How much do dogs and cats, as divine companion animals for human, recall consciously about their prior lives? If they have been with a particular individual in other lifetimes, will they be aware of this if such a person finds them in a current lifetime when both have reincarnated?

Animals have a very clear and keen awareness of other lifetimes. We understand your surprise at this, but it is like humans, those who have an awareness of other lifetimes will have recall of specific incidents, largely traumas of some kind, because those constitute the most pressing of potential agendas to deal with. But also, grand events, and a soul recognition of certain individuals they meet in the course of their life, who they are drawn to, and this often leads to business partnerships, deep friendships, and love relationships, especially those leading to marriage. It is more common than not that people coming together with close alliances have had a prior life with one another. This is known directly by the deep subconscious but not by the conscious awareness. In the case of canines, they do not suffer from a disconnect with any part of their mind. They see things well intuitively, and they have an awareness of the akashic records directly, and factor this in. What they do lack is the intellect to put two and two together and formulate any conscious plan to act on the information they receive, so it is much like seeing a movie and then having an emotional impression that one takes away but not a series of plans and directions to follow. They have no ability to communicate what they are experiencing, so they cannot run and tell you they just saw a prior life with you and what the two of you were doing, and wasn’t that interesting? And share their thoughts about it. The reality is that while they have a clear view of the prior life experiencing, they have only instinctive capability to use that information and awareness in a conscious, deliberate way to shape the current life. So, for example, your current dog, [name withheld], knows you well and knows your house through familiarity, but has not learned with its current physical being to go up and down the stairs until greater practice is obtained in the current lifetime. Seeing motion pictures from the past of his going up and down stairs does not translate into a skillset he can put into use. In the same way, someone who sees a past lifetime they experienced as a farmer, cannot go and buy 40 acres and begin to plant a new crop and know how to go about it. It is simply an impression with only a meager carryover of deep knowledge, skills, let alone the muscle memory to do physically what took place in another life. And then beyond, into the more intellectual end of things, there will not be a direct carryover in most instances of prior knowledge and information in a useful form. Whatever is recognized and understood by the deep subconscious, in the case of human, cannot be shared with the conscious level of the self. It will be more a tendency that is a kind of affinity in some instances to spark an interest, for example, in taking up painting or music, and there may be what seems to be an inner talent that is on display but it will still require crafting, and learning, and practice to develop significantly to be done at a satisfying level. In the case of the companion animals, there is less conscious understanding or desire to repeat something, or capitalize on it, or understand how to go about cultivating a particular activity. This can happen but will likely come from human reinforcement. So if there are prior experiences doing certain activities with the human companions, and in a current incarnation their human companion expresses a similar interest and engages them with an opportunity to try something, they may well take to it and it will seem to be an inner talent or something they enjoy personally, but the humans will be unaware of the resemblance to prior lifetime activities and to what extent that might give the animal a leg up, so to speak, so they are quite adept with certain games and learning certain tricks that humans find enjoyable to see displayed. Many of the traits of certain breeds of dogs are an example of this. It is not so much genetic as it is karmic, that dogs of a particular breed, having been sought out and trained by human companions to fetch, to retrieve, to point to wild game and assist hunters, and so on, become karmic recollections directly. So the physical characteristics that allow the physical actions to be done with dispatch, and often with exceptional grace and ease, are simply a combination of having the wherewithal to be employed in that role in the first place, and then the karmic learning and transference of the awareness into future incarnations sets up the possibility to rekindle the same talents and will be evident as a strength for that particular breed. Even when there is recognition of old human companions coming in through the akashic records, there will still need to be a rekindling of the love bonds directly for this to translate into a very intense pair-bonding in the current incarnation. It will not be an instant love affair, there will likely be strong acceptance and tolerance of the human in their presence, but there will need to be a reawakening to some degree of the bonds of love. So it will not be the case that the relationship of a former owner with a new animal that is a reincarnation of a beloved pet will simply move right in and take up where the old self left off, and act the same way and have the same characteristics and array of behaviors, habits, interests, and talents. After all, this is a new set of genes the animal is working with. It is the same soul as the prior pet but in a new container with a new set of issues, proclivities, and constraints that are influenced genetically. This will govern when, and how, and in what ways things are relearned versus instinctively displayed, or a reworking and expression of karmic awareness of the deep past.