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Achoo! Your cat knew the sneeze was coming ...

By Ryan Chatelain | rchatelain@am-ny.com

5:11 PM EDT, October 7, 2008

Dexter, a domestic short-haired cat, can sense when his owner is about to sneeze before it happens. (Photo by Kristy May)

First, there's the sound of claws scurrying on the hardwood floor. A second later, a cat darts out the room in a blur.

Then I sneeze.

I'm no scientist, but it's clear as crazy as this may sound -- that Dexter, my 6-year-old domestic shorthaired cat, knows I'm going to sneeze, even before I know.

There's too much evidence to support it. Sometimes he's sitting next to me on the couch. Other times, I'm facing away from him as he's napping on the floor. Sometimes, I even feel a sneeze coming on but hold it in.

In each instance, he splits just before the big moment.

How does he know?

"It's not unusual for a cat or even a dog to be frightened or even startled by a sneeze," said Peter Borchelt, a certified applied animal behaviorist. "Now the question is, what is there that would happen before the sneeze that the cat or the dog could anticipate? Now, more than likely, if this happens within a second or two before a sneeze, your breathing rate changes."

There are other examples of pet intuition. In fact, Borchelt notes, Dexter's ability to recognize a change in my breathing pattern and predict a sneeze is similar to the behavior of seizure-alert dogs. While not scientifically proven, many people believe certain dogs can detect a person's seizure seconds or minutes before it occurs and alert their owners.

"My guess is it's olfactory," Borchelt said. "We know that dogs have an extremely good sense of smell. We also know that people who get into a stressful situation sweat, have cold sweats, their body odor will change."

When a seizure is about to occur, the dogs can warn family members, press a help-alert button that calls 911 and even bring medication to the victim.

"They never cease to amaze me as to what they can do," said Beverly Underwood of Canine Helpers for the Handicapped, a nonprofit group in upstate Lockport that trains about seizure-alert dogs.

Perhaps one of the more chilling examples of pet intuition surfaced last year. Employees at a Providence, R.I., nursing home said Oscar, a cat adopted into the dementia ward, routinely snuggled with patients while letting out an intense purr -- an hour or so before they die.

Oscar has been so consistently right that caregivers have begun notifying family members when he begins comforting patients.

"This was a caring cat who probably somehow identified changes in the person's body. The cat somehow said, 'This person is in distress. Let me go sit down in their lap.' "