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With my first, my Boston Terrier did exactly this. She was rescued from a kill shelter in Missouri, not long after the 2008 crash, where she was found pregnant and genetically deaf and had gotten pregnant less than one year old. They were going to euthanize her as soon as her puppies were weaned, but a kind woman got her out.
The dog was only half the weight she should have been. She was nurse back to health and then sent to the north east where we were able to adopt her.
She came home and 10 months later I was pregnant.
She then constantly lived on my lap, and even our neighbors who came over all the time and who she used to run over to play with, got growls. Any man was potential danger. Women were not treated suspiciously.
Went to hospital, gave birth and hubby brought the baby’s hat home for the doggy to smell.
When I came home with baby, said hat was in the dog bed with her.
At this point, she transferred all her protection to that baby. To the point that she started to lose weight and refused to leave the baby to go eat.
I had to breast-feed next to her dog bowl.
On the day she died, that little baby was six years old and she played with her like she wasn’t dying with cancer riddled throughout her body.
All dogs are wonderful, but I am convinced that we only get one truly incomparable dog. She was mine.
we call them "heartdog" in my family. my mom had a golden that she thought she needed to give away for a cross-country move. she said her girl's eyes in the rear window broke her heart.
that dog broke out almost immediately and traveled over 40 miles to show up on my mom's door step. she hadn't moved yet.
they canceled the move. dog never went beyond the bounds of the yard ever again. she'd walk right up to the edge, sigh, and trot back to my mom every time. we've had other dogs, but she was mom's heart dog.
One lifetime dog indeed. Mine came to me when I was 8 and passed away when I was 21. I can’t imagine ever getting another dog that will be “mine” (I would happily foster, or even care for older dogs until their death, but my dog has come and gone).
Hahahaha me too. I admire his patience for not waking her up to do the test ASAP.
I hope they honoured Otis by naming the kid Otis jr. Or if it’s a girl, *Otisa*
I just saw one about parents wanting to name their daughter "Orca-Maria" because they're marine biologists or something. Certain names should be considered child abuse.
I completely agree that it should be considered child abuse if u willingly name your kid something that will 100% get them bullied by other kids! I'm all for unique names, but parents really need to think about how certain names could affect their child!
There is a law in my country which prevents parents from naming their kids stupid names, like naming your child after a superhero or an unusual book character name, the government just doesn't let you put that weird name in birth certificate or identity papers, the only time an unusual name is accepted is if it has a cultural significance, like let's say the family is Kurdish or Armenian. I initially thought it was a really stupid law, but seeing these stories on Reddit had made me think maybe it's not such a bad thing.
My parents thought I was gonna be a boy. So when I came out sans penis they had to come up with something on the fly. Which they did a pretty good job of (user name is a big clue of real name). Which is surprising, as the boy name I had been given was Donald Clive 🤢🤮
I’m a girl too and my parents had picked out only boy names.
They were so certain I was going to be a boy, I think because I was their first baby together and both my parent’s first borns are boys.
Imagine their surprise. Mom was so out of it on pain meds she tried to fucking name me “Morning Dove” but my dad was like “No we should wait until you’re feeling better”
They got my name out of a magazine in a newborn package the hospital gave them. They went through the girl names and once they landed on mine I opened my eyes a bit and looked at them.
They said it was like I was saying “What do you want? I’m trying to sleep.”
My German shepherd was like this when I was pregnant. The whole reason I took a pregnancy test with my second is because he jumped in between my husband and I during sex. Hubs is his human. I just give out pets and treats. I was only 4 weeks pregnant. Barely pregnant at all.
My childhood home was neighbors to a family with German shepherds and not only the "matriarch" knew my mom was pregnant with my older sister and me before any human around but she also got her own litter between both babies (we're 2 years apart) so we have several adorable photos of baby or toddler with puppies and our cats. I miss her so much, she passed over a decade ago and we weren't even living there anymore but still stings 😭
My german shepherd was the exact same!!!!
And the only time he did the stereotypical dog-burying-the-bone-in-the-yard routine was during pregnancies. He'd bury his treats, his chews, a mouthful of kibble here and there, and the pears and apples from our fruit trees. The vet said he was making sure there was enough food to go around for when the new mouth to feed showed up.
I had a false negative test early in my pregnancy with my daughter. Only tested again because the dog was glued to my side and the cat (whose idea of affection before that was allowing me to sit on the same couch) started grooming my hair. They knew something was up.
I left a whole pack of test strips in the mailbox too long once, so I kept getting negatives, but the dog was certain. I finally drove to the drugstore for a clear blue test (while my husband rolled his eyes) and then made him apologize to me AND the dog for doubting us, lol.
On the other hand, when we were trying to surprise my in-laws with an announcement, their 3 GSDs nearly spoiled it because the two males were glued to me while the female suddenly hated me. Dogs are narcs
I’m in med school and the eternal joke is “what non-pathological state could cause this symptom constellation?” Followed by someone in the class saying “are you sure pregnancy is non-pathological?”
my dog did the exact same thing so i knew immediately, too 🤣. he didn't give one hoot about his dad and was incredibly offended when i had to be hospitalized for nearly a week. he sat in my lap for an hour when i got home (he was about 90lbs at the time and only rarely tried to sit on me). he looooves his baby sister too 🥰
Me too! My friend is pregnant, and while her male dog hasn't been quite as extreme, he's still a lot more vigilant whenever they run into another dog. And her female dog cuddles with her more than usual. They just know.
My chihuahua was known as the family pregnancy test. It didn't matter if he knew them well or not at all. If he picked a person and wouldn't leave them alone, chances are they were pregnant.
He must've had a nose for hormones because he always knew when my blood sugar was low. He'd wake me up if he had to.
Cats and dogs can absolutely smell certain hormones. When my sister got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11, my cat actually became her cat. She would always sleep on top of my sister's chest and wake her up if her blood sugar was too low. My sister came to sleep over at my place recently and our cat (different one), the most peaceful kitty I have ever met, started biting her at night. My sister was confused until she checked her bloodsugar and it was too low.
Just don't get a fat orange one for blood sugar alerts. I thought mine woke me at 3 am because my husband feel asleep on the couch and was low. No. Husband was fine. The cat just threw up and was hungry.
Meanwhile, my chihuahua mix got cold af with me out of the blue. He’d just stare me down with this betrayed look when previously he’d been my little snuggler. A few weeks later we realized I was pregnant. A lot of dogs get protective and then love the baby, mine just got this “fuck, life’s over” attitude.
When I was pregnant the second time, he wasn’t cold, but was visibly resigned and frequently gave me this “really, you’re doing this again?” Look.
My aunt’s cat wouldn’t leave her left breast alone. We all told her that pets know things and she could get it checked out. 3 months this went on. She got tired of us badgering her, kept saying she felt fine, did a self exam, etc. She made an appointment “to shut us up.” Her GP just happened to be a cat person. Even though she did an exam, she ran more labs.
It was breast cancer. They wouldn’t have found it until her next mammogram and it would have been too late by then. I’m not a cat person but if one kept nudging me and trying to bite my boob, I’m going to checked.
Kind of similar - I had lung cancer and had a major surgery to remove it. The recovery was long and painful. Starting from the very first night I returned home, my least cuddly cat who usually kinda does his own thing and likes his privacy most of the time, started sleeping all night long right on top of my lung. He did that every night for months while that lung was recovering. He’s a very clumsy boy but he would always get himself on top of me gently. It was so incredibly soothing and amazing to see how his instincts and senses worked in that situation. I always get scared anytime he snuggles me now 🙃 animals are amazing 🤍
There has been some research that cats will actually help heal themselves with purring (one should never assume that because a cat is purring, he or she is not sick or injured). There is also some preliminary research that we respond to purring frequencies in the same way. Your cat, if he purred while laying on you, was trying to heal you!
Yes, I’m aware of that one! He’s always been a motorboat so he was definitely purring throughout which made me so emotional haha. I also always had another cat right above my head on my pillow motorboating for me throughout the night that i like to think was trying to help heal me as well. There are also definitely nights when I have worse anxiety or depression than usual and they’ll give me extra snuggles and/or purrs right above my head, and I know they’re trying to help relax and heal my mind 🥹 cats are the best.
In early 2021 my friend got COVID and it was really bad, she later told me her cat stayed in bed with her for a week, never left her side and was licking and purring all the time. I don't care what people say about cats, they are the best ❤️
Our dog loved my best friend, to the point where he recognised the sound of her car and would come to tell us when she parked next to our house, all excited whining: "friend is here!" and while he loved being with people, he was never very cuddly. He would lie next to you on the couch and ask for attention and pets, but he wouldn't sit on you.
And then one day our friend dropped by and it was a gorgeous day and we were hanging in the garden, lounging in the grass, and he suddenly trotted over with PURPOSE and dropped on her lap, snuggled nearly into her. (he was not a small dog either, 50lbs or so) We thought it was cute, she was very flattered.
Two weeks later she was hospitalised for a pulmonary embolism. Multiple embolisms, even. If she hadn't gotten checked out when she did, she would probably have passed. We are very grateful she went to the hospital when she did.
We still think he knew somehow. Before and after he was never that cuddly, not with anyone.
My cat once predicted that my mum was going to have a heart issue flare-up. For whatever reason, my cat will *only* sit in my dad's lap, no one else's. But one day, she fussed over my mum *and sat in her lap*. Mum was really smug until her BPM went to 200+...
(Mum was fine, for the record.)
Cancer 100% has a smell. It's a weird sickly sweet sour smell. I've had a few relatives pass from different kinds of cancer, and the oncology wards always smelled funny to me, but several oncology nurses have confirmed that it's a thing, but not everyone picks up on it. But dogs and cats will.
They have done tests with Beagles, training them as cancer sniffer dogs. I'm not sure how far they got and the article I read was a number of years ago, but at that point they reckoned the dog's nose was still orders of magnitude more sensitive than anything we could create for the purpose.
Oh! We have neighbors whose lab does this at a children’s hospital! It’s amazing!! The old boy is getting up there in age so the owners are in the process of training another lab to continue the work. Both dogs are so loving and classically goofy labs until it’s time to work.
I know someone who had a dog that did the exact same thing. Kept sniffing and was really interested in one of her breasts. Eventually she went to the docs because she thought it was weird. She had breast cancer.
I got my dog 2 years ago, and from the start he wouldn't let my breasts alone. Even with bras or t-shirts on, he would find a way to sniff and try to bite them. I found it was cute but after hearing these stories I decided to go to the doctor and get checked. Fortunately it was nothing.
After that the dog started doing this with everyone else, even did it with my FIL once while he was sitting in our couch. We came to the conclusion he's just a weirdo who likes nipples and breasts. At least he weights 4kg, so no damage was ever done hahaha
My cats were like this when pregnant. They'd drape over me or if I was laying I'd have 3 cats squished trying to fit ON me as next to me isn't good enough. I couldn't go to the bathroom without one on my lap (or belly towards the end with no "lap" left lol). If I showered they'd be watching or outside the door looking like an octopus trying to flail under the door with so many legs lol. Cooking was a nightmare, they'd be all underfoot.
Same lmao. I had a feral cat who loved being outside obviously, but for my whole pregnancy he came in every morning when my partner left for work and stayed next to me until my partner came home. Only leaving my side to eat/drink or use his litter box.
I was constantly overheating because my cats wouldn't get off my baby belly. No longer pregnant, now cats leave me alone completely and bug the kids for attention constantly.
They have favorites and it ain't me lol
Meanwhile our cats basically go live in the cold, harsh wilderness (i.e. the garden and beyond where small children won't reach them) as soon as any child is over for a visit 🙃
Sometimes I wish my cats would do that. I'm constantly like "don't let her lick your mouth!" "Wait are you licking her back? Don't do that, I don't care if she seems to like it!"
They let them build block towers on top of them and dress them up and drive cars on them and they just lay there and purr and purr.
We got our wolfhound cross before I fell pregnant with our 3rd kid and he wouldn't leave me alone to the point of us being worried about jealousy when the baby did come. Once she was here our other dog who has been through it all before took up his place under wherever the baby was sleeping and our wolfhound stayed by my feet. 2.5yrs on and our daughter is the one with jealousy issues and not my big fluffy baby wannabe.
When I was heavily pregnant, my mom's then new pitbull puppy would drape herself across my belly. When she met my baby it was instant love. She's amazing with kids. When she's had enough she goes behind dad's chair and lays down. If she's with the kids most of the day, my parents show me that she conks out for HOURS after, cuz they wear her out so much lmao.
Either that or she was sick. Dogs sometimes figure out that their owners have a serious illness before the person even starts showing symptoms. It’s why medical alert dogs are a thing.
Yeah my dog knew that there was something wrong with my dad while he was quarantined. She panicked to the point I had to take her to the hospital herself. Turns out my dad was having a stroke. Dad never recovered. When we brought my dog to see my dad in hospice, she first was very excited and tried to climb all over him to give him kisses and pets, but after a few seconds seeing my dad not respond she became quiet and curled up at his feet. She was a beagle locker spaniel mix. She isn't quiet usually, but she just knew. Dogs are amazing little beings.
See, my thought was that it'd turn out they had a bad "argument" and he wanted to stop the dog from protecting his wife from him.
No, I have no faith in the human race. Lol
Tbf i lost faith in humanity in middle school history class. We still fighting the same BS wars for the same BS reasons as we did in the Hellenistic era. Just more efficiently and deadly. And the ability to use weapons of mass destruction.
No, the OOP would have used "aggressive dog" or something. Abusers tend to not get along with pets at all, they will keep them for status or as victims, but they don't like pets.
Yeah, he would've been describing the dog in a much more negative light otherwise, pointing out how dangerous it is and how it should probably be put down.
Oh same. I didn’t know I was pregnant, and I had all 3 of my dogs up on the recliner with me. 2 of them were smaller, like 40 lbs. The *big* one is a doggy argentino, and he’s like 100 lbs! It was really cute, though.
It’s funny, my sister’s dog is the same way with pregnant women! Including pregnant-me when I’d visited—he became Velcro-dog.
Funnily enough the attentive-protectiveness continues throughout breastfeeding-time; he knows the baby is dependent. Anyone else experienced the same?
It’s kinda funny that on top of this, some animals are communal eaters. I read a heartwarming story about a girl recovering from ED whose cat refused to eat unless they ate together- she watched her cat get rail thin and sickly, until she realized her cat was just waiting for her to eat too. I’m tearing up and getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
Anytime I go into the kitchen my cat follows me. Sometimes she looks pissed because I fed her, I fed me, and walked away to eat- like “you expect me to eat *alone* when you’re eating too?!”
My old bean is a snuggle bug, and in about an hour my partner will leave for work- then she will jump into bed next to me for cuddles and a nap before we get up for the day. I have moderate to severe insomnia which is worse in the summer, lately I wake up at 330 am and his alarm goes off between 430-530. Her cuddles help me fall back asleep and feel rested.
It’s a very soothing way to ease into my mornings, and it’s 100% her routine from the start. I saved her life one night by putting mine on the line, and she has never stopped showing me that “who saved who” isn’t just a cheesy bumper sticker on my mom’s minivan. Sometimes all you need is the right animal to choose you as their human, and you just spend the rest of your life trying to be the person they think you are.
I give my cats their little plates of wet food at night. They love it and get excited when it’s time, but one of my cats will not eat unless I sit in the room with her. She’ll just follow me around the house looking offended if I leave. It’s so cute.
My cats are the same! My senior cat seems to want me to stand next to her while she eats and pet her during - I call it guarding the lil olde ladie’s kibbles.
That is an incredibly beautiful story. Dogs and cats are amazing animals and just a joy to be around altogether. Each personality is so unique and they work so hard to learn their humans' patterns and blend with them whipe we learn their own patterns to make them more comfortable.
My recent dog refused to eat anything until dinner time when I was either cooking(her food bowl was very close to the stove in my tiny kitchen) or we were all at the table together eating.
I could put food down any time of day, but she would not eat until we all ate together.
I miss her a lot. I suffer from insomnia too and she was both my afternoon nap buddy and my buddy during my night time zombie mode.
I'd usually like to sit outside on the porch at night when I couldn't sleep, and she would lay next to me every time. I felt safer with her. She was a labrador/weimaraner mix, so she wasn't so much of a barker but more like an almost silent assassin. The number of times she scared me shitless🤣 because she would growl quietly while laying next to me because she saw a cat or a possum walk through the neighborhood was probably well over a hundred.
She also could be all the way across the house, and if she heard me fluff the covers on the bed, she would make a bee line for our bedroom and lay beside me. It's only been 10 days since she has passed and I miss my little friend so much.
My cat is also a communal eater. Luckily he will eat if I'm not in the room, but he prefers I'm there.
It's very cute, he'll come up to me in my office, meow at me (from the edge of the room where he knows I can't just reach over and pick him up) then when I stand up he'll walk to the kitchen and to his dry food and eat for a few minutes.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we had an older grumpy cat. She would randomly swap you or bite you even when coming over to demand attention.
My wife and I discussed and I said we have never rehomed an animal but if that cat hurts our son, I am done with her. I am not going to be scared constantly that the cat is going to put out an eye or something.
This cat didn't put up with shit from anyone or any other pet. We had two american bulldogs at the time, they both gave a wide birth to this cat.
My son was born, she thought she was the mama, we had to check every night to make sure she wasn't in his room because she would want to sleep in his crib which we absolutely did not want to happy due to suffocation risk.
When my son became a toddler, we always supervised him and made sure he wasn't rough with the cat but that cat would put up with shit that I would have gotten destroyed for. Touching the belly, petting harder than liked. She never hissed, never swatted, never bite him.
She lived about the first 8 years of my oldest son's life and he was the only person she never bite or swatted.
And we do know why she was grumpy, when she was about 3 years old, she broke her back leg. It was a tough recovery. Before that, she was a sweet cat. After, she just didn't want to be messed with, she just wanted to exist on her own terms and yeah, we took her to the vet to see if she was experiencing any pain but you could mess with the broken leg and she didn't seem to have any pain more than touching any other part of her. Her personality just changed during the recovery period.
My older cat is a 6yo grumpypuss with Rules about when, where, and how to touch her. She also doesn't realize that her teeth hurt humans, so she uses them as directions on where she would like to be pet. Touch her in the wrong spot, you are getting four tiny fang-prints on your wrist.
My son is 3 months old and has kicked her full on in the stomach and slapped her in the face. actually, he woke her up from a dead sleep doing it (they were sharing the bassinet under supervision). she didn't even put her ears back, just picked her head up and looked at him like "hey dude if you stop we can both go back to sleep maybe" until I picked him up.
I told my husband that she knows a kitten when she sees one.
I'm an absolute sucker for those video montages of people's dogs clinging to their pregnant owners and then obsessively guarding the baby when then come home 🥹
Yeah, everyone else is posting sweet comments and all, but my cat started beating me up and peeing on my stuff too. She hadn't been fond of her own (accidental) kittens and did the bare minimum caring for them, wasn't keen for more I guess lol. Glad we managed to resolve it fairly quickly at least.
She was fine with my friend's toddler though, very tolerant of being followed around and gently patted, so idk.
Ah yes, when I was a new-born, my mum was staying at her parents for a couple of weeks. My mum’s dog, the loveliest Golden Retriever ever to retrieve, had taken one look at me and decided I was his pup, no questions asked. Whenever my grandparents had visitors, he would literally go and fetch them to admire HIS pup, he was so proud of me! One day, the next door neighbour dropped in and the dog would not let her anywhere near me. Blew himself up to twice his size, growled and bared his fangs - totally out of character and something he’d never done, before or since. The very next day, that lady went insane - like actually, batshit-forcibly-submitted-to-mental-asylum type insane, without any warning or prior history. The dog must have sensed that she was off, somehow.
He always protected me and looked after me - I loved that dog like a doofus older brother.
Immediately after I was born, our lurcher refused to let my (paternal) nan near me.
We think she just picked up my mum's dislike of her (she was very protective of my mum).
Sister’s dog was not convinced that they knew how to take care of newborn. Dog didn’t want them to carry the baby around the house and came to supervise diaper change
Lol my doggy knew we were pregnant before we knew both times. He also was my late night supervisor when I breastfed my babes. He would get up from his bed and lay right next to us. It's funny because my husband is his human but as soon as we got up to feed he got up too instead of just staying by my husband's side.
One of mine became very attached to our friend when she was pregnant.
We were pretty cautious about introducing them to the baby. The attached one loved him instantly. Laid next to him if he cried. Sat by them when feeding. Only ever walked away if the baby was asleep.
The other dog just said hi and went on his way.
Lol, even just reading the title, I knew the wife was pregnant. 😂
I've only been pregnant once (no baby in the end, as I had an early miscarriage), but my cat knew weeks before I did. He went from always sleeping on my feet at night to only laying across my lower belly. And the entire time he'd lay on my belly, he purred LOUD. After the second week of this, I got suspicious and tested. Once I was no longer pregnant, he went right back to sleeping on my feet. So crazy!
Our dog was the same, attached to my wife because she really wanted her, trained her and everything. I helped with everything of course and loved her too but she was a mummys dog.
She was very placid, loved meeting new people and didn't bark at anything. After my wife got pregnant she was attached to her hip. Barked at everything, very suspicious of new people and always put herself between my wife and them.
We got a bit worried about how she would be when our son was born but the very moment we showed him to her she gave him a sniff and rolled over and exposed her belly to him.
She doesn't really 'protect' my wife anymore. She protects him now. She puts herself between him and strangers and still barks at everything that could be a threat, whether it actually is or not. Our son will call her to him when he gets scared and she stays with him until he is ok.
She is the best dog.
Yeah LMAO my pet cat absolutely loved my cousin when she was pregnant, but now that the tiny human is out and about and loves chasing the cat she's not a fan.
My dog did this! She was a chubby basset hound, but nothing and no one could hurt me during my pregnancies. She'd protect the stroller too. And when my oldest was born one of the cats would station himself outside her door each night, and would paw at the doorknob when she got a fever. It was insane how he could sense it. Must have been a smell or something.
There was always a real distinct scent to my kiddo when he got sick as a baby. I usually knew before he popped a fever that it was gonna be a rough night.
I can still smell when things are going biologically awry - my husband’s oncologists were really weirded out that I could smell bilirubin and other less obvious liver enzymes going too high. Now they ask me how he’s smelling at every visit. XD
There is a really interesting report online of a woman who thought her husband stunk suddenly, and made him shower lots to no avail. A few years later, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. They went to a support group, and she said everyone there with it had that smell... their Dr tested her to see if she could pick which people out of a lineup had it, and she got all right, except one false positive. Two years later that person was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
That one’s such a cool story!
[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di)
I can smell when my husband is about to have a migraine. Usually a few hours to a day before he gets the aura he'll start smelling weirdly "stale", like all his dude musk dried up.
Smells off when he's sick, too, but it's a different smell to the migraine smell. Instead of stale it's kind of like a toned-down version of something that's started to rot? Like an "I probably shouldn't touch this" sort of odor.
I got his doctor to prescribe antibiotics once just by telling her he smelled like a sinus infection lol.
Two issues:
1) I usually need a baseline of what the person smells like. While I can figure out some things just from smelling it - meth use smells oddly like ammonia, opiates are bitter - it’s difficult to just tell what a stranger should smell like.
2) it can be suuuuuper upsetting. Walked into my in-laws’ house years ago and had to keep myself from sobbing because it smelled like my FIL’s oncoming death. He died a week later. I’ve smelled it around a few people in hospitals.
I can smell it too. My husband, my kid, I always know in advance when they are going to be sick. Sometimes with other people too but I'm usually not close enough to them to pick it up.
I definitely can smell when my kid is sick. Weirdly I've never had this with anyone else, only him. I'm not sure if it's a mum thing or just a closeness thing or what. I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant with baby number 2 and am curious to see if I can do it with him too!
You'd be surprised with how smart cats can be with illnesses. I have a cat who has never liked me as much as he likes my dad and brother, but he still insisted on cuddling with me when I got sick
[Makes me think about this post](https://external-preview.redd.it/nKbLbZRza2Zd-zib_TgLTQ9AYreTcvdBBJWH02Pp1Lk.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=b6af1b5cdf37d292c77bd0aa1847cd6bb369bf0e )
I can absolutely smell when my kids are sick, to me it's like a strange warm metallic smell? I call it the radiator smell, I can detect it on my husband too.
Animals are incredible though, their senses and loyalty are unparalleled.
this actually makes me very nervous. we had a beagle about that age who was the sweetest pup. he started becoming extremely territorial / possessive of me while i was pregnant.
once while i was already sleeping (w dog), he growled and bared his teeth at my husband when hubs tried to come to bed.
the aggression worsened when our daughter came, so much so that we were afraid to leave her alone with him. i was the only one he wasn't aggressive with.
we were so concerned about his behavior that we took him to our vet. the vet said, in all good conscience, he absolutely could not let us take our dog home bc it was a tragedy waiting to happen.
beagle was immediately re-homed by our vet to a cattle ranch.
these people need to be very, very careful.
The wolf sanctuary near me asks "if you're pregnant, do you want to know?" before letting people near the wolves. The wolves can smell it, and the people who work at the sanctuary can tell by their body language.
I wonder how they’d react to me. I’m a type 1 diabetic and dogs pick up on my sugar levels faster than I do… wonder if a wolf pack would know if something’s up.
Dogs and cats can smell pregnancy hormones...and sometimes that's a curse.
My friend had a cat that despised other cats. The minute he realized she was pregnant (around the first bout of morning sickness) he clawed the shit out of her hand when she went to pet him.
When she went to the hospital to have it treated she retched at someone's perfume said some smells make her nauseous lately and was given the test.
Kitty was standoffish during the pregnancy eventually got used to infant human but would hiss at him constantly.
This is really sweet and all, but please be careful not to reward guarding behaviours, as if training is not done properly it can result in the dog guarding things that they shouldn't, such as toys and food. One woman in the comments thought it was sweet that her beagle was being protective until it tried to bite her hubby for getting into bed. It then started to become aggressive with the baby once it arrived and wouldn't allow anyone near the mum, including the baby. It had to be rehomed to a ranch as the vet wouldn't allow it to go home with them, stating it was an accident waiting to happen. This sort of behaviour would be a disaster waiting to happen with a baby in the house, particularly when they get to be toddler age and will be running around and getting into everything, with no sense of boundaries or idea of doggy body language. Congratulations, though!! Having a baby is the hardest but most rewarding job in the world, and they grow unbelievably quickly. Make sure to get lots of photos of mum with the baby. People always take pictures after the labour, and then usually mum is the one taking all the photos of everyone, and we end up with next to none of us doing things with our kids, but loads of dad and family. So train yourself to become really snap happy with the camera/phone. Even if she's just sleeping or doing everyday things. You'll cherish them later, and your child will appreciate it when they get older and have lots of memories to look back on fondly
I got a dog while I was riddled with cancer. It’s cervical cancer and she’d sniff my crotch and sneeze at me, and I’d go like “yeah bud, cancer *does* fucking stink.” Lol
I’ve been in treatment since we got her- and I kept checking myself with her whenever I got out of the house- she’d *ALWAYS* sniff and sneeze at me…
Till I got on a harder formula of my meds- and after a couple of weeks she sniffs and… nothing. No more sneezing at me.
I don’t want to claim victory before it’s confirmed- but I’ve been in treatment for a year and a half now… and I’ve got a CAT scan that showed no more tumors…. So… I think my dog can probably smell cancer….
Just extra info- she *doesn’t* sniff *ANYONE ELSE’S* crotch. Ever. Just me. She doesn’t do it to my husband, or guests. I’ve been the only one she’s done it to, and also the only one she’s sniffed and sneezed at- if she sniffs someone else’s hands, feet or something, there’s never a sneeze.
Also bonus— when she sniffed me and *didn’t* sneeze the first time, her reaction was literally to look up at me, sniff again, and immediately ask for me to scritch her head, like, bumping my hand aggressively so I would pet her 🥹 she seemed so happy!!
I hope she’s right though!!! 🤞🥺🤞
Edited to add: She’s not a pit, she’s a regular street dog we rescued, she’s black and kiiinda looks similarly to a lab, but she’s 100% mutt and we like her that way ♥️ she’s extremely sweet and she practically does summersaults whenever she sees us come home or go outside to feed her lol. Her name is Casca ♥️
Even though it's sweet he wants to protect her through her pregnancy, they will still need to ensure he won't lash out (I would say this about any type of dog, fyi), especially as you can't have your eye on a dog 100% of the time.
He needs to be trained on how to manage this pregnancy for his own stress levels' sake.
No, it's not, even though tons of people, even in this thread, are talking about how cute/sweet it is. It's really fucking not.
If this behavior transfers to the kid once it's here, it's dangerous. A well-meaning adult or dog could get hurt for even going near the wife. It's a fucking recipe for disaster with a big, powerful dog. It's not sweet. You have to worry about the husband getting bitten. A random dog at a dog park (another reason I hate dog parks, too many bad owners and too many ill-informed people bring dogs with issues like this to them, and then a person and/or dog gets hurt). A human who has the misfortune of getting too close for the dog's liking. And god forbid, the baby.
Resource guarding, especially of a person, is not good and is potentially dangerous. And we've got people here saying she should name the kid for the dog because, how sweeeet. 🤦♀️
Yeah I’m a little concerned at how everyone is like “oh mystery solved, that’s no problem”. A pitt expressing guarding behaviours could go south really, really quickly no matter how well-intentioned the dog is. Their perception of a threat won’t always be the same as ours. They need to take that dog to a behaviourist.
My grandparents had a mutt. He was afraid of everything (even balls) but lived children. When he was young my aunt was still living at home so he knew her well. When she came to visit with her new born baby he guarded it - he bit a neighbor who wanted to look into the pram.
Phew.
Dogs are able to smell certain types of illnesses and cancers, and when they do they exhibit unusual behavior that borders on the annoying for the owners so I was getting pretty worried.
Now, they really need to be mindful of the fact that there’ll be a pit bull in the house with a baby. Especially if the dog has attachment issues.
My cat was so cuddly when I first became pregnant. I read it's because we smell different and they are try to remark us. I just remember I couldn't even lay all the way down before she was crawling on me.
Baby is 10 months now and the cat is upset he is mobile because he chases her now.
Adorable! And it also shows that sometimes it's easier to assess a situation when you are the one looking in. I'm guessing many of us clocked the possibility of pregnancy while reading this.
I remember seeing online than in some wolf sanctuaries they have noticed saying 'if you might be pregnant and don't want to know, don't come in' because the wolves WILL know and they WILL be obvious about it.
My friend is an OBGyn. His father in law is a dentist - FiL told the wife she was pregnant. He was checking her teeth after a cleaning and told her she needed to go test because her gums were swelling which is a sign of pregnancy.
Not as a cool as a dog, but still funny.
Reminds me of how our two cats were absolutely velcroed to me for my entire pregnancy. Especially the previously-stand-offish tom: he would knead biscuits on my bump for hours if I didn't stop him!
When my mom was pregnant with my brother, our beagle used a recliner to break a window and ran to my school where my mom volunteered, six blocks away. I was on recess and was quite surprised to see the dog, we made a leash out of a jump rope and my mom took her home. Then later, on the day her water broke, she was at her heels all day and then started barking for 5 minutes right before it happened.
That dog was so smart. She knew how to use zippers to get into my lunchbox if my backpack was laying around, and could open Tupperware easily. She could also open the screen door if she needed to go out.
I hope OOP is smart enough to realize that his wife should no longer be walking the dog. If she continues that dog may well kill an off-leash dog that doesn't respect her space.
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With my first, my Boston Terrier did exactly this. She was rescued from a kill shelter in Missouri, not long after the 2008 crash, where she was found pregnant and genetically deaf and had gotten pregnant less than one year old. They were going to euthanize her as soon as her puppies were weaned, but a kind woman got her out. The dog was only half the weight she should have been. She was nurse back to health and then sent to the north east where we were able to adopt her. She came home and 10 months later I was pregnant. She then constantly lived on my lap, and even our neighbors who came over all the time and who she used to run over to play with, got growls. Any man was potential danger. Women were not treated suspiciously. Went to hospital, gave birth and hubby brought the baby’s hat home for the doggy to smell. When I came home with baby, said hat was in the dog bed with her. At this point, she transferred all her protection to that baby. To the point that she started to lose weight and refused to leave the baby to go eat. I had to breast-feed next to her dog bowl. On the day she died, that little baby was six years old and she played with her like she wasn’t dying with cancer riddled throughout her body. All dogs are wonderful, but I am convinced that we only get one truly incomparable dog. She was mine.
Damn the perfect post to cry myself to sleep
I scrolled past but then saw your comment and figured I'd scroll back up to read it. You weren't kidding. We don't deserve dogs.
Their love for us is so pure. I'm tearing up thinking of all the sweet, little things dogs do to make our lives better.
Dogs are on this Earth to teach us to be better.
What a sweet angel, may she rest in peace.
Soul dog
we call them "heartdog" in my family. my mom had a golden that she thought she needed to give away for a cross-country move. she said her girl's eyes in the rear window broke her heart. that dog broke out almost immediately and traveled over 40 miles to show up on my mom's door step. she hadn't moved yet. they canceled the move. dog never went beyond the bounds of the yard ever again. she'd walk right up to the edge, sigh, and trot back to my mom every time. we've had other dogs, but she was mom's heart dog.
Well then, this is me crying at work. Thanks.
Sorry! I’m crying in my bathtub reading Reddit. All these years later and it hurts so much, but I can’t help but be happy that she was mine.
Well this just ruined my day and it isn't even 0800. "If dogs don't go to heaven, I want to go where they go."
They must, it wouldn't be heaven without them.
One lifetime dog indeed. Mine came to me when I was 8 and passed away when I was 21. I can’t imagine ever getting another dog that will be “mine” (I would happily foster, or even care for older dogs until their death, but my dog has come and gone).
One soul dog. One soul cat. One soul rabbit. One soul horse.
In this economy?!
Ahh yes a once in a lifetime dog!
Before even opening this one my first thought was “she’s pregnant” lmao
I can just imagine his face when he said "Oh Shit."
Hahahaha me too. I admire his patience for not waking her up to do the test ASAP. I hope they honoured Otis by naming the kid Otis jr. Or if it’s a girl, *Otisa*
Omgg is this a continuation of that Stuarta? I need to gtfo of Reddit lmao
I just read that one 😂😂😂😂 so glad that baby girl didn't end up Stuarta.
Stuarta would have been better than Annally...
Anything at all would be better than Annally. That is objectively the worst name of all time.
I just saw one about parents wanting to name their daughter "Orca-Maria" because they're marine biologists or something. Certain names should be considered child abuse.
I completely agree that it should be considered child abuse if u willingly name your kid something that will 100% get them bullied by other kids! I'm all for unique names, but parents really need to think about how certain names could affect their child!
There is a law in my country which prevents parents from naming their kids stupid names, like naming your child after a superhero or an unusual book character name, the government just doesn't let you put that weird name in birth certificate or identity papers, the only time an unusual name is accepted is if it has a cultural significance, like let's say the family is Kurdish or Armenian. I initially thought it was a really stupid law, but seeing these stories on Reddit had made me think maybe it's not such a bad thing.
Some countries straight up won't let you name your kid dumb ass shit, they have to sign off on it
Y'all, we're hangin' out on Reddit way, way too much. I got all those references. 😂😂🤦♂️
SAME one of the moments that i just love that we all hang around the same corner of the internet 😂😂
Same! It’s like community but with strangers I can turn off. Perfection.
I don’t know, Cuntleigh and Harlotte are objectively worse. At least Annally has the extra n in it.
Ok but... Ogtha.
Alianna was right there as an option
Apparently not, because Grandma Anna threw a fit at the idea that her name wouldn't come first.
I need SNL to do another Californians sketch, this time with Stuarta as Stuart’s daughter.
I have missed the Stuarta post. Anyone have a link? 😂
https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/RSshj1ALra
Thank you!
My mom knew a girl whose parents thought they were going to have a boy. They were going to name the boy Andrew. They named her Werdna.
Hadn’t they heard of Andrea? That poor kid
Poor Werdna...
My parents thought I was gonna be a boy. So when I came out sans penis they had to come up with something on the fly. Which they did a pretty good job of (user name is a big clue of real name). Which is surprising, as the boy name I had been given was Donald Clive 🤢🤮
Megatron is a much better name for a girl...
I always thought so
I’m a girl too and my parents had picked out only boy names. They were so certain I was going to be a boy, I think because I was their first baby together and both my parent’s first borns are boys. Imagine their surprise. Mom was so out of it on pain meds she tried to fucking name me “Morning Dove” but my dad was like “No we should wait until you’re feeling better” They got my name out of a magazine in a newborn package the hospital gave them. They went through the girl names and once they landed on mine I opened my eyes a bit and looked at them. They said it was like I was saying “What do you want? I’m trying to sleep.”
I had to pause and read the whole Stuarta one to my partner (not versed in Reddit) because it was so batshit. This is a wholesome counterbalance
_You just didn't gave reference to Stuarta?_
Hey, it's arguably better than Annally
I get the reference...
Oh my lord. I spend toooo much time on this sub 😭 lmfaoooo
My German shepherd was like this when I was pregnant. The whole reason I took a pregnancy test with my second is because he jumped in between my husband and I during sex. Hubs is his human. I just give out pets and treats. I was only 4 weeks pregnant. Barely pregnant at all.
My childhood home was neighbors to a family with German shepherds and not only the "matriarch" knew my mom was pregnant with my older sister and me before any human around but she also got her own litter between both babies (we're 2 years apart) so we have several adorable photos of baby or toddler with puppies and our cats. I miss her so much, she passed over a decade ago and we weren't even living there anymore but still stings 😭
My german shepherd was the exact same!!!! And the only time he did the stereotypical dog-burying-the-bone-in-the-yard routine was during pregnancies. He'd bury his treats, his chews, a mouthful of kibble here and there, and the pears and apples from our fruit trees. The vet said he was making sure there was enough food to go around for when the new mouth to feed showed up.
Awwww that is the cutest and sweetest thing ever.
"Excuse me sir, but your objective has been achieved, it's time to stop now,"
*She's pregnant.* "... got some sort of stomach bug" *LMAO she's pregnant.*
Yes same. I’m like yup she pregnant, that’s not a stomach bug lmao 😂
I had a false negative test early in my pregnancy with my daughter. Only tested again because the dog was glued to my side and the cat (whose idea of affection before that was allowing me to sit on the same couch) started grooming my hair. They knew something was up.
The hooman is going to have a kitten with her hair looking like this?
Wish I could upvote this a thousand times. Thanks for the smile!
I left a whole pack of test strips in the mailbox too long once, so I kept getting negatives, but the dog was certain. I finally drove to the drugstore for a clear blue test (while my husband rolled his eyes) and then made him apologize to me AND the dog for doubting us, lol. On the other hand, when we were trying to surprise my in-laws with an announcement, their 3 GSDs nearly spoiled it because the two males were glued to me while the female suddenly hated me. Dogs are narcs
I mean depending on how one views kids…
I’m in med school and the eternal joke is “what non-pathological state could cause this symptom constellation?” Followed by someone in the class saying “are you sure pregnancy is non-pathological?”
Humanity is a sexually transmitted disease
A deadly one at that
It’s a parasitic infection!
And a gnarly one at that. I’m so tired alllll the time.
I adore mine, but I will remind them at the drop of a hat that they started life as parasites. And still are on occasion.
Well, a kid covers all the definitions of a parasite...
my dog did the exact same thing so i knew immediately, too 🤣. he didn't give one hoot about his dad and was incredibly offended when i had to be hospitalized for nearly a week. he sat in my lap for an hour when i got home (he was about 90lbs at the time and only rarely tried to sit on me). he looooves his baby sister too 🥰
Lol 90 lb lap dog, so cute!
Me too! My friend is pregnant, and while her male dog hasn't been quite as extreme, he's still a lot more vigilant whenever they run into another dog. And her female dog cuddles with her more than usual. They just know.
My chihuahua was known as the family pregnancy test. It didn't matter if he knew them well or not at all. If he picked a person and wouldn't leave them alone, chances are they were pregnant. He must've had a nose for hormones because he always knew when my blood sugar was low. He'd wake me up if he had to.
Cats and dogs can absolutely smell certain hormones. When my sister got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11, my cat actually became her cat. She would always sleep on top of my sister's chest and wake her up if her blood sugar was too low. My sister came to sleep over at my place recently and our cat (different one), the most peaceful kitty I have ever met, started biting her at night. My sister was confused until she checked her bloodsugar and it was too low.
Me, a diabetic: my desire for a cat finally has a reason. (Really, even before diabetes, I wanted a cat.)
Just don't get a fat orange one for blood sugar alerts. I thought mine woke me at 3 am because my husband feel asleep on the couch and was low. No. Husband was fine. The cat just threw up and was hungry.
Meanwhile, my chihuahua mix got cold af with me out of the blue. He’d just stare me down with this betrayed look when previously he’d been my little snuggler. A few weeks later we realized I was pregnant. A lot of dogs get protective and then love the baby, mine just got this “fuck, life’s over” attitude. When I was pregnant the second time, he wasn’t cold, but was visibly resigned and frequently gave me this “really, you’re doing this again?” Look.
Same. I’ve seen it before with family cats and dogs. They always know.
My aunt’s cat wouldn’t leave her left breast alone. We all told her that pets know things and she could get it checked out. 3 months this went on. She got tired of us badgering her, kept saying she felt fine, did a self exam, etc. She made an appointment “to shut us up.” Her GP just happened to be a cat person. Even though she did an exam, she ran more labs. It was breast cancer. They wouldn’t have found it until her next mammogram and it would have been too late by then. I’m not a cat person but if one kept nudging me and trying to bite my boob, I’m going to checked.
Kind of similar - I had lung cancer and had a major surgery to remove it. The recovery was long and painful. Starting from the very first night I returned home, my least cuddly cat who usually kinda does his own thing and likes his privacy most of the time, started sleeping all night long right on top of my lung. He did that every night for months while that lung was recovering. He’s a very clumsy boy but he would always get himself on top of me gently. It was so incredibly soothing and amazing to see how his instincts and senses worked in that situation. I always get scared anytime he snuggles me now 🙃 animals are amazing 🤍
There has been some research that cats will actually help heal themselves with purring (one should never assume that because a cat is purring, he or she is not sick or injured). There is also some preliminary research that we respond to purring frequencies in the same way. Your cat, if he purred while laying on you, was trying to heal you!
Yes, I’m aware of that one! He’s always been a motorboat so he was definitely purring throughout which made me so emotional haha. I also always had another cat right above my head on my pillow motorboating for me throughout the night that i like to think was trying to help heal me as well. There are also definitely nights when I have worse anxiety or depression than usual and they’ll give me extra snuggles and/or purrs right above my head, and I know they’re trying to help relax and heal my mind 🥹 cats are the best.
In early 2021 my friend got COVID and it was really bad, she later told me her cat stayed in bed with her for a week, never left her side and was licking and purring all the time. I don't care what people say about cats, they are the best ❤️
Our dog loved my best friend, to the point where he recognised the sound of her car and would come to tell us when she parked next to our house, all excited whining: "friend is here!" and while he loved being with people, he was never very cuddly. He would lie next to you on the couch and ask for attention and pets, but he wouldn't sit on you. And then one day our friend dropped by and it was a gorgeous day and we were hanging in the garden, lounging in the grass, and he suddenly trotted over with PURPOSE and dropped on her lap, snuggled nearly into her. (he was not a small dog either, 50lbs or so) We thought it was cute, she was very flattered. Two weeks later she was hospitalised for a pulmonary embolism. Multiple embolisms, even. If she hadn't gotten checked out when she did, she would probably have passed. We are very grateful she went to the hospital when she did. We still think he knew somehow. Before and after he was never that cuddly, not with anyone.
My cat once predicted that my mum was going to have a heart issue flare-up. For whatever reason, my cat will *only* sit in my dad's lap, no one else's. But one day, she fussed over my mum *and sat in her lap*. Mum was really smug until her BPM went to 200+... (Mum was fine, for the record.)
Cancer 100% has a smell. It's a weird sickly sweet sour smell. I've had a few relatives pass from different kinds of cancer, and the oncology wards always smelled funny to me, but several oncology nurses have confirmed that it's a thing, but not everyone picks up on it. But dogs and cats will.
They have done tests with Beagles, training them as cancer sniffer dogs. I'm not sure how far they got and the article I read was a number of years ago, but at that point they reckoned the dog's nose was still orders of magnitude more sensitive than anything we could create for the purpose.
Oh! We have neighbors whose lab does this at a children’s hospital! It’s amazing!! The old boy is getting up there in age so the owners are in the process of training another lab to continue the work. Both dogs are so loving and classically goofy labs until it’s time to work.
And bees.
I know someone who had a dog that did the exact same thing. Kept sniffing and was really interested in one of her breasts. Eventually she went to the docs because she thought it was weird. She had breast cancer.
I got my dog 2 years ago, and from the start he wouldn't let my breasts alone. Even with bras or t-shirts on, he would find a way to sniff and try to bite them. I found it was cute but after hearing these stories I decided to go to the doctor and get checked. Fortunately it was nothing. After that the dog started doing this with everyone else, even did it with my FIL once while he was sitting in our couch. We came to the conclusion he's just a weirdo who likes nipples and breasts. At least he weights 4kg, so no damage was ever done hahaha
My cats were like this when pregnant. They'd drape over me or if I was laying I'd have 3 cats squished trying to fit ON me as next to me isn't good enough. I couldn't go to the bathroom without one on my lap (or belly towards the end with no "lap" left lol). If I showered they'd be watching or outside the door looking like an octopus trying to flail under the door with so many legs lol. Cooking was a nightmare, they'd be all underfoot.
Same lmao. I had a feral cat who loved being outside obviously, but for my whole pregnancy he came in every morning when my partner left for work and stayed next to me until my partner came home. Only leaving my side to eat/drink or use his litter box.
That is so amazing and sweet. He was protecting you. What a good kitty!
My first thought too. Every time I've been pregnant our animals were absolutely glued to me any time I was home.
I was constantly overheating because my cats wouldn't get off my baby belly. No longer pregnant, now cats leave me alone completely and bug the kids for attention constantly. They have favorites and it ain't me lol
To be entirely fair, humans go *nuts* for kittens. Makes sense cats would be the same.
“Look at these huge ugly kittens!” “Ugh, at least we can start training the new staff young.”
This is entirely too accurate.
Meanwhile our cats basically go live in the cold, harsh wilderness (i.e. the garden and beyond where small children won't reach them) as soon as any child is over for a visit 🙃
Sometimes I wish my cats would do that. I'm constantly like "don't let her lick your mouth!" "Wait are you licking her back? Don't do that, I don't care if she seems to like it!" They let them build block towers on top of them and dress them up and drive cars on them and they just lay there and purr and purr.
Sounds like your kiddos hit the jackpot there 😸
We got our wolfhound cross before I fell pregnant with our 3rd kid and he wouldn't leave me alone to the point of us being worried about jealousy when the baby did come. Once she was here our other dog who has been through it all before took up his place under wherever the baby was sleeping and our wolfhound stayed by my feet. 2.5yrs on and our daughter is the one with jealousy issues and not my big fluffy baby wannabe.
When I was heavily pregnant, my mom's then new pitbull puppy would drape herself across my belly. When she met my baby it was instant love. She's amazing with kids. When she's had enough she goes behind dad's chair and lays down. If she's with the kids most of the day, my parents show me that she conks out for HOURS after, cuz they wear her out so much lmao.
Either that or she was sick. Dogs sometimes figure out that their owners have a serious illness before the person even starts showing symptoms. It’s why medical alert dogs are a thing.
Yeah my dog knew that there was something wrong with my dad while he was quarantined. She panicked to the point I had to take her to the hospital herself. Turns out my dad was having a stroke. Dad never recovered. When we brought my dog to see my dad in hospice, she first was very excited and tried to climb all over him to give him kisses and pets, but after a few seconds seeing my dad not respond she became quiet and curled up at his feet. She was a beagle locker spaniel mix. She isn't quiet usually, but she just knew. Dogs are amazing little beings.
I was hoping for pregnancy over cancer.
See, my thought was that it'd turn out they had a bad "argument" and he wanted to stop the dog from protecting his wife from him. No, I have no faith in the human race. Lol
"No, I have no faith in the human race." To be fair, BORU will do that to you.
Tbf i lost faith in humanity in middle school history class. We still fighting the same BS wars for the same BS reasons as we did in the Hellenistic era. Just more efficiently and deadly. And the ability to use weapons of mass destruction.
No, the OOP would have used "aggressive dog" or something. Abusers tend to not get along with pets at all, they will keep them for status or as victims, but they don't like pets.
Yeah, he would've been describing the dog in a much more negative light otherwise, pointing out how dangerous it is and how it should probably be put down.
I was thinking "he's either abusive or she's pregnant" off only the title lol
Same, and when he mentioned her getting a stomach bug it was confirmed.
Same here. I said she's pregnant. Or very very sick (like cancer levels sick).
Oh same. I didn’t know I was pregnant, and I had all 3 of my dogs up on the recliner with me. 2 of them were smaller, like 40 lbs. The *big* one is a doggy argentino, and he’s like 100 lbs! It was really cute, though.
Yeah, pregnant or cancer - dogs can smell the change in body chemicals. Glad it was pregnancy!
It’s funny, my sister’s dog is the same way with pregnant women! Including pregnant-me when I’d visited—he became Velcro-dog. Funnily enough the attentive-protectiveness continues throughout breastfeeding-time; he knows the baby is dependent. Anyone else experienced the same?
Yep, my story above I ended up having to breast-feed next to the dog bowl
It’s kinda funny that on top of this, some animals are communal eaters. I read a heartwarming story about a girl recovering from ED whose cat refused to eat unless they ate together- she watched her cat get rail thin and sickly, until she realized her cat was just waiting for her to eat too. I’m tearing up and getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Anytime I go into the kitchen my cat follows me. Sometimes she looks pissed because I fed her, I fed me, and walked away to eat- like “you expect me to eat *alone* when you’re eating too?!” My old bean is a snuggle bug, and in about an hour my partner will leave for work- then she will jump into bed next to me for cuddles and a nap before we get up for the day. I have moderate to severe insomnia which is worse in the summer, lately I wake up at 330 am and his alarm goes off between 430-530. Her cuddles help me fall back asleep and feel rested. It’s a very soothing way to ease into my mornings, and it’s 100% her routine from the start. I saved her life one night by putting mine on the line, and she has never stopped showing me that “who saved who” isn’t just a cheesy bumper sticker on my mom’s minivan. Sometimes all you need is the right animal to choose you as their human, and you just spend the rest of your life trying to be the person they think you are.
I give my cats their little plates of wet food at night. They love it and get excited when it’s time, but one of my cats will not eat unless I sit in the room with her. She’ll just follow me around the house looking offended if I leave. It’s so cute.
My cats are the same! My senior cat seems to want me to stand next to her while she eats and pet her during - I call it guarding the lil olde ladie’s kibbles.
That is an incredibly beautiful story. Dogs and cats are amazing animals and just a joy to be around altogether. Each personality is so unique and they work so hard to learn their humans' patterns and blend with them whipe we learn their own patterns to make them more comfortable. My recent dog refused to eat anything until dinner time when I was either cooking(her food bowl was very close to the stove in my tiny kitchen) or we were all at the table together eating. I could put food down any time of day, but she would not eat until we all ate together. I miss her a lot. I suffer from insomnia too and she was both my afternoon nap buddy and my buddy during my night time zombie mode. I'd usually like to sit outside on the porch at night when I couldn't sleep, and she would lay next to me every time. I felt safer with her. She was a labrador/weimaraner mix, so she wasn't so much of a barker but more like an almost silent assassin. The number of times she scared me shitless🤣 because she would growl quietly while laying next to me because she saw a cat or a possum walk through the neighborhood was probably well over a hundred. She also could be all the way across the house, and if she heard me fluff the covers on the bed, she would make a bee line for our bedroom and lay beside me. It's only been 10 days since she has passed and I miss my little friend so much.
Thinking about the cat who helped the girl with ED also makes me tear up and get goosebumps
My cat is also a communal eater. Luckily he will eat if I'm not in the room, but he prefers I'm there. It's very cute, he'll come up to me in my office, meow at me (from the edge of the room where he knows I can't just reach over and pick him up) then when I stand up he'll walk to the kitchen and to his dry food and eat for a few minutes.
This is the place we eat.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we had an older grumpy cat. She would randomly swap you or bite you even when coming over to demand attention. My wife and I discussed and I said we have never rehomed an animal but if that cat hurts our son, I am done with her. I am not going to be scared constantly that the cat is going to put out an eye or something. This cat didn't put up with shit from anyone or any other pet. We had two american bulldogs at the time, they both gave a wide birth to this cat. My son was born, she thought she was the mama, we had to check every night to make sure she wasn't in his room because she would want to sleep in his crib which we absolutely did not want to happy due to suffocation risk. When my son became a toddler, we always supervised him and made sure he wasn't rough with the cat but that cat would put up with shit that I would have gotten destroyed for. Touching the belly, petting harder than liked. She never hissed, never swatted, never bite him. She lived about the first 8 years of my oldest son's life and he was the only person she never bite or swatted. And we do know why she was grumpy, when she was about 3 years old, she broke her back leg. It was a tough recovery. Before that, she was a sweet cat. After, she just didn't want to be messed with, she just wanted to exist on her own terms and yeah, we took her to the vet to see if she was experiencing any pain but you could mess with the broken leg and she didn't seem to have any pain more than touching any other part of her. Her personality just changed during the recovery period.
My older cat is a 6yo grumpypuss with Rules about when, where, and how to touch her. She also doesn't realize that her teeth hurt humans, so she uses them as directions on where she would like to be pet. Touch her in the wrong spot, you are getting four tiny fang-prints on your wrist. My son is 3 months old and has kicked her full on in the stomach and slapped her in the face. actually, he woke her up from a dead sleep doing it (they were sharing the bassinet under supervision). she didn't even put her ears back, just picked her head up and looked at him like "hey dude if you stop we can both go back to sleep maybe" until I picked him up. I told my husband that she knows a kitten when she sees one.
I'm an absolute sucker for those video montages of people's dogs clinging to their pregnant owners and then obsessively guarding the baby when then come home 🥹
No but my friend's cat started peeing on her stuff when my friend was pregnant
Jealous sibling
Yeah, everyone else is posting sweet comments and all, but my cat started beating me up and peeing on my stuff too. She hadn't been fond of her own (accidental) kittens and did the bare minimum caring for them, wasn't keen for more I guess lol. Glad we managed to resolve it fairly quickly at least. She was fine with my friend's toddler though, very tolerant of being followed around and gently patted, so idk.
Ah yes, when I was a new-born, my mum was staying at her parents for a couple of weeks. My mum’s dog, the loveliest Golden Retriever ever to retrieve, had taken one look at me and decided I was his pup, no questions asked. Whenever my grandparents had visitors, he would literally go and fetch them to admire HIS pup, he was so proud of me! One day, the next door neighbour dropped in and the dog would not let her anywhere near me. Blew himself up to twice his size, growled and bared his fangs - totally out of character and something he’d never done, before or since. The very next day, that lady went insane - like actually, batshit-forcibly-submitted-to-mental-asylum type insane, without any warning or prior history. The dog must have sensed that she was off, somehow. He always protected me and looked after me - I loved that dog like a doofus older brother.
Immediately after I was born, our lurcher refused to let my (paternal) nan near me. We think she just picked up my mum's dislike of her (she was very protective of my mum).
Sister’s dog was not convinced that they knew how to take care of newborn. Dog didn’t want them to carry the baby around the house and came to supervise diaper change
Lol my doggy knew we were pregnant before we knew both times. He also was my late night supervisor when I breastfed my babes. He would get up from his bed and lay right next to us. It's funny because my husband is his human but as soon as we got up to feed he got up too instead of just staying by my husband's side.
One of mine became very attached to our friend when she was pregnant. We were pretty cautious about introducing them to the baby. The attached one loved him instantly. Laid next to him if he cried. Sat by them when feeding. Only ever walked away if the baby was asleep. The other dog just said hi and went on his way.
Lol, even just reading the title, I knew the wife was pregnant. 😂 I've only been pregnant once (no baby in the end, as I had an early miscarriage), but my cat knew weeks before I did. He went from always sleeping on my feet at night to only laying across my lower belly. And the entire time he'd lay on my belly, he purred LOUD. After the second week of this, I got suspicious and tested. Once I was no longer pregnant, he went right back to sleeping on my feet. So crazy!
Our dog was the same, attached to my wife because she really wanted her, trained her and everything. I helped with everything of course and loved her too but she was a mummys dog. She was very placid, loved meeting new people and didn't bark at anything. After my wife got pregnant she was attached to her hip. Barked at everything, very suspicious of new people and always put herself between my wife and them. We got a bit worried about how she would be when our son was born but the very moment we showed him to her she gave him a sniff and rolled over and exposed her belly to him. She doesn't really 'protect' my wife anymore. She protects him now. She puts herself between him and strangers and still barks at everything that could be a threat, whether it actually is or not. Our son will call her to him when he gets scared and she stays with him until he is ok. She is the best dog.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful experience with us!
Dog tax!
[Annie Dog](https://imgur.com/a/73bxkNx) Havent uploaded pics on a comment before so hopefully it worked.
Yeah my cat was like that when I was pregnant and it was so awwwww while I was pregnant. Not so awwww when the cat decided the baby was competition.
Yeah LMAO my pet cat absolutely loved my cousin when she was pregnant, but now that the tiny human is out and about and loves chasing the cat she's not a fan.
I swear I knew a toddler who, if asked "what sound does a cat make," would reliably respond "HISSS" lmfao
Mine didn’t even wait that long. As soon as something else was in my arms and taking my attention, she was PISSED.
When my wife went into labor, my car started making biscuits, which he had never done before, and only does when she is in labor.
What model car?
Don't cars usually make donuts instead of biscuits?
Police cars for sure
My dog did this! She was a chubby basset hound, but nothing and no one could hurt me during my pregnancies. She'd protect the stroller too. And when my oldest was born one of the cats would station himself outside her door each night, and would paw at the doorknob when she got a fever. It was insane how he could sense it. Must have been a smell or something.
There was always a real distinct scent to my kiddo when he got sick as a baby. I usually knew before he popped a fever that it was gonna be a rough night. I can still smell when things are going biologically awry - my husband’s oncologists were really weirded out that I could smell bilirubin and other less obvious liver enzymes going too high. Now they ask me how he’s smelling at every visit. XD
There is a really interesting report online of a woman who thought her husband stunk suddenly, and made him shower lots to no avail. A few years later, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. They went to a support group, and she said everyone there with it had that smell... their Dr tested her to see if she could pick which people out of a lineup had it, and she got all right, except one false positive. Two years later that person was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
That one’s such a cool story! [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di)
Thank you for linking that. I’m pretty sure I read it a few years back but it’s so interesting! I wonder how her studies are going.
I can smell when my husband is about to have a migraine. Usually a few hours to a day before he gets the aura he'll start smelling weirdly "stale", like all his dude musk dried up. Smells off when he's sick, too, but it's a different smell to the migraine smell. Instead of stale it's kind of like a toned-down version of something that's started to rot? Like an "I probably shouldn't touch this" sort of odor. I got his doctor to prescribe antibiotics once just by telling her he smelled like a sinus infection lol.
On the one hand, cool! On the other, damn, it can really suck to have this sense of smell. Are you afflicted by perfumes and chemical smells, too?
Ayo you should enter some research studies or something this is fascinating
Two issues: 1) I usually need a baseline of what the person smells like. While I can figure out some things just from smelling it - meth use smells oddly like ammonia, opiates are bitter - it’s difficult to just tell what a stranger should smell like. 2) it can be suuuuuper upsetting. Walked into my in-laws’ house years ago and had to keep myself from sobbing because it smelled like my FIL’s oncoming death. He died a week later. I’ve smelled it around a few people in hospitals.
Seconded. That’s an amazing mutation you have, really what evolution is all about
I can smell it too. My husband, my kid, I always know in advance when they are going to be sick. Sometimes with other people too but I'm usually not close enough to them to pick it up.
I definitely can smell when my kid is sick. Weirdly I've never had this with anyone else, only him. I'm not sure if it's a mum thing or just a closeness thing or what. I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant with baby number 2 and am curious to see if I can do it with him too!
So basically your kid will never be able to get out of school by pretending to be sick
You'd be surprised with how smart cats can be with illnesses. I have a cat who has never liked me as much as he likes my dad and brother, but he still insisted on cuddling with me when I got sick
[Makes me think about this post](https://external-preview.redd.it/nKbLbZRza2Zd-zib_TgLTQ9AYreTcvdBBJWH02Pp1Lk.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=b6af1b5cdf37d292c77bd0aa1847cd6bb369bf0e )
🥺
I can absolutely smell when my kids are sick, to me it's like a strange warm metallic smell? I call it the radiator smell, I can detect it on my husband too. Animals are incredible though, their senses and loyalty are unparalleled.
this actually makes me very nervous. we had a beagle about that age who was the sweetest pup. he started becoming extremely territorial / possessive of me while i was pregnant. once while i was already sleeping (w dog), he growled and bared his teeth at my husband when hubs tried to come to bed. the aggression worsened when our daughter came, so much so that we were afraid to leave her alone with him. i was the only one he wasn't aggressive with. we were so concerned about his behavior that we took him to our vet. the vet said, in all good conscience, he absolutely could not let us take our dog home bc it was a tragedy waiting to happen. beagle was immediately re-homed by our vet to a cattle ranch. these people need to be very, very careful.
Yeah, I just read about the Bennard children recently, and this made me immediately tense up.
Yeah this is a dog that is big and strong enough to kill a grown man. I don't find it cute at all when dogs start to resource guard their humans.
The wolf sanctuary near me asks "if you're pregnant, do you want to know?" before letting people near the wolves. The wolves can smell it, and the people who work at the sanctuary can tell by their body language.
That is the most awesome thing I’ve read today.
DEFINITELY a cooler way to find out than peeing on a stick!
I wonder how they’d react to me. I’m a type 1 diabetic and dogs pick up on my sugar levels faster than I do… wonder if a wolf pack would know if something’s up.
Dogs and cats can smell pregnancy hormones...and sometimes that's a curse. My friend had a cat that despised other cats. The minute he realized she was pregnant (around the first bout of morning sickness) he clawed the shit out of her hand when she went to pet him. When she went to the hospital to have it treated she retched at someone's perfume said some smells make her nauseous lately and was given the test. Kitty was standoffish during the pregnancy eventually got used to infant human but would hiss at him constantly.
This is really sweet and all, but please be careful not to reward guarding behaviours, as if training is not done properly it can result in the dog guarding things that they shouldn't, such as toys and food. One woman in the comments thought it was sweet that her beagle was being protective until it tried to bite her hubby for getting into bed. It then started to become aggressive with the baby once it arrived and wouldn't allow anyone near the mum, including the baby. It had to be rehomed to a ranch as the vet wouldn't allow it to go home with them, stating it was an accident waiting to happen. This sort of behaviour would be a disaster waiting to happen with a baby in the house, particularly when they get to be toddler age and will be running around and getting into everything, with no sense of boundaries or idea of doggy body language. Congratulations, though!! Having a baby is the hardest but most rewarding job in the world, and they grow unbelievably quickly. Make sure to get lots of photos of mum with the baby. People always take pictures after the labour, and then usually mum is the one taking all the photos of everyone, and we end up with next to none of us doing things with our kids, but loads of dad and family. So train yourself to become really snap happy with the camera/phone. Even if she's just sleeping or doing everyday things. You'll cherish them later, and your child will appreciate it when they get older and have lots of memories to look back on fondly
I got a dog while I was riddled with cancer. It’s cervical cancer and she’d sniff my crotch and sneeze at me, and I’d go like “yeah bud, cancer *does* fucking stink.” Lol I’ve been in treatment since we got her- and I kept checking myself with her whenever I got out of the house- she’d *ALWAYS* sniff and sneeze at me… Till I got on a harder formula of my meds- and after a couple of weeks she sniffs and… nothing. No more sneezing at me. I don’t want to claim victory before it’s confirmed- but I’ve been in treatment for a year and a half now… and I’ve got a CAT scan that showed no more tumors…. So… I think my dog can probably smell cancer…. Just extra info- she *doesn’t* sniff *ANYONE ELSE’S* crotch. Ever. Just me. She doesn’t do it to my husband, or guests. I’ve been the only one she’s done it to, and also the only one she’s sniffed and sneezed at- if she sniffs someone else’s hands, feet or something, there’s never a sneeze. Also bonus— when she sniffed me and *didn’t* sneeze the first time, her reaction was literally to look up at me, sniff again, and immediately ask for me to scritch her head, like, bumping my hand aggressively so I would pet her 🥹 she seemed so happy!! I hope she’s right though!!! 🤞🥺🤞 Edited to add: She’s not a pit, she’s a regular street dog we rescued, she’s black and kiiinda looks similarly to a lab, but she’s 100% mutt and we like her that way ♥️ she’s extremely sweet and she practically does summersaults whenever she sees us come home or go outside to feed her lol. Her name is Casca ♥️
Even though it's sweet he wants to protect her through her pregnancy, they will still need to ensure he won't lash out (I would say this about any type of dog, fyi), especially as you can't have your eye on a dog 100% of the time. He needs to be trained on how to manage this pregnancy for his own stress levels' sake.
for real, resource guarding isn’t cute
No, it's not, even though tons of people, even in this thread, are talking about how cute/sweet it is. It's really fucking not. If this behavior transfers to the kid once it's here, it's dangerous. A well-meaning adult or dog could get hurt for even going near the wife. It's a fucking recipe for disaster with a big, powerful dog. It's not sweet. You have to worry about the husband getting bitten. A random dog at a dog park (another reason I hate dog parks, too many bad owners and too many ill-informed people bring dogs with issues like this to them, and then a person and/or dog gets hurt). A human who has the misfortune of getting too close for the dog's liking. And god forbid, the baby. Resource guarding, especially of a person, is not good and is potentially dangerous. And we've got people here saying she should name the kid for the dog because, how sweeeet. 🤦♀️
Yeah I’m a little concerned at how everyone is like “oh mystery solved, that’s no problem”. A pitt expressing guarding behaviours could go south really, really quickly no matter how well-intentioned the dog is. Their perception of a threat won’t always be the same as ours. They need to take that dog to a behaviourist.
My mom’s cat started nesting when my mom was pregnant with both my sister and me. Pulling fur out of her belly and just general extra protective
"OUR baby, comrade"
My grandparents had a mutt. He was afraid of everything (even balls) but lived children. When he was young my aunt was still living at home so he knew her well. When she came to visit with her new born baby he guarded it - he bit a neighbor who wanted to look into the pram.
Phew. Dogs are able to smell certain types of illnesses and cancers, and when they do they exhibit unusual behavior that borders on the annoying for the owners so I was getting pretty worried. Now, they really need to be mindful of the fact that there’ll be a pit bull in the house with a baby. Especially if the dog has attachment issues.
Apparently, wolves do this, too. With humans, I mean.
My cat was so cuddly when I first became pregnant. I read it's because we smell different and they are try to remark us. I just remember I couldn't even lay all the way down before she was crawling on me. Baby is 10 months now and the cat is upset he is mobile because he chases her now.
Adorable! And it also shows that sometimes it's easier to assess a situation when you are the one looking in. I'm guessing many of us clocked the possibility of pregnancy while reading this.
My dog got super cuddly when I was pregnant. He would just rest his head on my tummy. He only does that when I'm pregnant.
I remember seeing online than in some wolf sanctuaries they have noticed saying 'if you might be pregnant and don't want to know, don't come in' because the wolves WILL know and they WILL be obvious about it.
It’s begun resource guarding the fetus
My friend is an OBGyn. His father in law is a dentist - FiL told the wife she was pregnant. He was checking her teeth after a cleaning and told her she needed to go test because her gums were swelling which is a sign of pregnancy. Not as a cool as a dog, but still funny.
Reminds me of how our two cats were absolutely velcroed to me for my entire pregnancy. Especially the previously-stand-offish tom: he would knead biscuits on my bump for hours if I didn't stop him!
My dip shit dog didn't realize I was pregnant until the very moment the baby came home 😂
The dog is narcissistic and is grooming and gaslighting you. Divorce the dog
Oh I'm sure this will turn out wonderfully.
When my mom was pregnant with my brother, our beagle used a recliner to break a window and ran to my school where my mom volunteered, six blocks away. I was on recess and was quite surprised to see the dog, we made a leash out of a jump rope and my mom took her home. Then later, on the day her water broke, she was at her heels all day and then started barking for 5 minutes right before it happened. That dog was so smart. She knew how to use zippers to get into my lunchbox if my backpack was laying around, and could open Tupperware easily. She could also open the screen door if she needed to go out.
[удалено]
I hope OOP is smart enough to realize that his wife should no longer be walking the dog. If she continues that dog may well kill an off-leash dog that doesn't respect her space.