So, We Really Can Know Why The Chicken Crossed The Road?

Markets in everything, said Marginal Revolution. Here's more proof:

It took an hour and a half and a mason jar to make a believer out of Pam Thurston.

The hour and a half was a session with Polly Klein, an Issaquah animal communicator who let Thurston in on what had been ailing her 11-year-old black Lab, Rio, three years ago.

The mason jar held a two-pound, noncancerous tumor that a veterinarian later pulled from Rio's leg. ....

"Everyone can talk with animals," she said. "It just comes more naturally to some people. I think that I'm one of the people that it comes naturally to."

Klein describes the communication as sending thoughts back and forth, kind of like a mental conversation. Sometimes she flashes a series of pictures to show the animal what she means, like envisioning the sun rising and setting to show the passing of time. Sometimes she makes her point through emotions, like showing a dog what it would look like if he were to get run over by a car.

Most of the time, the pet-to-owner problem is resolved through explanation: It would make your owner sad if you were to get hit by that car; that scratching is ruining the new chair.

Sometimes the animals blow her off — as in "Suuure, I'll stop doing that right away," Klein said.