Extreme Senses

I think all of us with an interest in animals find understanding their behaviour both challenging and fascinating. Not only is it interesting to gain insight into why animals do the things they usually do, but also I am often amazed by the stories that pet owners recount which suggest their pet has extremely well developed senses, or even some kind of sixth sense.

Many cats seem to instinctively know when their owners are planning a trip to the vets. Even before the carrying basket is retrieved from the loft, they seem to disappear into oblivion, requiring the cancellation of an appointment, only to reappear shortly after surgery hours. How do they know?

Some dogs seem to have an extraordinary ability to detect the most surprising things, and indeed trainers can harness their extreme senses for all sorts of applications. Some dogs have been trained to give advance warning of when epileptic patients are about to have a seizure, while others seem to be able to operate as early warning systems for seismic activity.

When I was a student seeing farm practice, I remember working on a dairy farm where the farmer’s dog seemed to have a useful ability to indicate to the farmer which of his cows were about to come on heat and would require to be served by the bull. That may not be too hard to believe, but I have also heard of dogs being able to assist in the diagnosis of bladder cancer in people, presumably being trained to recognise subtle alterations in the scent of urine.

A pet owner had two cats, one of which had recently been put to sleep and buried in the garden. The owner was interested to see that the surviving cat would repeatedly choose to lie on the spot of ground where the other had been buried, even though that spot had never before been a favoured resting place. She found it even more strangely curious that her pet continued to lie on the grave of the other well after any disturbance of the ground was evident at that spot.

But the case I personally find most amusing involves an owner who brought her cat to see one of my partners complaining that he had started urinating on the bed where she and her partner slept. My colleague examined the cat thoroughly, and inquired after his lifestyle, seeking clues to explain the unwelcome change in toilet behaviour.

At the end of the consultation, my partner joked that she had heard of cats that did this when their owners were pregnant, but the suggestion was swiftly rejected as being extremely unlikely in her case. Three weeks later the same client called into the practice just to pass on to my colleague the surprising news that she had recently discovered that she was in fact pregnant!

Martin Hall is a partner at Copthorne Veterinary Clinic in Shrewsbury.