cats

Can animals tell if you're pregnant? That question has been asked countless times without a scientifically proven answer, but some people swear their pets started behave differently around them when they're expecting. Some cats or dogs get more snuggly, some get more protective, some get more territorial, but it's not uncommon for people to report their pets acting notably differently when there's a human baby on the way.

A woman captured a sweet moment of her cat interacting with her pregnant belly, almost as if it just realized she had a baby inside it. At first, the kitty looks over at her rubbing her belly with its curiosity clearly piqued. Gently moving towards her, it starts sniffing her belly button, peering into it, then oh-so-gently touching it with its paw.

"Oh my god," the woman whispers. "I'm literally crying."

People loved seeing the cat's "discovery" and shared some of their own experiences with pets and pregnancy.

"My old boy Leon knew ❤️ he laid on my belly every night. He waited to meet his baby brother and then crossed the rainbow bridge 🌈"

"My cat would sleep on or against my pregnant belly, but as soon as the baby kicked she’d wake up and look at my belly in annoyance. 😂"

"My Eddie used to sit on my belly every night -- until I became pregnant, and then he sat close by , but never on my belly. He knew before I did!"

"My cat wouldn't leave my side after my csection. He was stuck to me and baby LIKE GLUE. He never cuddles so much. He was ON ME. Turns out, I had complications, and needed to be rehospitalized. I feel like he knew something wasn't right🥹 I am forever grateful!"

"My cat Minou used to always cuddle me while I was pregnant. He had never been a cuddle before or after."

"My "soul cat" Isabelle would curl up and sleep on my pregnant belly. She only got mad once because she was kicked and acted like I did it 😊"

"Cats know. They know when someone is pregnant and even when someone is ill or about to die. We underestimate them."

Do they really know? The verdict is out on that question in terms of definitive research, but there are some indications that they could. Hormonal changes during pregnancy may result in slight changes in your smell, which cats' incredibly strong olfactory senses might pick up. Cats are also super sensitive to changes in their environment, so their human's growing belly and behavioral changes as they prepare for a baby's arrival may also signal to them that something new is afoot. Whether that means they actually understand that a new human is on the way is an entirely different question, and unfortunately we can't get into the mind of our feline friends.

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As far as when someone is ill or about to die, we've seen at least one cat who seemed to have a sense for when people were close to death. Oscar "the Hospice cat" lived in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, as a therapy cat, but caregivers began to notice a pattern. Once in a while, Oscar would start spending a lot of time in a specific resident's room.

"We would eventually find out after he did this several times that the people he was staying with were usually the next ones to go," Dr. David Dosa shared with Crossroad Hospice. "One death occurred, then two deaths and ultimately he hit about 20 or 30 deaths in a row at which point everybody started to say, ‘Wow, this is something quite unique.’”

In fact, workers at the center began calling people's families if Oscar started spending a lot of time with them, as it was so often a sign that the person would pass soon.

There's a lot we don't know about what animals can and cannot sense, but that doesn't change the sweetness of seeing a cat peer into and paw at the belly button of a pregnant woman. What a lucky baby.