A smart cat saved a woman's life (3 photos)

Woman diagnosed with breast cancer.





A smart cat saved a woman's life by warning her about a cancerous tumor.

Saima Afzal was confused by Cat's behavior when he kept pressing on the same spot on her chest. The Maine Coon-tabby mix climbed onto Saima's chest despite being pushed away.

Saima, 52, initially attributed the pain to a pleurisy diagnosis, but discovered a lump that she says she would not have found if Kat had not intervened. The four-legged friend spotted something wrong, which turned out to be breast cancer.

Saima underwent a lumpectomy and subsequent lymph node removal surgery, and says Kat saved her life.



Surprisingly, the cat wasn't even hers, as Afzal had taken him in when her brother was forced to leave the animal behind for university, and her other sisters suffered from allergies.

She said: "I think it was fate. Imagine if I hadn't answered my brother's phone call that day? I think he was meant to be in my life. I took him in and he thanked me by saving my life. He did that for a while and I started getting neck pain and headaches and I couldn't figure out why.

It turned out it was because of the way the tumours were growing. He actually pinpointed the tumour. He kept kneading and pressing on the same area. He would sit on my stomach and chest and I would push him away because it would hurt even more."

Saima, an activist who specialises in violence against women and girls, called her doctor in May 2017. The following month, she was sent for tests, which revealed she had stage 2, invasive stage 1 cancer. The woman had the tumour removed, as well as all the lymph nodes under her right arm, and has had radiotherapy. She is also taking oestrogen blockers.

She said: "I wasn't even supposed to have him, I got him from my brother. He was going to university and they didn't allow pets there and my other sisters have allergies so he couldn't stay at my parents' house. I was allergic too at first but I didn't have the heart to give him to a charity because I read somewhere how many cats had to be put down because charities couldn't cope. So I stocked up on antihistamine and he's been my beautiful little baby ever since."



Let's recall the hypotheses and facts about why a cat lies down on a sore spot, and cats sleep with a person. Many have heard about the healing properties of cats, for example, that the animal knows where a person hurts, so it lies down on the sore spot and heals it.