CALGARY -- This was no ordinary CAT scan.
Lionel Adams believes his eight-year-old feline, Tiger, saved his life by alerting him and his family doctor to a mass in his lung.
"He would climb into bed and take his paw and drag it down my left side," says Adams, 59, who is recovering from surgery to remove a tumour.
"He was adamant there was something there. And it was right where the cancer was."
CAUGHT EARLY
Adams, who has suffered from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema, says he had no symptoms of cancer.
But about seven months ago, after mentioning the cat's bizarre behaviour to his family doctor, he was referred to a specialist, who caught the disease in his left lung at an early stage.
Doctors removed a piece of his lung, about the size of a pop can, that had been shredded in half.
And now Adams is heralding Tiger as a hero -- and that's saying a lot for a cat that has never been one for showing affection.
"I think if he hadn't done the pawing part, it could have gone on for another five, six months undetected.
"I feel like it could have been a lot worse if the cat hadn't tuned in to something there, to something he felt was wrong," Adams said.
Barbara Walmer, of the Calgary Humane Society, says studies suggest dogs are capable of sniffing out cancer and predicting seizures, although cats have been reported to act in similar ways.
"Pets can have a sixth sense when knowing when something is wrong," Walmer said.
