Friends!
I would like to discuss something that cats have known for thousands of years and humans are only just beginning to investigate.
Cats know things.
You may have noticed this.
Perhaps your cat has suddenly stopped washing his bottom, frozen in position and stared intently at an apparently empty corner of the room.
Perhaps he has woken from a deep sleep, lifted his head and looked towards the front door - thirty seconds before somebody arrives.
Perhaps he has refused to enter a room for absolutely no discernible reason.
Or perhaps, when you've been feeling sad, your cat has quietly appeared beside you and settled himself against your leg.
Humans tend to have two explanations for these events.
The first is:
"Cats are psychic."
The second is:
"Cats are weird."
As a cat myself, I find the second explanation unnecessarily judgemental. So today I'm investigating one of the great mysteries of feline existence.
Do cats have a sixth sense? Can we predict things? Can we see ghosts? And do we know far more about humans than you realise?
First of all: are cats psychic?
Scientifically speaking, there is currently no convincing evidence that cats possess extrasensory perception, telepathy, or the ability to predict future events.
I feel the scientific community could have phrased this as "not yet proven", but never mind.
The problem is that cats already possess such extraordinarily sensitive ordinary senses that our behaviour can appear supernatural to humans.
You are essentially wandering around the world equipped with fairly average hearing, a rather disappointing nose and no whiskers whatsoever. Then you're surprised when we know something before you do.
Let me explain.
We can hear things you can't
A cat's hearing is extraordinarily sensitive, particularly at high frequencies.
This is partly an evolutionary advantage. Small prey animals such as mice produce very high-pitched sounds, so being able to detect those noises was extremely useful to our ancestors.
It remains useful today when detecting important modern prey such as:
a Dreamies packet being opened three rooms away;
the refrigerator door;
a spider considering walking behind the skirting board;
and somebody whispering, "Don't wake Malcolm."
Therefore, when your cat suddenly stares towards the hallway and five seconds later you hear somebody approaching the house, the cat probably hasn't predicted the future. He simply heard them first.
Research has even shown that cats can recognise their owner's voice and use voices to mentally track where people are.
In other words, sometimes when you think your cat isn't listening to you... he absolutely is. He has simply decided not to respond. There is an important difference.
Then there's our nose
You humans place enormous importance on eyesight. Cats live in a much richer sensory world.
Smell tells us who's been somewhere, what's changed, whether another animal has visited and potentially something about the emotional state of the humans around us.
And this is where things become genuinely fascinating.
Researchers have exposed cats to human body odours collected when people were experiencing different emotional states. The cats behaved differently when smelling odours associated with human fear, showing more stress-related behaviour than they did with neutral odours.
Think about that for a moment. You might be trying extremely hard to behave normally while feeling anxious.
Your cat may be thinking:
"You can smile all you like, Susan. You smell worried."
Suddenly our apparent psychic abilities don't seem quite so mysterious.
"But my cat KNOWS when I'm upset"
This is something many humans tell us. And science increasingly suggests that you aren't imagining it.
Cats can pick up information from human voices, facial expressions, body language and smell. Research indicates that cats can distinguish human emotional signals and may alter their behaviour in response to them.
We even pay attention to your eyes. Studies of the famous feline slow blink suggest that this little exchange between cats and humans really does form part of our communication with you. Cats are more likely to approach a person after that person performed a slow-blink interaction.
So when you have had a dreadful day and your cat suddenly appears and sits unusually close to you, he may genuinely have detected that something is different.
Perhaps your voice has changed. Perhaps you're moving differently. Perhaps you smell different. Perhaps your face looks different. Or perhaps, after years of living with you, your cat simply knows you.
That isn't telepathy. But personally, I think it's every bit as lovely.
What about cats predicting illness?
There are countless stories of animals behaving strangely around people who subsequently discover they're unwell. It's tempting to describe this as a sixth sense, but again there are possible biological explanations.
Illness can alter the way humans smell, move, breathe and behave. A cat who spends hours every day near one particular human becomes extremely familiar with that person's normal sounds, routines and scent. So a tiny change that you wouldn't notice might be obvious to us.
That doesn't mean cats should ever be regarded as furry diagnostic equipment - if you are concerned about your health, please consult a doctor rather than asking Mr Tiddles for a second opinion. Mr Tiddles has no medical qualifications. Despite what he may have told you.
Can cats predict earthquakes and storms?
Now we enter even murkier territory. For centuries, people have reported animals behaving strangely before earthquakes, storms and other natural events.
There are plausible things an animal might detect before a human does: subtle vibrations, changes in sound, atmospheric conditions or other environmental cues.
But anecdotes aren't the same as scientific proof, and there isn't good evidence that your average domestic cat possesses a reliable earthquake-warning system. So if your cat suddenly bolts upstairs, don't immediately evacuate. Check whether you've switched the vacuum cleaner on first.
And now to the important question.
CAN CATS SEE GHOSTS?
I know what you're thinking. Your cat has done The Stare. Every cat does The Stare. It usually happens at approximately 2:13am. You wake up. Your cat is sitting bolt upright at the end of the bed. He isn't looking at you. He's looking over your shoulder. His pupils are enormous. His ears move forward. Then his head slowly follows something across the room... which you cannot see.
Thank you, cat. Nobody needed to sleep tonight anyway.
Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on your feelings about ghosts - there is no scientific evidence that cats can see spirits. But we can detect things you can't. A tiny insect. A faint noise inside a wall. A reflection. A shifting shadow. Dust moving through a beam of light. A smell from outside. The almost imperceptible sound of something beneath the floorboards.
Our whiskers also provide extraordinarily useful sensory information about our immediate surroundings and air movement.
So your cat probably isn't watching the ghost of Great Aunt Mildred walk through the living room.
Probably.
I would, however, like the word "probably" noted.
But there is another sort of sixth sense
And I think this one is much more interesting. Cats are excellent observers. We live alongside you for years. We learn the sounds of your routines. We know what time you get up. We know the particular footsteps that mean you're going into the kitchen.
We recognise voices - and research shows that cats can distinguish their own names from other words. Some research has even found that cats living together can learn the names of their feline housemates.
That finding interests me enormously. I live with Percy, Ron and Cleo. Apparently, therefore, when my humans say,
"RON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
I may know perfectly well which cat is currently disgracing the family.
Although in fairness, statistically speaking, it was probably Ron anyway.
Over many years, we also learn your patterns. We know the difference between you putting your shoes on to pop into the garden and putting your shoes on because you're going out.
We notice the suitcase. We recognise the bedtime routine. We notice when you aren't behaving normally. You call it intuition.
Sometimes it's simply thousands of tiny observations being processed by a creature who has spent a considerable proportion of his life quietly watching you.
Perhaps that's why cats can seem magical
Scientists may never find evidence that cats are telepathic. They may never prove that we communicate with ghosts. And I am personally making no comment whatsoever about the Thing Under the Oven.
But science is revealing something rather wonderful. Cats experience a sensory world that overlaps with yours but isn't identical to it.
We hear things you don't hear. We smell things you don't smell. We notice tiny movements you overlook. And we gather information from your voice, face, behaviour and even your scent.
So when a cat appears to know something impossible, perhaps he isn't using an extra sense at all. Perhaps he's simply using his ordinary senses extraordinarily well.
And then there's something science can't easily put into numbers. I've lived with my humans for a very long time. I know their footsteps. I know their voices. I know the sound of somebody who is happy and the quieter sound of somebody who isn't. I know when the house feels normal. And I know when something has changed.
Sometimes, when a human is sad, there isn't anything useful a cat can actually do about it. We can't solve the problem. We can't tell you everything will be all right. We can't make the difficult thing disappear.
So we climb onto the sofa. We sit beside you. Perhaps we put one paw against your leg. And we stay. You might call that a sixth sense. Science might call it sensitivity to familiar behavioural, auditory, visual and olfactory cues.
Personally, I call it knowing your human.
And if you happen to feel a little better because there's a warm cat sitting beside you, purring... well.
Perhaps there are some kinds of magic that don't need explaining.
Love,
Malcolm
P.S. I still haven't ruled out ghosts.
P.P.S. Particularly the one under the oven…