East Valley Life California pet psychic Marla Steele does a reading on Allen and Marcie Beecroft’s bearded collie mix, Brisco, during a charity event at the PetSmart near Tatum and Shea boulevards in Phoenix. Darryl Webb, Tribune

Pet psychic offers insight into lives of animals

By Karyn Bonfiglio, East Valley Tribune
October 7, 2004

More than a dozen people and their dogs wait in chairs and on the floor in a corner of the Pet-Smart at Tatum and Shea boulevards in Phoenix. The space is crowded. Chaotic. Some of the dogs rest quietly by their owners. Others strain at their leashes, yipping and whining, trying to play with their neighbors. Like at a dog show, a veritable who’s who of the canine world is represented — from cocker spaniels and fox terriers to a Lassie look-alike and even a Great Dane. But they’re not here to compete. They’re all waiting to see California pet psychic Marla Steele, who’s giving readings from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for charity.

The event — part of PetSmart’s "Just a Buck Change Your Luck" campaign that raises money to help homeless animals — is first-come, first-served.

For a $20 donation, pet owners can ask Steele three questions about their animal.

By 10:30 a.m., all of Steele’s appointments are booked.

The sellout is typical for Steele, a popular draw for the semiannual charity.

"People call and ask when they’re having me back, so I keep coming back," she says.

People like Gina Black, 35, a Chandler resident who makes a point of seeing Steele each time the psychic returns to the Valley.

"I come every time she comes," says Black, making her fourth visit to the pet psychic.

This time Black brought her 12-year-old Samoyed, Kaella, to the store.

Concerned about Kaella’s advancing age, Black asks Steele "if there was anything else Kealla wants to do . . . to experience here on Earth before she goes."

Steele says Kaella wants to go to the beach again.

Steele scores a psychic hit — Black and her dog had been to a California beach a week before the reading.

But the messages aren’t always so clear.

"Most of the stuff she gives me, I’m like, ‘Huh?’ But later it makes sense," Black says.

On a previous visit, Black brought a picture of her mom’s dog for a reading. Steele told Black the animal was using a blue blanket as a toilet.

Black and her mother were stumped, they had no idea what Steele meant — they didn’t have a blue blanket.

A couple of weeks later, Black’s mom went down into the basement and discovered the soiled blanket.

Incidents such as this are what keep Black coming back.

"She just gives me the confirmation I need," Black says.

Steele — who makes her living as a professional pet communicator — estimates she has donated her services to 15 to 20 of these PetSmart events. She started doing them at a store in the San Francisco Bay area, where she lives and gives phone readings on a monthly radio talk show.

"I’m not sure how other pet psychics work," Steele says, "but I come from a healing point of view."

Steele’s been intuitive her whole life. But it wasn’t until she started learning reiki — an ancient Eastern art — that her psychic abilities really blossomed.

"It was really the reiki for me that opened up my energy so I would get clear to receive the information."

Reiki can be done with your hands on the body, but it also can be done across a distance, like the way the power of prayer works.

"I can do it from across the room or across the country," Steele says.

And it doesn’t matter what the animal’s doing at the time of the reading — whether they’re sleeping running around, or even deceased, Steele says. "I think of meeting them on some other plane, I guess."

Despite her gifts, Steele doesn’t think that she’s unique and teaches Reiki classes in her home. Everyone has the potential inside them to do what she does, she says.

"You just have to believe that it’s possible and just practice, that’s all," Steele says. "I see myself more as normal, like everyone can do this if they wanted to. We’re all born wired with it."

Meet Marla Steele Where/when: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at PetSmart, 10030 N. 90th St., Scottsdale, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Desert Ridge Marketplace, 21001 N. Tatum Blvd., Phoenix. Cost: $20 Information: www.healingwith energy.com