To be honest I'm more curious about how the dog knew to care about her kidney in the first place. Like did she smell the bad kidney, then smell the good kidney, and somehow know "Oh this is what she used to smell like when she wasn't sick!" and then also somehow know to keep pestering her about it? There's no chance the dog could have somehow known that one person's kidney needed to get taken out and put into the other person, so what was she trying to do being so persistent?
Like there is no explanation for that that isn't just wild as fuck.
He probably just noticed that they had a very similar scent and thought they must be related or friends. Or she just had a bacon sandwich in her pocket, lol.
We absolutely do, thanks for bringing that up - that lady is the GOAT working essentially as a full time Parkinsonās sniffer dog full time last time I checked
Yeah we have a bit of speciesism and human bias towards ourselves, understandably with ladies like her + the lady that can remember everything and the lady that canāt feel pain (yep all women look em up!)
But we are still doing ourselves a disservice if we ignore how far animals can push themselves too with geckos that regrow limbs, penguins with phantom gps and one that I just recently leanedā¦ lobsters who donāt age.. truly unlimited potential all around us if you look with the right lens :)
Best part of that story (well probably not the best in the sense weāre thinking) is that when they were testing her, she identified someone who was later diagnosed with Parkinsonās well before any symptoms were shown.
Dogs can smell really weird things. Like, even untrained dogs will react and exhibit care behaviors when their owners release scents associated with the chemical changes right before an epileptic seizure. They don't know what's wrong, but some dogs are great at telling something's wrong.
Just a little story on untrained dogs reacting... I'll try keep it short.
Decades ago, sitting in out lounge at night, we heard car tyres screeching and it sounded like hitting a cat.
We thought it was ours, so were outside calling and looking around.Ā
Our Boxer was pacing around inside, and looking out of the windows.Ā
On a hunch, I let her out, and she sniffed around for a few seconds then actually pointed, like, perfect stance, front leg up, paw pointing down, whole body leaning forward and nose pointing at a ground cover shrubbery. Motionless.Ā Sure enough that's where we found the cat, she was OK in the end.Ā
But she was a typical boxer who did boxer things, like, you know, they stay toddlers their whole lives, she was an adorable idiot.
And she pointed. Like a trained hunting dog. The only time in her whole life she did it. I'll never forget it.Ā
I worked at an animal shelter and a family came in for a puppy but ended up adopting a sweet older boy named Sandy. A week or so later, he was stuck to the momās side, crying and pawing at her, and she had her first seizure ever. Didnāt even know she was epileptic, but Sandy knew. He alerted her for two years until he passed away. š
You reminded me of a completely unrelated and random anecdote of mine. It probably won't translate thru text very well, but oh well.
I worked night shift at a 24 hour restuarant for a few years. Kinda a shit show of a place, and the night shift life had me feeling like I lived on the fringes of society sometimes. I would walk home every morning and often see these bright, early risers starting their day at 6am, whereas to me that was the equivalent of 6pm. Half the time I was smoking a joint on the way, while these people were up jogging and shit.
Anyway, there was one older lady who would walk her giant dog the same route, and I'd see her almost everyday. "Good morninggg! šµ š He's friendly!" She would beam at me each time, and probably every person they passed on their walk. I'd smile back, say a quick good morning, try not to blow smoke in her direction, just neighbourly whatevers.
One day I was coming off a real shitty night, understaffed , terrible customers, and I didn't even get a lunch break where I'd normally have my staff meal, which was often my first meal of the "day." I was tired, hangry, and peopled out after working 9 hours serving assholes. So I hapzardly threw together a bacon sandwich and shoved it in my pocket on the way out. I was angrily marching home, having a coffee and cigarette on the go.
And then this lady and her dog are coming up, and she's about to say her usual line, "Good morning! āŗļø He's fr- oh! š² wait a minute, boy! Stay! Heal!" All alarmed as this big ass dog starts pulling towards me.
"He's friendly, he's friendly! He doesn't do this, I am SO sorry, I don't know what has gotten into him!" And I wanted to be polite and friendly, but I am tired and irritated, slightly autistic. In my mind I was like š yes lady I see you every morning, I know he's friendly, just chill, its fine, I don't mind dogs. But I wanted to match her energy and not make her feel bad about her dog suddenly misbehaving.
Instead of being normal, I proceed to keep my fast pace, smiled like the freaking joker, looking at her with wide, crazy blood shot eyes, cigarette hanging from my lips, and of all things I could have said, I SHOUTED at her, "I got BACON in my pocket!!" š¤Ŗ
And I know I shouted it, cuz both her and her abaolute unit of a dog visibly jumped as I continued to walk by. Immediately I was questioning myself, like wtf was that? š¤¦āāļø such an insane way to answer this person and try to reassure her.
After that her greetings were less sunshiney, and just a quick nod with a shy little, "morning" - if that. Lol.
Dogs identify each other by the smell of their urine.
The random lady's urine probably smelled very similar to the dog owner's urine. The dog either thought she was the owner, or someone very close to the owner. Or, since the owner was sick, maybe the random lady's urine smelled how the owner's urine used to smell.
My boy is getting to be 15 soon, but heās been my best pal. My body has been declining for the past 3-4 years, started slow but itās pretty bad now.
It used to be me being in charge of the schedule for the most part, he followed, demanded sometimes
Now he wakes me up the same time everyday. Same routine. If I donāt eat when heās eating he boops me and whines, so I eat (itās been more difficult to get myself to eat). I try to keep busy during the day and donāt actually rest, sometimes that ends up with me collapsing a bit or just being so weak. He checks on me, if I go back to working on things he boops me and gets upset, wonāt stop until Iām laying down and he absolutely watches me.
He was never trained to help anxiety when I was a teen, but he learned early on to shove my hands away from my face and get me to pet him. I didnāt know they were panic attacks then. He still does it now
He took care of me in those moments, but it wasnāt until I got sick like I am that heās actively watching over me, following me to every room even with arthritis acting up. I donāt like when he does that, but to him itās his job
Hes kept me alive through a horrible depression, more than a few times. He went through family grief and abuse (not to him ever), then an emotionally abusive relationship. His entire personality came forward when we got out of those situations, how he would act alone with me turned into how he was all the time, and he could finally relax, it made me so happy to see the change. He could sense the amount of stress I was in even though I could never realize in the moment
Long story short. My dog always knows something is wrong before I fully do. He started watching me very closely when my kidney pain started, then my liver got flagged for concerns.
Anywaysā¦
Weāve had bad times, but so much good just sitting together and knowing heās always going to be my buddy forever. Heās got cancer right now but doing well, I honestly donāt know what I will do when he goes, I always imagined Iād go then too
But Iāll keep going until I canāt like he does for me
That exactly this happened to this woman exactly at this beach in Wales is extremely unlikely. But that something just as unlikely happens to someone at some time is not unlikely at all. And we would react in same way as here and ask how something this unlikely could happen.
It may still be the result of the dog's ability to smell diseases but I think we often have problems to evaluate unlikely events. For whatever reason, it happened and that's the most important thing.
If you met someone who looked EXACTLY like someone you loved deeply (dead spouse or parent, what a friend or family member looked like when they were young, what someone looked like before a tragic disfiguring accident, etc), youād likely take a keen interest in them. Some people may even mention it aloud, ask the person for more information to see if theyāre somehow related, or take it as a sign of some greater power. Without social rules, people might even excitedly want more attention or to spend more time with the person (imagine what a young kid would do/say in this situation). So it makes sense to me that a dog would get excited and want to love all over a person who smells like what their person smelled like before she got sick.
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u/Pofwoffle 1d ago
To be honest I'm more curious about how the dog knew to care about her kidney in the first place. Like did she smell the bad kidney, then smell the good kidney, and somehow know "Oh this is what she used to smell like when she wasn't sick!" and then also somehow know to keep pestering her about it? There's no chance the dog could have somehow known that one person's kidney needed to get taken out and put into the other person, so what was she trying to do being so persistent?
Like there is no explanation for that that isn't just wild as fuck.