When I look into my dog’s soulful brown eyes, it’s hard to know what he’s thinking about me. Buddy is a near-constant presence in my life, following me from room to room, lingering underfoot in the kitchen, and cuddling on the couch as I brain rot on reality TV. I wonder if he’s not-so-silently judging me when he sighs and tosses me some side-eye. Is he actually happy here? Does he even like me? Thanks to Nina Luczyszyn, a vet tech turned pet communicator, now I know (or, at least, now I think I know). “You're always so happy and trying to stay so positive. He really loves that about you,” she said in our 30-minute Zoom session, during which she acted as a conduit between Buddy’s thoughts and feelings and my innumerable questions about his health and mental well-being. “You don't let people take advantage of you. You're a tough cookie.”Oh, well then! Maybe he has been paying attention. I first became interested in seeing an animal communicator after I listened to an episode of Rachel Dratch’s Woo Woo podcast on the topic. Then I mentioned it to a co-worker, who told me he’d recently attended a session with Luczyszyn and had a great experience. When The New York Times Styles section wrote a story about animal communicators being a TikTok trend, I knew it was officially in the zeitgeist. I really wanted to better understand my relationship with Buddy and how he thought his life could be improved. During the video call with Luczyszyn, Buddy had some wild requests, like, “I want to ride on a big boat.” (Um, what? We are not boat people. Have I been watching too much Below Deck around him?) But there were also more modest suggestions, such as, “I’d like a bully stick by the fireplace before I die.” (This tracks completely. In his early days with us, he would resource-guard high-value treats like bully sticks and hooves, so we stopped giving them to him.)Luczyszyn sent me a video recording of our time together, and I reviewed it to make a list of Buddy’s most attainable wants and needs. Then, to ensure that my plan for fulfilling my guy’s biggest wishes was sound, I consulted with Mel Plaut, Wirecutter’s pet expert; Gia Savocchi, a dog behaviorist who goes by @thinkingcanine online; and Megan Petroff, director of the behavioral medicine service at Gold Coast Center for Veterinary Care.Here’s how it went: