# Has your cat/dog ever sensed something you didn't? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 11, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045 "2004-01-11T21:03:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/61 "2004-01-15T08:28:36Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > In addition, the Mount St. Helen’s eruption was an event, or rather a _series_ of events, that occurred over more than a week. Which of these evenings did your cat puke on you? And why do you think that it was a prediction of that eruption? Maybe the cat was merely predicting that you’d you buy a new pair of black pumps. Mount St. Helens may have been a week long event, but the bang/jolt we felt all the way up here in the Vancouver area was certainly a one shot deal, on May 18, '80. We had a German Shepard who refused to go up the stairs to the third floor rooms in my mother’s house. Myself, Mr zoogirl and a number of our friends all felt something definately weird in that house. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/62 "2004-01-15T14:54:06Z")
> [@](#): > > I whooshed UncleBeer, oh my ghod I whooshed UncleBeer I _hate_ it when that happens. Allow me to retract my specific objections to the cat vomit and earthquakes then. However, it doesn’t change the basic premise of this thread - or my objections to many of the other claims. Like an owner who believes her rabbits that are being petted by dead guys, or Merla’s belief that her attic might be haunted and the cat knows it. > [@](#): > > . . . I need to nitpick: the seismic events on Mt. St. Helens actually occurred over a period of 60-65 days leading up to the Big Blast . . . Thanks, Cervaise. I misread something I was looking at when composing that post. > [@](#): > > Fighting ignorance = okay to be a jerk. Thanks for clearing that up. Having a contrary opinion, one that’s grounded in science and reason, isn’t being a jerk. You are certainly free to feel that I’ve acted jerkishly for the manner which I’ve presented that opinion, but interjecting facts into a thread filled with superstitious beliefs isn’t being a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![cards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/63 "2004-01-15T16:42:51Z")
I _knew_ **MaryEFoo** had whooshed **UncleBeer**! He must have been hooked up directly to the keg. Have to completely agree with UB about using facts and analysis to debunk superstition. There just isn’t any evidence that can be reproduced through experimentation that can support ideas such as ESP. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/64 "2004-01-15T18:31:19Z")
When I was about 8 years old, my paternal grandmother was still alive. Her bedroom was on the ground floor of the house; everyone else’s was on the second floor. One night, our collie came into my parent’s bedroom, jumped up on the bed, started to bark, then grabbed my dad’s arm in his mouth and started pulling. He led my folks downstairs to my grandmother’s bedroom. She had had a mild heart attack in her sleep. The doctor told us she probably went to sleep, had the attack and did not regain consciousness until she was in the ER. Somehow, the dog knew something was wrong. I also had a cat that attacked a burglar in my apartment one night, but that’s a different story. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/65 "2004-01-15T20:33:43Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I also had a cat that attacked a burglar in my apartment one night, but that’s a different story. What I wouldn’t give for an attack cat! My cats wouldn’t attack a burglar unless it was on accident. One is too stupid - she patiently sits in the kitchen, licking the wall and waiting for me to get home - and the other spends his time alternating between burrowing into the laundry and hopping through the house like his namesake, Kermit the Frog. Couple of dipshits. Cute and sweet and I’d never give them up, but dipshits nonetheless. Anyway, now my curiosity is piqued. Why did your cat attack a burglar? What happened? I didn’t think it was possible for cats to do something like that - always thought they were too mercenary. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/66 "2004-01-15T21:32:05Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > Sheldrake’s a quack. He also believes that you can detect when people are staring at you. Several scientific studies have shown this to be false. Another thing Sheldrake believes is that animals have psychic powers. More crap. He’s a nut. I wonder. If a person belives some ‘nutty’ things, does that make _everything_ he belives ‘nutty’? ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/67 "2004-01-15T23:38:58Z")
:smack: Uh, UB - take it to the PIT or GD. There’s a reason I placed my OP in “mundane _ **pointless** _ stuff I must share.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![wuzupgirll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3bc359/32.png) [@wuzupgirll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wuzupgirll)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/68 "2004-01-16T00:23:25Z")
> [@BuckleberryFerry](#): > > My dog has a tendency to stare at the wall, or into the kitchen when no one’s physically there. We think he might be seeing my late grandfather. hi! i loooove your username. LOTR rocks. ummm… this is my first post so… thats about it. o and that is really freaky about your dog. (although he might just be staring off into space… my cat does that all the time.) ttyl! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/69 "2004-01-16T00:55:45Z")
My dog was a pretty good judge of character. If he didn’t care for someone, you could tell and I never knew him not to like someone that I did. On first seeing this thread I immediately thought of Mrs. Slocoumbe of Are You Being Served? “At the first sign of danger, the hairs on my pussy stand up on end.” ---
**Author:** ![QuanSu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c37758/32.png) [@QuanSu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuanSu)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/70 "2004-01-16T01:07:14Z")
> [@Amanita](#): > > I would just like to note that seeing the word “discrete” used correctly makes my nipples explode with delight. _Umm, I um…sensed those “exploding” events from way out here. Does it count?_🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/71 "2004-01-16T16:40:44Z")
My cats hear and see stuff all the time that I can’t. Especially things on the wall that they just have to attempt to climb after. What’s useful, though, is when there’s a sound just at the edge of my hearing. “Did I just hear something?” I wonder. Yep. All I need to do is look at two furry heads pointed in the same direction. They even show me where it’s coming from. My hearing isn’t so great at times, thanks to allergies and whatnot. So I feel better when they help me keep track of things, especially sounds outside the house. ---
**Author:** ![facil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/db5fbb/32.png) [@facil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/facil)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045/72 "2004-01-16T16:47:15Z")
how are we as humans going to know if our pets have sensed something that we cannot sense. what happens…our pets freak out, or whatever they do when they “sense” something…then what? if i don’t see, hear, feel, etc…then what is my reaction supposed to be? i would probably scold my dog if he was be disruptive. know what i mean? help me out with this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-cat-dog-ever-sensed-something-you-didnt/224045.md?page=3)