The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Ozzie the pig inspires new book on farm life
Animals unite to get rid of cruel farm manager in ‘Ozzie’s Promise’
BETHANY >> Kathleen Schurman’s name is listed as author on the newly released book “Ozzie’s Promise,’’ but in truth, it was her pet pig Ozzie and other animals on her rescue farm who “wrote” it.
Schurman, an animal communicator, medium and healer, said the animals on her farm told her the story — and she did the typing.
“It’s really a lazy way to be an author,” she said. “I just sit there, and they tell me the stories. I don’t have to be creative at all. I just sit and type.”
Schurman, a seasoned writer and journalist, owns Locket’s Meadow Farm, an animal rescue and sanctuary operation.
The book is an easy, enjoyable read in which the animals of Locket’s Meadow Farm take matters into their own hooves, paws and claws, to defeat Bonnie, a cruel barn manager, who is making life miserable for the horses.
Ozzie in “Ozzie’s Promise” is Schurman’s late 500-pound pig — her inspiration for the book — who died two years ago at age 6. Schurman — who pretty much never met an animal in need that she didn’t want to rescue — received Ozzie, the runt of a litter, through a referral that first went to her husband, David, because the friend who called knew if he went directly to Schurman, it would be a resounding, “Yes,” and David wouldn’t have a say.
According to the book, David, referring to his wife, tells the person in the book, “If we didn’t say anything at all, she’d still figure it out. Once it’s out of your mouth, it’s already too late. Sometimes even before that.”
That’s what happens when you have a wife who talks to animals — stuff gets around.
Ozzie, born on a farm that raised pigs, lost ground early when his formula gave him persistent diarrhea. Schurman nurtured the baby pig to health with a homemade concoction she perfected until she got it right.
He got the name Ozzie Osboar after Schurman’s son-in-law said the pig is a rock star. The name is a take-off on rocker Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal superstar and lead singer for Black Sabbath.
Ozzie had his physical problems and Schurman carried him around until he surpassed 80 pounds. He started by living in the house, then the mud room, but eventually had to live outside because of a walking problem.
“He was such a good boy,” Schurman said. “I lived for him, he lived for me — we were madly in love.”
Ozzie died two years ago on Black Friday and when Schurman asked him, “Why today?” Ozzie told her, “It’s Black Friday, Ozzie Osboar, Black Sabbath.”
Schurman started writing the book when Ozzie was 2 years old and it was actually he who communicated to her after passing, to “Finish my book,” Schurman said.
When summer came, she finished his book.
But of course, Ozzie’s voice wasn’t the only one she’d hear directing the book — there were also the dogs, horses, crows, dogs, goats, sheep and other pigs she had acquired after getting Ozzie — eight who had been rescued from a flood. Her pet pig Petunia Buttercup weighs about 600 pounds, lives in the house and does everything a dog does, not realizing she’s a pig, Schurman said.
“Everybody talks to me — I can hear them,” she said. “That’s the problem.”
Schurman said she is so in tune with animals — and actually can communicate with other people’s animals — that when it’s time to pick horses to rescue from a herd, she has to send someone else because she can hear them saying, “Please,” as in take me.
The animals who directed the story in the book told her, “They wanted me to find a way to talk about how horrible the factory farms are,” she said.
The crows had their own ideas.
“The crows went in a different direction so they could explain what was really terrible about being an animal in the world because of humans,” Schurman said.
Schurman, a professional animal communicator and medium — she says she can communicate with people who have passed, too — said she could hear animals clearly as young as age 2 and remembers conversations with her German shepherd. The services she offers for a fee through the farm include communicating with animals who are alive and animals and people who have passed.
She wanted to stop the communicating as a youngster, saying, “I had to try to be like everyone else,” but then realized she could stop, “but I shouldn’t stop.”
After a time without doing it, Schurman went back to communicating with animals in her 20s.
“What’s nice now is I live on my own farm and I know these animals are safe and I can have a conversation without being judged,” Schurman said. “People have to be able to talk to their animals.”
The story in the book also includes her real-life farm ghost, “Michael,” who was connected to the farm when he died young.
She said Michael helps fix things on the farm — once when there were circuits blowing and she called an electrician, Michael told her to call a plumber to fix the problem because it was being caused by a leak, and he was right.
“I don’t call on him — he calls on me. He’s excited about the book,” and even wanted a better role, so she accommodated him, Schurman said.
Sometime, when she’s out, Schurman said she has to remember “it’s a funky thing,” to communicate with animals and ghosts.
“Ozzie’s Promise” was written as a children’s book, but it offers a lot for adults because it contains a lot of spirituality, she said.
One reviewer on Amazon wrote of the book: “WHAT A JOY to read this beautifully written book! You’ll be moved from heartbreak to hope, inspired by the voices of these rescued farm animals as they gently remind us of the core of our humanity and the power of love in the universe.”
“It’s all for them,” Schurman said of the book and referring to the animals. This is her third Locket’s Meadow book.
And it is literally for them, as any proceeds from the book go back into the rescue farm.
How does Ozzie like the book?
“He loves it, he loves it,” she said. “I want to say he loves the story about the mistreatment of pigs.”
The book can be ordered by contacting Schurman at Locketsmeadowfarm@yahoo.com or on Amazon at a cost of $14 for a paperback or $3.99 for a Kindle edition.
On April 8, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a rain date of April 9 — on Locket’s Meadow’s first open house of the year — copies of Ozzie’s Promise will be for sale along with other Locket’s Meadow books and Schurman will be available for signings and farm tours where people can meet the animals in her stories.
“What’s nice now is I live on my own farm and I know these animals are safe and I can have a conversation without being judged. People have to be able to talk to their animals.” — Children’s book author Kathleen Schurman