Emily Mast

An octopus that predicts soccer matches. A dog that knew the winner of the Kentucky Derby seven years in a row. A horse that led police to a missing body. A cat that predicted the deaths of 100 people. These might all sound like fictional characters in a (slightly darker) Alice in Wonderland spin-off, but these are in fact real animals that have lived and made remarkable guesses – most of which we can’t quite explain.

Animals are far more intelligent than we often give them credit for. But does that intelligence go so far as to pass even our own understanding? You be the judge.

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• 1
Jim The Wonder Dog Predicted The Winner Of Seven Consecutive Kentucky Derby Races

Perhaps one of the most impressive animals on this list is Jim the Wonder Dog – who lived almost 100 years ago in Missouri.

Jim’s owner, Sam Van Arsdale, noticed that not only was his Llewellyn setter an extraordinary “bird dog” (retrieving birds his owner shot), but he also seemed to understand what English words meant. For example, Van Arsdale told Jim to lie under a hickory tree, and he sat under the hickory. Then he told him to go to the oak tree, and he did.

Jim’s comprehension was proven time and time again in front of audiences and even well-regarded veterinarians and psychiatrists. From finding a car with a specific license plate number to identifying where a person should go if sick (Jim would go over to the town doctor).

Jim’s psychic prowess was shown in 1936 when he correctly identified the team that would win the World Series. But what made him a living legend was when Jim was asked to determine the winner of the Kentucky Derby. Jim was given slips of paper with the applicable names of horses, and he chose between them.

The first year, Jim correctly predicted the winner. And the next year. And the next year. Amazingly, for seven years in a row, Jim predicted the winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Jim enjoyed fame throughout much of his life, but Van Arsdale made sure that Jim enjoyed enough time at home with his family. Jim passed away at the age of 12 while he was out amongst nature about to go for a hunt.

What do you think?

Mystical animal?

• • • 2
Lady Wonder, A Horse, Helped Authorities Find A Missing Child

Rather than merely guess the outcome of a sporting event, Lady Wonder actually helped bring an end to a missing person’s investigation.

Lady Wonder was born in 1924 in Virginia, but it was a few years before her owner, Claudia Fonda, noticed Lady Wonder’s unique abilities. Lady Wonder used to wander over to her, precisely when she was going to go look for her. Curious if Lady Wonder had special powers, Fonda built a contraption for her horse where Lady Wonder could tap her nose, and a corresponding letter would pop up.

Word got out about this exceptional equine, and people started lining up (and paying out) to have Lady Wonder predict everything from their unborn child’s sex to the winner of boxing matches.

Even researchers came out. Scientists from Duke University wrote words on hidden papers and asked Lady Wonder to spell them out. And Lady Wonder sure would – even complex words like “Mesopotamia” and “Carolina.”

Then in 1952, police reached a dead end when it came to finding a missing boy. As a last-ditch effort, they went to Lady Wonder for help. She spelled out “Pittsfield Water Wheel.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t a place. However, “Pittsfield Water Wheel” shared several letters with a nearby location ”Field and Wilde Water Pit.” When police went to the location, they found the boy’s body.

Lady Wonder died in 1957, after enjoying a lifetime of being a fascination.

Mystical animal?

• • 3
Oscar, A Cat, Is Said To Have Predicted The Deaths Of 100 Nursing Home Patients

Oscar was a shy cat when he first was brought to a nursing home in Rhode Island in 2005. He would be hidden away most of the time, only coming out to snuggle with a patient or two every once in a while.

Well, the staff started to notice a pattern. The person that Oscar cuddled with would pass shortly after. It seemed that Oscar could somehow sense that these folks were on the precipice of death, and he was comforting them in their final moments. Oscar did this time and time again, eventually predicting the death of 100 patients.

Of course, we can’t understand how Oscar was able to do this. Dogs have been found to potentially sniff out cancer, so could this feline smell out death? Or was it something more spiritual?
Sadly, Oscar passed away in 2022 at the age of 17.

• 32 votes

Mystical animal?

• • 4
Toto, A Cat, Sensed The Eruption Of Mount Vesuvius

When most of us hear of Mount Vesuvius, we think of the infamous 79 CE eruption that wiped out (but miraculously preserved) the ancient city of Pompeii.

But this isn’t the only time the volcano has erupted. In 1944, Mount Vesuvius blew its top again – albeit not to the same level as 79 CE. The erupting lava was more slow-moving, but heavy ash and falling rocks still made the eruption very dangerous, killing 30 people. Yet two people were saved due to an unlikely source: their housecat.

In the middle of the night, normally docile Toto started scratching fiercely at his owner, Gianni’s, face. After Toto exhibited some peculiar behavior earlier in the day, Gianni’s wife Irma was convinced he was trying to tell them something.

Irma persuaded Gianna to head to her sister’s home not far away. They brought a few belongings and Toto with them. Within an hour, Mount Vesuvius erupted, taking out the couple’s home.

Mystical animal?

• • 5
Paul The Octopus Received Death Threats Due To The Accuracy Of His Predictions

“Paul the Psychic Octopus” sounds like the title of a kid’s movie, but the real-life tale of Paul has magical abilities and death threats.

Paul was born in 2008 at the Sea Life Centre in England. As the German people will happily remind you, Paul didn’t make any predictions while living in the UK. It wasn’t until he moved to the Sea Life Oberhausen in Germany later that year that his psychic abilities were discovered.

The aquarium workers must have had some inclination of Paul’s powers, as they decided to test him by asking him to predict soccer games, They did this by showing him two glass boxes with a mussel inside of each. A flag was on each box, and whichever Paul chose was his predicted winner of the match.

Paul became a bit of a German hero, as most of the games were related to if the German team would come out victorious or not. In the Euro 2008 tournament, Paul missed only two predictions.

But when the 2010 World Cup came around, he was 100% accurate in his eight predictions.

This upset the Germans, then, when Paul predicted that Spain would defeat Germany in the semifinals. So much so, that people started calling for him to be thrown in a frying pan. Paul was indeed correct, and the Germans lost. Then only a few months later, Paul was found dead in his tank.

This begs the question… was his death the work of a soccer-crazed assassin? (It wasn’t. Paul lived the average lifespan of an octopus – and he probably just wanted to go out on a winning streak.

Can you blame him?)

Mystical animal?

• • 6
Mani The Parakeet Had Up To 30 Paying Customers A Day For His Psychic Predictions

There’s a theme on this list of animals predicting World Cup results, which makes sense, being it’s one of the planet’s biggest sporting events. This game guesser is a bit smaller than some of the others on the list. Mani the parakeet broke through his shell in 1997 in Singapore. In 2005, he became the assistant to M. Muniyappan, a fortune teller. In addition to helping tell people about their future, Mani also tried his hand (foot?) at predicting soccer matches.

Muniyappan would hold up two white cards to Mani, hiding the flag on the reverse side from the bird. Then, Mani would make his pick. And he was pretty good. In 2010, Mani predicted all the quarterfinal games and one of the semifinal games.

As a parakeet has a lifespan of roughly seven to 15 years, Mani has likely passed away since his days of fame. Word’s still out on if Muniyappan has another avian assistant working with him.

• 10 votes

Mystical animal?

• • 7
Toby The Sapient Pig Could Correctly Guess People’s Age

For a pig to still be known two centuries after his death, he had to be something pretty special. This was the case for Toby, the Sapient Pig.

Toby rose to fame in 1817 London, due in no small part to his magician-turned-handler Mr. Hoare. While there aren’t many details regarding how Toby was able to do such things, it was said that Toby could read, spell, tell time, and play cards. Toby could even guess a person’s age.

However, perhaps most impressive was Toby’s accomplishment of writing his own autobiography. Toby “published” a collection of his life, which included lines like:

By the time I was four months old, I could read tolerably well: at present I know many little boys and girls, at four years old, that cannot do any thing like it. What a shame that will appear to them, and how angry will they be with themselves, when they are able to read this my life, that one of my race should so far surpass them at so tender an age.

Mystical animal?

• • 8
Rabio, An Octopus, Made Three Correct Predictions In A Row And Was Then Eaten

Rabio was a Japanese octopus who correctly predicted the results of the Japanese soccer team in the 2018 World Cup: win – draw – lose.

And apparently, after the team was out of the tournament, fisherman Kimio Abe didn’t think the psychic cephalopod had much value anymore. So, they killed him and sold him at a local fish market.

Seems like a hasty decision, doesn’t it? What else could this potentially psychic creature have offered the world? Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Mystical animal?

• • 9
Achilles, A Cat, Predicted World Cup Winners

A white cat made headlines around the globe by predicting World Cup winners (most of the time). Achilles was living a pretty sweet life in St. Peterburg’s Hermitage Museum before his fame. The deaf, cross-eyed cat could roam about the halls at his leisure, hunting mice as his pastime.

Then, museum employees decided to try a fun experiment. They put out two bowls of food, each with a country’s flag next to it. Whichever bowl Achilles ate from was his predicted winner. This was in 2017 for the FIFA Confederations Cup. For the tournament, Achilles was correct in three of the four matches.

Then in 2018, Achilles predicted the first four games correctly, which is when he really caught the world’s interest. Unfortunately, Achilles couldn’t stay on this winning streak forever, and he incorrectly guessed the next three games.

There hasn’t been anything written about Achilles since his 15 minutes of fame. So, we can only hope that he’s back to chasing mice and greeting museum guests.

Mystical animal?

• • 10
Mystic Marcus, A Pig, Predicted The Winner Of The Wimbledon Tennis Finals

Poor Marcus the Mystic Pig has had some misses as of late. In 2018, he got only 1 in 4 semifinalists correct for the World Cup (though, the fact that he chose these out of all 32 original teams is still somewhat impressive.) Then, in 2022, Marcus predicted Suella Braverman would be the next prime minister of England, Marcus’ home country. Unfortunately, this was also not correct.

So, how did Marcus get his reputation of psychic prowess in the first place? Well, he has made other on-the-nose guesses in the past. This includes matches in the 2014 World Cup, as well as the Wimbledon tennis men’s finals.

Marcus makes these predictions by eating specific apples, which have corresponding names or countries attached to them. Will Marcus be able to recover from his recent stumble? Only time will tell.

Mystical animal

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