Janet Ridgeway has been working professionally as an animal communicator and consultant since 2000, both in Boston and upstate New York. She is a Reiki Master, trained in Shamanic healing, Pranic healing and Pleiadian Lightwork, and teaches classes and workshops in animal communication, Reiki, meditation, and spiritual development. Janet incorporates her knowledge of flower essences, homeopathy, essential oils, and kinesiology to assist animals and their people, and provides consultations for veterinarians, animal rescue groups, shelters, and zoos. She also travels the country to teach classes and provide consultations, and is currently working on a non-fiction book about her work with animals.

Janet has appeared several times on WCNY live with George Kilpatrick, Bridge Street Live with Rick and Julie on ABC news channel 9, WSYR's radio shows Wake up with Dr. Steve Wechsler, and Wendy Meyerson's Nutritional Insights on WSYR 570. CBS News Channel 5 featured Janet on their nightly news broadcast and News 10 Now aired an in depth feature story about Janet that ran in both Syracuse and Rochester, NY on R News. She has appeared in several magazines and newspapers, including In Good Health, The Syracuse Post Standard, and NEEDS Health and Wellness magazine. Since 2003, Janet has been a featured speaker at Natur-Tyme, CNY's Nutritional Headquarters and the SPCA's annual dog walk in both Syracuse and Skaneateles, NY.

She received her MFA in Creative Writing in poetry from Syracuse University and her BA in English and Creative Writing from UW-Madison, which she still considers home. She currently teaches writing and works as a writing consultant at Syracuse University, and has taught a variety of writing courses including poetry, fiction, business writing, composition, rhetoric, and literature at Syracuse University and Northeastern University in Boston. She calls her work at SU her Clark Kent job. In what Janet calls her former life she was a professional singer for a funk and blues band, and still sings for her cats and other neighborhood animals.