Americans sure do love their pets, often keying in on their behavior in ways that we might not even realize. These are companions for many of us, through and through, and when they began to act a little peculiar, we often find ourselves asking why.
For many of us, Sunday night brought about a strange moment for our furry friends, with pet owners around the country reporting that their cats and dogs began behaving in bizarre ways, seemingly out of the blue.
Scientists believe that they know why.
FOX 17 Code Red Meteorologist Greg Bobos says a solar flare that cause a coronal mass ejection impacted the planet.
According to SpaceWeather.com, a solar flare is an explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields is suddenly released. Flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays.
Since dogs (and some cats) are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field, this could explain the baffling behavior many pet owners observed Sunday.
Several reports came in during the hours after the flare striking the planet.
FOX 17 News viewers across Middle Tennessee have sent us reports of their dogs waking suddenly. Melissa in Portland, Tennessee says it sounded like someone “knocked on the door three times lightly.”
“Around 11ish sound like someone knocked one the door three times lightly heard it two times,” Melissa said. “Dogs went nuts.”
Donia, in Hendersonville, says her dog also woke up around 11:30 p.m. to midnight.
“Our dog woke up between 1130 and 12 last night growling and then peed on our comforter,” Donia tells FOX 17 News. “He never pees in the house much less in the bed. Weird!”
And while the moment was certainly odd for many pet owners, a solar flare giving Fido a fit is a far better scenario than an intruder or some otherworldly apparition suddenly appearing at your home.
