Largely nocturnal by nature and more active as dusk falls, cats have gained a reputation for being creatures of the night—as well as familiar with other lovers of darkness, such as witches and devils. Cats who mysteriously find their way back home across country to loved ones are also a well-recognized feline phenomenon, but is this magical behavior paranormal, or simply the cat using its instinctive navigational skills?
People think that a cat’s instinctive ability to identify the only person in the room who is not a cat lover is uncanny. The reason is actually very straightforward: as patient predators, cats are highly observant creatures and their action is based on our reactions. A cat is nervous about being stared at by strangers, since this is seen as threatening behavior, so she will tend to approach the person who does not look at her—and this is most likely someone who has no interest in or affection for cats! There may be a simple explanation in this case, but sometimes events seem to defy any rational scientific explanation, based on what we know and can surmise about cats. Your own pet’s behavior may reflect true psychic powers.
One of the fascinating things about cats is their ability to disappear when they are allowed outside. In the past, they would venture out in search of food in the evening and might not be seen again until the following day. At a time when there was no widespread street lighting, even in major cities, darkness may have appeared much more menacing than it is today, which might have led to an assumed connection between cats and witchcraft.
Although at night it may appear completely dark outside to us, cats are well-adapted to see in such conditions. Their nocturnal wandering explains many of the myths that have grown up around them.
Black cats in particular used to attract suspicion, simply because their color was linked with the dark forces of the devil. There are numerous local superstitions about what people could do to protect themselves. In the southwest English county of Cornwall, for example, there was once a belief that anyone out walking who met an unknown black cat should pause immediately and draw a cross on their shoe with the tip of a wet finger, to protect themselves from danger.
Much of the folklore surrounding the devil and his black cat messenger can be traced back to the building of bridges during medieval times. Constructing a successful bridge was a considerable feat and many believed that it involved a pact with the devil. One story tells of a French bishop, St. Cedo, who was horrified to learn that local people had entered into such a pact, offering the devil the soul of whoever crossed the bridge first. The bishop overcame the threat to his flock by ensuring that a black cat was first over the bridge, much to the devil’s anger.
Cats were also associated with many pagan gods and goddesses. In the far north, for example, the fertility goddess Freya—from whose name comes the day of the week known as Friday—rode in a chariot drawn by cats. The felines represented the fecundity and the fierceness of the goddess. The Finns believed in a cat-drawn sledge that took away souls. Gradually the cat’s role in pagan festivals led to a period of persecution that was to last for nearly 500 years.
Links between cats and magic exist in many cultures; cats are often believed to possess supernatural powers.
The way in which cats seem to disappear outside as darkness falls has sometimes led to suggestions that they can change their form.
Cats In Human Form
In the medieval period many believed in transmogrification—especially in the case of black cats. Witches were supposed to be able to adopt an animal form at will and subsequently change back again.
The mysterious habits of the cat—especially their way of becoming more active at dusk—meant that they were an obvious choice as a witch’s familiar. Such a belief seems to have been widespread and can be traced back to Aesop’s Fables, which were written some 2,000 years ago. Asian tales feature Neko-Bake, a magician who adopts the shape of a cat to enter the homes of willful children and eat them. This was doubtless a story that many parents told their offspring to encourage good behavior!
In the past, the affinity that some cats display toward their owners has been misinterpreted as a sign of the occult.
In 1681 a French playwright, Regnard, wrote of magicians in Lapland and described how they transformed evil people into black cats. Another story from the Ozark Mountains in the United States tells of a man who accepts a bet to stay overnight in a house once occupied by witches. All is quiet until midnight, when the man is awoken by a huge cat. Reacting instinctively, he fires at the creature and then discovers a severed human foot on the table. The next day he is told that one of his neighbors has died, after shooting her foot off and hemorrhaging to death.
A number of similar tales emanate from France, where there was a very widespread acceptance that people could assume the shape of cats to carry out evil deeds. This belief was particularly strong in the vicinity of the Vosges Mountains, and has given rise to a number of local folktales.
A typical account features a man, Pichard, who regularly encounters a large white cat in a village square that he passes through on his way home after meeting his fiancée, Nanon. In due course the two lovers marry, life is good, and Pichard forgets about the cat completely. Then one night he sits up in bed with a start and realizes that Nanon has disappeared. The next morning his wife is back in bed and he wonders if he had dreamed that she was missing—particularly as she denies that anything unusual has occurred. However, Pichard stays awake the following night and at midnight his wife goes missing again and he sees the large white cat from the square in the bedroom.
A Cat’s Tale A Fishy Story
Not all such stories show the cat in a bad light—they may simply reveal that she has mystical powers. In one example, an Asian fish seller regularly leaves some extra scraps of fish for a rich customer’s cat when he delivers the household order. Subsequently the fish seller falls very ill and is facing the collapse of his business. The cat assumes human form and takes the sick man two gold coins from her master’s fortune, so the man soon recovers and once again his business prospers.
Calling on the wealthy man a few weeks later, the fish seller cannot see the cat and asks where she is. His customer explains that he has killed the animal, because he discovered that she had stolen some money. Immediately the fish seller realizes what has happened and tells his story. The cat’s owner, racked with guilt, then constructs a temple to the memory of his pet.
Cats are often favored as companions by people living alone—especially the elderly. This once caused speculation that such people were witches.
A Cat’s Tale The Cult Of Basht
After agriculture became widespread in the fertile Nile Valley, the stores of food began to attract rodents. Drawn by the ready availability of their natural prey, African wildcats soon began to visit settlements and were welcomed as an effective means of controlling the rodents. This mutually beneficial relationship marked the start of ancient Egypt’s love affair with the cat, which ultimately saw her elevated to the role of a deity in the guise of goddess Basht, who was portrayed with the body of a woman and the head of a cat.
Basht was almost certainly a fertility goddess, and her cult entailed a gruesome ritual performed each spring, in which cats were killed and entombed in front of audiences of up to half a million onlookers. Based on archeological evidence, over 100,000 cats may have been sacrificed in this way. Although this ritual ended after about 2,000 years in 390 B.C. the legacies of it can still be seen in contemporary portrayals of cats today—not least the way in which cats are often represented with feminine characteristics. Also one of the alternative names for Basht was Pasht, which possibly become corrupted to “puss”—an affectionate name often used for cats.
By morning Nanon has returned, but Pichard is now determined to unravel the mystery. With the bedroom door firmly bolted he keeps watch and when he sees a white object touch the bolt he lashes at it with a hatchet; there is a terrible scream, then silence. He finds Nanon has vanished again, but she returns after eight days and goes straight to bed—she is missing her hand, which has been chopped off at the wrist.
Beliefs of this type survived well into the eighteenth century. William Montgomery, a Scotsman who lived in Caithness, claimed he was plagued by cats around his home. One night, unable to bear the noise any longer, he rushed out with an axe, killed two cats, and wounded another. The next day two old women were discovered dead in their beds, while a third had an inexplicable wound to her leg.
Stories of marital infidelity that involve a cat probably stem from her nocturnal nature—she ventures out in search of mates at night. There are also numerous fertility cults that have been linked with cats at differing stages in history. Sasti, the Indian feline goddess, was a symbol of maternity, emphasizing the sexual potency of the cat. This may be a reflection of the overt sexual behavior of queens when they are ready to mate—they adopt a characteristic crouched position known as lordosis.
The persistent links between cats and the elderly may be harder to understand, but older people living alone do often keep cats as companions. Strange behavior by such older people may have scared others, especially children, giving rise to stories that they were witches who sought out the company of cats and preferred them to people.
In the United States and a number of countries across continental Europe, white cats are considered to be fortunate, while black cats bring bad luck. In Britain, the reverse situation applies—black cats are regarded as harbingers of good fortune. It is not necessary to own the cat to benefit from her power, you just have to see her cross in front of you. However, in some areas of England the way you greet the cat is also important—at least one local custom dictates that you must stroke her three times to benefit from the good luck.
If a black cat unexpectedly turns up at your home, superstition says she should never be turned away since this would bring bad luck. The same applies on boats.
Tortoiseshell cats are also often viewed as being lucky—not just in Britain, but also in Asia and Japan in particular. The presence of a cat in certain places is also sometimes considered to bring good fortune, especially if a cat makes her home in a theater. However, if the theater cat is kicked by an actor or chooses to run across the stage unexpectedly during a performance, she brings bad luck.
Many superstitions surround black cats; in some cultures they are considered lucky, in others as harbingers of ill-fortune.
Cat are often secretive by nature, observing what is happening around them from a safe vantage point.
Cats As Protectors
In the past there were some cultures, such as those in the Far East, that believed cats had protective powers, perhaps because they were originally highly prized as an effective means of controlling rodents. In these areas of the world it became accepted practice to place a ceramic figure of a cat in the window to ward off poverty.
In medieval England, cats were often entombed in new buildings, sometimes along with a rat or with a single worn boot. The reason: to attract and trap any evil spirits or witches and guard the occupants of the house from harm. In eastern England, the mummified remains of a cat are sometimes found in wall spaces or under the roof thatch when renovation work is carried out. These days, rather than using a live cat, wooden or metal images of cats are often placed on the roofs of thatched homes instead.
Since settlers took the basic belief in a cat’s protective powers abroad from England, variations on this practice have been also observed elsewhere in the world. In Australia, mummified cats are sometimes found in floor spaces, near the foundations, while in the United States they may be present in old chimneys. One of the oldest examples was discovered at the Terry-Mulford House in Orient, Long Island, New York.
Cats As Healers
Superstition often surrounded illness and cats have been perceived as possessing healing powers. Ancient folklore held that the tail of a black cat could be used to cure a stye in the eye if the tail was rubbed across the affected area while an incantation was spoken. For the treatment to be successful the sex of the cat needed to be opposite to that of the person! Warts could be made to disappear in a similar fashion, using a tortoiseshell cat but only during the month of May. A sick person who dreamed of cats fighting was doomed to die, and someone was also destined to die if the family pet abandoned the home and could not be persuaded to return.
A Cat’s Tale Seasons And Character
It was once believed that the time of year when a kitten was born would affect its personality. Kittens born in May were thought to be sickly—and also dangerous, given to lying on top of babies and suffocating them. Such kittens were not expected to be good mousers and were blamed for encouraging snakes and slow-worms to venture into houses. In part this belief may have arisen because reptiles emerge from hibernation around this time of the year and would be seeking a warm spot in which to live.
In the southern English county of Sussex, young cats born after the festival of Michaelmas on October 11, were often known as blackberry kittens. They were regarded as being mischievous by nature, because there was a superstition that the Devil had fallen to earth at this time of year and ended up in a briar patch.
An instinctive ability to predict the weather could be advantageous for cats in the wild. This might be achieved to some extent by being able to detect changes in atmospheric pressure.
Can Cats Predict The Weather?
Being able to sense weather changes would be a useful skill for wildcats—and an instinct that their domestic relatives may have inherited. Belief in a cat’s ability to predict the weather was especially evident in fishing communities—perhaps because their work is so dependent on fine weather. There was also quite a widespread acceptance of this skill in France, with a range of different feline activities indicating various weather changes.
If a cat passed a paw behind an ear while grooming, there would soon be rain, while windy weather was indicated by a cat rubbing its nose, or running wildly about the home and digging its claws into cushions. Sneezing also indicated rain on the way—although there could be other meanings as well. On a bride’s wedding day a cat sneezing once was a good omen for the future, but three sneezes in succession meant that everyone in the family would develop a cold. Fishing communities in the English county of Yorkshire believed that cats could influence the weather directly, rather than simply predicting it. Black cats were kept indoors while fishermen were away from home, otherwise storms were likely and the voyage could be very dangerous.
Even today, many owners are convinced that their cats can predict the approach of thunderstorms. Cats often display an inherent dislike of thunder and frequently show signs of distress as a storm approaches. They may become increasingly frantic and refuse to settle down, or they will try and find somewhere to hide. Some cats become much more aggressive and resent being handled. Cats can almost certainly sense the changes in atmosphere that precede a storm, and their acute hearing may also allow them to hear the sounds of approaching thunder well before it is audible to our ears.
This sensitivity may also explain the remarkable behavior displayed by some cats during World War II. When bombing raids were taking place over British towns and cities, a number of accounts tell of cats alerting their owners to impending danger even before the public air-raid warnings had sounded.
Interest in interpreting cat behavior is partly triggered by curiosity, but also stems from the widespread belief that cats possess greater insights into the world around us than we do.
Typical is the story of Sally, a black-and-white cat who lived in the Docklands area in east London. Just before a raid she would start scratching at the gas mask hanging in the hall and running out to the air-raid shelter to paw at the door.
Once her owner had safely retreated to the shelter Sally would fetch the neighbor, only venturing into the shelter once she was sure they were both safe.
A Cat’s Tale Mother Knows Best
Unsurprisingly there are numerous stories of mother cats risking extreme danger to protect their kittens. The naval city of Plymouth, England, was heavily bombed during World War II, and an account from there tells of a female cat who had given birth and was left alone in the house.
She became extremely agitated and was so determined to move her kittens that—much to neighbors’ amazement—she carried each in turn through a partially opened upper window and then walked along a telephone line some way above the ground. She took the same precarious route with each kitten, before depositing it safely in a nearby garden shed. Shortly afterward there was a bombing raid, and a large explosion rocked the area, badly damaging the house. The cat may well have heard the approach of the bombers, but how could she have known that her family was in danger—or was it just a lucky coincidence?
There are a number of cases of cats apparently using some sixth sense to detect natural disasters. The Italian volcano Vesuvius had been quiet for over 80 years until a violent eruption on March 21, 1944.
That night a couple was asleep in their farmhouse, close to the town of San Sebastian, when their black-and-white cat Toto pawed at his owner’s cheek and woke them both. Although he was ejected from the room, Toto returned and repeated his actions. This time the farmer’s wife decided Toto was trying to warn them and she persuaded her husband to pack their belongings into a cart and head away from the volcano to his sister-in-law’s house. Less than an hour later the eruption occurred, killing 30 people, wrecking the town, and leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.
Evidence during recent events—from volcanic eruptions to tsunamis—seems to show that cats are more sensitive to impending natural disasters than humans.
In May 1976, local people in the region around Friuli, in northeastern Italy, noted their cats were behaving strangely, rushing around their homes and trying to escape outdoors. In three separate cases, queens dragged their kittens outside and left them in the bushes. Not long afterward a significant earthquake rocked the area. It is not just cats that behave in this uncanny way—other creatures do, too. For example, many animals showed a widespread and urgent desire to vacate the area of Haicheng in central China in 1943, which led the authorities to insist that the townsfolk also abandon their homes.
The following day a huge earthquake caused widespread devastation, but many lives were saved thanks to the behavior of the animals. More recently it seems that few domestic animals died in the dreadful Pacific tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004, which once again indicates that they sensed the peril beforehand and made it safely to higher ground.
How cats can detect impending danger remains unclear, although there is serious scientific interest in studying this behavior to see if it could provide an early warning in areas of greatest risk. One leading investigator, Dr. Helmut Tributsch—an Italian from the area of Friuli—has suggested it may be linked to the increasing number of positive ions that are released into the atmosphere prior to an earthquake. The same phenomenon occurs on a smaller scale before the arrival of a storm.
The cat’s highly tuned senses help it to locate prey—and perhaps also to avoid some dangers.
We can also sense such changes—but while we might simply develop a slight headache, cats respond in a more dramatic fashion. It is possible that the level of chemical messengers in the cat’s brain is directly affected, thus altering its pattern of behavior.
Cats’ superior hearing may also play a part because they can hear sounds of a much higher frequency than we can. There is the interesting case of Barney, a ginger tom who slept every night on top of the family’s cathode ray tube television. One night he woke suddenly and dashed out of the room; soon afterward the tube exploded, which would have caused a serious injury to the cat if he had been asleep as normal. It seems most likely that Barney was woken up by a noise from the tube that was inaudible to his owner. Cats near the epicenter of an earthquake may well hear the sounds of early minor tremors. When these tremors are combined with a significant rise in positively charged particles in the atmosphere, the cat may receive an early warning of impending disaster. There may even be a third factor, when such events lead to changes in the earth’s magnetic field. It is believed cats and other creatures use the magnetic field to orient themselves, see page 161.
Cats As Lifesavers
There are a surprising number of cases of cats that save people’s lives through their actions—although usually linked with the feline’s own desire to escape from danger.
However, cats can also be selfless on occasion, too. One account concerns a stray cat almost dying from hypothermia that turned up on the porch of Virgil and Linda McMillian’s house in Berryville, Arkansas, on a freezing night. The couple took him in and nursed him back to health, and he became a much-loved pet they named Slowly Cat. Each night, he was put outside for a few minutes before the couple went to bed, but he always returned to the house very quickly.
They were therefore very alarmed when he vanished one night two years later, especially as the temperature began to fall well below freezing. They searched everywhere around their property without success, and the following morning there was still no sign of him. Fearing the worst, the couple began looking again in daylight and Virgil spotted an old burlap sack lying on the ground. Slowly Cat slowly emerged from within, but then unexpectedly crawled back inside again. Virgil opened the sack and was amazed and horrified to find a tiny baby inside, clearly very near death. Slowly Cat lay next to him, licking his face. The baby was rushed to hospital, where his body temperature had fallen to just 94 degrees (35.5°C).
Test Your Cat’s Psychic Powers
There are a couple of tests that you can carry out to see how close your bond is with your cat. It helps if you are relaxed when carrying out these tests.
Wait until your pet is asleep, then sit nearby in the room and stare intently at her for perhaps 30 seconds at a time, concentrating on an image of your cat with you. This should lead to your cat waking up and coming to sit alongside you. If nothing happens, try again after a minute or so.
When you are sitting or lying down, free from any other distractions, try calling your cat to come to you through your mind’s eye. You will need to concentrate very intently on your pet, so you could try reinforcing her image by studying a photograph of you both together. She will probably appear in no time by your side.
Although dogs may have more of a reputation for being loyal, there are many cases on record of cats saving people’s lives.
Doctors were convinced that without the warmth provided by the McMillians’ cat throughout the night, the infant would not have survived. So what drew Slowly Cat to the sack, and why did he stay with the baby all night? Male cats do not have the maternal instincts of females, so the only explanation would appear to be that Slowly Cat remembered being rescued from freezing in very similar circumstances. Perhaps he was conditioned to behave in the way he did because of the care and attention lavished upon him by the McMillians.
Cats On The Move
Cat owners who move from a home are often amazed to discover that their pet has returned to former haunts—although usually this entails a journey of just a few miles. In 1960, however, a cat called McCavity made headlines when he undertook a marathon trek back to Cumbernauld, near Glasgow in Scotland, from his new home close to Truro in Cornwall in the far southwest of England—covering the distance of about 500 miles (800 km) in only three weeks. Sadly, McCavity was so weakened by his effort that he died soon afterward, but cats can undertake longer journeys of this type and remain in good health—after all, they cover large territories in the wild.
Animals from sea turtles to swallows can find the way back to their birthplace over thousands of miles, using the Earth’s magnetic fields. This helps to provide a clue to journeys such as that undertaken by McCavity. The first experiment into a cat’s ability to find its way home was carried out in 1921 by Professor Francis H. Herrick, who drove his cat to a spot about 5 miles (8 km) from his home in Cleveland, Ohio, and let her try and find her own way back. The professor finally arrived home considerably more exhausted than his pet, having followed the cat on foot as she took the most direct route home across fields and through hedges, leaping small obstacles in her path.
Cats such as this young kitten (above) will soon orient themselves in a new home, recognizing familiar landmarks so they will not get lost if they are allowed to roam outdoors.
Over 200 cases of cats traveling long distances have now been studied, and it appears that a cat will walk around 3 miles (5 km) each day on average on such a journey, usually pausing to hunt on the way. It is believed that they rely initially on the Earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves and head off in the right general direction, then switch to looking for familiar landmarks, and finally sniff out the route as they get close to their destination.
Cats regularly mark their territories with their scent and are known to have a very keen sense of smell. What is much harder to explain is how a cat such as Sugar (see box below left, The Case Of Sugar) can set off into the unknown and manage to find people a long distance away in a totally strange area. Scenting skills would appear to be of little value in this case, nor are there any other obvious points of guidance that a cat could use. In fact we simply do not understand how this journey could be achieved and some scientists have suggested that cats possess a form of extrasensory perception that enables them to reach their destination.
Such a journey also requires deliberate choice by the cat—after all, it would have been simpler for Sugar to stay with his new owners than to embark on an arduous and hazardous journey into unknown terrain. A cat’s determination to return to its owner suggests that our cats can become just as attached to us as we are to them!
A Cat’s Tale The Case Of Sugar
When Mr. and Mrs. Woods moved from California to Oklahoma in 1951, they decided to leave their cat Sugar behind with a neighbor because he was terrified of traveling and their move entailed a journey of about 1,500 miles (2,400 km). It was roughly a year later when a cat resembling Sugar unexpectedly jumped directly on to Mrs. Woods’ shoulder in the backyard of her new home. Although struck by the amazing similarity, she did not think that it could possibly be Sugar until she noticed the distinctive deformity of his left hip joint when stroking him. Checking back with her friends in California, Mrs. Woods discovered that Sugar had left his new home shortly after she and her husband had moved away and he had not been seen there since. How Sugar was able to track down the Woods over such a distance and in a strange area is a remarkable mystery.
There is no evidence that any particular breed of cat—including non-pedigree felines—has a stronger homing instinct than others. However, Persians are popularly believed to stay closer to home than other cats.
The character of the grinning Cheshire Cat, immortalized in the famous children’s book Alice in Wonderland probably has a basis in a ghostly tale about a cat—especially because author Lewis Carroll lived in in the English county of Cheshire and had an interest in psychic research.
The original story dates from the early 1800s, when two women visiting the remains of an ancient abbey near Congleton, Cheshire, noticed a striking white cat. As they approached the creature it vanished suddenly and although they searched briefly they couldn’t find it.
On another visit, the same thing happened. The couple recounted their story of the strange disappearing cat and learned that he had been kept locally by a Mrs. Winge but had disappeared many years beforehand, leaving his owner worried that her pet had been killed. However, some time later she heard him scratching at the door to come in—but he would never set foot inside the home again, simply disappearing in front of his owner’s eyes. Many other people in the neighborhood had also encountered this ghostly creature.
There are numerous other less well-known cases of cats reappearing to owners after their deaths, usually in the familiar locations they had favored in the home. This may sometimes be explained by the mind’s eye projecting the image of the cat from memory, because the owner has seen the cat sleeping here on so many occasions in the past. Especially interesting are those cases in which the person has acquired another cat after the death of the first and she reacts in her new home as if she has seen a ghost as well. However, with her acute sense of smell, she may be detecting the scent of the home’s former occupant, particularly if the cat’s bedding has not been washed or the carpeting in the house cleaned thoroughly since the first cat’s death.
There are various well-documented cases of human ghosts—and there are also a number of similar accounts of feline apparitions.
