Friday, June 22, 2007

Update On Molly the Wonder Dog

The Bangor Daily News covers Molly's reunion with her family. It's worth a click on the link just to see the picture of Ashley (who lost her father in the boating accident) with Molly.

The Ohio State University (I can't pass up an opportunity to work in a reference to the greatest school in the country-heh) is researching how some animals can find their way home:

Dr. Linda Lord, an assistant professor at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, has researched lost animal recovery issues as part of her work on the relationships between humans and their companion animals.

Lord said researchers are still unable to explain how some animals find their way home. Some believe it is scent-related, but that seems less likely in instances where animals covered large distances, Lord said.

And dogs aren’t the only pets with a strong sense of direction. Lord documented the case of an Ohio cat that had spent its entire life inside but somehow made its way 10 or 12 miles, crossing several major highways along the way, back to its original home just after the family relocated to a new home.

"We really don’t have a good grasp on that, if there is some sort of sixth sense or enhanced detection ability that they have," Lord said. "But those stories are the rare ones. What we found in our study is the majority of [lost] animals are found less than a mile from home."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I lost a now-deceased cat once, and, indeed, found her less than half a mile away, three weeks later.

It was a happy day.

mainelife said...

When I was a kid, we lost three cats in about an year and a half (after "mickey" went missing my mom said no more cats).
About five years later, the woman who lived across the street, down a shared driveway died.

Our three cats and about 20 others were found in her house....the were happy and healthy, at least.