DEAR READERS: Dogs, cats, humans and other animals sometimes have the ability to engage in remote sensing. Through what I have termed the "empathosphere," animals are able to sense when a family member has a serious accident or dies before anyone else knows. They show evident distress at the time of the accident or death, which is later confirmed.

Empathosphere connectedness and the associated sympathetic resonance enables animals to locate loved ones in places where they have never been before, such as a new home miles away from where they were living.

One journalist, playing devil's advocate, asked me if this is just coincidence. She meant sheer chance, because coincidence is precisely the metaphysical dimension of these phenomena, for which I am unable to give a physiological explanation. Scientific understanding of brain function is still limited, but I believe that some quantum field phenomenon coupled with affection and empathy may be involved.

I would like to hear from readers whose animals have demonstrated such remote sensing abilities -- the most common being able to anticipate when a family member is coming home, not on a regular, conditioned learning basis but at irregular, unexpected times. Some earlier accounts from readers are posted on my website, DrFoxVet.com

DEAR DR. FOX: We have a 16 1/2-year-old rat terrier we got from a family who no longer wanted him when he was a puppy. He is almost deaf and partially blind, and he has arthritis in his back legs and one front leg.

My main issue is that nine months ago he started urinating and defecating in the house. He just stopped telling us when he wanted to go outside -- he squats wherever he is at the moment. I have several male wraps with extra pads, and they help to an extent with the urinating, but not at all with his defecating.

I took him to the vet in February for his semiannual checkup and explained the situation to her; she said it was just part of the aging process. She said other than the accidents, my dog is healthy. He's on heartworm medication, flea/tick medication and Dasuquin for his arthritis. We tried Rimadyl for his arthritis, but it didn't help him. The vet told me to have cleanup stations positioned around the house and to leave him outside to try to help keep the mess outdoors. I've been doing what she said, but it's just getting worse each day. He used to sleep until we got up in the morning, but now he gets up at 6 a.m. for his breakfast. If I don't get downstairs in time, I am met with quite a mess on the floor. I tried feeding him a little more food before bedtime, but all that did was create more of a mess in the house for me. He doesn't have one particular area where he goes -- it can be anywhere in the house. The rest of the day continues just as it started.

He has gotten angrier in his old age. When we first got him, he was aggressive with males and seemed to be protective of me. He got better, but never quite got along as well with men as he did women. When I pick him up now to put him outside, he growls and tries to bite me -- he does this with my husband, too. I've noticed that when I pick him up to bring him inside, he doesn't get upset at all. While he's outside, he walks back and forth in a line waiting to come back in the house. He will urinate quickly when I put him down in the grass, but sometimes it takes a while for him to defecate. He stopped walking with us a few months ago; he seems to have no interest in it anymore.

Do you have any advice to help me with this situation? I never could have imagined the last nine months being like this. -- J.M.P., Centreville, Va.

DEAR J.M.P.: Your letter is very important to dog (and cat) owners whose beloved companions are relatively healthy in terms of heart, kidney and liver functions but are now incontinent, becoming blind or deaf, and are more fearful and aggressive because of painful arthritis, sensory and cognitive impairment, and other age-related issues.

My wife and I went through the same situation for months with our 17 1/2-year-old dog, Lizzie -- she was a lost puppy my wife, Deanna Krantz, rescued in Jamaica. Like you, we were exhausted and devoted caregivers. We called in a second opinion from a veterinarian specializing in hospice care. Soon after, she set us all free, administering in-home euthanasia while we held Lizzie and said goodbye to her in this life.

I feel that this is the path for you to take with your dog, considering the quality of life of all involved.

Check my website, DrFoxVet.com, for my article on hospice care for pets, and look for another veterinarian in your area who does house calls and can help you along this final path.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: Without a computer keyboard, I must revert to an old-fashioned letter requesting information on your book, "Supercat." I read your column in my local paper.

I found three kittens in a window ledge four years ago. Their eyes were half open, so apparently they were just born. My wife and I fed them from a bottle. We have learned to love them. One was killed, so there are two remaining. The female loves me, and the male loves my wife -- I guess that's the way it should be.

We are looking forward to hearing from you and obtaining information pertaining to "Supercat." -- W.C.G., Cumberland, Md.

DEAR W.C.G.: You did well hand-feeding those orphaned kittens. Now you are enjoying the fruits of your compassion.

My "Animal Doctor" column reaches out to many parts of the U.S., and letters from readers give me hope that there are good, caring people out there looking out for the well-being of animals.

A number of my readers do not have computers to access the many books I've written concerning animals and nature. All you need to find my books is my name and the book title. Go to your local bookstore, and someone there can order you a copy from the publisher -- if it's not on the shelves.

It is very helpful for all prospective pet owners to read up about the basic needs and proper care of the animal they have in their homes, from cats and dogs to guinea pigs and goldfish. Everyone with an animal has a duty to provide proper care.

Real books are almost becoming a thing of the past as people surf the Internet for information and purchase e-books that they can read on their computer screen. Several of my own books (including the old best-sellers "Understanding Your Dog" and "Understanding Your Cat") are now available for a nominal fee in e-book format. This is the wave of the future -- and it does save trees!

DEAR DR. FOX: My 3-year-old female pug has had three urinary tract infections (UTIs) in the past six months. We finally seem to have gotten rid of the last one after a six-week round of antibiotics. However, after the antibiotics, she still had struvite crystals in her urine. Also, the antibiotics make her sick, so she vomits after most of her meals.

Her vet would like her to be on a prescription diet, but that contains ingredients that she doesn't do well on (chicken). I would also like to avoid the dry kibble if at all possible. I feed her a homemade diet. She gets a variety of meats; she gets acid reflux with poultry, but eats beef, buffalo, lamb and salmon. I alternate her veggies among broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans and squash. She gets either rice or oatmeal. She takes a multivitamin daily. Since she was having UTIs, I added cranberry powder to her diet.

A friend told me that I shouldn't give her rice or oatmeal. Is that a problem? Do you have any other advice? I tried the diet on your website and she likes it as long as I leave out the kelp. Should I be doing anything else? -- K.B., Alexandria, Va.

DEAR K.B.: Certain breeds seem to be more prone to develop struvite crystals and stones (uroliths) than others. But two main contributing factors are too much alkaline in the diet and the dog not drinking sufficient water. Those are easily fixable.

Give your dog a canned dog food and also a home-prepared diet minus any cereals or grains -- these tend to make the urine alkaline, which potentiates struvite crystal formulation. Cat and dog foods with high fiber contents -- often used to help reduce weight in obese pets -- may also promote struvite crystal formulation.

For more details about this common problem in dogs and cats, see my website, DrFoxVet.com. In the latest versions of my home-prepared foods, I have omitted the seaweed ingredient (kelp) because of concerns over heavy metal contamination and excess iodine affecting thyroid function.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

This July, an international consortium of behavioral and brain scientists at a Cambridge, England, conference wrote "The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness." This document asserts that animals -- mammals, birds and even insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g., octopus) -- possess states of attentiveness and sleep; have decision-making abilities; can experience emotional states much as humans do; and, like us, are conscious beings possessing awareness and exhibiting deliberate, intentional behaviors. From my own doctoral research on behavior, development and the effects of domestication of dogs compared to wolves, coyotes and foxes, I can assert that wolves are fundamentally no different from our domesticated canine companions in terms of their awareness and capacity to establish enduring emotional bonds associated with empathy. They show devoted caregiving behavior to their young and to injured companions, and mourn their death. Just like the family dog, wolves show fear, anxiety, depression, joyful anticipation, affectionate greeting and playful invitation.

Millions of people who love their dogs have a natural affinity and respect for the wolf. Others reject "big, bad wolf" folklore because they know something about wolf intelligence and highly evolved cooperative pack society and social dynamics. In the words of naturalist Henry Breston, wolves, like other creatures, "are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

Many Minnesotans who embrace such sentiment and ethics voiced opposition to proposed legislation to legalize the trapping and trophy hunting of wolves, knowing how these animals would suffer from such human predation. Nineteen days after Gov. Mark Dayton signed an omnibus bill approving this legislation, the state's Department of Natural Resources announced that it would accept public comments directed to its website, but that there would be no final public hearing. Some 5,809 people opposed and 1,542 supported what the governor had signed, though it was too late for any repeal or referendum.

Just because wolves are wild, why should they not enjoy the same protection under state animal welfare statutes as our dogs -- they are no less sentient and can suffer the same way. Wolves who are shot and not killed instantly suffer injuries leading to a slow death or become permanently disabled. Those caught in traps and snares will be in agony and terror before they escape by chewing off a paw or are killed by the trapper. The emotional loss and social strife to packmates losing leaders and relatives would be detrimental to pack integrity, hunting success and survival.

The law now recognizes that dogs can suffer physically and psychologically and are not mere objects of personal property but subjects of considerable emotional value, worthy of compensation in cases of neglect, cruelty and killing. Any person deliberately trapping or snaring dogs or shooting them for sport would be liable for prosecution. That wolves are now essentially state property, no longer protected by the government as an endangered or threatened species, does not erase the fact that the wolf is of great emotional, aesthetic and spiritual significance as a symbol of all that is wild and free. Wolves serve as a sacred totem to traditional Native Americans -- many of whom voiced opposition to Minnesota's wolf hunting and trapping legislation.

To ecologists and conservationists, the wolf is an indicator species of healthy ecosystems and one of the best wildlife managers, keeping deer herds healthy through population control. In Minnesota, this can mean competition with 250,000 deer hunters, so hungry wolves prey on livestock, for which farmers are compensated by the state. In 2011, almost 250 wolves were killed for preying on livestock and entering private land. Add this figure to the proposed hunting and trapping limit of 400 wolves out of a questionable, if not overestimated, population of 3,000 wolves in Minnesota, it is possible that one quarter of the Minnesota wolf population could be killed and injured in the 2012 hunting and trapping season.

With a reported 23,000 hunters and trappers paying $4 to enter the lottery for a wolf killing license to the Department of Natural Resources, wolves will help replenish state coffers. In-state residents -- 98 percent of those getting licenses -- will pay $30 if they win a license, and out-of-state winners will pay $250. "Wildlife must pay its own way," and "regulated hunting is the best conservation" are wildlife farming claims that amount to a death tax on the wolf, whose killing by sport hunters in Alaska is touted by outfitters as "helping with predator control."

Wolves are regarded as state property on public lands, but public trust is betrayed when the protection of wolf and wilderness is sacrificed for the pleasure and profit of an anarchistic minority whose ethically unexamined activities are sanctioned by the laws they enact to justify and protect what they deem culturally acceptable. Anarchism, the antithesis of democratic process, flourishes when policymakers dismiss public polls and referendums because of the demographic bias of larger urban versus rural populations. Wolves have been long vilified, persecuted and feared, often for understandable reasons in times past. They are a highly evolved species, far more ancient than we humans, with their own social rituals, affiliations and intelligent survival strategies. Surely we can evolve ourselves as a society and culture to put an end to killing them for sport and for their fur -- reasons legitimized not by science or ethics, but by the principles of power, profit and pleasure.

I like to believe that we, as a species and a nation, are not incapable of working toward peace and harmony with other nations and species. Our relationship with the wolf today may well predict our own future and fate of the Earth, which will be determined by the measure of our compassion, humility and respect for all beings, human and nonhuman, domestic and wild.

The politics of exploitation and extinction of species, ecosystems and cultures is the antithesis of a democracy of spirit and of laws that give equally fair consideration to protecting the rights and interests of all beings. Transcultural and transspecies democracy is altruism's enlightened self-interest, which translates into justice and freedom for all.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at www.twobitdog.com/DrFox.)

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