Lorrie Finds Blown Away Chihuahua, April 2009
From NPR to CNN to Oprah, this story was everywhere.
Holly Township Psychic Reunites Wind-Blown Chihuahua With Her Grateful Owners
by Jill Blondin | The Flint Journal | Tuesday April 28, 2009, 4:59 PM
HOLLY TOWNSHIP, Michigan — She just had a feeling, as psychics often do, that the tiny lost dog was alive and well and wandering on higher ground.
Lavern and Dorothy Utley of Rochester believe that feeling, from Holly Township resident “Lorrie the Pet Psychic,” reunited them with Tinker Bell. Their six-pound Chihuahua had been missing since Saturday when a 70-mph wind picked her up at a flea market in Waterford Township and literally blew her away. Her owners, both 72, were devastated after volunteers combed the area only to come up empty-handed.
“Nobody could find her,” Lavern said.
On Monday, Detroit-area radio station WKQI (95.5-FM) got involved in the search and contacted Lorrie, who had helped the station in the past. Lorrie, who refuses to reveal her last name to protect her family’s identity, said she told the Utleys to return to a wooded area nearly a mile away from the flea market and “look up.”
“I had a sense she was alive and not hurt and told them to keep looking,” Lorrie said.
Lavern said volunteers had previously searched a low-lying swamp at that location, but not the hilly area behind it. As he was climbing those hills calling his dog, Tinker Bell came running.
“She went nuts trying to jump into my arms,” Lavern said. “She was all muddy and dirty. She was worn out but she wasn’t hurt.”
Lorrie, a third-generation psychic who says she can communicate with animals and makes her living as a pet psychic, said it’s hard to explain how she does her job.
“Every case is different,” she said. “I can hear, see, taste or feel things … however the reading is going to come through. This one was visual. I hesitated to say this, because I didn’t know what it meant. But I told them to keep looking up.”
Lavern said they tried to give Lorrie a reward, but she asked that it be donated instead to an animal shelter. Lorrie said she has pets and understands they are members of the family.
Lorrie said she also has an ability to communicate with animals that have died.
“I contact deceased animals to give people closure,” she said. “Pets greet us when it’s our turn. They’re up there waiting.”