What is your dog thinking?
Tarot reader at the Big Woof Festival thinks she can find the answers
Friday, 18th August 2023 — By Melody Chan
Louise Rodd with friend
IT is the question every pet owner desperately wants answered: What is Fido thinking?
Louise Rodd just may have a way to find the answer – tarot card readings for dogs.
“I can just ‘tune-in’ to the animal,” said Ms Rodd, who has a stall at the Big Woof festival in Canopy Market, King’s Cross, on Sunday.
“The cards are just symbolic images, illustrations of the mood, of the feeling.
“I can get to the crux of what will be most helpful for the dog, whether it would be more love, sunshine or activity.”
She added: “The dog will jump on my lap if I’m with the dog. People were laughing about it. It would get to a certain question, and they would just start absolutely being alert.”
Ms Rodd, a Buddhist who started reading tarot cards aged 13, got into card reading for pets after looking at her rescue cat and thinking: “I wish we could talk with her. I wish I knew what she was feeling.”
Ms Rodd recalled doing a reading for a Californian man who had wondered whether his dog was enjoying his outdoor exercise.
After consulting the cards, she had told him: “He wants to be more James Bond. He wants more danger.”
Each dog has their own personality, according to Ms Rodd, who compared one tarot reading with a puppy to a four-year-old child at a party where everyone had had sugar and cake.
She said: “I would say that’s probably one of the best moments I’ve had. It was almost like an acid trip.”
She said scepticism was inevitable about tarot reading, with it being considered “irrational” and “illogical”.
But she added: “I’m really hoping that [tarot reading is] not just seen as a gimmick thing.
“I think people just need to connect more with their dogs.
“You’re their absolute world and they need that confirmation more than we probably think.”
The King’s Cross Dog Festival runs over the bank holiday weekend (August 26-27) with dog portraiture, music for dogs, dog communication therapists on the bill.