While my elected officials at Cincinnati City Hall were trying to do the people's business amid the usual discourteous barking from the gallery, I was at a seminar with some very polite dogs.

        The atmosphere at Woodland Mound Park was friendly and orderly, as opposed to the atmosphere in City Council Chambers, where the air conditioning is nearly always overwhelmed by the human hot-air dispensers.

        While poor Mayor Charlie Luken was trying to figure out how to muzzle unruly spectators, I was lounging on a picnic table, listening to Judy Fuson. She is a pet psychic.

Mysterious gift
        Judy is not the first person I have met who does this. In December of 1995, Donetta Zimmerman interviewed the Pulfer livestock, Buster (Devil Cat from Hell) and Misty (The Dog Who Thinks She's Lassie). She saw “quick little pictures of their thoughts.”

        Buster blabbed about the time we quarantined him when he was sick. Misty tattled on my mom's dog, who gets on the furniture.

        Barry Wakeman, who was the Cincinnati Zoo's director of education for 26 years, said, “We've found out that cats can make noises above the level of human hearing, and elephants can communicate with each other below our level of hearing. Donetta definitely has a gift of communication that we don't quite understand yet. She is genuine.”

        Eventually, word got around, until Donetta no longer had time to talk to anybody's animals but her own.

        So when Roncy Roehm, who runs a boarding service for pets called Pets Are Inn, said they were bringing a Tucson pet psychic here, I wondered if things had changed much, psychic-wise in the intervening years.

        Not much, apparently.

        Seated in a high director's chair, Judy Fuson closed her eyes, waiting to receive the “little pictures” Donetta described. Her first customer was a brindle Boston terrier, who prowls the house in the middle of the night. His owners were advised to send Topper some pictures of his chair. With him in it. “There's no picture for a negative word,” she said. “Picture him doing exactly what you want.”

No negative pictures
        Next up was Max, a Scottish Deerhound puppy, who told Judy he wants to know what he's going to do with his life. “He wants a job,” Judy said, “a purpose.”

        We animal lovers exchanged stories with each other in the traditional human manner. I told them of the late Murray Pulfer, an utterly lovable collie who died in his prime last year. And of his successor, Mack, who is running us ragged. I must remember to send him pictures of himself not chewing my shoes.

        All in all, it was a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a day. That afternoon, Mayor Luken ejected four people for unruly behavior and posted three additional uniformed officers in case of trouble at the City Council meeting.

        The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published an article this year reporting that men and women who own dogs are less at risk for high blood pressure or excess cholesterol. A survey of 24,000 Medicare enrollees revealed that dog owners made fewer doctor visits than non-owners.

        Nobody knows exactly why this is, but they are investigating the possibility that being around dogs is less stressful than being around people. Maybe they might want to set up a control group over at City Hall.

       E-mail Laura at lpulfer@enquirer.com or call 768-8393.

UC considers 10% tuition jump
Arrest made in 1974 killing
Miss this bloom and wait 20 years
Ohio changes testing focus
Proficiency tests eliminated; new school standards adopted
PULFER: Stress test
Truck-car wreck closes I-75
Neglected buildings targeted
Stormwater unit's reporting criticized
Adamowski seen as hot commodity
City development head resigns
Covington bank hit third time in 4 years
Geimans' son lives on through scholarships
Goetta fans get a little goofy
High water strands Queen in Ky.
Horse show merges with Taste of Boone
Ky. legislators defend review of executive regulations
Lawyer faces OxyContin charges
Lebanon OKs rebuilding of South Street, utilities
Mason gets OK for water tower
Mayor lays down law on speaking
Next Taft principal has Bell as high-tech partner
OxyContin manufacturer 'surprised' by W.Va. suit
Race may beat area records
Repair grants available
School addresses concerns over mold
Scott faces death tonight
Smart-growth dialogue begins
Some Ohio river fish too toxic
This house is a disaster
Wilkinson investors from campus, political circles
Tristate A.M. Report