Earthquakes and Cats.....

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2000
Earthquakes and Cats.....
5
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 6:47am

Ok, I'm curious after just watching the Jane Goodall special When Animals Talk on Sunday night and just listening to a conversation about earthquakes and animal behavior. Did any of our northern California members cats/pets start acting strangely the past few days? I speaking about the recent 7. quake in Crescent City near San Francisco. This issue came up and they did speak of all of the animals that literally ran away from last years tsunami and had the people paid more attention to the animals at the time more would have survived. Evidently China has for years looked at animal behavior when predicting quakes.

So there are many reports of a correlation between missing pets and earthquakes. One theory is they sense whether is be some kind of electromagnetic field or maybe tiny foreshocks that are otherwise undectable earthquakes and will run away. One man's cat who lived in northern California ran away a couple of days prior to one of the larger quakes and returned home six months later.

I'd be very interested to know if the member who posted about her kitty suddenly going crazy running through the house, biting and scratching her in bed, talking up a storm lived in the northern California area. She just posted this within the last couple of days and it appeared that is was very recent behavior. I'm going to reply to her post as well but that behavior almost sounds like an indoor cat trying to "get out or run away". Not saying that this would necessarily be the reason but I'd be interested to know if she's a resident of San Francisco bay area.

Like I said I'm just curious if you all have noticed this behavior in your cats?

Lynn

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 11:18am

I was wondering about this too! LOL! That sort of thing has always fascinated me.

I live in the BC Lower Mainland, and one of my TV shows was interupted last night to tell us about a possible Tsunami watch for the Vancouver Island coast due to the quake (they came on again 10 minutes later and told us the watch was cancelled). I couldn't tell you if my cats were acting strange or not, because we'd had some lightning earlier that evening, and they HAD been listening to that.

This morning, however, Bailey was running all over the apartment meowing his head off. He's never done that before. And Tasha wasn't interested in eating (also quite unusual). I hope they aren't sensing future quakes! :/




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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 11:42am
I'm the one who posted that my cat was going crazy. I am not anywhere near San Fran; I'm in Mississippi. My furbaby is fine now. It was a temporary thing and she is sleeping beautiful now and being the sweetest baby in the world. So, all is well in my household! :)

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." ~Gandhi

Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 06-16-2005 - 4:06pm

I can't say that any of my furkids were acting strange the past few days before the earthquake.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-06-2004
Thu, 06-16-2005 - 8:58pm
My cats and dogs can sense when a bad storm is coming. My husky will want to stay outside, some of my cats that stay out roaming in the woods/yard during the day will appear on the porch wanting in before the rain comes. Not earthquake weather but...I'm in Ala. Donna
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-11-2003
Thu, 06-16-2005 - 10:03pm

I live in the Bay Area about 40 miles from San Fransisco. We have had our share of small earthquakes since we have had our cats and not once did they react if during one they just layed there. Now when the big one hit I was at a friends house that had two dogs. Right before the quake hit the dogs started running around the house crying.

I truly believe that animals can sense these things but for some reason my cats don't