A
Here are clear, structured bullet‑point notes summarizing the key ideas from the document, with direct quotes included for citation as required.
⭐ Main Points From Experiences of Dying Animals: Parallels With End‑of‑Life Experiences in Humans
(All points derived from the uploaded document; quotes included for citation.)
🧩 Purpose of the Study
- First systematic attempt to document end‑of‑life experiences (ELEs) in non‑human animals.
- Authors collected ~150 reports from pet owners after public appeals.
- Aim: explore whether animals show behavioural patterns similar to human ELEs.
- Quote: “We present findings from a study… to collect and analyze reports about remarkable behavioral aspects of animals during their last phase of life.”
📚 Eight Categories of Animal End‑of‑Life Behaviours
(Table 1 in the document)
- Last Goodbyes (53 cases)
- Last Visits (6 cases)
- The Last Rally (28 cases)
- Retreating Into Solitude (10 cases)
- Unusual Premonitions of Death (5 cases)
- Somatic Surprises (2 cases)
- Terminal Lucidity (7 cases)
- Near‑Death Visions? (3 cases)
Quote: “We classified 114 examples pertaining to the classification scheme shown in Table 1…”
🐾 1. Last Goodbyes
- Animals seek out each family member shortly before death.
- Often extremely weak but gather strength to interact.
- Strong emotional recognition reported by owners.
- Quote: “She made her rounds to each of us… meowed, and walked away.”
🚶♂️ 2. Last Visits
- Animals travel—sometimes long distances—to visit former owners or beloved people.
- Includes cases of psi‑trailing (finding someone at a location they’ve never been).
- Quote: “Bruce had never been to the new address… The dog had to cross over a bridge and travel over three miles to find me.”
⚡ 3. The Last Rally
- Sudden surge of energy, appetite, mobility, or alertness shortly before death.
- Mirrors human “terminal rally” or “pre‑mortem surge.”
- Quote: “She was her young self… running around, playing… and then she died that evening.”
🌲 4. Retreating Into Solitude
- Animals leave home to die alone, similar to wild‑animal instinct.
- Sometimes say goodbye first, then disappear.
- Quote: “He took off to the woods, where he chose to die in solitude.”
⚠️ 5. Unusual Premonitions of Death
- Animals sense impending danger or their own death even when not ill.
- Includes wartime examples and lab animals anticipating euthanasia.
- Quote: “The rats would all gather in a corner… showing signs of alarm… ‘Mom, they know.’”
🧠 6. Somatic Surprises
- Temporary return of physical abilities previously lost (e.g., walking, flying, stretching).
- Quote: “Just before it died, it got up, stretched, meowed very loud… and then lay down dead.”
✨ 7. Terminal Lucidity
- Sudden mental clarity in animals previously confused, comatose, or neurologically impaired.
- Quote: “He was basically out of it… then for 30 minutes he was completely normal… then he went back into convulsing.”
👁️ 8. Possible Near‑Death Visions
- Animals appear to see or interact with unseen presences.
- Behaviour includes staring, smiling, tail‑wagging, or following invisible objects.
- Quote: “She suddenly sat upright… looked as if she was looking at an object very intensely… wagging her tail.”
🔍 Key Conclusions
- Animal ELEs strongly resemble human ELEs, including:
- last rallies
- terminal lucidity
- final goodbyes
- premonitions
- possible visions
- Suggests shared physiological or psychological mechanisms across species.
- Quote: “The close similarity between animal and human ELEs might be a sign of a common physiology underpinning such experiences.”
🌱 Implications
- Recognising these behaviours may:
- improve understanding of animal inner life
- encourage more compassionate treatment of pets and other animals
- support grieving owners
- Authors call for more systematic research.
If you want, I can also create:
- A shorter summary
- A comparison chart between human and animal ELEs
- Talking points for a presentation
- A thematic analysis of the cases
Just tell me what you’d like next.
Experiences of Dying Animals:
Parallels With End-Of-Life
Experiences in Humans
Rupert Sheldrake
rupert@rsheldrake.org
20 Willow Road, London NW3 1TJ,
UK
Pam Smart
p.e.smart57@gmail.com
19 Cliff Mount, Ramsbottom, Bury
BL0 9EP, UK
Michael Nahm
nahm@igpp.de
Institute for Frontier Areas of
Psychology and Mental Health,
Wilhelmstrasse 3a, 79098 Freiburg,
Germany
SUBMITTED October 27, 2022
ACCEPTED January 4, 2023
PUBLISHED March 31, 2023
https://doi.org/10.31275/20222773
PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS
Creative Commons License 4.0.
CC-BY-NC. Attribution required.
No commercial use.
INTRODUCTION
HIGHLIGHTS
Reports of pet behavior before death often resemble people’s end-of-life experiences,
suggesting common underpinnings to these events.
ABSTRACT
There has recently been an increased interest in end-of-life experiences (ELEs) in hu
mans, but ELEs in non-human animals have not yet been assessed. In this paper, we
present findings from a study we performed to collect and analyze reports about re
markable behavioral aspects of animals during their last phase of life. After public
appeals in which we asked for reports about ELEs in animals, we received numerous
responses from pet owners. We were able to group these experiences into specific
categories, which we termed the last goodbyes, last visits, last rally, retreating into sol
itude, unusual premonitions of death, somatic surprises, terminal lucidity in animals, and
potential near-death visions in animals. We present 43 case reports pertaining to these
different categories. Many of them show striking similarities to remarkable behavior re
ported by dying people. This similarity between animal and human ELEs might be a sign
of a common physiology underpinning such experiences and could also increase the
recognition that animals share an inner life similar to that of humans during all phases
of life. This could lead to a more respectful treatment of pets, as well as of animals in
farms, zoos, and in the wild. However, as our study was of a preliminary character and
only the first of its kind, we encourage further systematic research in this field. In the
Supplementary Material, we publish 71 additional cases for those who would like to
study more examples.
KEYWORDS
Animals, end-of-life experiences, near-death phenomena, terminal lucidity.
There has recently been an increased interest in end
of-life experiences (ELEs) in humans, including terminal
lucidity, an unexpected surge of clarity soon before dying.
Here, we describe our findings from a collection of reports
about dying non-human animals, which show remarkable
similarities to the behavior of dying people.
Early scientists who were interested in the study of
psychical phenomena relied to a very large extent on re
ports of spontaneous exceptional experiences that were
reported by the general population. For example, the
pages of the arguably earliest parapsychological maga
zines Blätter aus Prevorst (published from 1831 to 1839)
and Magikon (published from 1840 to 1853), edited by pi
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Rupert Sheldrake, Pam Smart, & Michael Nahm
EXPERIENCES OF DYING ANIMALS: PARALLELS WITH HUMANS
oneering physician, poet, and parapsychologist Justinus
Kerner (1786–1862), contain numerous reports of myste
rious occurrences related to dying. Similarly, when aca
demic psychical research was established in 1882 by the
founding of the Society of Psychical Research in England,
two voluminous landmark publications were concerned
with reports of occurrences that chiefly concerned
death-related experiences (Gurney et al., 1886; Sidgwick
et al., 1894). Many other treatises on exceptional expe
riences published in the 19th and 20th centuries covered
unusual death-related phenomena. Nevertheless, only
in recent decades have these spontaneous phenomena
aroused the interest of scientists in mainstream medical
settings. Such phenomena include near-death experienc
es (Cassol et al., 2020; Holden et al., 2009), end-of-life
visions or deathbed visions (Claxton-Oldfield & Dunnett,
2018; Depner et al., 2020; Morita et al., 2016), and termi
nal lucidity (Nahm, 2012; Nahm et al., 2012; Nahm, 2022a,
b). The variety of remarkable death-related occurrences
has become known by different names, including death
bed phenomena, end-of-life phenomena, or end-of-life
experiences (Brayne et al., 2008; Claxton-Oldfield et al.,
2020; dos Santos et al., 2017; Shared Crossing Research
Initiative, 2022). The study of ELEs can help to improve
our understanding of human nature, advance our knowl
edge about the dying process, and offer perspectives for
dealing with spontaneous and often emotionally intense
phenomena in near-death states.
Unusual death-related experiences have not only
been reported from human beings for a long time but, to
a lesser degree, also from non-human animals. Early col
lections of reports regarding unusual death-related ani
mal phenomena, chiefly animal apparitional and haunting
phenomena, were published by Ernesto Bozzano (1905,
1950), Elliott O’Donnell (1913), and Raymond Bayless
(1970). Other compilations contained reports that con
cerned other seemingly psychic faculties and unusual
behavior of animals and included accounts from pet own
ers (e.g., Gaddis & Gaddis, 1970; Schul, 1977; Schwertner,
1984). In general, however, systematic research into fac
ulties suggestive of psi in the animal kingdom has largely
been neglected. Facets that have been studied comprise
the homing behavior of animals (for reviews, see Nahm,
2015; Sheldrake, 2011), cases of “psi trailing” in which
an animal found its owner in a new location that the ani
mal had never visited previously (Gaddis & Gaddis, 1970;
Rhine & Feather, 1962; Sheldrake, 2011), the ability of an
imals to anticipate when their owners return, other ani
mal premonitions, animals that “read people’s minds” and
respond to their intentions, as well as animals’ reactions
to distant death and danger (e.g., Pleimes, 1971a, 1971b;
Sheldrake, 2011; Sheldrake & Morgana, 2003; for an over
view of such studies, see Sheldrake, 2015).
With the present study, we aim to cover new ground
in a virtually untouched field of research into animal life:
We address phenomena reported to occur when animals
die. Unlike the treatises mentioned above and numerous
more recent popular books on death-related aspects of
animal life, such as animal after-death communications
and the possible afterlife of deceased pets (e.g., Ander
son, 2017; Bivona et al., 2004; Warren, 2006) or ways to
cope with the loss of beloved pets (e.g., Kowalski, 2012;
Wycherley, 2018), we focus directly on behavioral aspects
of animals in near-death states. After public appeals in
which we asked for reports about ELEs in animals, we
received numerous responses from pet owners. In or
der to draw attention to these phenomena and to raise
awareness about their occurrence, we give a variety of
examples below. In the Discussion section, we consider
aspects of the reported cases in relation to ELEs reported
from human beings.
METHODS AND RESULTS
Appeals for information about unusual near-death
phenomena in animals were published on Rupert Shel
drake’s website, in his newsletter, via a video created for
YouTube, a talk on the US radio station Coast to Coast AM
on 14.09.2021, and through personal requests to con
tribute to our research project. In response, we received
numerous case reports via email. Some cases had been
reported to Rupert Sheldrake already earlier in the con
text of his other work on animals and pets. We also found
a few cases describing unusual animal behavior prior to
dying in publicly available sources such as books and on
line-entries. Some reports were also related to Michael
Nahm in person by people with a general interest in ELEs
and terminal lucidity. At the time of writing, our database
contains about 150 entries of varying quality in which
people described behavior of animals that seemed to be
related to their impending death. Many case reports con
tain features that allowed us to group these experienc
es into specific categories. Notwithstanding that some
cases could be allocated to more than one category, we
classified 114 examples pertaining to the classification
scheme shown in Table 1, together with the number of
cases in each category at the time of writing. Of these
114 case reports, we present 43 representative cases in
this publication. The other 71 cases are available online
as Supplementary Material, so that readers can review
them for themselves. In the following sections, we give
examples that illustrate typical examples of these various
types of ELE behavior.
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TABLE 1. Classification of end of life behaviours in our
collection and the number of cases in each category
Category
Number
Last goodbyes
Last visits
The last rally
Retreating into solitude
Unusual premonitions of death
Somatic surprises
Terminal lucidity
Near-death visions?
53
6
28
10
5
2
7
3
CASE EXAMPLES
Last Goodbyes
The dominant feature in many of the case reports is
that the pet seeks to say goodbye to their owners or other
loved ones. Typically, these pets are already very weak,
and they die soon after this final farewell. Gaddis and
Gaddis (1970) already reported such a case. During the
prime of its days, tomcat Pussy was taught by the couple
who kept him to hold out a paw to shake hands. As Pus
sy grew older, he suffered from severe chronic dysentery
and had to be put down. When the vet arrived, the cat
dragged himself out of his basket, walked straight to its
sorrowful keepers, and held out his paw to each of them
in turn. He then crept back into his basket, buried his head
in his paws, and awaited his fate. Some of the reports we
received are remarkably similar.
Our cat lived an incredible 21 years but sud
denly became ill. We knew she was beyond her
life expectancy but didn’t want her to suffer.
However, before we could take her to the veter
inarian, late one Sunday afternoon, and with all
of the family home but in separate parts of the
house, she made her rounds to each of us, gen
tly pushing her head against a leg and looking
up very lovingly and very softly, meowed, and
walked away. Although she was a vocal and very
affectionate cat, I can still recall all these years
later what a profound feeling I had at the time
as she walked away from me. Later as evening
fell, we found her dead, peacefully, as if sleeping.
Each of us in the family, my wife and two children
shared our stories with one another and con
cluded that the cat said her “Goodbyes” in nearly
the exact same manner.
This is the sad but true story of what our
family experienced with our dog Foxi. We all
loved the dog because it was so friendly, devot
ed, and loyal, as well as very watchful and clever.
When the dog became old, it could not hear so
well anymore, ate less, and became weak. Final
ly, at the age of 14, it could barely move from its
resting place. Then one day, the following hap
pened: The whole family sat at the dinner table
when the good dog struggled to its feet, went
around from one to the next, sadly looked at
everybody, and gave paws to each member of
the family. Then it trudged back, slowly lay down - and died. You can believe me, we had tears in
our eyes after this goodbye scene. The dog had
felt the end and pulled itself together for a final
goodbye to all of us.
A few years ago, our Staffordshire bulldog
“Petie” fell terminally ill. One hour before he died,
he came to each member of the family and spent
a little time with everybody, one at a time. We
thought this behavior odd as he didn’t usually do
this, at least not to each individual person at one
time. He seemed alive and much more energetic
than he had been being so ill. After spending a bit
of time with each of us, he made his way down
stairs to his bed and died peacefully.
Baker, the cat our son and daughter-in-law
adopted, was sociable on his own terms and
would appear for a while when we visited them
and then disappear. Knowing we were fami
ly, he was affectionate with us, but briefly. The
last time we saw him, as he was clearly dying,
he came in as usual. But this time, he made the
rounds, sitting in each of our four laps for 15 min
utes or so and then moving to the next lap as if
clearly saying goodbye. When he died very soon
afterward, and I mentioned the incident, each of
the four of us said that they had sensed that ex
act thing at the time: that he was aware of his
imminent death and was saying goodbye.
We adopted my first cat Emilia when she was
about three months old. She had Feline leukemia
and other immunodeficiencies that took her life
three years later, despite all our efforts to help
her. The night that she was dying on my legs,
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around 5 a.m., I thanked her for having accom
panied me for those wonderful three years and
for having helped me lose my fear of cats. I asked
her to join me for another hour to watch the sun
rise together. At that moment, almost by magic,
she stood up, raised her head, licked my hand,
and together we watched the sunrise from my
window. And around 6 a.m., the moment the sun
came up and touched our window, she looked at
me, leaned back on my legs, and exhaled deep
ly. That was the last breath of her. I am a Nurse
of critical patients in Chile, and it is common for
us to observe the famous “mejoría de la muerte”
in terminally ill people or with different patholo
gies, but in animals, I had never observed it. With
Emilia, it was my first time.
When I was a child, our family inherited my
great-grandmother’s parakeet, Sugar-Bird. Sug
ar-bird was a light blue parakeet that had suf
fered a stroke and was no longer able to use his
legs to grasp his perch. My dad installed a batten
to replace the perch so the bird could still sit in
his spot. One day the bird flew from his cage in
the family room to the kitchen while the family
was eating dinner at the kitchen table. We were
all startled by this as he had never flown outside
the cage before. The next day he passed away.
We thought at the time that the bird must have
flown up to the kitchen to say goodbye to all of
us as we were all gathered around the table.
In the cases presented above, the animals visited
their loved ones shortly before dying. But in a number of
cases in our collection, they also seemed to wait until the
loved ones came and visited them. Once they arrived, the
pets died. The following case is one example.
Our dog Coyote was dying. The boys were
grown and moved away, as it should be. My hus
band and I were sitting vigil. Out of the blue, our
elder son called and said he was driving through
town, and although it was late, he wanted to drop
in. He lived hours away. Another son called and
took a zip car home from the city. My husband
and I had been sitting vigil for two days, giving
our beloved dog all the care and “permission to
go.” Only once the boys were home, Coyote visi
bly relaxed and crossed over. It seems she could
not go until her family/tribe/pack were present.
It was uncanny and beautiful. I “know” she called
out and called the boys home.
Last Visits
In this category, we included accounts in which an
imals visited loved ones for a last goodbye. The case re
ports in this category are very similar to the previous one.
But rather than conveying a last goodbye at home, the an
imals grouped here factually crossed a distance between
two different locations. Such a case had already been re
ported by inventor and futurist Nicola Tesla (1856–1943),
according to whom a pigeon he was particularly fond of
flew into his room one night with the seeming purpose
of informing him that it was dying and to say goodbye
(Cheney, 1983). In their book on remarkable aspects of an
imal life, Gaddis and Gaddis (1970) included an intriguing
case that represented a case of psi trailing. A dog found
a beloved caretaker in a location it had never been to and
then died there. The three cases reported below concern
dogs who visited the houses of their former keepers or
caretakers and then returned to their present homes. The
first of these cases is particularly notable as it involves
the comparably rare aspect of psi trailing as well.
For many years I had a mongrel dog called
Bruce. When I started courting, I spent less time
with him, although I still loved him. In turn, he
turned his affection toward a girl who lived not
very far away who took him long walks, and oc
casionally she would ask if she could keep him at
weekends. After mother died, my father decided
to move house several miles away. What to do
with Bruce was a problem, which was resolved
when my friend said she would love to have him.
Many years later, on a lovely summer’s evening,
I heard scratching outside the bedroom window
of my new home. I opened it and looking down, I
saw the white-haired face of Bruce. You can im
agine the excitement in the household. We made
such a fuss over him. However, in the early hours
of the morning, he made indications it was time
to go. I can still see him walking away over the
field, stopping and looking back. I met my friend
whilst shopping a few weeks later who informed
me Bruce had died. He had gone missing one
night, returning early the following day – and
had passed away three days later. It is especial
ly remarkable that Bruce had never been to the
new address, and we had been parted for over
five years. The dog had to cross over a bridge and
travel over three miles to find me in my new ad
dress.
My friend G. had a dog, “Bobby” who was
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enticed by a neighbor – maybe even “enchant
ed” – to move away from his home into her own
household. After some time, several years later,
the dog Bobby suddenly appeared on G.’s prop
erty/home. Bobby focused his gaze upon his
former master, G. He asked the pup if he wanted
something to eat. “No,” indicated Bobby. Then,
Bobby turned away, returned to the “abductor’s”
house – and died.
We lived next door to a family who had a fe
male Black Lab, her name was Orio. She was such
a gentle dog, and whenever her people would go
away and leave her at home, my husband would
go over, feed her, and take her for walks. Only
once or twice did she come into our house, and
only then when her master was with her. About
two years ago, one afternoon, she was standing
at our front door by herself. As I opened the door,
she insisted on coming in, which was very unusu
al. She walked all over the house and finally came
to me in the kitchen and laid down by my feet and
stayed there. After a while, I phoned my neigh
bor to tell her that the dog was in our house. She
could not explain how the dog got out of the yard
as the gate was closed and she was in no condi
tion to jump over the fence. Later the same day,
she turned up at the neighbor across the street.
He too, from time to time, looked after her. Af
ter he phoned the mistress of Orio she went to
pick the dog up and took her home. The next day
Orio became very sick, and the mistress took her
to their veterinarian. After examining her, it was
determined that nothing could be done for Orio.
That night she went down into their basement,
the neighbor followed her and stayed with the
dog. A few hours afterwards she was dead. I am
convinced the dog knew that she was to die and
came to say goodbye to the people who were
kind to her. Still to this day, my heart becomes
heavy whenever I think of how that dog came to
say thank you and goodbye.
The Last Rally in Dogs and Cats
In some of the presented cases, the animals appeared
to muster an extra strength to say goodbye. A pronounced
surge of vitality in animals shortly before dying was, in
fact, a frequent feature of the cases reported to us, and
we, therefore, grouped them into a specific category. Such
increased vitality has long been known to occur in some
dying people. Typically, it involves enhanced physical vig
or, but there can also be a surprising improvement in the
mental state of people who were previously drowsy, con
fused, or even comatose, i.e., terminal lucidity. There are
various names in different cultures and languages for this
remarkable increase in vitality. In English, recent terms
that are used in the context of palliative and hospice care
include the last “rally” before death (Kastenbaum, 2006;
Kemp, 1995) or “pre mortem surge” (Schreiber & Bennett,
2014). Our Chilean correspondent who reported the case
of Emilia the cat called it “mejoría de la muerte” (improve
ment of death). As evidenced in the examples given be
low, many of our correspondents were deeply impressed
by the last rally of their pets. As a veterinarian informed
us, such occurrences are not even rare:
In my practice as a vet, experiencing the
last rally in dogs isn’t uncommon. It happened
already a number of times that when I rang the
bell of a house I was called to in order to put a
dog down, a vital and barking canine greeted me
and jumped around me. I was surprised already
more than once that when I asked its owners
where the sick dog is that I was supposed to put
down, they informed me that this seemingly vital
animal would be the moribund dog in question.
We present examples of the last rally of moribund
dogs and cats in the following and continue with exam
ples from birds and ungulates.
My little dog Daisy, a Pembroke Corgi, was
suffering from terminal cancer and had dete
riorated for several days to the point that she
could not walk or stand. But on her final day, she
“brightened” and followed me everywhere for
an hour before passing. It was as if she knew the
time was at hand, and she wanted to be as close
to me as possible when she passed.
Princess Lavender was my baby girl for 11
years. She had congestive heart failure for eight
months before she passed. Her veterinarian pre
scribed medicines that helped her. On March
4, 2021, she passed away. Around 1 a.m., I was
up with her because her breathing was very un
steady, and she was not able to stand on her own.
I had to go to work at 3 a.m., and my husband
was with her till I came home at 10 a.m. While
at work, I called the veterinarian’s office and was
told that the vet would see her at 10:30 a.m. We
decided to help her pass with the doctor. When
I got home, she was her young self, she was run
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ning around, playing, jumping up and down, giv
ing me kisses, just her young self! We went to
the vet’s office, and the doctor looked at her and
told us she would not do what we had planned,
that she was doing very well. So, we decided to
go on vacation (we had already planned to leave
on this day) and drove four hours to the house we
were renting. Princess loved the drive. When we
arrived at the house, she bounced out of the car
and took off running, checking out the place and
smelling like crazy. She ate, drank water, took a
nap, and then played a little with her ball and me
and was doing great. Around 7 p.m., I checked on
her and she was not doing good with breathing.
I held her for five minutes, telling her how much
we loved her, how much we would miss her, and
telling her that it was OK to pass on. She gave me
a kiss and took her last breath.
We had to say goodbye to our beloved Gold
en Retriever, Zoey, on July 5, 2021, at the age of
14 1/2 years. Zoey had started to deteriorate
rapidly on the week of June 21st. She was barely
able to walk the stairs, barely eating and sleep
ing most of the time. Sometimes she seemed as
if she wasn’t present if that makes any sense. We
had started sleeping in the family room with her
since navigating to the second floor, and the bed
was not an option. On Friday, July 2, we were un
able to rouse her or coax her to eat. After many
tears, the decision was made to say goodbye and
all vet arrangements were made for the follow
ing day on Saturday. On that Friday afternoon,
she miraculously got up, walked over to her
food bowl and, ate her meal, drank her water.
She then went outside in the backyard, walked
around, and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the
evening. We could not, in good conscience, go
through with the appointment. We had a fami
ly meeting, as we all stood around and stared at
each other in disbelief and cancelled her eutha
nasia. She had a remarkable Saturday! She ate
approximately five small meals, enjoyed some
outside time, and slept with our daughter for the
last time on the mattress on the floor. She was
slowing down on Sunday, as I believe she was out
of her last reserves of energy. On Monday, she
refused to eat or get up, and I feel waited for my
daughter to come home from work. At that time,
she collapsed in the backyard and had to be car
ried inside. We called my son to come home, and
he carried her to the car and subsequently to the
vet, where we said our final goodbye.
We were told our rescue dog, a Parsons Jack
Russell we named “Piglet” might be around three
years of age when we got him, and we had him
for over three years. We started noticing Piglet
having foul-smelling breath and took him to the
vet to have his teeth/gums looked at. He was
scheduled for a dental cleaning, but when his
pre-surgery lab work was done, we were told
that he was in end-stage renal failure and would
not survive any operation. His vet then told us
that he would steadily decline, and if he start
ed to have seizures, that would be the end. He
continued to be his happy self for another six
months but then things started going down
hill rapidly. He lost his sight and grew gradually
weaker. When he stopped eating and drinking, I
contacted the vet to have him put to sleep the
next day. I slept alongside him that night on the
floor so he wouldn’t feel frightened or alone.
I was dreading the morning. At 7 a.m., I awoke.
Our other dogs were up and running around. Pig
let jumped up and ran out the doggy door, fol
lowing the rest of the pack! He did his business
outside and came in with the rest. He went over
to the water bowl and had a drink. I immediately
started questioning our decision to have him put
down in two hours. My husband encouraged me
to take him to the vet anyway and at least have
him checked out, to which I agreed. My husband
then left for work. Piglet continued to be lively,
even jumping up to his favorite spot on the sofa.
I went and got his brush; he jumped down and
I proceeded to give him a much-loved brushing.
He got down on his haunches, and after about
ten minutes, I turned to clean his brush. When
I turned back to him, Piglet was lying on his side
and seizing violently. I gathered him in my arms,
sat down on the sofa, and watched as he passed
away in my arms while I told him how much he
was loved.
We lost our dog Ollie of over nine years. The
few hours before she passed, we knew it would
be her final hours due to her different behavior
along with physical symptoms of ill health. She
sat watching the sunrise for minutes… trans
fixed, then walked round slowly looking at all
parts of the house, garden, etc. This may not
seem unusual. But to us, it was a very distinctive
behavior that was very different... and we knew it
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was her time. The day before, she had an amazing
longer walk that she had not been able to walk
anymore for quite some time. What reminded us
of our other dog Barney who passed at the age of
18. He also had an amazing walk in the morning
on the day he passed. He was virtually blind and
previously unable to walk a few yards without
stopping.
Some three years ago, our black Labrador
Shadow had been suffering for some weeks/
months with his back legs where he would be in
pain and often struggled to get up or walk. Ini
tially, we were able to medicate, which mitigated
the worst symptoms for a time. Sadly we even
tually learned from the vet that he had a very
large tumor pressing on his spine, which was
causing all the symptoms, he was also by now off
his food, so it was decided that he would be put
down to spare him the suffering. Inexplicably, on
the morning that he was due to be euthanized
Shadow was full of energy, greeting us all and
wagging his tail, and was tucking into his food
with enthusiasm which naturally made it very
hard to proceed with the procedure.
Five weeks ago, my cat was dying, not eat
ing or drinking for days, hiding under the bed.
Then the next day, she suddenly perked up and
was very active. She was jumping on furniture,
following me around, and acting like she was
healthy and young. It went on for hours; I felt it
was a gift. But the next morning, she was back
hiding under the bed, refusing to eat or drink. We
had a vet come to the house two days later to put
her down. I’ve had multiple pets in my 77 years
and never experienced anything like this.
On November 2021, my beloved cat Balou
received euthanasia because his terminal illness
left no other choice. He was about ten years old.
Regarding his health, Balou had had a difficult life
with many severe diseases and operations, but
his condition could always be stabilized through
applying a mix of conservative and alternative
healing practices. He was a happy, lively cat and
moved freely in our house and garden. At the end
of October, his health deteriorated rapidly. His
hind legs became unstable, and he occasionally
tipped to the side. The diagnosis was a bilater
al rupture of the coronary ligament; surgery was
not possible due to his pre-existing diseases. Two
weeks later, Balou developed a fever and renal
dysfunctions. He was in severe pain and showed
first signs of dying: Refusal of food and water for
several days, extreme lethargy, weakness, diffi
culties walking and climbing stairs, no interest in
going into the garden. Outpatient and inpatient
treatment didn’t improve his state. Furthermore,
an inoperable tumor that was already purulent
and necrotic was diagnosed under his tongue. In
consultation with the vet, we scheduled eutha
nasia for the next day. After returning from the
vet, Balou hid in the closet all day, only came out
to go to the toilet and to eat. In the evening, he
sought my company, and after a new injection of
painkiller, we fell asleep together, holding hands
side by side (he stretched out his paw to my
hand – he had never done that before). The next
morning, however, Balou was out of the blue vi
tal again. He didn’t sleep and withdraw, but came
to me on the couch, cleaned himself a lot, and
lay down on my lap (like he always did when he
was healthy), he even ate a lot again, although
the oral ulceration had worsened further. We
went to the garden together and watched birds
there like so often before. He even climbed stairs
independently without tipping over. In short, we
spent the day as we had routinely done in the
many years before, but which hadn’t been pos
sible during the previous weeks. Until the vet ar
rived, we cuddled together on the couch. It was a
very peaceful atmosphere and a loving farewell.
The contrast in behavior between the last day
and the time before was so obvious that I was
aware that it must be a case of what is some
times called “the last rally.” He had also never
held my hand before. Therefore, I am convinced
that he knew (even if unconsciously) that he was
going to die.
The Last Rally in Birds
Our second budgie, whom we called Jock
el, was very much unlike the first one. He never
wanted to learn new tricks and was completely
uncommunicative. He even rarely left his cage,
only when forced. My family named him “half
wit,” but I just said he had character (I had picked
him, after all). After some years, Jockel became
sickly. His cage always was in the eat-in kitchen,
next to the big living room – about 18 meters dis
tance all in all. One night I sat in the living room
and read a book. This was the best time for me
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since all the others were in bed. Suddenly there
was a strange sound. The door leading towards
the dark kitchen was not completely closed, and
I noticed that our little Jockel walked on the floor,
forcing himself through the door and turning into
a room totally unknown to him, toddling on the
slippery parquet floor towards me in the middle
of the night. Spellbound, I observed how he man
aged the last five meters to me, stopped at my
feet, and looked up to me. He let me pick him up – which was unthinkable before – and I caressed
him gently. In a low voice, I talked to him, and he
closed his eyes, dying in my warm hand. And I be
lieve he made himself immortal at that moment.
He must have sensed that his end was close.
I have a bird story that is almost hard to be
lieve because it is about our family’s parakeet
who lived 20 years, seemed to adore my mother,
and exhibited skills and traits seemingly impos
sible for a creature with a brain the size of a pea.
The years came and went, and I am at a loss to
know how to explain all the wonderful things we
learned from this cheerful, loving green being.
The last day inevitably came, and he sat in a stu
por on his perch for hours without eating, drink
ing, wing-stretching, or chirping. We just sat
there by his cage, wondering if he was suffering
or if there was something we should do for him.
Suddenly he awoke bolt upright, exited the open
door of his cage, and managed to fly to my moth
er’s hand. He never moved again. He returned to
a stupor state for another two hours as she held
him. Then he was gone. We never knew how he
found the strength to make that final flight. He
knew he was dying, and he wanted to spend his
final moments with my mother.
The Last Rally in Ungulates
We had an old mare who spent her last days
barely acknowledging her surroundings until her
last day. She brightened up considerably and
asked to be let out of her stable and into the
field with her friends. She spent a few minutes
interacting with them all before walking up the
field to her favorite dozing spot, where she just
laid down and passed peacefully. My years of ex
perience with horses suggest that they “know”
when their time has come, and they generally
go peacefully. My old stallion spent the last few
minutes of his life parading up and down like a
youngster before doing exactly the same as the
mare.
I run a very large animal sanctuary in Aus
tralia and oversee every soul who passes. They
usually know when they are going. I had a race
horse who was dying of snake bite with us franti
cally trying to save her. Suddenly she got up, and
we were able to lead her to a stable. We thought
she was healing. But she died the next day. This
type of rally, for me, is part of the dying process.
Dying animals will get very active. We just lost
a beloved old goat who wandered up to the hay
shed and gorged himself. We knew it was his last
rally.
My beautiful gelding, named Kid, had the
most wonderful fun personality and was full
of energy, playfulness, and curiosity. I got him
when he was four years old when I was in my
twenties. He passed when he was 25 years old.
Kid stopped eating and was lying down in the
pasture one rainy day. He didn’t want to get up
and was in pain, so I called the vet. The vet came
out and did not know what was wrong with him.
She thought maybe he was colic and treated him
for that, but the treatment did not help. He be
came very lethargic, almost like in a coma-like
trance, with his eyes open and standing up. We
gave him injections of morphine to help him with
his pain. He would get a little burst of energy,
walk around and graze on grass, then go back
into just standing there. He made it through the
night, and the next day he was in the yard. I went
out with him for a while and went into the house – and then, he had disappeared. As it turned out,
Kid had gotten out of the property, walked down
our gravel road about half a mile, then went
about another half a mile down the paved road
to where he knew other horses he had visited in
the past lived at my boyfriend’s uncle’s house. He
died in the middle of the street in front of their
driveway and the other horses. I could not be
lieve he had walked that far in his condition. He
wanted to be with other horses when he passed,
and he made it to them.
Retreating Into Solitude
Another seemingly typical phenomenon reported
from animals is their retreat into solitude before dying.
Gaddis and Gaddis (1970) reported an account concerning
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a dog that was badly mauled in a fight. After its wounds
had been treated and it seemed to recover, it disappeared
one day. Soon after, its owner had a vivid dream of the
dog in which it appeared to stand on a particular knoll.
The dog was found later on this knoll; it was dead. As the
following examples from our collection illustrate, animals
sometimes gather enough physical strength to bid fare
well to their loved ones prior to leaving.
Our cat Anton was the classic tabby house
cat. We received him when he was a little kit
ten. He was 16 years old when in the Summer
of 2008, his health declined drastically. For
weeks, Anton had only lain in the shade under a
big bush near our house in the garden. I fed him
minced meat with my fingers, and from time to
time, I gave him a cracked egg, which he licked
from the bowl, remaining in his procumbent po
sition. One evening, on another balmy summer
evening, when the front door was open, and I
was doing the dishes, he dragged himself into
the house and joined me in the kitchen at his
feeding place. I turned to him, and we looked at
each other briefly. Then I knelt on the floor, and
he rubbed his head against my leg. He was very
loving and strong, like in healthy days, so full of
devotion – that really touched me a lot. I stroked
him for quite a while. He purred barely audibly.
His body felt relaxed, although he had become
only skin and bones, and his fur was so shaggy.
Then, abruptly, he rose and limped outside again.
I closed the front door and knew that he would
die very soon. The next morning his place under
the bush was empty, and I could not find him in
the surrounding area. Our son, who came to vis
it on August 21, 2008, went to search for him.
Finally, he found him in the back of the garden,
still breathing shallowly, surrounded by flies.
I was surprised how much strength Anton had
mustered to cover this distance since he had not
been able to walk for weeks before. Our son sat
next to him. Two hours later, our son came into
the house and wanted to call the vet to finally
release Anton from his misery. Then, the classi
cal scenario developed that is also reported fre
quently from dying people: They die exactly at a
time when they are finally alone, e.g., when their
caregivers need to go to the restroom or fetch a
cup of coffee. When our son and the vet arrived
at Anton, he had already taken his last breath on
his own.
We had a Collie many years ago. In the final
months and weeks, it was just lying passively on
the floor without energy. Then one day it came
running to each family member to greet us, jump
ing like in joy, etc. Then it took off to the woods,
where it chose to die in solitude. We found it lat
er the same day. Without a doubt, it knew that
now the time had come to say goodbye.
Pepi was a forest dog, a collie/Labrador mix,
bright and strong in his prime. He was a family
pet when the children were growing up, but he
also accompanied my husband and me when we
did forest surveys. In his fifteenth year, he start
ed to slow down and was diagnosed as having a
liver tumor. Still keen to come with us, we made
allowances so that he could continue to enjoy
his forest outings as much as possible. We lift
ed him over ditches and sometimes carried him
between sites. While we took measurements, he
lay on a wax jacket nearby. On what turned out
to be his last day with us, however, he suddenly
got up, started barking like his old playful, joyous
self, eyes shining and cocking his leg so liberal
ly roundabout I had to tell him to stay clear of
my boots for heaven’s sake! I turned to height
a tree, and the next time I looked around, Pepi
was nowhere to be seen. I called to my husband
if Pepi had come to him. He had, briefly, but now
he was gone. We thought he couldn’t have gone
far but started looking for him immediately in
case he had fallen and lay somewhere. But how
ever much we searched and called, we could not
find him. We checked the whole compartment
and didn’t stop till it got too dark to see under
the canopy. Back at the car, we shone the head
lights into the forest in case he was making his
way back after us. He never came. The next day a
friend brought his two tracker dogs. They didn’t
find Pepi. The following day, coming out of the
forest, we met an old crofter who lived nearby.
We told him about Pepi and asked him to keep a
lookout for him. “You won’t find him, he will have
made sure of that,” the old boy said. “I have had
two sheepdogs take themselves away like that
to die. The third, when he got old, was sneaking
out the same way, but I caught him and shut him
in the barn. The next morning I found him dead
there. I wish I had let him do what his instinct
told him.”
My dog came and said goodbye to me before
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he died. He woke me up in the middle of the night
by licking my face. Then he ran off and was found
dead the next day.
Our dog Paddy is no longer with us. A year
ago, he became deaf and obviously felt old and
tired, and his hind legs were weak. I remember
thinking tomorrow I will take him to the vet
and he will decide his future, but that after
noon he walked out of the house and I never saw
him again. I searched frantically for two days.
Friends told me if he wanted to die in your arms
he wouldn’t go off by himself. Was it his wish to
behave like most wild animals who wander away
from the herd to die quietly and with dignity –
alone?
My cat Ripp and I were a very happy couple
for 18 years. Then one warm August evening, Ripp
and I were sitting on the front porch – he was
sleeping, and I was reading. Then, my telephone
rang, so I got up and went in the house to answer.
As the phone rang, Ripp got up and climbed into
my lap. I was sitting in kind of a lotus position, so
he sat right in the middle. The phone kept ringing,
and Ripp sat on his haunches, put his two front
paws directly on my shoulders, and stared at me
(and vice versa), nose-to-nose. We just stared at
each other for what seemed like forever, and I
said to Ripp, “I’ll be right back – I have to answer
the phone.” So, I went in the house, but whom
ever it was had hung up by then. So, I went back
outside to resume my session with Ripp. But he
was gone. Nowhere to be seen. I was only gone
about 45 seconds between the time I excused
myself from Ripp, went to the phone, and then
came back to the front porch, where Ripp and I
had been staring at each other, eyes-to-eyes and
nose-to-nose. I called him, but no Ripp. I went
around the house, looking under bushes and
shrubs. I walked up and down the block, looking
in the yards of all the houses in the neighbor
hood. But no Ripp. I went door-to-door, asking if
neighbors had seen him. Nobody had. Given that
this whole escapade had taken almost literally
seconds, and given how “drowsy” Ripp had been
as we stared at each other at such a close dis
tance, I was certain he hadn’t just bolted away
while I was answering the phone. There were no
thieves who were waiting for me to leave so they
could snatch him. I swear, it was as if he had just
disappeared. In fact, he HAD just disappeared –
really disappeared. And I never saw him again,
although I kept looking for a few weeks.
Unusual Premonitions of Death
Several of the previous case reports indicated that
the moribund animals knew that their lives were about to
end. These premonitions are quite remarkable, given that
even the minds of higher mammals such as dogs and cats
are often thought to be not developed enough to be able
to form a concept of dying and their own death. Never
theless, the animals in the presented examples had been
very old and/or ill already and might have felt their pow
ers fading. They also might have reacted in response to
altered physiological processes and left their “pack” out
of a biological instinct. It is, therefore, even more intrigu
ing that we also received reports that concerned compar
atively healthy animals that nevertheless displayed pre
monitions of their impending threat to their lives, such as
the following two cases.
It happened during the Second World War
in Houffalize, Belgium, probably in 1944. An old
man who owned sheep had died. He had no fami
ly. My grandfather decided to lead the sheep into
his garden and into a kind of veranda or green
house near the main building. The sheep didn’t
have a problem with living in this new environ
ment for a few days. But one evening, they all
began to bleat very loudly all night through. The
eight children who lived in the house (including
my mother) didn’t understand what was happen
ing and considered the sheep’s behavior very cu
rious. It was difficult, if not impossible, to sleep.
Early in the morning, a bomb hit the greenhouse
and killed all sheep. My mother told me this sto
ry. It was impossible for her to forget it. [Authors’
note: The little town Houffalize suffered from an
intense bombardment in December 1944.]
In the summer of 1997, my daughter was
working on a grant under Dr. […] at a university
in California. Part of her duties was to retrieve the
cage with the lab rats. They were part of a cancer
research program and, as such, had been inject
ed with live cancer tumors and then different
medicines to study the results. Each of the rats
was color dotted to determine how long they had
been on the medications. And, every so often, the
rats would be “sacrificed” so the cancer and the
organs could be studied. My daughter, not really
sympathetic to lab rats, became concerned when
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she noticed a regular phenomenon. On the day
the rats were to be sacrificed, unlike days when
they were being weighed and measured, the rats
would all gather in a corner, heads facing the
center of a circle, and they would be squeaking
and showing signs of alarm. As my daughter said
to me, “Mom, they know. Somehow, they know.”
Somatic Surprises
Sometimes, the last rally or terminal vitality goes
hand in hand with physical improvements or movements
that seemed inconceivable before because of the animals’
handicap or injury. Below we present two examples.
I have a story about a cat that I found on the
road with a broken neck and brought home to die.
It was with me three days and never moved, just
panted. Just before it died, it got up, stretched,
meowed very loud, purred into my hand, and
then lay down dead.
I
want to share an experience with our
16-year-old dog Lucy. Lucy’s hips were giving up,
and she dragged her right leg to walk. We made
arrangements for a home visit to end her pain.
We had a carpet laid out in the backyard for what
turned into a beautiful ceremony. After the doc
tor arrived, Lucy immediately walked outside
with no limping to the carpet and lay down.
Terminal Lucidity in Animals
The mental pendant to somatic surprises is terminal
lucidity, the already mentioned unexpected improvement
of mental alertness or faculties shortly before death in
creatures that have previously been in a drowsy, con
fused, or even unconscious state. Naturally, somatic sur
prises and terminal lucidity can occur concomitantly, as
in the following example. It concerns the aftermath of a
sudden accident involving a bird that seemingly turned
unconscious and motionless after the accident. Although
the bird’s final malaise was only of comparably short du
ration, this case can still be counted as an instance of ter
minal lucidity.
One day a bird crashed into the cabin I live
in, and I ran outside to see about it. As I picked
up this bird, a large thrush, it just lay still in my
hands, its eyes closed, and I assumed it had bro
ken its neck and was dying. I began to say a small
prayer for its soul and put my thumb on its heart
as its beat got slower and slower. And then, just
as the heart was about to stop, this bird, with a
broken neck, managed to turn its head and open
its eyes and look right into mine for a few mo
ments. Then it closed its eyes again, turned its
head to the side, and was dead. Was it making
contact with life for one more moment? This has
long haunted me.
Because the communication of animals is more dif
ficult to decipher than that of other human beings, it is
hard to determine whether an animal is confused or de
mented, and thus, if a last goodbye or rally before death
also implied an instance of terminal lucidity. Neverthe
less, we received a number of case reports according to
which the mental state of the moribund animals was
clearly impaired before they seemed to brighten up for a
very last time and provided them with the opportunity to
bid farewell.
My pet was a six-year-old Chihuahua that
developed a brain tumor. He was basically out
of it, did not respond to my wife or me, and was
having occasional convulsions. The night before,
he was to be put down at the vet for a brief time,
about 30 minutes, and he was completely nor
mal. He jumped up in my lap, wanted to play like
everything was normal, then went to my wife
and did the same thing. All of this happened in
about a 30-minute time frame, and then he went
back into “out of it and convulsing.” We told the
vet about this, and he said he had never heard of
this before and that the dog would not recover.
Anyway, that did happen, and my wife and I be
lieve he was saying goodbye.
My cat Cleo was dying, and I was sitting with
her. She was nearly comatose, not moving, her
eyes glazed over unseeing. Her legs were very
cold. This state had been progressing upon her
for days, and because of the coldness of her legs,
I felt she might be very close. But I was just sit
ting there, mostly, not even really petting her.
Suddenly she woke up. She put her paw upon my
hand and gazed into my eyes with intensity. She
was saying goodbye to me. That was perfectly
clear. Within an hour, she had passed.
We had a dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, greatly
loved, especially by my sister. She had digestion
issues, which meant that she was put on a re
stricted diet, and as she aged, she lost a lot of
weight. My sister would carefully carry her from
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the house to a nearby field every day when she
became unable to walk the distance herself, al
lowing her to take whatever bit of walking she
could manage and bring her back. Her last couple
of days, though, she could hardly move, and we
knew she wouldn’t last long. Her last night, she
went into a totally inert state, with her breathing
altered, her mouth in an unusual shape, totally
limp, and seemingly unaware of us or anything
else around her. She really couldn’t move at all
at this stage. My sister was very upset and had
been holding her for some time when all of a sud
den, the dog raised her whole body and head as if
nothing was wrong, looked straight into my sis
ter’s face for a few moments, then dropped her
head and died. I don’t know if this explains it all
well, but what I’m trying to convey was that she
went from a dying state that had really lasted
all day, then into a couple of hours where there
hardly seemed to be a sliver of life in her, and
then this was all entirely lifted for those few mo
ments when she raised herself up from this state
and seemed to say goodbye or take her leave of
my sister.
My husband and I had a 17-year-old Basset
hound girl who was terminally ill. Her health was
deteriorating each day, and we knew her time
was near. She had stopped eating and moving
about except to go to the door each morning and
sit, waiting to go on our morning walk, but could
not move beyond the door when we’d open it
with her leash in hand. So, we’d all stay inside
with her. One morning before Lee (my husband,
a philosophy professor) was preparing to leave
to teach, she came and laid in a sphinx position
between my husband, who was standing in the
hall near the door, and I, who was sitting. It was
unusual for her to so determinedly sit in a way
that drew our attention without seemingly re
questing it. We both looked at her, wondering
what was up. We noticed then that her breathing
seemed a bit labored, so together, we decided
we should not go into work but stay with her. We
carried her to her doggie bed, which on that day
we’d taken upstairs so we could keep her close
between where we sat and watched and talked
to her. It became clear that she was on her way
out because of the odor being emitted with each
of her increasingly rapid breaths. It became so
strong that I had to get up and move downstairs
for a break. I was gone for about ten minutes
when I heard Lee call down, “there she goes.” I
hurried up to find her no longer in her sphinx po
sition but lying on her side. There was no sign of
life. She had no pulse, and by the look of her un
moving chest, was no longer breathing. Her eyes
were closed, and I watched for a few moments,
and then again, to confirm she wasn’t breathing,
I put my hand near her nostrils. From the time
Lee had called up until the time I put my hand in
front of her nose, about two and a half minutes
had elapsed. Immediately she bolted up into her
sphinx position, looked me in the eyes for a few
seconds, and then fell back on her side. She was
gone (again?). In spite of my deep sadness, I felt
exhilarated that she’d “come back” to say good
bye as I’d so wanted to be with her when she
passed ... and so I was.
Near Death Visions in Animals?
Among ELEs known from human beings, near-death
visions are a prominent feature. In these experiences,
sick people report glimpses into what appears to them
as a transcendental afterlife realm. Frequently, they per
ceive apparitions of deceased loved ones or spiritual fig
ures who come to prepare them for their transition (Clax
ton-Oldfield & Dunnett, 2018; Depner et al., 2020). In the
vast majority of cases, these experiences are regarded as
very comforting and soothing. Sometimes, near-death
visions go hand in hand with terminal lucidity and a tran
siently improved physical strength. It is intriguing that
judging from their behavior, also some of the moribund
animals in our reports might have experienced a similar
vision. This is particularly evident in the first example.
Our dog Snowy died on 30 June 2004. She
was in a coma for several hours: Initially, her lev
el of consciousness fluctuated somewhat, and
she was calmed. Then she fell into a deep coma
in which she was unresponsive to sound stim
uli, from about noon that day until her eventu
al death at 11:45 p.m. At about 6 p.m., she was
more clearly very weak and had altered con
sciousness. She did not respond to tactile stim
uli, which were not painful (we did not perform
painful stimuli for humane reasons). At about 7
p.m., Snowy suddenly sat upright, looked as if
she was looking at an object very, very intensely,
and followed that object with her eyes, her head
moved slightly from side to side. If a dog could
smile, she would smile. You could see a certain
happiness radiating from her. She started wag
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ging her tail for a few seconds, then collapsed
and fell back into a coma. All four members of my
family witnessed this. My wife, myself, and two
teenagers (my daughter and my son), although I
and my daughter were particularly aware of this.
We both independently and immediately no
ticed that it was a very strange thing happening.
We spoke almost simultaneously, recording our
amazement. I interpreted this as a possible near
death vision.1
In the following two cases, the animals’ keepers were
convinced that their pets were perceiving something only
they could see, but they were less evidential.
I do have an experience that struck me as
noteworthy, involving our elderly family dog,
Prince Moonshadow, who seemed to achieve
something akin to a state of joyful enlighten
ment in the weeks after he’d had a series of mi
ni-strokes, and before he died. He smiled con
tinuously every moment he was awake for the
last weeks of his life – about the last couple of
months. He’d been having mini strokes prior to
that. I felt when looking at him, resting and smil
ing in the garden, that he was seeing heaven. And
when I said the same thing, I’d said to him every
day for 14 years, “I’ll love you forever,” in those
weeks, he consistently would do something very
different than he’d ever done before. He met
my gaze with a look that showed he knew that I
meant it – and that he was experiencing this as
if he was partway there. He was extremely lucid,
even though he’d had many strokes.
A very close friend of mine’s beloved cat Ted
dy Boo died a month ago. He was 16 years and
eight months old, and his kidneys and other or
gans had been failing beyond repair. The day came
when he stopped eating, and we knew the end
was near, so we made an appointment for eutha
nasia for a couple of days later. The night before,
he was in a very weakened state and found it dif
ficult just to stand or make it across the room.
He also had stopped drinking water a day before.
I spent a good eight hours with him that after
noon/evening, just he and I (I was at my friend’s
place). He seemed to be going in and out of con
sciousness but didn’t show overt signs of pain.
His favorite spot had become the bathtub, where
we had put lots of soft blankets and makeshift
steps so he could get up into it. He was so weak
I had to place him in it this time — I could see he
wanted to get in. Anyway, I was just in the other
room, sitting at a desk working on my computer,
and the inside of the bathroom was in eyeshot.
Every 15 minutes or so, I would check in with him
and talk to him in a sweet voice. At one point,
when I checked in, he opened his eyes and par
tially sat up and looked at me with an astounding
look that I had never seen from him before. The
best I can describe it is a beatific, blissful smile of
sweet ecstasy. He did not look at me with recog
nition, which was strange and hard to describe.
I
didn’t sense that he specifically recognized
me in that look, but rather that he was coming
back into our world from some other dimension
and staring up at what he saw as some kind of
angelic energy field or something. It was a very
beautiful experience for me. This state of being
and this “look” he was giving lasted a couple of
hours. I left a couple of minutes before my close
friend returned home. We happened to be on the
phone while she was entering her apartment to
see Teddy. I didn’t mention anything about the
look he gave me. And while I was on the phone, I
could hear her say, “Wow! What is this amazing
look he’s giving me???!” I could hear it in the tone
of her voice that she experienced it just exact
ly as I had experienced it, and just like me, she
knew how unusual this was. He had never been
like this before. We spoke more about it after
wards, and we shared the same feelings about it
and experience of it. It really felt like a blessing
to me. And it made me ponder just exactly what
the dying process is to someone or to some ani
mal going through it. I would have loved to have
been in his head for just a few minutes while he
was in that beatific state of consciousness.
DISCUSSION
The case reports presented above constitute the first
collection of ELEs in non-human animals. For those famil
iar with ELEs in human beings, it is intriguing that these
ELEs in animals show many parallels to those reported
by humans. This concerns especially the last rally before
death and the additional characteristics that we classi
fied into last goodbyes, somatic surprises, terminal lucidity,
and potential near-death visions. The literature on ELEs
in humans describes numerous aspects of this last rally.
One of them is an increased desire and renewed ability to
eat (Klein et al., 2018; Schreiber & Bennett, 2014). In our
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collection, we find indications of this behavior in the cat
Balou, the Golden Retriever Zoey, the Labrador Shadow,
and the goat that “gorged” himself before dying. Likewise,
it has been observed on a regular base that the last ral
ly provides an opportunity to express final goodbyes or
obtain closure with family members (Callanan & Kelley,
1992; Schreiber & Bennett, 2014). In this context, waiting
until absent loved ones arrive at the deathbed before dy
ing, as in the case of the dog Coyote that seemingly wait
ed for two sons of the couple who kept him before he let
go and died, is also reported from humans (Callanan &
Kelley, 1992; Claxton-Oldfield & Richard, 2020).
The literature on human ELEs furthermore contains
examples of somatic surprises. For example, a man born
deaf-mute was said to have uttered his first intelligible
words during his last hours (Schubert, 1808); a man suf
fering from high fever and grave articular rheumatism lost
his fever and rheumatism after having had a near-death
vision, ate a copious meal and died on the same evening
(Geley, 1927); a woman in a nursing home with severe spi
nal fusion which was able to only look down to the floor
for several years noticed one day with surprise that she
was able to look out of her room window for the first time – and died soon after (Brayne et al., 2008). In another
case, a man dying from lymphatic cancer, who had been
unable to move his arm for over a year, moved his arm
while he experienced a near-death vision (Fenwick & Fen
wick, 2008; for other examples, see Nahm, 2012).
Similarly, the already mentioned unexpected surge of
mental clarity shortly before dying – terminal lucidity –
has been reported for centuries and across cultures (Clax
ton-Oldfield & Dunnett, 2018; Lim et al., 2020; Nahm,
2012; Nahm et al., 2012; Nahm & Greyson, 2009). Be
cause terminal lucidity frequently goes hand in hand with
near-death visions in humans, it is not too surprising that
some pet owners held the opinion that their moribund
animals experienced something similar. However, while
last goodbyes, last visits, last rallies, somatic surprises,
and terminal lucidity are accessible to external observa
tion and can be documented, it will always remain diffi
cult to gain insight into the mental state of animals that
seem to experience near-death visions. It is neverthe
less noteworthy that other ELEs known from human life,
such as crisis telepathy and crisis apparitions, and even
after-death communications, appear to be paralleled in
the life of pets as well. Unfortunately, however, system
atic research in the latter field is practically absent, even
though respective experiences do not seem to be uncom
mon. Although there are several recent popular books on
such occurrences, the case collections published by Ital
ian parapsychologist Ernesto Bozzano (1905, 1950) still
contain some of the best-documented examples.
Regarding the category of unusual premonitions of
death or of grave danger, the literature on psychical re
search contains numerous examples already, both in peo
ple and in animals. Regarding animals, for example, mem
bers of various vertebrate and invertebrate species have
been reported to anticipate natural catastrophes such as
earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and tsunamis (Gaddis
& Gaddis, 1970; Pleimes, 1971b; Schrödter, 1960; Schul,
1977; Sheldrake, 2005, 2011). Moreover, just as in our ex
ample of the sheep that had been killed in an air raid in
Houffalize during the Second World War, several people
have reported already that animals displayed very unu
sual behavior during war times. This behavior was often – and apparently correctly – interpreted as a premonition
and warning of immediate danger. In Freiburg in Germa
ny, for example, the conspicuous and alarming behavior
of a duck warned many people who lived in its surround
ings that an unexpected air raid was about to strike their
quarter in November 1944. Many inhabitants were able
to save their lives, but the duck was killed by the bombs.
In 1953, the township erected a memorial for the bird in
a public park (Schrödter, 1960; for more examples, see
Sheldrake, 2011). In fact, the extraordinary behavior of
animals that indicated the anticipation of danger while
people did not notice anything unusual, and also their
sometimes frightened behavior in contexts of hauntings,
has made many people speculate about the possibility
that animals possess psychic abilities that surpass those
of humans in our modern reason-dominated Western
civilizations (e.g., Bozzano, 1905; Gaddis & Gaddis, 1970;
Mattiesen, 1936-1939; see also Nahm, 2007, 2016; Shel
drake, 2011).
The examples of our animal categories last visits and
retreating into solitude appear to be absent in the liter
ature on the death and dying of the Western world. At
least, we are not aware of reports about sick people who
suddenly and unexpectedly showed up at the homes of
friends and relatives for a last visit to say goodbye, and
died shortly after. However, this lack of such case reports
in humans might be culturally determined. In our pres
ent Western culture, sick or decrepit people usually stay
at home, in nursing homes, or in hospices and are visited
by their kin rather than the other way around. Means for
arranging visits to sick people are often readily available,
and conversations including last goodbyes can also be
held via telephone. In addition, family members often live
too far apart from each other to enable the old and sick to
visit them unexpectedly. Therefore, it is neither necessary
nor possible to pay unexpected last visits to loved ones in
contemporary Western life. Nevertheless, cases of crisis
telepathy and crisis apparitions from dying people often
fulfill the role of conveying a last farewell to somebody at
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a distance (Gurney et al. 1886; Fenwick & Fenwick, 2008;
Shared Crossing Research Initiative, 2022).
As with last visits, retreating into solitude is hardly
possible for terminally ill humans. It would be very dif
ficult and often impossible for such a person to suddenly
leave their home in order to walk away and find a lonely
place where they can lie down and die. The notion that
the circumstances of death in the modern Western world
provide reasons for the apparent lack of typical accounts
of last visits and retreating into solitude in this culture is
supported by a report about how an old Australian Abo
riginal died:
One morning, the man, who worked in a tan
nery, came to work and went to all his workmates,
shook hands with them, said he was glad to have
worked with them, and expressed his hope that
he wouldn’t be forgotten. Because he had nev
er behaved in this manner before, his colleagues
didn’t know what to make of this. However, he
was found dead later that evening, seated alone
at an old church of the mission. It seemed as if he
knew that his time was over (Rose, 1968).
The anticipation of dying at a given time has also
been reported in Western patients (Callanan & Kelley,
1992; Klein et al., 2018), but premonitions of death in the
absence of physical threats such as natural catastrophes
might not only be due to passively received impressions.
It is known from tribal societies, including Australian Ab
original people, that they seem able to induce their own
death, e.g., when they think they have been influenced
by sorcery or voodoo practices (Kelly, 2007; Rose, 1968).
Severe psychologically driven effects on one’s body that
may even lead to death have also been reported from the
West (Kelly, 2007; Nahm, 2012; Reeves et al., 2007). Thus,
an active component of psychophysiological influence on
the body could also play a role when people and animals
seem to anticipate their own death, including retreating
into solitude.
This behavior might, furthermore, have a parallel in
humans in that moribund patients sometimes seem to
wait until they are alone, if only for a moment, and then
die in this brief time span (Callanan & Kelley, 1992) – as
also highlighted by our correspondent who reported the
case of Anton, the dying cat. In the animal kingdom, the
final retreat to a lonely place could represent a biologi
cally driven instinct in order not to contaminate the kin’s
favorite dwelling place with a rotting corpse or not to hin
der their wandering and hunting activities. Among wild
animals, such behavior might even be more pronounced
and pertain to sick and injured individuals as well because
undisturbed resting in solitude can have beneficial effects
on healing processes. William Long, an experienced nat
uralist, observed that “every stricken bird or beast seeks
instinctively to be alone and quiet while his hurt is heal
ing” (Long, 2005, p. 88/1919).
Our case collection is, as far as we know, the first
of its kind and is necessarily limited in its scope. Most
reports were received in response to a privately initiat
ed call that was chiefly addressed to English-speaking
people. We also made no attempt to verify the contents
of these self-selected reports through interviews with
different witnesses. Still, we consider the data obtained
in our survey sufficiently robust to draw the conclusion
that ELEs reported from animals are remarkably similar
to those reported from human beings. The close similar
ity between animal and human ELEs might be a sign of
a common physiology underpinning such experiences. In
fact, there is increasing evidence supporting the notion
that on a general level, the mental life of non-human ani
mals, such as higher vertebrates and cephalopods is sim
ilar to that of humans. This is evidenced by similarities in
cognition, play, and problem-solving, including the use of
tools and emotional behavior that involves the secretion
of the same types of neurotransmitters and hormones
known to correlate with specific emotions in humans (for
an overview of these topics, see Brensing, 2018).
Hence, just as the interest in studying ELEs, includ
ing terminal lucidity in humans, is currently increasing,
we believe that further studies into ELEs in animals could
elucidate facets of their lives that have so far received
only little attention among scientists. At the very least,
it would help to understand facets of the dying process
in animals, and especially pets, better, the loss of which
can be felt with similar or even greater grief than the loss
of human family members (Kowalski, 2012). We would
like to encourage further research in this field. It seems
certain that performing systematic and large-scale stud
ies in different languages will elicit many more reports
about unusual occurrences regarding animals during their
last phase of life. They might even include characteristic
groups of cases not yet covered in our preliminary clas
sification. Apart from addressing pet owners and animal
keepers of various kinds, including pet-loss groups in
social media, possible research strategies could include
asking vets how often people called them for euthana
sia and then said their pet has rallied or displayed other
ELEs, or how often the vets have observed animal ELEs
themselves. Likewise, people who look after sick and dy
ing animals in sanctuaries may well have much relevant
experience that they could share. Similarly, one could ask
rat room technicians whether they have noticed rats or
other animals behaving differently soon before they are
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Rupert Sheldrake, Pam Smart, & Michael Nahm
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to be “sacrificed” or ask farmers if they have observed
any difference in the behavior of farm animals before
they are due to be slaughtered. Ideally, the sketched pos
sibilities for further lines of investigation would entail a
prospective study design. One might also conduct sys
tematic studies into animal after-death communications
and even suspected cases of animal reincarnation. We are
convinced that there is still a lot we can learn from our
animal companions.
IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS
Because our study is the first of its kind and is limit
ed in scope, we recommend further research in this field.
We are confident that such studies would elicit many oth
er reports about remarkable behavioral feats of animals
during their last phase of life, thereby elucidating facets
of their lives that have so far received only little atten
tion but help to understand the dying process in animals
better. The conspicuous similarity of end-of-life expe
riences in human beings and non-human animals could
also increase the recognition that animals share an inner
life similar to that of humans, which could lead to a more
respectful treatment of animals. In the Supplementary
Materials, we make all the case studies in our collection
available for anyone who would like to study further ex
amples.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Rupert Sheldrake: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Investigation, Writing – Reviewing and Editing. ORCID:
0000-0001-8814-4014 Pam Smart: Data curation, For
mal analyses. Michael Nahm: Writing – Original Draft,
Methodology, Investigation. ORCID: 0000-0003-1930
9692.
NOTES
1 This case was reported by Vernon Neppe on the website
of the Near-Death Experiences Research Foundation;
https://www.nderf.org/French/snowy_nele.htm.
Supplementary materials associated with this article can
be found at: https://www.sheldrake.org/research/end
of-life-experiences
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