 60 because you're going to want to hear the rest of this. We'll get to our self-maintenance minute and there are some amazing resources that Rachel has to offer that you're going to want to know about. Thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to jump on over to Instagram and follow us, @The.Grit.Show. And if you aren't already following Authentic Connections Podcast Network, @37by27, you should definitely be doing that as well. Don't forget, you are the only one of you that this world has got and that means something. I'll be here next Tuesday. I hope you are, too.