Not all signs we see or receive are clear. They’re usually subtle or come in little nudges and hints rather than as big glaring red or green lights. They can’t always be blatantly obvious especially if they’re coming at you through a different language or channel. But it’s the repetition and the feeling you get that makes these signs more obvious. It’s all about how well you listen!
For Lauren Gauthier, the subtlety of the signs became more and more obvious, to the point where she had to do something about it. And thank goodness she did, all because of her dog.
Lauren and her husband originally started off as foster parents for Victoria, a hound they later adopted after forging a close bond with the pup. They were visiting shelters in South Carolina when she found the one-eyed dog and immediately brought her home. It was an instant connection.
Victoria came home with the couple, and a few months after adopting her, both Lauren and Victoria noticed a bump on the woman’s nose. Lauren figured it was nothing more than a pimple or clogged pore, but when the hound kept sniffing that spot on her nose, and sitting on her lap and just staring at her, Lauren thought maybe there was something else going on. The bump was annoying, but Victoria wasn’t letting up, always putting her snout in Lauren’s face!
“When the spot went away, Victoria kept sniffing,” Lauren recalled. “I thought, ‘Why do you keep putting your wet nose in my face?’ It was so odd that I finally decided, ‘OK, since she’s being so persistent, I’ll go get it checked out.'”
Lauren was blown away when she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, a common type of skin cancer! Because of Victoria, they had caught the signs early enough for it to be removed without complication.
“It really is amazing that my dog was so persistent in sniffing the area that was skin cancer,” she told SweetBuffalo716.com. “The surgery itself has changed my face, and if my dog had not picked up on it, I may have ignored the spot, which could have risked further disfigurement.”
While this is an incredible story, Lauren’s case isn’t totally unheard of. Studies suggest certain dogs can detect certain odors linked to cancer. While a lot more research and development are required to understand how this phenomenon works, because of a dog’s higher rate of reliability when it comes to their olfactory senses, dogs are being trained to smell out cancer.
Dr. Claire Guest, who went through a similar situation with her dog, says, “They can detect parts per trillion- that’s the equivalent of one drop of b***d in two Olympic-sized swimming pools. We should not be turning our backs on these highly sensitive bio-detectors just because they have furry coats.”
Click below to learn more about Lauren’s story.
