It is sometimes hard to explain in words the deep connection we share with our animals. We may not be of the same species or share language, yet we have a deep understanding of each other’s essential nature. When meeting our animals for the first time there can be a kind of recognition, as if we have met them before. When an animal looks deep into your soul, it can definitely feel like they have known you in many lifetimes. And maybe they have......
The spiritual connection we share with our animals can be attributed to 'soul contracts'.  These contracts are pre-determined prior to entering this particular life. 
What is a Soul Contract?
A soul contract is an agreement between two beings to experience this lifetime together. The agreement is to facilitate healing for each other. Simply by going on this journey together, subconscious hurts and trauma can be brought to the surface to be processed and healed.
Although it is more commonly known that soul contracts can exist between two humans, these agreements also include the animals we share our lives with.  Our soul’s evolution as well as the conscious human experiences we have are helped by the connection we share with these animals.
Getting to know our animals can sometimes feel like rediscovering or re-learning a connection.  If the connection you share with your dog, cat or horse feels like it transcends time and space, you may be right. It is no co-incidence that the perfect animal came into your life at the perfect time, to teach you the perfect lesson. Soul contracts are a concept that is shared amongst many cultures, including Chinese, Greek and Nordic mythology. 
The myth teaches us that invisible threads binds souls together who are destined to meet, and brings them together when the circumstances are just right in order to facilitate the evolution of their souls and raise their vibration.
Great lessons come through soul contracts, but these lessons can sometimes come in the form of emotional struggle, trauma and overcoming challenges. These lessons will point to the areas of ourself that are mis-aligned, incoherent and fragmented.
A soul contract can take many forms, but here are the main ones I work with in particular:

Emotional wounding. At a core level you share the same emotional wounding as your animal. You experience the same fears, and these are often linked to a fear of failure, abandonment, or detachment from your true self.

Physical Mirroring. Your animal has the same physical issues as you.  Maybe you both have tense shoulders or hip pain and you notice you display similar symptoms. Your animal reflects your physical dis-ease and imbalances back at you with the purpose of bringing the issue to the forefront for healing.
The soul contracts we share with our companion animals are often centred around lessons of unconditional love. Whether they share our journey for a short or long time, they show up to help us through difficult times and to navigate the darker, heavier energy emotions such as grief, loss and abandonment. They help us recover the integral parts of ourselves that have become scattered and fragmented due to unhealed trauma and stress. 
The circumstances in which our soul contract animals show up will depend on the particular way they can help with the healing. As animals mirror our emotions, it is common to find that rescue animals often have a background story that is parallel to our own. This mirror to our soul help us learn and grow as we can see the unhealed part of ourselves reflected back at us. It is very common for my clients who have rescue animals to insist that they themselves are the ones who were rescued by their animals, not the other way around. The return to integrity and the healing of their soul wounds feels like liberation and a return to self.
Animal soul contracts not only facilitate connection back to our spiritual identity, they also connects us to the earth and to nature.  They ground our energy and remind us that we are part of a much bigger picture, and that we are connected to everyone and everything around us. The more detached we are from nature, the more detached we are from our purpose. Being in alignment with our purpose requires us to be fully present, and when we begin to make more decisions from our heart, rather than as a reaction to our negative emotions, evolution of the soul happens and we come into full alignment.
The natural world is deeply connected to the moon cycles, the seasons, and the vibration of the planet. In our unhealed form we are disconnected from nature's energy, therefore animals are the perfect beings to ground us and bring us back into nature's perfect balance.
We can analyse the contract and therefore the relationship we share with our animals as a deeper insight and assessment into our energetic, emotional and physical balance. By paying attention to the issues being experienced by our animals (such as problem behaviours or chronic illness), we can cast the spotlight onto what is going on for ourselves. When we are so wounded subconsciously that we are unable to consciously heal ourselves, animals connect us with the power of unconditional love and by choosing to heal them, we heal ourselves too.