Dear Kim,
I'm having a weird problem with my Chocolate Lab., Hershey. He's five years old, and ever since we moved into our new house a year ago, he has been acting strange. We had the house renovated before we moved in. The flooring is primarily dark hardwood flooring and has a beautiful pattern of light hardwood circling the living room. I've noticed Hershey stays mostly in the kitchen area and hardly ever moves out of there. The wood there is very dark.

Hershey jumps in the air or hops from mat to rug to get to the living room when we're in there. It's like having a huge rabbit hopping around our house. It's almost as if something is chasing him or he's afraid of something. When he's in the living room with us, he jumps from rug to rug then lies down in front of us. It's the strangest thing because he doesn't do this at my parents' house, and they have hardwood floors. Is he afraid of something in our house? Do we have a ghost we don't know about? Can you please talk to him and find out what's wrong with him? Does he have a mental imbalance?

— Unsigned

[As an animal whisperer, Kim was able to convey Hershey's thoughts, as follows.]

Hi mom, first off, let me tell you I am not suffering from any sort of emotional or mental imbalance, and I am not picking up on any spiritual activities in our house. It seems rather quiet and undisturbed. However, I was born with a condition called sensory integration disorder. Believe it or not, animals do have it. It's showing up in more animals these days than before because of genetic mutations, overbreeding, birth trauma — the list goes on and on.