My Mum's Cat

[Pagan_Dave]

Last week my mum had to have her cat put to sleep as she was suffering with a tumour, she was 17 years old and had a good life. My mum was very upset about it as she lives on her own and had been a good companion to her for all those years.

My mum told me that when she got home from the vets, she looked out into the back garden and saw a cat sitting on her back lawn looking at her - as if it had been sitting there waiting for my mum to come home, this spooked my mum a bit as she said this is a cat that ventured into the back garden about 10 months ago when she first moved into the bungalow, but my mum's cat at the time had chased it away; my mum told me that she has never seen this cat since - until the day she got home from the vets last Wednesday, and saw the cat sitting and waiting for her in the garden; this cat has now visited my mum everyday since last Wednesday and has definitely made her feel more happier.

It just seems strange - as though this cat knew that my mum's cat had past away and was sent to comfort her when she was upset?

Do you believe cats have a sixth sense between each other and maybe this other cat was sent to comfort my mum?

[agrumpycow]

Originally Posted by Pagan_Dave

Do you believe cats have a sixth sense between each other and maybe this other cat was sent to comfort my mum?

I'm sorry for your Mum, it's not nice to lose a pet.
I'm a bit pessimistic about these types of things. It would be quite nice to think the cat did have a sixth sense about something but I just think that maybe you're Mum is looking out more or noticing more.
On the day of my grandparent's funeral my Mum noticed a cross in the sky formed by two airplane trails. Each anniversary of their death or their funeral she notices one. In reality there's loads of them in the sky every day (we're only a few miles from Heathrow) but if it helps her feel better there's no harm in thinking there is a reason.

[juliejam]

Im know of this sixth sence you are taking about ..
At the moment one of my cats is not feeling that great ..the other one Mr chezwick has picked up on this . Normanlly these two dont show a great deal of personal effection towards each other..but the other
morning I noticed that Mr chezwick was giving Thomas a wash..Plus that evening thomas was seen cuddling up with Jazz my greyhound..So maybe there is a certain sence that animals can pick up about each other..


As to your mother with this visiting cat..maybe he has picked up a different sence that there is no longer a cat in your garden and moved in on a vacant territory ..and possibly a new home...


Good news for both..


Julie

[Gill Catton]

I sort of agree with Julie, I think aniimals may be able to sense sickness perhaps even know when its terminal (after all they reckon dogs can sniff out tumors don't they) also because animals aren't as vocal as we are they are experts in reading body language...
Perhaps this cat's own family have just had a baby or something and its been looking for a new less stressful / less chaotic territory and has had its eye on your mum's garden.... It would have noticed very quickly that the other cats wasn't there to shoo it off so it stayed and probably also read the sadness in your mum's posture. an unhappy human is probably a good bet for a cat that they are likely to get some affection, a warm lap and/or some food - which is a rather cynical viewpoint but might easily be the case!!

There is a neighbourhood cat that keeps turning up in my garden and just sits and stares at me through the window... my cats all seem to have turned into pacifists and don't shoo it off at all.....

[Monkster]

Hello Dave

Sorry to hear about your mums cat, 17 years is a long time to have a constant companion and makes it all the harder when they are no longer here.

I'm sure that animals can sense something although I'm not sure what it is, but I have a similar experience to your mums.

About 17 years ago we got a rescue cat (Cindy, who was extremely thin and never put any weight on no matter what we fed her, but she was always a very happy and contented cat).
Anyway around 18 months later we were in the kitchen , with the back door open and in walked a black and white cat who went straight up to Cindy and gave her a 'kiss'. He'd never been in before and had certainly never gone up to Cindy who wouldn't stray from our back yard at all . That night though, without warning Cindy died.
A few days later the black and white cat came back.
It was like he had come in to give her comfort and let her know it would be alright. (and us come to think of it!)

He is a dear little soul and now lives with us and has done for the last 16 years and it always brings a tear to my eye when I think of that moment.

Give my best to your mum won’t you, any comfort she gets from this visiting cat can only be good! And I’m sure they all know more than we do anyway.

Suzanne

ps here is my lovely old cat Max.

[smartie]

I'm sorry too to hear about your mum's cat. I'm glad she is finding some comfort from her new visitor.

As Gill says, cats are very quick to pick up on both animal and human body language and even slight changes in behaviour, and they do seem to identify that we're unwell (or when we're about to take them to the vet or to go on holiday). They also notice very quickly when a territory becomes vacant - when an earlier cat of ours died it was barely 24 hours before one of the neighbours' cats, which had been taught by our cat to give our garden a wide berth, started to try to take it over.

[hedgehog whisperer]

Hi Dave

My sympathy goes out to your mother losing an animal after all those years heart breaking.

I had cat from childhood and he died when I was about 18, he was 16 years old. Smokey liked cereal and I would leave him a small amount of muesli and milk from my breakfast every day. It beacme such a habit I was doing it for years after his death. It wasn't until my husband said why do you always leave one mouthful of cereal every day? I realized had been doing for nearly 10 years without thinking.

So if your mother gets comfort from a new visitor all the better. I like to think that animals do know when we are in an emotional state, I think the cat visiting your mum certainly knows that your mum is in need of some comfort.

I love the picture and story about Max too.

[nightshade]

We lasted about a year with no cat and missed them sorely,then
we to had a cat move in (looks like Bagpuss) he took us on and
did not look back so far he is very well behaved with the wildlife
"prepurring" our company as did our other cats.
I am so glad the stranger turned up for you

[FlyAgaric]

Originally Posted by Pagan_Dave

Do you believe cats have a sixth sense between each other and maybe this other cat was sent to comfort my mum?

Sorry to hear about your mums cat.

I don’t believe animals have a sixth sense. I know they do, being I have experienced it many times myself with my dog.

I once saw a study done, where some cameras were set up in someone’s house filming the pet dog while the owner was at work (a Labrador if I remember correctly) and at the point the owner was leaving work the dog would always react excited coming to the door wagging its tail, all seen on the secret camera. Sceptical, the people doing the study claimed it was just the dog getting used to a time just before the owner would come home from work around the same time each day. So they did another similar experiment where they made the owner go somewhere else and decide to come home randomly, and when the owner got up to come home, the dog again at the same time acted in the same manner, as if he had sensed his owner was planning on coming home soon.

Other strange cases are when dogs lost on holiday have found there way home, sometimes thousands of miles away, even when they travelled there in the car. It often took them months to do it, but some how they just knew how to get home.

Faeden

[paulchandler6]

I feel cats, along with other animals have heightened senses far more than we do. The fact that they still live effectively in the wild means they rely on these senses to survive. Also their senses have not been dulled like ours have living in the society that we do today?

Paul

[FlyAgaric]

Originally Posted by paulchandler6

I feel cats, along with other animals have heightened senses far more than we do. The fact that they still live effectively in the wild means they rely on these senses to survive. Also their senses have not been dulled like ours have living in the society that we do today?

Paul

Yep I agree totally Paul. Us humans have lost much of them natural hidden senses that I believe we are all born with, especially today, where computers and machines do everything for us. Its like a muscle, you stop using it, or have no reason to use it, and it will weaken.

[naturelover]

sorry to hear about your mums sad lose,i know what she is going through same thing happend to my darling kissmet all i can say time heals,and yes animals have got other senses that we no longer use because we dont need to anymore.

[zharca]

May I add another voice to send sympathies to your mum? Many people on here understand how hard it is to see an old and beloved companion reach the end of their life.

I think cats - and dogs - are incredibly sensitive to mood. Their communications are built around very subtle epressions of face, whiskers, body, fur, tail etc. so they have no trouble in reading our moods - probably better than we do.