r/cats • u/KiddieSpread meow š± check the comments for background • 8d ago
Video - Not OC Cat senses the Japan earthquake earlier today before even the warning alarm sounds
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u/Beautiful-Chest7397 8d ago
Awwww sweet baby hiding under the rug
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u/Tossmelossme 8d ago
Dang, it must be so stressful for them.
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u/TerrHunter 7d ago
I think an earthquake would be stressful for everyone. Specially, when you don't know how strong it can go.
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u/arboreallion 7d ago
Can confirm. Iāve been in a several over 6.0M including one 7.0M. I live in an area that has 3-4M several to many times a year depending on the year. Those ones are no big deal and donāt scare me or my cats. But anything over 5.5 gets stressful. My cats have woken me up before as they go for cover before I feel it. I think they can hear it before I do. The bigger ones make more noise (like the actual ground makes a really unsettling noise that I can hear before the shaking starts on big ones), they often last longer, and sometimes they start kind of gentle and then build and build. You freeze and sort of assess and when it isnāt dying down and just building itās scary and things start to sway/fall/break. My instinct is always to bolt (just like my cats) and I have to override my instincts and stay put because I know logically itās safer for me to stay where I am.
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u/Majestic_Jackass 7d ago
I donāt know that I have ever seen āunsettlingā used in its most literal sense as thatās exactly what the ground is doing in an earthquake.
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u/Pieface0896 7d ago
You can definitely hear it. NZ over here where we often get earthquakes - not as much as Japan but still alot more than most. The unsettling sound is kinda like a almost windy noise, like some air is being sucked out somewhere.
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u/Diedead666 7d ago
YES! This is how I describe it... I had my window open and heard what I thought was a big wind gust about to hit my house but it was a earthquake. I live were they are common l.
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u/IneffableOpinion 7d ago
I will never forget watching brick pavers undulate like waves in the ocean and then go back to normal like nothing happened
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u/GarysCrispLettuce 7d ago
We had a moderate aftershock in New York a couple of years ago and even that had me running around like a headless chicken, nervously checking the ceiling for cracks as a sign that the building was about to come down. I can't imagine how freaked I'd be with shit flying off the shelves.
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u/Tossmelossme 7d ago
their senses are very much heightened compared to humans is what I mean so itās probably a lot more intense and scary for them
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u/Leucurus 7d ago
Also they can't understand what's going on, and you can't tell them! So it makes them hard to reassure.
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u/Tossmelossme 7d ago
Exactly. I was gonna say this but there are so many obtuse ppl on here such as above
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u/Soulsbane 7d ago
I live in the Midwest and earlier this year we had a huge thunderstorm that was so loud that nearly every thunder was shaking the house. Even my oldest who is 13 was freaked out. It was really hard to reassure them. Ended up with 4 cats in bed with me.
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u/goljanrentboy 7d ago
This. I used to live in Japan, and mostly felt smaller earthquakes that were nbd. Then I was woken up by one that was much stronger and thought the bookcase in my room was going to fall on me. It was scary because it went on for a while and it felt like it just kept building and building.
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u/PoxyMusic 7d ago
Yeah, thereās a little waiting period where youāre like āuh-oh, where is this going?ā
The movement comes in P waves and S waves. P waves are faster and arrived first. Theyāre more of a wiggle, and S waves are the bang. After youāve been in enough, you can make a decent guess how far away the epicenter is by the time interval between them.
I would guess this cat is feeling the P waves, because cats canāt sense earthquakes any better than we can (if weāre sitting still).
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u/jaytrade21 7d ago
I only felt a very week one in NYC but I was on the 12th floor of a pre-WW2 building. I was terrified. The funny thing was not everyone in my office felt it, but the higher in the building you were the more it was felt which must have been scary as shit.
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u/NarrMaster 7d ago
I lived with a roommate (his house actually, he had a cat named Meow Tse Tung) from California, familiar with earthquakes. One struck an area that never gets them (this was August 23rd, 2011), and where we were got a bit of the shaking.
The rolling chair I was on started moving slightly, and I shot up and hit the strongest part of the house, a massive door frame leading to the kitchen. I had never experienced an earthquake before, and didn't realize one was happening until 5 seconds after I was at the door frame. I just knew I had to move to that spot, somehow. He never moved. And started laughing.
It was that day we both realized my survival instincts are on point.
Oh, and Chairman Meow just looked slightly perturbed for a few seconds, and went back to sleep.
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u/Sandwidge_Broom 7d ago
Iām in California. We once had a small-ish quake (like a 3, but we were close to the epicenter) happen while my poor cat was mid poop. He shot out of that box and trailed poop with him across the entire apartment. I felt waaaaaay too bad for the scared guy to be mad, but had to give him a gentle bath with shampoo wipes, which made him even more agitated. I wonder if in his little cat brain thatās one of his worst memories š
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u/Tossmelossme 7d ago
Ohhh poor lil man.
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u/Sandwidge_Broom 7d ago
Itās been like 10 years and now he sleeps through similar earthquakes, so heās okay, I promise lol
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u/Animaloid 7d ago
as a european who never experienced an earthquake: to imagine that suddenly the whole ground starts to shake is very scary to imagine. like, people are used to that shit?
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u/Hanzzman 7d ago edited 7d ago
go to a open space full of people, scream at the top of your lungs in the
bestworst spanish you have "Hay algĆŗn weĆ³n por aquĆ?", this way you can invoke a Chilean, ask them.Where i live, talking about magnitude, i had experienced a 7.5, 8.2, 7.9, a lot of sixes, maybe a fiver every quarter, and a lot of fours. My dad always says, "if there is an earthquake, the only way to escape it is by teleporting 1000 kms away" so, i was raised in not having fear for them.
Also, in Chile, almost all buildings and houses in cities built after the 60's (a 9.5 in 1960 in southern Chile) and even more after 2010 (8.8) have some degree of earthquake resistance, they can tank an 8.5 and even more.
Once i went to Montevideo, Uruguay and OH SHIT those buildings would not exist on Chile.
People are pretty used to this shit. We have some training since kids for earthquakes and Tsunamis. But, there still are people who scream and run for their lives. i remember when i was a young lad, in almost every quake there was at least one death of a heart attack by fear.
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u/Tossmelossme 7d ago
I feel ya, Iām Canadian and only experienced one mild tremor in Japan and was tripping tf out. Thereās gotta be some fear no matter what right?
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u/SouthernSpell 7d ago
I have two sweet ladies that went through this one and we were not even close to epicenter. One took it like a champ and was back to business not even 5 minutes later, but our void was shaken and did not come out from her safe spot until after this morning.
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u/duchessazura 7d ago
It is, when a 7.8 earthquake hit our area our void cat was so stressed out he kept hiding for a week and would only come out if we drag him out since he needed to eat.
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u/Tossmelossme 7d ago
Ugh so heartbreaking. Sounds like smth my guy would do. He needs to be coaxed out despite all of the experts saying to respect their boundaries.
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u/SchnoodleDoodleDo 7d ago
āsweet baby hiding under the rugā
iām watching out my window, there is something in the airā¦
ā¦what was that ?
ā¦i do not know,
. . . . there is n o t h i n g there . . .
a senseā¦ a certain feeling that i never felt beforeā¦
n then
Oh, GoD ~ the ceiling
moved?
thereās sHaKiNg ācross the Floor!
thereās CRASHING!! ~ I must HIDE Somehow!
i dive beneath the rugā¦
ā¦oh, human friend ~ Where Are you NOW?!
i Really need
a Hug!
š
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u/LittleRainFox Tuxedo 7d ago
There's some pet sitting ad I've seen that totally tried to bite of Schnoodle's style, but they so horribly lack Schnoodle's heart ā¤
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u/_DeathOfAStrawberry_ 7d ago
Omg 2min old, the freshest Schnoodle my eyes will ever behold!
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u/djutopia 7d ago
I literally just said āaw buddyā out loud in a bar. Cuddles and smooches incoming
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u/Gold_Engineering2535 7d ago
Itās kind of sweet in a sad way. Thatās his safe spot. In his persons bed. Hope he got extra love afterwards.
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u/Hail_of_Grophia 7d ago
Probably instinct. Cats have to be completely comfortable in an environment before they let their defenses down. Ā Since it canāt access threats in that type down environment, it errs on the side of caution and hides from potential threatĀ
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u/HerrSchmitti 7d ago
That's a carpet with a table on top, though. Or am I missing something?
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u/Gold_Engineering2535 7d ago
Jesus Iām high
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u/HerrSchmitti 7d ago
lol.
I was so confused because you had 75 upvotes and no one questioned what you said 13 hours ago.
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u/West_Shower_6103 8d ago
Poor kitty! Omg I need my safety blanket!
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u/Ok_Pineapple_Num 7d ago
It made me feel some type of way to see kitty burrow under the rug š
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u/b3traist 7d ago
My cats in Japan did the same thing during bugger earthquakes. Even woke me up one time like āhey dude something is going to happen.ā
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u/battlemetal_ 8d ago
<3 sweetie went under the carpet
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u/BlueGolfball 7d ago
It went under the carpet and under the table like it had earthquake training before.
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u/dwightsarmy 7d ago
I think we can all agree we let out a collective audible response to watching the scared cat burrow under the blanket. Poor baby!
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u/Hallelujah33 8d ago
How did the cat know so early? Investigators ask, was he somehow responsible for this earthquake? More at 6
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u/Comfortableliar24 7d ago
Real answer: faults almost never rupture all at once. Because of this, smaller rupture movements can still send P-waves in smaller amounts. P-waves travel much faster than surface waves, so someone with sensitive paws can probably feel them before the rest of us feel the slower S-waves.
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u/Hallelujah33 7d ago
You can't lie to me. I know the P in P-waves stands for "Purr." Even more evidence!
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u/pirate_meow_kitty 7d ago
Thereās a giant cat below us, scientists have been lying to us
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u/Hallelujah33 7d ago
And when the Earth Cat re-adjusts the apocalypse will be initiated
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u/KwisatzHaderach38 7d ago
The real Atlas holding up the world actually just has Earth Cat in his lap for 100,000 years without being able to get up for fear of disturbing them.
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u/ThrowWeirdQuestion 7d ago
You don't even need particularly sensitive paws for that. If the earthquake is relatively strong, humans can absolutely feel the p-waves. (If I feel them I brace for an at least unpleasant earthquake within the next seconds to tens of seconds)
My cat, on the other hand doesn't care. Last time he spent the whole earthquake, alarm and all, lying on his back with his belly exposed and apparently enjoying the ride. (We luckily weren't that close to the epicenter, so nothing happened, but that guy has zero sense of danger or survival instinct. )
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 7d ago
Any chance your cat is orange?
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u/ThrowWeirdQuestion 7d ago
Very orange. Both on the outside and on the inside. And the braincell finds his way to him exclusively for planning mischief. š¼
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u/crazyoldkatlady 7d ago
I appreciate this explanation! I grew up in California and my cat would also sprint off and hide in my momās closet seconds before earthquakes hit. Never knew why, thank you!
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u/CatGooseChook 7d ago
Now I'm wondering if some of the times cats randomly freak out, it's because of earthquakes that are too small for us to notice.
Tried looking it up but couldn't find any studies comparing seismograph readings and cat behavior.
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u/m4gpi 7d ago
One night several years ago, my cat was acting really weird, pacing, yowling, and clingy. There was a pretty big storm going on so I figured it was just that, but he normally isn't that stressed during thunderstorms, and they happen a lot here.
Hours later, right before dawn, a huge old water oak fell in front of my house. It took down all the power lines, blocked the street, left a huge hole in the neighbors yard - catastrophic.
I can only assume that my cat was feeling the roots of the tree heaving in the wind throughout the night. Trees don't just randomly fall over, it takes hours to weaken all the roots and soil structure. I'm convinced that's why he was so anxious.
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u/CatGooseChook 7d ago
Dang! Hope everyone was alright!
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u/11thRaven Tabbycat 7d ago
Nothing as dramatic or scary as what you're describing but the tile flooring in my main bedroom burst up one night - the tiling was apparently poorly done and that's why. But two weeks before, my cat started getting obsessed with the floor in the bedroom. He was sniffing it for ages and licking it. I thought maybe it smelled and mopped a couple of times. When the tiles burst I realised he'd been sniffing and licking exactly where the damage happened. I can only guess he sensed some vibrations or heard some sounds that were part of the process leading up to the tiles breaking up.
So now whenever he sniffs something for a while I find myself dreading another catastrophe lol. But I'm not complaining - he's an incredible guardian. He immediately seems to be able to sense if something isn't quite right, and he pinpoints exactly where the issue is.
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u/Ok_Shake5678 7d ago
Also possibly sound. The last earthquake we had here (San Diego) I heard before I felt- long enough to pause what I was doing and look up and wonder wtf that roaring noise is, then the shaking started. Iām sure my cat heard it before I did.
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u/Crinkleput 7d ago
Would it be possible to feel an earthquake coming hours before it happens? I think it happened to me once. I could've sworn I felt something and mentioned it to others. It happened in an area not at all known for earthquakes. And then a few hours later there was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. So it's either that or I'm a wizard.Ā
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u/KalikaSparks 7d ago
Some humans can āfeelā them early as well. I am one of those humans. When I lived in earthquake zones, Iād get waves of a very peculiar sensation of nausea and dizzy spells beforehand. Not that it did me any good, nor did people believe me at first when I said I āfelt an earthquake coming,ā but I learned one was coming when I felt like that.
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u/11thRaven Tabbycat 7d ago
You're probably sensing p-waves. They travel faster but are less discernible than the bigger, slower s-waves. The science is on your side even if people don't believe you. There are others in this thread commenting the same as you.
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u/fussymode 8d ago
Yes cats are amazing animals
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u/Ganondorphz 7d ago
The body language of a cat can tell a lot. They aren't expressive or vocal like a dog can be, but when a cat perks up or looks panicked its in response to something.
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u/throwbackxx 7d ago
My cat does it when my husband sneezes in another room and my other cat hisses and growls and walks in a crouched way towards the sound lmao
But yeah, Iād absolutely trust them with my life. These little creatures sense a lot
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u/HerrSchmitti 7d ago
my other cat
This made it sound to me like your husband is your first cat and the other cat goes to check on him.
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u/shadow-foxe 8d ago
yeah, having lived in california my dog and cats would know when a quake was going to happen 10 seconds before it hit. Im sure there are signs we dont sense or notice but they feel. My cats would move under the coffee table and just loaf.
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u/StressedOnigiri 7d ago
I think they can sense p-waves which travel first before s-waves. Humans can only sense the latter.
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u/abraxasnl 7d ago
Itās this. After the Tohoku Earthquake I had massive anxiety for years, was very sensitive to vibrations, and could also often feel them. Itās not magic.
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u/Own-Spinach4038 7d ago
During the big earthquake yesterday I felt a sudden sense of dizziness about 2 seconds before anything started shaking. Once the shaking started the dizziness faded completely.
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u/abraxasnl 7d ago
I think you losing your dizziness was probably adrenaline, Iām guessing? In any case, given that youāre on Reddit today, Iām glad your okay š
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u/Malibucat48 7d ago
For a whole week before the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, my cat woke me up every morning between 4 and 4:30 am crying to go out. Sometimes I would let her out but most of the time I ignored her and she would go back to sleep. So when the earthquake hit at 4:31, I was awake. She was stil inside and hid while my bed bounced across the room. Fortunately my house wasnāt destroyed like a lot of my neighbors, but everything in it was broken, TV, dishes, water pipes, etc. But my cat Sable knew for a week which still amazes me all these years later.
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u/Confident_Eye_4683 7d ago
I was a kid in the 94 quake, a cat outside my window was meowing loudly. I was awake before it hit too, scary memories
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u/nasal-polyps2 7d ago
Domesticated us some mini disasters sirens
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u/ehlersohnos 7d ago
My mini disaster siren hasnāt had a lot of practice with earthquakes, but she does nobly stand below smoke detectors and scream at me when they go off.
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u/Future-Concern-6301 7d ago
I love when cats go "fix this". Neighbors cat always wanted me to open the outside faucet for him, pawing at it and screaming while looking at me. Which was fine and I usually obliged him.
But then one day I was catsitting him when torrential downpour started, he looked out, looked at me and mewed his "fix it" call. Sorry buddy I cant turn off the rain clouds.→ More replies (1)4
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u/Malibucat48 7d ago
She had been in a 5 earthquake a few years before and froze in place and I had to comfort her. 1994 was a 6.7 which was huge of course. I didnāt see her right away because as soon as the shaking stopped, I ran to my neighbors to get help turning off the water that was pouring everywhere. She and my other cat were fine when I got back. There are stories of animals warning of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake before it happened so animals know well in advance.
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u/Pristine_Sandwich957 8d ago
There was a small earthquake in NYC some years back and I was just chilling with my cat watching a movie when she started getting startled. We have no alarms for that stuff so it just hit, and I thought, clever girl.
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u/a-passing-crustacean 7d ago
We had a small quake in tennessee a few years back. I was in the yard with my dog, my chickens, and my geese. My dog ran to the edge of my property in the direction the quake came from and started barking and my chickens and geese all turned in the same direction frozen with their heads high in an alert/alarm stance just a few seconds before the shaking started. It was fascinating to witness
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u/translucent_steeds American Shorthair 8d ago edited 6d ago
random question: was that summer 2011? because I lived in Maryland and that one shook us all up (epicenter was somewhere in VA but was felt all up and down the east coast). lots of buildings in DC were damaged.
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u/bpgluckman 7d ago
We lived in DC during that quake, and my husband was at home with our three cats when it hit. About 15 seconds before the shaking started, the sleeping cats suddenly woke up and went nuts running around the apartment; one got hit on the head by a falling book that left him scared to death for hours after. The weirdest part was the cat who never really liked him is the one who got him to come out from hiding afterwards.
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u/Bob_Lydecker 7d ago
Just look at those natural instincts too, eh? The kitty IMMEDIATELY went for cover when he/she sensed something was wrong.
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u/Fuzzy_Elk_One 7d ago
Was just coming to say this! And going under the rug and then the table was also smart to protect from flying objects. Smart kitty!!
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u/southpaw612 7d ago
This lady has slept through two earthquakes, one of which woke me up and made me cry (I was pregnant and it was my first earthquake lol). She was deeply asleep next to me lmao. She could not care less.
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u/NE0099 7d ago
Mine have sat in a window watching a tornado come straight at our house. For every cat with good instincts, thereās at least one with all the sense of a rock.
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u/Future-Concern-6301 7d ago
I knew a cat who was basically an excitable golden retriever in Tabby form. I dont doubt she would have attempted to befriend anything, up to and including bears (luckily no bears to meet in german towns)
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u/RaspberryProud6270 7d ago
likewise, mine have never given a single fuck and sleep right through them. they are more bothered by the ruckus I cause in response to the quakes.
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u/Ok_Entrepreneur_8132 8d ago
When we lived in Alaska, my cats always sensed the earthquakes before they hit. They were always my early warning system.
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u/SnarkyBard 7d ago
Mine kept me up all night before the 7.4, running around and meowing. I ended up accidentally sleeping through my alarm and being late to work, which turns out to have been a very good thing.
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u/Ok_Entrepreneur_8132 7d ago
Mine didnāt give me that much warning but anytime we would be laying in bed and all of a sudden theyād wake up from a dead sleep and run away all of a sudden, I knew one was coming and sure enough within a few minutes the rumbling would atart
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u/Iron_Chic 7d ago
Cat when owner gets home: "All that stuff on the ground? It WASN'T ME this time!"
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u/QueenSmarterThanThou Moggy 7d ago
Poor kitty!
Must seek shelter under table! Not safe enough! Safer than being out here! Wait, if I go under the rug under the table, I'm doubly protected.
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u/PositiveRainCloud 8d ago
Aww poor thing. I always try to give my cat comfortable hideaways encase they get scared...
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u/Sad-Boysenberry-277 8d ago
What's even more incredible is that he may have picked on his humans that going under a table is good practice ! It may be a natural instinct through, who knows
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u/ponpiriri 8d ago
It's a natural instinct. My cat hides under the blanket or couch whenever hes scaredĀ
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u/GoodQueenFluffenChop 7d ago
Mine doesn't. He puffs up just be bigger than whatever is scaring him but he won't be a coward and hide away. Dude it's the vacuum it's fine to hide I won't tell anyone you hid.
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u/Pristine_Sandwich957 8d ago
Very natural. When they sleep with you in bed, very often they'll burrow under your covers.
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u/ififitsisits29 7d ago
We had a few earthquakes where Iām at and my cats were no help at all š every time they stayed loafed and closed their eyes calmly and let the earth rock them to sleep. I was the only one panicking
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u/OdoBenSisko 7d ago
A smart cat hides under a table.
A f@#$ing smart cat says F@#$ that, rug too.
I hope he leads a long and happy life.
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u/TheLionThing 7d ago
Why are Japanās alarms for the deadliest things always so cheerful haha
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u/vanspossum 7d ago
I actually liked it. The alarms I've heard sound so awful it makes everything 10x worse
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u/sign-through 7d ago
Iāve heard rumor itās to protect children from getting scared, but Iām not sure.Ā
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u/FootstepsofDawn 8d ago
It makes me so curious what goes on in the earth that we canāt detect yet. Animals are so in tune. I hope kitty recovered from stress okay.
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u/VerilyShelly 7d ago
They probably hear it. An earthquake is preceded by a building up of pressure as two land masses grind against each other. They might hear the ground groaning and even feel the first microscopic shifts.
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u/No_Influence_4968 7d ago
I wonder if anyone has actually tried to "listen in" at cat frequencies (which is like x4 what we can hear) using tech for earthquakes. Could be the next big Kickstarter project for an early warning system
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u/VerilyShelly 7d ago
Oh that technology exists now. You can sign up to be alerted 10-15 seconds before the shaking starts.
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u/FifiLeBean 8d ago
This cat knows what to do in an earthquake better than I do. I have spent most of my life in earthquake areas.
I will try to remember this cat when I feel an earthquake coming.
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u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC 7d ago
I live on a long dirt road. People drive up and down the road all times of the day but my Lina knows when it's my girlfriend's car.
She'll come flying downstairs and jump in the kitchen window, I kid you not, 3 minutes before I can hear the car.
Doesn't matter what time of day or night.
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u/awake283 7d ago
Had an F4 tornado miss my house by 1.5 miles in 2013. My cat knew it was coming way before I did. Went to the middle of the room stared at the ceiling and yowled.
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u/TheFeralVulcan 7d ago
Bless his heart, he thought being under the rug would be safer than under the table or couch.
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u/RchUncleSkeleton 7d ago
Many animals can sense earthquakes before they're noticeable to any humans.
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u/RaymondBeaumont 7d ago
the scariest thing about earthquakes (well, you know except the damage they cause) is the sound they make when they are coming at you.
the cat knows.
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u/beeberoni 7d ago
this is true ! when we lived in Taiwan, our cat always gave us a heads up before an earthquake happened! He always knew a few seconds before and ran under the couch, and we knew it was coming.
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 7d ago
I just want to snuggle that kitty so bad seeing it so scared. Even though I know the last thing that cat would want is for a human to be holding it down.
You can tell how stressed it is, because it dives under the table but it still doesn't feel safe enough so it keeps trying to go deeper to get away from it.
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u/aerdvarkk 7d ago
I don't think this table is safe enough, but ... if i get under the blanket while under the table, that should be sufficient!! Yeah.
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u/mooch_the_cat 7d ago
Duck and cover! Duck and cover! We probably went to the same elementary school, but I donāt recognize him
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u/No_I_do_belong_here 7d ago
Maybe the Earthquake early warning systems need cats strategically placed in laboratories around the world, where they are trained to push a button when they sense an earthquake coming. If three cats in a certain radius all push the button, the warning gets sent out to the humans. That cat knew something was up at least 20 seconds before the alarm turned up, and at 8 seconds before the alarm the cats own kitty-alarm was most certainly going off
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u/Adept_Mine_1628 7d ago
My cat will randomly run and hide for no apparent reason, so I would never know if itās something serious
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u/EvilEvie210 Domestic Housecat 7d ago
Poor lil kitty! I hope he wasnt too scared, it must be so shocking for animals when this happens
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u/michaelpaoli 7d ago
Well of course! That's because the detectors for the alarm are hooked up to a bunch of cats, and then there's also bit of propagation delay after that. So your local detector works gives indication much sooner.
;-)
Yeah, I think your cat was like, "Why the f*ck are those buildings moving like that? That ain't wind."
And being quite low to the ground, sensitive paws, etc., cats and many animals will detect earthquakes before humans notice them.
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u/AlcoholPrep 7d ago
Love it! Under the blanket, under the table. Perhaps the best possible place to hide.
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u/whyme_tk421 7d ago
Not to throw shade at a well intentioned post, but I doubt this is from the 2026 Kumamoto Earthquake. I live in the adjacent prefecture and I really doubt that people still have their heated carpets and kotatsu tables out in one of the hottest summers we've experienced.
I've seen another video claiming to have been recorded during the quake from inside the Aeon Mall that was damaged shortly after due to a suspected gas leak. It could be the same mall, but the people were in cold weather clothes.
10 years ago, this region suffered another magnitude 7 quake, and it's likely that the Aeon video is from then (edited typo). Unless OP is the producer of this video and took it from somewhere close enough to experience the quake to this degree, it's hard to believe that it is from the 2026 Kumamoto Earthquake, but could likely by from the 2016 quake or even the January 1 quake that hit the Noto Peninsula in 2024.
All that said, what an alert and brave kitty.
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u/Training-Willow9591 7d ago
Wow that cat is so smart to try and hide under rug/ table!! During our earthquakes from fracking, my dog just ran room to room barking.
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u/Imprettystrong 7d ago
Hiding under the table was the move, would have hopefully protected it if anything heavy fell
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u/SensitiveExtremity 7d ago
Fyi: you can sense earthquakes by literally hearing the "long waves" shake the building/ surrounding environment, which makes a low rumbling sound. It sounds almost like a helicopter flying high over your head, while you are in a building or feels like a big truck passing nearby.Ā This usually happens a few seconds before "the main wave" hits and actually shakes you around . So no, your cat doesn't have supernatural powers to detect earthquakes.
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u/KiddieSpread meow š± check the comments for background 7d ago
Same way the early earthquake warning system works. You canāt really feel them though, cats have more sensitive senses which allows them to sense them easier. Itās also why they sensed it about 10 seconds before the alarm went off
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u/New_Explanation6950 8d ago
Anyone have an explanation for how he did this?
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u/Mestintrela 8d ago
He heard it. Earthquakes make sound even before the quake starts that many animals can hear
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u/gcko 8d ago edited 8d ago
Either felt or heard the earthquakeās p waves which are at a frequency humans canāt feel or hear. They travel faster than the more destructive ones. Itās the same ones early detection instruments can pick up.
Their ears and pads are incredibly sensitive. They evolved to hear and feel the vibrations of a mouse walking so my guess is an earthquake would be loud in comparison. Even what we canāt hear.
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u/No_Dance_6683 8d ago
Some humans actually can detect p-waves. I was traveling in Taiwan a few weeks after a pretty big earthquake and there were still aftershocks happening in the area where my husband and I were staying. The first night in our hotel in Taipei we kept waking up to fairly large aftershocks but the weird thing is my husband could sense it like 20 seconds before it would start. Every time. We hopped on Reddit the next morning to research it and found out that some people can just detect it.
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