If an animal does appear on the doorstep, it may be because it has followed a scent trail, but it's very rare that it is more than a few miles. When it comes to helping people, Beaver says, some pets are genuinely gifted. Dogs and cats have been known to alert some people when a seizure is about to begin. Dogs are very aware of what is normal and not normal behavior in their owners. They can sense the muscles tightening up and the oncoming of spasms and other things that might signal the onset of a seizure.
Dogs are great about reading body language of their owners and can sense a 'shift' change in people.
Sometimes, she says, animals can detect danger and they notify their owners accordingly. There are hundreds of cases of dogs or cats awakening their owners to alert them of a house fire or gas leak. What they are doing in a case like a fire is showing concern for their own pack members, which happen to be people. Beaver says cats can hear ultra-high frequency sounds better than dogs or humans. Dogs, meanwhile, have highly developed noses, and can detect smells humans can't.