In January 1997, an old friend of mine died. 
The family had her still alive on a machine, but they had decided to ‘pull the plug,’ as it’s called. Her daughter, son-in-law, two sons, and a married couple, and I, were in the hospital room at the time.
Outside it was dark–about 8:30 pm–and rain and wind were lashing the windows.
Another friend of mine, who was at home, told me later her two little dachshunds were reacting strangely at that very moment. She lived in Lawndale, CA, several miles from the hospital in Redondo Beach. A couple of days later she told me that the little dogs, staying inside with her due to the rain, were, at 8:30 that evening, whining, running in circles in the room, and generally acting as if they were seriously concerned about something their owner couldn’t perceive.
I have always felt as if dogs and cats and other animals–domesticated animals, at least–understood what humans do and say better than we give them credit for; and this incident suggested to me dogs, at least, may have a psychic sense.
Any Dopers with comments or their own examples?
How was your friend and or her dogs connected with the person who died?
Actually, there was scarcely any connection. This young woman had met the decedent several times over a period of about 11 years, beginning long before she acquired the dogs. She had visited the older woman’s house, shortly before the woman died, and could tell as well as I could that the poor lady didn’t have much more time. The dogs themselves had never met the older woman.
This is a link to a story on the topic of animals with psychic links to people.
Oh yeah. The dogs were going nuts about something happening to someone they have barely an acquaitance with at some great distance. And all the while, “wind and rain were lashing the windows.” You don’t suppose maybe the dogs were going about, maybe, say, the weather? Noooo, it had to be something psychic. Right.
Pay no attention to that moderator behind the curtain.
On Mondays and Fridays, I get home from work before Mrs. Wolf does. She doesn’t walk in the door at the same time every day, either - sometimes there is a 3 hour swing.
Without fail, about 5 minutes before she gets home, I know she’s coming, because one of my dogs, and her favorite cat, will both go out to the garage and wait. You tell me how they know she’s coming. They can’t possibly hear any engine noise, because in 5 minutes I can be 5 miles from the house, and their hearing isn’t that good.
Chew on this for a while, Uncle Beer:
The family of the deceased woman had a cat, which one of the woman’s sons had left with the parents in 1983, and the cat wound up staying there for the rest of her life (she lived another 13 years herself).
At this time I had resumed contact with the parents at that house, long after their daughter–to whom I had long been attracted–had moved out, as had her brother, who brought the cat in the first place.
Anyway, on one of my visits, to deliver Amway products (these people had been customers of mine back to 1970), I was talking with the parents while the cat was lying contentedly on the other couch. I mentioned a “dream record” I had been keeping, for the last eight years. I said that there were three people outside of my family and my age group who had appeared most often in the dreams, including a German carpenter I worked with, a psychiatrist, and my Amway sponsor. Of my contemporaries, the daughter had appeared 33 times, more than any other contemporary; and the cat had not appeared once! When I said that to the parents, the cat jumped off the couch and left the roon! Talk about snooty! It seems that cat understood me better than I gave her credit for…
Besides, Uncle Beer, the weather I saw was that in Redondo Beach, at the old South Bay Hospital. I have not the merest idea what the weather was like in Lawndale, and the friend never indicated to me that the dachshunds reacted to weather outside (when they were inside) in any manner at all.
I’m firmly with UncleBeer on this one. Auntie NearBeer, that’s me.
Doughie—you mean the cat had NEVER jumped off the sofa and left a room before? My cats do that all the time, usually to go have a nosh or use their litter box.
As for the dogs, same question: is this the ONLY time the dogs ran around like, umm, antsy, rambunctious dogs? Or is this just the one time you remember, because it was connected to something?
As for my cats, they barely possess mental capacities at all. Dorothy is pretty smart in an evil, malevolent kind of way, but Lillian has a brain the size of a chickpea. If you pick her up, she panics and flails around because she can’t figure out why her paws aren’t attached to the ground anymore. I’m not exactly holding my breath for her to start predicting the winner of the Preakness.
First off - Hi Eve! Good to see you back.
Didn’t we cover this just a couple of months ago? Coldie wound up have to drag the little mopwanker to the pit for a little tuning up.
Imagine. Little freaking rat dogs running around upset when it was windy and raining (there was probably lightning and thunder), staying inside, implying they are really outside dogs. Myself. They probably just need to go back outside and pinch one off.
Obviously a clever ruse on her part to keep you under control.
As I stated in this thread
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=39272
I am convinced that my dog can smell when something is wrong physically. He smells bruises, etc.
Maybe lacking speaking voices, that are abel to communicate in another way,
All I know is that when I am upset about something, and holding it back, Çebeaux can tell.
I could be laying in my bed, thinking about whatever is bothering me, and he will, within minutes, be by my side nuzzling like never before.
He also has the ability to know exactly where I am. When he comes inside, he comes straight to me. I could be sitting in the basement, staring at the wall, and he’ll still know.
Ah, how I love my Çebeaux.
Dorothy also knows, somehow, just when I have a tummy virus.
I’ll be lying there in bed, writhing in agony, and she’ll creep in, silently, as if on little cat feet.
Then she’ll take a flying leap and pounce right on my midsection.
No matter where she is in the house, when food is being eaten–or even when someone is thinking about eating food–my dog Abby will appear like a ghost.
If you try to trick her by rattling grocery bags or opening and closing the door to the fridge, she will stay put.
Dogs and cats have much better senses of smell than we do, much better senses of hearing than we do, and they are much more observant of body language and other non-verbal communication. My cats know when there’s going to be a thunderstorm and try to find a good hiding place well before the thunderstorm starts - I assume this is because they are sensative to the changes in atmospheric pressure. My animals knows when I’m sick because I act differently, though some of the cues may be subtle.
And cats do weird-ass things because they’re cats.
The two little dogs did not normally stay outside at any time. In fact this woman and I would sometimes come back to her place and find out that the dogs had relieved themselves on carpeting in various parts of her home! She did often take the dogs out, in her car or to a local dog park. I think I overstated the weather that night. Not so much wind, but plenty of rain; the dying woman’s daughter–my friend from high school–said, in fact, that ‘this is how she would have wanted to go.’ (I understand Beethoven was buried the day a violent thunderstorm hit Vienna.)
Part of my point is that the dogs were not particularly fazed by inclement weather, particularly when they were not out in it!
Similarly, we used to have a big fluffy cat named Archie, colored much like the Clintons’ cat Socks. I never considered him particularly psychic, just your average tomcat with acute disdain for the silly humans living in his house. (At one point there were nine humans, two dogs, one cat, and a tank of guppies in the household–not bad for a house with 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms and two floors.)
Archie would be sitting out in the front yard in the morning, usually at the same spot, looking at us when we left for school or work.
In the afternoon, after he had been let in (we usually let him in as we left in the morning), he would be lying on my parents’ bed, from which point he could see into two other bedrooms, and looking at us when we’d come home from school, or whatever.
At dinnertime, unless he was outside (not often!), we would have to pick him up off a chair at the dinner table; he must have been clever enough to ensure we paid attention to him at that time so he could get his cut of whatever meat/poultry/fish there was for dinner.
If he was outside–no matter where–at dinnertime, and Mom was cooking fish, it wouldn’t be long before he would be at the front door meowing to be let in! He had us pretty well figured out. :o 
I can accept that faithful pets might notice changes in routine (you go to bed ill - they worry and come in), or that animals can maybe discern atmospheric changes (just before a storm).
But to claim psychic abilities exist requires some scientific investigation. For example: over a year, no doubt millions of people dream of a plane crash. When it happens, the person concerned thinks ‘Wow! I dreamt of the future.’ The trouble is that the other million people don’t say ‘Hey, no! I had that dream AND NOTHING HAPPENED!’
So it’s natural to remember little details in time of stress, but how often do you remember the same details when nothing happens? For example, you mention a cat in conversation - and the cat leaves the room. Yes, but how often does the cat leave the room when you DON’T mention it?
mega the roo ,
you posted ‘(my cat) also has the ability to know exactly where I am. When he comes inside, he comes straight to me. I could be sitting in the basement, staring at the wall, and he’ll still know.’
Errrm, if you’re in the basement, staring at the wall, how do you know he comes straight to you?
Damned brilliant.
My cat’s wear bells, so I can hear every step they take…