“Owners sense pets' sense - Raleigh News & Observer” plus 1 more |
| Owners sense pets' sense - Raleigh News & Observer Posted: 12 Jan 2011 10:56 PM PST LOS ANGELES Lassie could always sense when Timmy was in trouble. Black Beauty knew the bridge was out. Now two-thirds of American pet owners say they can relate - their pets have a sixth sense about bad weather. Forty-three percent say the same about bad news, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll. Seventy-two percent of dog owners said they've gotten weather warnings from their pets, compared with 66 percent of cat owners. For bad news, 47 percent of dog owners and 41 percent of cat owners said they've been alerted by their pets, according to the poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. Jim Fulstone says his farm dog, a Pomeranian named Austin, gives warnings about 15 minutes before earthquakes and 45 minutes before thunderstorms "He'll run around in circles and look at you. If you sit down, he'll sit down with you. If you are outside, he will come up to you, run around, look off, sniff your leg, just kind of be there. He's a lot more active," said Fulstone, 65, of Wellington, Nev. "For the quakes, he was very alert and started barking and doing his run-around routine." A matter of faith The reason? Hard to know. "A sixth sense is something we can't explain but we tend to trust. It's a matter of belief and faith," said psychologist Stephanie LaFarge, the senior director of counseling services for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Scientists have suggested animals sense bad weather because of changes in barometric pressure or other factors, LaFarge said, and dogs anticipate seizures, low blood sugar or other medical problems because of hormonal changes. But they haven't figured out what alerts pets to earthquakes, bad news or other events - or if it's just in the eyes of their owners. Kay Moore, 64, of Loma Linda, Calif., said she gets quake warnings from her dogs, Brie, a 90-pound yellow Lab and Great Dane mix, and Lola, a 50-pound basset hound. "They get very, very hyper," Moore said. If a friend or relative comes to the door, Lady, a 4-year-old golden retriever mix, doesn't even bother to get up, said Stacey Jones, 50, of Stone Mountain, Ga. But if it's a stranger, she goes on minor alert, she said. Lady's sixth-sense tendencies are very subtle, said the Atlanta university writer and editor. But 18 years ago, when Jones was ordered to bed toward the end of her pregnancy, her dog Silver "planted herself next to me and would not leave. She knew something was going on with the baby and it was her job to take care of the baby." Sensing her anxiety Anne Radley was raped and suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome. If she has an episode or panic attack, whether it lasts a few minutes or all day, she can count on her three dogs and four cats. "If I have high anxiety, I have pets all over me. All of the pets will come and try to cuddle. It gets a little crowded, but they all do it," said the 37-year-old Hiawatha, Kan., mother of two. They are led by Mickey, about 15, a mixed breed terrier she got from a rescue 10 years ago. He can't see her pain, Radley said, because he has gone blind, so she is sure it is a sixth sense. He has always watched over her daughters and if they get sick, he will not only cuddle them, but cuddle them exactly where they hurt, she said. "He warms them up, he's a little heating pad. He's always done that." LaFarge has had similar brushes with a pet's sixth sense. "I have been awakened in the middle of the night by a dog," she said. "Very shortly after that, I received some very, very shocking bad news. I was awake when the phone rang. I couldn't explain why I was awake except the dog was next to me nudging me. How did the dog know my father died at midnight?" Bridget Pilloud of Portland, Ore., a pet psychic who prefers the title "intuitive animal communicator," is a believer. She has a client who keeps her dog's ear medicine and his dog treats in the same drawer. "When she goes to get the treats, he is sitting there waiting for them. When she goes for the medicine, he's not there. The dog just knows." How do they tell us? How do pets convey their concerns? Sixty-four percent of those polled said their pets tried to hide in a safe place, 56 percent said they whined or cried, 52 percent said they became hyperactive, erratic or made unpredictable movements, and 36 percent said they barked or meowed persistently. Often, they use more than one form of communication. If a storm is coming, Emma, 3, a longhaired miniature dachshund, and Bella, a 7-month-old miniature Chihuahua, will mope around, make noise and hide under the bed. When owner Timothy Gilbert, 43, a telephone communications foreman from Mabank, Texas, gets a cold, "Emma will come lay with me. She can tell when things are wrong. She kept talking to me, letting me know it would be OK." Gilbert believes all animals are born with a sixth sense, and they're more likely to show it if they have strong bonds with their owners. Otherwise, "humans tend to think they have a dumb dog, a lazy dog or a worthless dog," he said. The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-20, 2010, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 pet owners nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| 80 pets — and one teenage girl — rescued from Deltona home, deputies say - Orlando Sentinel Posted: 12 Jan 2011 08:11 PM PST A woman accused in a Deltona hoarding and child-abuse case is a public-school teacher in Volusia County, reports show. Robyn Harms teaches fifth grade at Blue Lake Elementary School in DeLand, according to beacononlinenews.com, a news website serving west Volusia County. To read the story, click here. State records shows Harms has a teaching certificate that is valid through June 30. Harms and her husband. Keith Harms, were arrested Wednesday after Volusia County deputies said they rescued more than 80 pets — and one teenage girl —from the couple's Deltona home. Authorities turned their attention to a home on Cottondale Drive in Deltona after city code enforcement officers reported a "strong smell" coming from the home. Deputies executed a search warrant at the city's request on Wednesday and described living conditions in the home as deplorable. According to a sheriff's spokesman, deputies could smell animal waste "before they even reached the front door." "When they got inside," spokesman Gary Davidson said, "deputies encountered a house littered with animal urine and mounds of animal waste throughout every room, on the furniture and even on top of the stove." Although a 16-year-old girl lived in the home, investigators said they were unable to find a sanitary area in the kitchen to prepare food. They described the stench in the house as "so powerful that it was difficult to breathe." According to Davidson, Deltona code enforcement officers removed 71 cats and 12 dogs from the home. Davidson said three cats were left in the home because officers were unable to "round them up." Deputies arrested 50-year-old Keith Harms and his wife, 46-year-old Robyn Harms. They were booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on child-abuse charges. Attempts to reach family for comment were not successful. Deputies said they turned the teen girl over to the Florida Department of Children & Families. DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said the family does not have a prior history with the agency. Hoeppner said the teen was placed in protective custody, pending a hearing on Thursday to determine if any relatives or loved ones could provided care for the girl "if the courts determine going home isn't in the child's best interest." Jeff Weiner can be reached at 407-420-5171, jeweiner@orlandosentinel.com or @OSNightCops on Twitter. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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