Newsday Tuesday – Amazing Cats

Here’s a picture of my newest grand-cat, Rookie. Looks pretty smart, doesn’t he? I wonder if he has this thing figured out already.

There are some astoundingly amazing cats who figure things out, who seem to understand things beyond what we’d consider normal, who react in almost human manner at times, and who have actually been known to save their human by detecting a cancer or alerting him to danger.

The main cat character in my Klepto Cat Mysteries is ultra-intuitive and sensitive. He does

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some incredible things in my stories—but none of them are outside the realm of possibilities for a cat. If you listen and read and research, you’ll find stories of amazing cat feats. In fact, if you pay close attention to your own cat, you’ll marvel at some of her capabilities and instincts. Our cats, Lily and Sophie, for example, have this uncanny ability to know when I’m opening the freezer door to get them a catnip treat. I can open and close the freezer door dozens of times a day and there’s no response. But if I open it with the intentions of giving them catnip, they get quite excited. They rush into the kitchen and dance around my feet mewing and carrying on. If one of them is in another room, they suddenly rush in when catnip is involved.

There’s a story out of the UK about a black-and-white cat named Purdy who noticed that his buddy, Twinkle (a black cat), was missing. Twinkle had injured his leg when something evidently frightened him away from his home. His family became worried when Twinkle didn’t show up as usual. But they were even more concerned when Purdy also went missing.

It wasn’t until the next day that Purdy came bounding over the fence through the backdoor. He ignored his family’s attempts to greet him—he just rushed to the front of the house and began pawing at the front door. When they opened the door, he led them to where Twinkle was cowering under a car.

They have to wonder, did Purdy go out in search of his friend? Did he bring the injured cat home? According to his family, Purdy sure stuck close to Twinkle throughout his recovery. And Twinkle stuck close to home.