Nicolene swanepoel died suddenly of a stroke on 10 January 2016. By any accounts she was an extraordinary person – behaviourist, veterinarian, artist, ceramist. And not least of all she was a humanitarian or, as she would agree, an animalatarian. While she was all of these things, to this list I add ‘sorcerer’ or ‘shaman’. Shaman is defined as “somebody who acts as a go-between for the physical and spiritual realms, and who is said to have particular powers such as prophesy and healing.” More specifically, a shaman is one who stands between the physical worlds of animal and human and acts as mediator and messenger.