ET Pet subjects Celia Haddon answers your pet queries

I found my dog in Japan, after she had been abandoned as a puppy, and she had to go into quarantine, which she hated. I used to go to visit her at the kennels, until they asked me not to because it took a week to calm her down afterwards. So I decided I would just ring regularly to check on her progress.

During this time, I had a dream that she had escaped from the kennels and was scratching at my door. I was pleased in the dream, but noticed that she had injured her hindleg quite badly.

Next morning, when I woke, I rang the kennels to see how she was. They told me that she was not very well because during the night she had been trying to escape and, in doing so, had injured her hindleg.

This was exactly what I had dreamed and it completely convinced me of the telepathic communication between humans and dogs. F T, Hove, East Sussex THIS experience, in which the dream matched the reality of what was simultaneously happening miles away, cannot, like so many reports of telepathy, be explained by some other factor. Another reader had a rather similar experience while on holiday in Australia, having left her two dogs behind with friends.

"One day, out of the blue, my Westie came vividly into my mind," she writes. "I phoned home to enquire about him and was told that, on the day he had come into my mind, he had been taken to the vet."

Many readers have a very close and intimate understanding with their dog, in which information is transmitted both ways, whether by telepathy or by body language. "I have developed a means of telepathic communication with my Belgian shepherd over the years, which works extremely well," writes another reader.

"Rather than using hand signals or thinking verbal instructions, I visualise a complete picture of something and he picks up on this."

This two-way communication is difficult when the owner has to make a decision about putting down a loved dog. "When the vet came, Teddy knew him and wagged his tail and I had to put up a mental brick wall between my dog and me, so that he wasn't frightened about what was to happen," remembers a reader.

Humbug and Charlie, our two cats, will have to spend up to three months in a cattery while rebuilding work is carried out on our home. It has been a difficult decision, but we feel that it is better than subjecting them to the dangers of building work and a constant stream of strangers in the house. They have spent holidays at the cattery and have superb care there.

Should we visit them and do you have any suggestions for reintroducing them to what may have become unfamiliar territory? A K

Putting cats into a cattery, rather than risking the disruption of their home territory, is a good decision, particularly for sensitive cats. A traumatic experience at home might mean they would never feel safe there again.

Cat owners often think their cat will prefer being left in their own house with a sitter or neighbour coming in. But sometimes they are more upset by this than they would be in a cattery and start territory-marking with urine.

Quite inadvertently, the sitter or neighbour has done something that makes them feel their core home territory is unsafe.

Decide to visit them either frequently or rarely. On your first visits, your cats will be upset when you arrive, but don't take them home. One way of reducing this disappointment would be to turn up, say, twice a week, preferably at the same times and days of the week, so that it becomes a routine for them and therefore less stressful.

The alternative is not to visit at all. But three months is a long time to leave them. If you decide to do this, it would be safer to check on the cattery care by arriving unexpectedly a couple of times. This will mean two disappointments, but you will pick up any signs that the cattery is not as good as you think.

Treat the cats' arrival home as if you were introducing them to a new house. Keep them in one room with a litter tray and food until you feel they are relaxed enough to want to explore. For some cats, that will mean only a few hours; for more sensitive types, it might mean a day or two.

You can also make the newly decorated house more cat-friendly by spraying it at chin height with Feliway, a chemical obtainable from vets.

Don't let them out of the house until you are sure that they feel relaxed when indoors.

Celia Haddon regrets that she cannot answer all readers' letters personally. All sick animals should, of course, be taken to a vet. Please email your questions to: pets@telegraph.co.uk

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2001

Answers

I am told by those that know me, and know my horses, I have a mental link with all three of them, I will wake up and feel drwn to go to the brn and usually something does indeed need my attention. (I even have an intercom, but Dan tends to shut it off!)

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001