Behaviourist helps ensure troubled cats are feline fine
ACIVIL servant who quit her day job now works full time as a cat behaviourist after discovering what she describes as a remarkable ability to emotionally connect with felines.
Julie-Anne Thorne, 38, from Plymouth, describes herself as a ‘cat intuitive’. By sitting down with a moggy, or even just looking at a photograph of the animal, Julie-Anne said she can pick up the emotions felt by the pet.
She said it helps her understand why a worried cat is behaving in a certain way and can then teach the owners how to help their pet feel more comfortable.
She ditched her corporate job as a civil servant last year in order to pursue her dreams of educating cat owners and now runs her business, Naturally Cats, full time.
Julie-Anne said: “I can’t explain the science or the logic behind it because it is more of an emotional and energetic connection between myself and the cats.
“It’s almost like there is a connection between our feelings when I see them. You can get behaviour cues from looking at cats, but I feel more than that.”
Julie-Anne claims she realised that she had a strong connection with cats after visiting a zoo with her husband Rob back in 2012.
Stopping at a large cat enclosure where a cheetah lived, Julie-Anne was suddenly overcome with sadness. It wasn’t until later that day that the couple found out that the cheetah in question had just lost their mate and was currently grieving the death of the male. Julie-Anne said: “As I stopped near her, I just burst into tears. I didn’t understand why that had happened and then just as we were going to leave, we passed through the information centre and saw that she had just lost her mate. I realised I had been feeling her sadness and her grief which is why I had cried.
“It led me to explore an empathy side of things and, over the years, I’ve realised that I can connect with cats energetically and emotionally.”
Inspired by wanting to help her own cat, Pickle, who suffered with feline diabetes, Julie-Anne trained in complimentary alternative treatments such as reiki and animal healing.
She set up her business, Naturally Cats, in 2019 and now helps people with cats who have shown problem behaviours such as aggression or urinating around the house.
Julie-Anne has helped around 40 clients on a one-to-one basis since setting up her business, and has more than 1,000 followers online.
She charges £195 for an online consultation for problem behaviours.
She said she can instinctively feel within herself how the cat is feeling – whether it be anxious, angry, depressed, scared, happy or excited. But she also picks up on behavioural clues. “I use a mixture of tools to help clients and their cats,” she said. These include getting owners to introduce their pets to different dried herbs and essential oils which she says helps alleviate certain feelings.
She said: “The sceptics of this practice are definitely out there! I think part of what I’m doing is educating people so if nobody has heard of using remedies with cats, they’re not going to believe that it works until they see it for themselves.”
“My mission is no small dream. I want to change the world’s perception of cats – they are heavily misunderstood animals,” she said.