Cats will also nip into a garage or shed when the door is open to shelter from the weather, and will keep quiet so they don't get thrown out.
Translocating Cat
- Thread starter Naughty_Felid
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Continuing on the subject of cats , I let the recent interloper in late last night, after she decided that 2 minutes outside was more than enough. (this time I made sure that an actual cat came in and it was the right one - see previous post). This has been mentioned before in other posts, but interesting to see the phenomenon - an empty plastic bottle on the kitchen worktop suddenly contracted with a loud "pop", presumably due to the blast of cold air, and wobbled madly about without falling over. Said cat thought this was too weird to contemplate and bolted rapidly under the Christmas tree which she is also afraid of. Cats are just weird.
Yeah points taken but I was talking about the interphasic cats, you know, the regular non-scaredy-cats, and sheds and garages that have remained shut!
catseye
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You've just solved a mystery for me. I've been hearing an occasional loud 'pop' from the kitchen. It sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn't work out what it was, and by the time I got out there there was nothing to see.
Of course, the kids were over for Christmas and left a half-full bottle of lemonade pushed back under the worksurface where I couldn't see it. It's been 'popping'!
Now you've got me thinking. Why was it called "pop"?
Mythopoeika
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Because of all the bubbles? Also called 'fizz' for the same reason.
It was called 'pop' because it was onomatopoeic of the sound when opening the original 'carbonated' drink supplied in bottles with one of those retained caps on a little wire armature (like bottles of 'Grolsch' are nowadays).
Either that or it was an acronym of the name of the original makers of 'Lemony-ade' in the 1840's, "Pattisons Original Panacea (Company Ltd)".
(One, both or neither of those facts are made-up)
Mythopoeika
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brownmane
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I have three cats, so the door can be opened and closed numerous times (winter, not so much) at the command of my cats
. Often I think that one has gone out, only to have another come in. Or I think they are in, and one will be staring desperately through the patio door to be let in.
In the evening after dark, I have opened my door to let one in, and swear that I've seen him walk past me and into the room, only to find later, my cat sitting outside waiting to be let in. Being as it's regarding cats, I tend to not question their motives or possible special powers. So teleportation does sound like a reasonable explanation.:cat:
. Often I think that one has gone out, only to have another come in. Or I think they are in, and one will be staring desperately through the patio door to be let in.In the evening after dark, I have opened my door to let one in, and swear that I've seen him walk past me and into the room, only to find later, my cat sitting outside waiting to be let in. Being as it's regarding cats, I tend to not question their motives or possible special powers. So teleportation does sound like a reasonable explanation.:cat:
I really don't get it. How can cats fool you into thinking they've come in when still outside? If they had any sense it would be pretend they've gone out when they don't really want to. Messing with yer 'ed that's what they're doing.I have three cats, so the door can be opened and closed numerous times (winter, not so much) at the command of my cats
In the evening after dark, I have opened my door to let one in, and swear that I've seen him walk past me and into the room, only to find later, my cat sitting outside waiting to be let in. Being as it's regarding cats, I tend to not question their motives or possible special powers. So teleportation does sound like a reasonable explanation.:cat:
Lb8535
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Purely analytically, what's happening is that the cat is darting at top speed from one place to another and you didn't notice because you weren't staring at the door near the floor as you closed it - most of the time we probably decide to close a door, reach out our hand and give it instruction, then look another way and our minds move on to the next task. The real mystery is how your at understands this process. When I go out and close my front door I always make sure I know where the (indoor) cat is, and actually look at the door crack opening and closing to make sure she isn't marooned outside in coyote land.
feinman
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I havn't had a cat for a long time, but I know them to be inveterate dwellers on thresholds, always hanging around doors and after much fuss and a door is opened for them, change their minds, or hang out in between; this has been known to drive some people to madness, and I suspect that is the goal..
GerdaWordyer
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That's a fascinating antique bottle,Are you talking codswallop again?
Mythopoeika
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I have one of those over at my Mum's place. It's an old lemonade bottle with a captive glass marble used to keep in the contents (AKA a Codd bottle).
bugmum
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My dad has something similar on his kitchen windowsill.
IbisNibs
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Captive glass marble, eh? Keeps in the contents? Could this be a solution to the problem of translocating cats?
bugmum
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This morning I was sitting on the edge of my bed gazing vaguely out of the window (Saturday morning luxury) when I noticed one of the neighbourhood cats on our back neighbour's fence. This cat is pure white, fluffy and a bit plump, thus both conspicuous and recognisable - for which reason, not knowing its actual name, we have ironically nicknamed it Macavity. Macavity was fidgeting on the neighbours' fence, looking down into their back room (folding glass doors, and they have two cats of their own with whom Macavity has a typically touchy relationship). Eventually it jumped down onto the neighbours' decking and wandered towards our house; I lost sight of it when it was about halfway across, but kept watching our fence, expecting it to jump up. After a minute or so, no sign of it, I suddenly spotted a white mass on the back fence two doors up, which is where Macavity lives; closer inspection revealed said cat in his favoured spot on that fence. But I can't work out how it got there without me spotting it - it'd have to jump onto a fence somewhere, which I would have expected to spot, being so fat, white and fluffy. A definite case of translocating cat in my book. 
Quercus
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We have two cats. One very old (approx 20), one very young (18 months). We did have another, who died over a year ago in possibly nefarious circumstances we still don't fully understand. But our pair are basically indoor cats, or they are now, anyway. Nevertheless they wear collars with bells so we can hear where they are, and not trip over them.
Late one Saturday night in October last year, I was finishing off tidying the kitchen just after MrsQ had gone up to bed. Both cats had been fed their usual rations, and to my understanding had gone upstairs after guzzling their grub, as they usually always do.
I was just drying my hands after rinsing something in the sink, when I noticed to my left one of the cats stroll past the open door of the dining room. I couldn't tell which one, since they're both the same size and a similar dark tabby colour. The dining room light was switched off, and the kitchen was lit only by the soft undercabinet lights, but I made a mental note to chase the culprit out from the dining room before shutting the door for the night.
Hands dried, I crossed over to the dining room and flicked the light on... no cat. Now, I'd been turned towards the doorway the whole time, and despite the low light I know that nothing had walked past me in the ten seconds or so between seeing the cat and then entering the room - and even if one of them had sneaked past, I certainly would have heard the collar bell jingling. The folding double doors between the dining room and living room were shut tightly. I checked under the table, behind the curtains... but nothing. I hurried upstairs, and there were both cats - the younger one already asleep on the bed and the older one lying down washing herself languidly on a rug (she finds the stairs difficult in her old age, creeping up them one at a time, so there could be no question of her dashing up them ahead of me).
Well, ok. So I was mistaken. Late, tired, etc. Fair enough. And I'm sure I would have forgotten all about it, if it weren't for what followed.
The next night, a Sunday, MrsQ and I had been busy sorting stuff in the attic out until after 9pm, and were now very much enjoying a takeaway from a lovely Thai place from down the town. Chicken pad thai, prawn rice, glass noodle rolls, undemanding telly on - bliss.
Suddenly, we both heard a loud miaow coming from the hallway behind, followed quickly by another. Two cries in total - loud, quite close, slightly muffled and a little bit frantic. A cat that wanted to be heard. MrsQ and I looked at each other, and set our bowls down.
My first thought was that the older cat had contrived to get herself locked in the cupboard under the stairs - the cry sounded a bit like her. It's also the kind of stupid thing she'd do. We'd been hauling things in and out from under the stairs, so it was conceivable she'd doddered in and I'd accidentally shut the door on her. But, on going out to the hall and flicking on the understairs light, the cupboard was quite bare of cats. Perplexed, I went straight upstairs to find the older cat curled up asleep on the rug in the back bedroom, and the younger one also sound asleep on the bed in the front room.
I came down again and advised MrsQ that it couldn't have been either of our two - they were both upstairs, conked out. But we'd both heard the sound, very clearly and at the same time.
We checked all the other rooms in the house, just in case a stray had come in through the cat flap in the back door, but found nothing. Now, the cat flap is one of those four-way locking jobs, and we had it set up so that if one of ours was out in the garden, they could come in - but they couldn't go out of their own volition, so it was effectively a one-way door. If another cat had come in, it couldn't have got out again without breaking the door (yeah, that's happened). But no surplus cats were to be found, nor any damage to the door.
We flicked on the outside lights and checked the gardens front and back, but there were zero felines to be seen in the vicinity. Shrugging, we floated the possibility that maybe another cat from the neighbourhood had for some reason stuck its head through the flap, shouted twice, then gone away again. Maybe. There's a heavy curtain in front of the back door and we hadn't heard the flap rattle, and it definitely sounded like it came from the hall, not the kitchen but... what other explanation could there be? I changed the settings on the flap so it was locked tightly both ways, and we went back to our (now cold) noodles.
A few nights later we were sitting down with a pot of tea in the living room, around 10pm; the younger cat was in the room with us, fast asleep on a cardboard scratching device just behind us on the settee.
Again, the miaowing noise suddenly sounded from out in the hall. Just once. This time, not only did MrsQ and myself both hear it, but the younger cat also shot bolt upright, suddenly wide awake with her eyes huge and ears pricked, staring at the door out into the hall.
I rushed into the hall to find it empty. On going straight upstairs, the older cat was there in her usual spot in the back bedroom, curled up on the rug and in a deep sleep. Downstairs in the kitchen, I confirmed that the catflap was still locked both ways. On a cold wet miserable night, you can be sure all the doors and windows were shut tight, with blinds and curtains firmly closed.
A few hours later, after tidying everything away and switching off the lights, the younger cat wouldn't come upstairs as usual. She remained downstairs, with her back to the front door, just staring down the hall towards the kitchen and letting out occasional yells and squeals. Eventually I came down in my pajamas holding a torch to see what the issue was; sometimes a fly or a spider is enough to get her hunting instincts primed. But there didn't seem to be any of that. She just stayed there, staring fixedly down the hall at apparently nothing, her head bobbing slightly as if she was following something I couldn't see. After a while, I started to get a bit creeped out and returned to bed. In the morning, I found her beside me on the bed, pressed in tight.
I haven't seen or heard anything since, although MrsQ - not really a big believer in the paranormal - has mentioned a couple of times in passing that she'd seen one of the cats somewhere, only to find they were actually somewhere else.
If it were just me seeing and hearing all this, I'd assume I was simply imagining things late at night - but the fact that both of us heard the cry, and clearly the younger cat heard it too, moves this up a notch for me.
Now, one school of thought might take it that somehow, the much-loved cat we lost was making his presence known. While I'd love to think that, the problem there is that the 'displaced' cat we've both seen was brindled tabby, while he was a smooth smokey grey Russian Blue. He also had a totally different cry from the miaow we heard on two separate nights - his voice was quite squeaky and high-pitched, making a very distinctive "weeeeeEEEE" sound (we had to neuter him rather younger than we'd planned, as he was becoming a bit of a sex-pest towards our much older, already neutered female), while 'the cat in the hall' had a much deeper voice, making more of a traditional "miaaaaaow" noise, which doesn't sound much like either of our two. The younger one makes more of a high "eeeeeEEEEeeee" screech, while the older one makes more of a low, grunted "whuurr" sound, although she will very, very occasionally miaow - which is why I initially thought it was her under the stairs.
Cats are weird.
Late one Saturday night in October last year, I was finishing off tidying the kitchen just after MrsQ had gone up to bed. Both cats had been fed their usual rations, and to my understanding had gone upstairs after guzzling their grub, as they usually always do.
I was just drying my hands after rinsing something in the sink, when I noticed to my left one of the cats stroll past the open door of the dining room. I couldn't tell which one, since they're both the same size and a similar dark tabby colour. The dining room light was switched off, and the kitchen was lit only by the soft undercabinet lights, but I made a mental note to chase the culprit out from the dining room before shutting the door for the night.
Hands dried, I crossed over to the dining room and flicked the light on... no cat. Now, I'd been turned towards the doorway the whole time, and despite the low light I know that nothing had walked past me in the ten seconds or so between seeing the cat and then entering the room - and even if one of them had sneaked past, I certainly would have heard the collar bell jingling. The folding double doors between the dining room and living room were shut tightly. I checked under the table, behind the curtains... but nothing. I hurried upstairs, and there were both cats - the younger one already asleep on the bed and the older one lying down washing herself languidly on a rug (she finds the stairs difficult in her old age, creeping up them one at a time, so there could be no question of her dashing up them ahead of me).
Well, ok. So I was mistaken. Late, tired, etc. Fair enough. And I'm sure I would have forgotten all about it, if it weren't for what followed.
The next night, a Sunday, MrsQ and I had been busy sorting stuff in the attic out until after 9pm, and were now very much enjoying a takeaway from a lovely Thai place from down the town. Chicken pad thai, prawn rice, glass noodle rolls, undemanding telly on - bliss.
Suddenly, we both heard a loud miaow coming from the hallway behind, followed quickly by another. Two cries in total - loud, quite close, slightly muffled and a little bit frantic. A cat that wanted to be heard. MrsQ and I looked at each other, and set our bowls down.
My first thought was that the older cat had contrived to get herself locked in the cupboard under the stairs - the cry sounded a bit like her. It's also the kind of stupid thing she'd do. We'd been hauling things in and out from under the stairs, so it was conceivable she'd doddered in and I'd accidentally shut the door on her. But, on going out to the hall and flicking on the understairs light, the cupboard was quite bare of cats. Perplexed, I went straight upstairs to find the older cat curled up asleep on the rug in the back bedroom, and the younger one also sound asleep on the bed in the front room.
I came down again and advised MrsQ that it couldn't have been either of our two - they were both upstairs, conked out. But we'd both heard the sound, very clearly and at the same time.
We checked all the other rooms in the house, just in case a stray had come in through the cat flap in the back door, but found nothing. Now, the cat flap is one of those four-way locking jobs, and we had it set up so that if one of ours was out in the garden, they could come in - but they couldn't go out of their own volition, so it was effectively a one-way door. If another cat had come in, it couldn't have got out again without breaking the door (yeah, that's happened). But no surplus cats were to be found, nor any damage to the door.
We flicked on the outside lights and checked the gardens front and back, but there were zero felines to be seen in the vicinity. Shrugging, we floated the possibility that maybe another cat from the neighbourhood had for some reason stuck its head through the flap, shouted twice, then gone away again. Maybe. There's a heavy curtain in front of the back door and we hadn't heard the flap rattle, and it definitely sounded like it came from the hall, not the kitchen but... what other explanation could there be? I changed the settings on the flap so it was locked tightly both ways, and we went back to our (now cold) noodles.
A few nights later we were sitting down with a pot of tea in the living room, around 10pm; the younger cat was in the room with us, fast asleep on a cardboard scratching device just behind us on the settee.
Again, the miaowing noise suddenly sounded from out in the hall. Just once. This time, not only did MrsQ and myself both hear it, but the younger cat also shot bolt upright, suddenly wide awake with her eyes huge and ears pricked, staring at the door out into the hall.
I rushed into the hall to find it empty. On going straight upstairs, the older cat was there in her usual spot in the back bedroom, curled up on the rug and in a deep sleep. Downstairs in the kitchen, I confirmed that the catflap was still locked both ways. On a cold wet miserable night, you can be sure all the doors and windows were shut tight, with blinds and curtains firmly closed.
A few hours later, after tidying everything away and switching off the lights, the younger cat wouldn't come upstairs as usual. She remained downstairs, with her back to the front door, just staring down the hall towards the kitchen and letting out occasional yells and squeals. Eventually I came down in my pajamas holding a torch to see what the issue was; sometimes a fly or a spider is enough to get her hunting instincts primed. But there didn't seem to be any of that. She just stayed there, staring fixedly down the hall at apparently nothing, her head bobbing slightly as if she was following something I couldn't see. After a while, I started to get a bit creeped out and returned to bed. In the morning, I found her beside me on the bed, pressed in tight.
I haven't seen or heard anything since, although MrsQ - not really a big believer in the paranormal - has mentioned a couple of times in passing that she'd seen one of the cats somewhere, only to find they were actually somewhere else.
If it were just me seeing and hearing all this, I'd assume I was simply imagining things late at night - but the fact that both of us heard the cry, and clearly the younger cat heard it too, moves this up a notch for me.
Now, one school of thought might take it that somehow, the much-loved cat we lost was making his presence known. While I'd love to think that, the problem there is that the 'displaced' cat we've both seen was brindled tabby, while he was a smooth smokey grey Russian Blue. He also had a totally different cry from the miaow we heard on two separate nights - his voice was quite squeaky and high-pitched, making a very distinctive "weeeeeEEEE" sound (we had to neuter him rather younger than we'd planned, as he was becoming a bit of a sex-pest towards our much older, already neutered female), while 'the cat in the hall' had a much deeper voice, making more of a traditional "miaaaaaow" noise, which doesn't sound much like either of our two. The younger one makes more of a high "eeeeeEEEEeeee" screech, while the older one makes more of a low, grunted "whuurr" sound, although she will very, very occasionally miaow - which is why I initially thought it was her under the stairs.
Cats are weird.
bugmum
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Cats are divine, and don't you dare forget it!
bugmum
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Now you're just pushing your luck. You'll get the bum treatment for DAYS if your cats work out what you've said about them.
Quercus
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I really don't think I could fall much further in their estimation... I am a mere skivvy, only there to fill bowls on demand, empty litter trays, and provide light amusement by flicking a bunch of feathers on a string around for them... slackness on my part (such as failing to provide breakfast at 5am) is met with swift retribution, such as diving into the bottom of the bed and sinking claws into my feet. Commands to vacate chairs and to cease clawing curtains are met with looks of utter contempt.
None of this applies to MrsQ, oddly, whose orders for cats to get down from the worktop are immediately complied with, even when shouted from upstairs. They never pester her for food, whereas I'm currently being bullied for 'early dinner' as I type.
I am very much the bottom of the pecking order in this house, and they don't let me forget it!
None of this applies to MrsQ, oddly, whose orders for cats to get down from the worktop are immediately complied with, even when shouted from upstairs. They never pester her for food, whereas I'm currently being bullied for 'early dinner' as I type.
I am very much the bottom of the pecking order in this house, and they don't let me forget it!
bugmum
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See? They ARE divine. They KNEW you were going to badmouth them, so they've been punishing you in advance.
IbisNibs
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Is there a crawl space under your house where a cat could be stuck? Are there any missing cats in your neighborhood?
Even though you and your spouse both saw a cat, it could have been some way your mind is alerting you to a strange cat that is in distress. You are both very sympathetic to cats, so you might have especially acute cat-awareness instincts.
Even though you and your spouse both saw a cat, it could have been some way your mind is alerting you to a strange cat that is in distress. You are both very sympathetic to cats, so you might have especially acute cat-awareness instincts.
Quercus
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Heh, that's definitely some divine precognition - they and their forebears will have been punishing me in advance for nigh on forty years...
That's a theory worth putting forward, for sure - thanks for that!
As far as I can tell, there's no way to access the very limited space beneath our house - brick right down to the ground, with three slatted clay ventilation blocks fitted, all of which are intact. A number of years ago we had a utilities company use a remote tool to burrow under the floors, and the noise was very noticeable - if there were an animal under the floorboards, I'd hope we'd hear some scuffling to alert us.
Not aware of any cats going missing in the area either (and I do keep an eye out for missing pet notices on NextDoor and the like), though there are a few who very occasionally wander through the garden. None that we haven't seen after we first started hearing the noises in the hall, though.
Just as an update, last night about 10:30 I'd just finished cleaning out the cat litter box in the dining room (not an ideal location, agreed, but it's hooded with a charcoal filter and the kitchen's just too small) and sat down on the settee again beside MrsQ.
She glanced to her right, through the open door to the dining room, and said "Is one of those felines befouling that box already?" I looked right too, seeing nothing, then got up and took a few steps forward to look into the dining room. The older cat was asleep in one of the many cat beds, on the opposite side of the dining room, and not visible from the settee. The younger cat was asleep on a chair in the living room, to the left of where we were sitting. Neither of them had moved since I sat down. Both rooms had lamps lit, and were well-illuminated.
I asked her what she'd seen, and she muttered that she though she saw one of the cats walking past the open dining room door towards the corner where the litter tray lives - and then changed the subject.
Well, okay. So it's not just me.