THE week before we met, Margrit Coates was at Marwell Zoo attempting to communicate with penguins and snakes for a television series on the paranormal.

She suspected that the programme makers might try and make her look silly.

"I can only do what I do," she sighs.

What she does is hands-on healing for animals and her work is in demand by animal lovers up and down the country.

She lectures all over the world and her Redlynch home is a Mecca for sick or troubled animals.

In the simplest terms, she tunes into the mind of the animal and the energy field flowing around it, stimulating healing on an emotional, mental and physical level.

She stresses that what she does is no substitute for veterinary care, but her holistic approach is there to work alongside conventional medicine and surgery, helping to speed up tissue and cellular repair, boost the immune system and slow down tumour growth.

"I pick up feelings and sensations from an animal intuitively, but I say: 'never let what you pick up become a diagnosis - only a vet can do that'," she says.

Much of her work is by veterinary referral and she will not see an animal without a vet's permission.

She shares her home with husband Peter and three cats.

One of them, Teddy, is a handsome two-year-old Siamese-American shorthair, who leaps athletically onto the back of the sofa as we speak.

He has made a remarkably rapid recovery from surgery to insert three pins into his leg, thanks to Margrit's regular healing.

She discovered her empathy with animals at an early age.

"When I started riding, I got thrown out of several riding schools because I'd say that the horse wasn't well or had something wrong with it."

At first, she was not happy being different. "As children you want to conform, but what is nice now is that we can talk about it.

"Children are very in tune with nature and join me in the healing."

Originally in PR, Margrit retrained in alternative therapies, including manual lymph drainage and spiritual healing, after Peter was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago.

Then one of her clients asked if Margrit would look at her horse.

"From that one treatment, it snowballed and, within a year, I was as busy with horses."

She set up Holistic Pets, in Winchester, with veterinary physiotherapist Amanda Sutton and homeopathic veterinary surgeon Cheryl Sears and has written books on animal healing.

Immediately her first book, Hands-on Healing for Horses, was published, letters arrived asking when she was going to write one on pets.

The result is Hands-on Healing for Pets, published this year, which, like the previous book, encourages owners to work with their own animals to develop their healing skills.

It is not an exclusive skill, she says.

"I've spent a lot of time developing my skills, but we've all got the same abilities." she says. "Anyone can do it.

"I always leave owners with instructions to top up healing, because it makes people feel they are involved in their animal's healing."

A music CD was issued after frequent requests for advice on music to soothe pets.

It is clear that she is passionately concerned about animal wellbeing.

"I adore being with animals."

"It's a dream job and I'd be really sad if I couldn't be amongst animals," Margrit says.

Hands-on Healing for Pets is published by Rider, an imprint of Ebury Press, £10. The Animal Healing CD is issued by New World Music, www.newworldmusic.com.