Illustration by: Chelsea Westman 
Dog astrologer Yesenia Flores smiles with her dog Zeus. Photo by: Hannah Davis
It was another Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles, and the sun was blazing down as if it was deep in the summer.
But it’s April 29 and in the middle of a pandemic, a dog is born.
He’s a Taurus. He will be loveable and stubborn. He will eat everything in sight and will never lift a paw to exercise. His mother isn’t aware of this yet, but self-taught Dog Astrologist Yesenia Flores said she already knows.
“Life is a beautiful thing, and astrology is just a way of understanding the creatures of this earth a little better,” Flores said. “They named him Zeus. Fitting, considering he’s a pitbull whose sign is a Taurus.”
Yesenia Flores is 20 and a psychology major at California State University, Channel Islands. She’s been teaching herself astrology—or dogstrology—as she calls it, for the last three years. She considers herself to be a spiritual connection to the universe.
She moves in a tight circle and never has clients, only what she calls “furbabies.” Her home is a sanctuary where she can interact with the dogs and serve as a spiritual guide to their owners when there are signs of miscommunication.
Flores doesn’t charge for chart explications or horoscope readings. She believes her gift is something that the universe has given her and will take away if she becomes greedy with it.
Alondra Gutierrez, a family friend, arrives at Flores’s home with dog Chevron, a well-groomed PomChi. Chevron is named after the gas station where he was found. Gutierrez first introduced Chevron to Flores three years ago, when she was just starting to further understand the art of astrology. Gutierrez wanted to learn more about Chevron’s personality.
“Obviously, we didn’t know when he was born because he was a lost dog, but Yesenia based his personality off of the day we found him–December 18,” Gutierrez explained.
“That date signifies his rebirth, the day he was reborn as Chevron and the day he gained a new family, his new and old sign will be tied together,” Flores said.
Chevron is a Sagittarius, and according to his mother, he lives up to the traveler his sign makes him out to be. Chevron, like many of Flores’ furbabies, visits Flores when apparently in distress or just for fun horoscope updates.
Flores said COVID-19 has made dog owners worried about their pets. She decided to see two new dogs, bringing her total number of furbabies to seven.
She is happy to call them friends and is trying her best to advise them in these upcoming months. These next couple of months are important because Pluto is in retrograde and it may cause disturbances among dogs, said Flores.
“Astrology is a mystery older than me, older than everyone I know combined, but somehow it’s been kept alive, and I know that these dogs need me,” Flores said.
Celeste Longacre has been an astrologist in New Hampshire for more than 20 years and has experience in working with pets and astrology.
“Astrology has been around for thousands of years,” Longacre said. “It comes from ancient Babylonian times, and even then their pets always had some sort of association to the stars and planets.”
Longacre said that astrology isn’t just about stars but also the alignment of the planets. They all play a part in determining the level of aggression a pet may have, as well as how much attention they demand in their pet-and-owner relationships.
Much like Longacre’s knowledge on dog aggression within pet-owner relationships, Flores also explained how she has had some not-so-great memories within astrology.
“There is only one time where I thought that I didn’t really want to continue with astrology, and it made me realize that not all of my astrological experiences will end with happy furbabies,” Flores said.
She recalled an experience she had two years ago, where she was asked to assist in a puppy adoption. After making a natal chart of the German shepherd puppies, she informed the adoptee that the litter had the potential to be aggressive because they were a Sagittarius cusp.
The puppy was adopted anyway and developed a history of dog fights until she died of her injuries in a fight against another dog, she said.
“Sometimes I feel guilty, like I should have informed them more on how the puppy could be spiritually uplifted,” Flores said. “But I look at all the pets I’ve already helped and it gives me some peace.”
A popular astrologer who goes by the name Crystal owns the Gypsi Tea Room in Hollywood, and is also familiar with pet astrology. She’s been doing natal charts by hand for years.
She said there is a certain level of difficulty when reading pets.
“The difference between pet astrology and regular astrology is really determining what the planets have in store for a pet,” Crystal said. “A pet has no soul, only spirit. So the reading becomes more difficult.”
Flores said she has yet to come to that conclusion but continues to learn more from pets every day.
“The universe and planets will continue to relate back to the creator, how my gifts are being used, and I will continue to learn and serve the way that I am meant to be,” Flores said.