deja vu with a cat

[pianistimo]

this morning there was this huge grey tomcat on the front porch.  he had his tail straight up and acted like he expected me to feed him.  as i walked to the mailbox (and he followed) i thought - 'have i seen this cat somewhere before?'  he continued to walk back to the front door.  i was somewhat afraid he would follow me inisde - so i shut the door really fast in his face.  he actually patiently waited on the front porch (somehow knowing i would feed him).  how can this be?  how can a cat know that someone is going to feed them if they have never met this person before.

all i can figure out is that i must have met the cat before.  it finally dawned on me that perhaps - just perhaps - this was a cat that i knew in lancaster, california.  somehow it had made it's way allll the way out here to pennsylvania and ended up on my doorstep.  the next time i see it - i want to use it's correct name - but i can't remember the cat's name right now.  if the cat is around - perhaps the owner is lurking nearby.  what is wierd is that this cat was somewhat scared of me before.  and, now - boldly rubs my leg.   i mean - i just got out the door - and the cat was acting like he was mine.

this experience makes me just wonder if the cat expects dinner tonight.  perhaps the owner, too?  do cats actually remember people after 5 years? 

[rach n bach]

Don't know...

Just hope it does as my friend's did,

and stick to the main roads.

[pianistimo]

what if the owner has died and the cat somehow came to me?  what if it was this person's last wish that i have his cat?  he was around 69 or 70 when i last saw him.  drats. i can't remember the cat's name.  it will come to me i hope. 

[pianowolfi]

I think that cats are not that much listening to their exact name, like dogs do. Just call him as you like. And I have btw heard that cats remember not so much persons than locations. That's why sometimes people leave their cat at the place when they move. Like this pretty old cat we had when I was a child. The former owners of the house we moved in had just moved about a half mile away. But this cat, Suzy, was connected to the house and would stay there. Until she had to be put down because she got terminally ill. I still remember that I was so sad that I even thought "How should I live without her?"  (And btw later I discovered that I actually have an allergy to cats )

[thalberg]

When you have deja vu with a cat, it means there's been a glitch in the system and an agent will be appearing very shortly.  Run!

[pianistimo]

a glitch in the system, you say?  well, i am married.  flirting with cats seems fairly harmless.  and, i didn't watch him eat the food.  but, i did try to remember his name.  so much so that i went through the entire 'g' section of the dictionary hoping the name would come to me.  but, it didn't.  it bugged me so much i called the original owner. i told him that i thought his cat was on the front porch and thought he had come to pennsylvania.  he assurred me that it wasn't his cat because 'le guy' was with him in california.  why couldn't i remember.  'le guy'  of course.  anyways, it was good to find out how the owner was getting along, too.   

pianowolfi, i understand living with allergies.  i also am allergic to cats - but cannot let my cat go under any circumstance.  no matter how much dust she carries around with her in mid-summer.  just try to give her a bath every so often.  she doesn't like it much - but afterwards she seems to appreciate it.  our cat was glad she moved because there are no coyotes here.