It was a Monday morning this August when a woman’s life was saved by the most unlikely character. The story made the news, and it’s definitely one you’ll want to sit down for.
Billy the cat saved one of his family members, 42-year-old Sam Felstead, from what could have been a fatal situation.
Cats have an innate ability to sense health problems. It could certainly have evolved in them to let them detect illnesses in their kittens. Whatever the case, it came in very handy for Billy’s family.
When Billy sensed something was wrong he began meowing nonstop and pounding on her chest. He’s usually a very quiet cat.
And when a pet that’s always quiet is suddenly really jumpy, that’s certainly a cause for alarm. Billy’s instincts were dead-on here and it may well have saved Sam’s life.
The cat refused to leave her side, knowing she needed help.
Sam then described waking up feeling incredibly sweaty, with various parts of her body in pain.
In fact, Billy isn’t even that close to Sam. She says that “he doesn’t really like me”, which made his concern over her all the more significant.
It was clear she was having a heart attack, and the ensuing hospital visit confirmed it.
There, Sam stayed for 3 days and received an angioplasty. She was also given heart medications to take.
Sam is lucky that Billy alerted her in time, or else she might’ve needed a lot more than just the angioplasty and medications.
It’s not uncommon to be able to go back to work after suffering a heart attack. Sam works as a receptionist at Queen’s Medical Center located in Nottingham.
We still don’t truly know how cats and dogs can sense things like this. It’s possible they have an innate ability for it in their evolutionary history. Or they just notice the physiological signs, not internal ones, more keenly.
When Sam came home from the hospital, Billy was back to his old self. As if he didn’t just save her life.
Well, cats will be cats I guess.
“When I came out of hospital he wouldn’t go near me for a good few hours, whether I smelt funny from coming out of the hospital I don’t know.”
An animal behavior expert, Linda Ryan, did weigh in on what could have gone through Billy’s mind.
She speculated that Sam could have been twitching in her sleep when the heart attack began, and Billy was responding to the twitching. It can be really tempting to project our human emotions and feelings onto animals, but the truth is usually more complicated.
Whether he meant to or not, Billy did save Sam’s life. And that was definitely deserving of the headlines it made.
Cats are fantastic companions to have, even if they might not show their affection as often or directly as dogs. Plus, there is still a cute side to Billy “unknowingly” saving Sam’s life if that were truly the case.
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