Can Our Pets Predict Disease or Near-Death in Humans?

I believe cats can sense when a person is going to die soon. As I read through a favorite magazine the other day, a certain story took my eye. This particular cat (Oscar) lived in a place called Steere House Nursing & Rehabilitation Center on the Rhode Island Hospital grounds in downtown Providence, where the author works as a geriatritcian for patients with advanced forms of dementia.

Whether the staff there had ever noticed this special sense in Oscar before the following incident is unknown. There was one lady who was close to her death when this cat climbed upon her bed and lay there by her until she died. Then other attendants and nurses took a greater interest in Oscar's actions, and began to see that he did indeed stay near to any patient that was near death. This phenomenal behavior of Oscar, caught my interest, and I decided to research it further. Also, I found that Oscar was an ordinary black and white tabby, adopted from an animal shelter.

It seems the patients in that nursing community would get a little anxious when Oscar got on their beds and laid near them. He was not an exceptionally friendly cat under normal conditions. Animal behaviour experts in the US reported Oscar is probably getting the scent of a chemical given off by the body. Jacqueline Pritchard, an expert in animal behaviour in the UK, also believes the explanation is biochemical, not psychic. She also commented that "Oscar's sensual 'ability' might have a more simple explanation."

Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who is an expert on care for terminally ill patients commented that "Oscar is better at predicting the death of patients than the people who work at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center."

This same type of predicting death or disease has also been seen in dogs. There is anecdotal evidence of dogs with an acute sense of smell and awareness that are often known to detect cancer and predict epileptic seizures. A lady in Wiltshire told about her Chihuahua detecting her breast cancer on three different occasions. Another person who owned a dalmation said the dog kept smelling a freckle that the owner later discovered was a malignant tumour.

There are stories about pets that cannot be totally explained. One lady (Jane) said her cat, Lia, has various ways of trying to communicate with her and other family members. At Christmas time, it seemed Lia wanted his own bed - no one knew why. Then when Jane came home from shopping with two soft fuzzy blankets, the cat wanted a soft blanket. A friend made a cat-sized blanket for Jane, but now it adorns lia's bed and he is quite happy. When watching TV at night, Lia wants his bed brought into the living room, and as cats can, he sits in front of his owners and stares them down. When his bed is brought into the living room, he jumps in immediately. When it's time for a bed-time snack, he wants a snack also.

I have two cats, and every time we go to the kitchen, or I am beginning to fix a meal, they both come into the kitchen and meow. The female stares with a serious look on her face as if it is a matter of life or death that they be fed now.

I believe cats and some dogs sense what we are about to do through our actions, where we are and our demeanor.

Sources:

Reader's Digest, February 2010, pg. 166 - "An Animal's Instinct - Can a cat really know which patients are about to die?" - Dosa, David, MD.
hpp://news.bbc.co.us/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6919063.stm
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ci=108&ch=health_fitness& sc=health&sc2=news
http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/can-cats-predict-disaster-disease-or-death.html