Random Stuff About a Crow, and a Cat with a Very Strange Talent
One of the beauties of a blog like this is in its inherent informality... These posts, after all, are little more than the literary "fleshing out" of the morning ritual of filling the
feeders in our sweats and slippers, and in the process of doing so, chatting with the neighbor.
Still, it happens... There are times when the words just don't flow. This is one of those times. Thankfully, I can fall back on the informality of backyard birding itself.... So I figured I'd just sort of ramble about a crow and a cat...
Was playing with the NovaBird remote camera... Dang that's fun! (Though we may have a problem... The 'Bird has taken to turning itself off... I'll have to look into this further.) Regardless, here's yet another crow picture. (This is getting to be too easy.)
Onward...
I'll preface this next bit by simply stating that I don't believe that the U.S. Government is hiding dead "ET"s in Area 51, and I don't believe in ESP... I'm an engineer, and I trust that which can be measured and repeated. That being said, our Ragdoll Cat "Toby" is really beginning to freak me out... He seems to know when I'll be home... Here's the deal...
Toby lacks the virtue of bravery. (Footsteps approaching the front door always spark a rapid, belly-dragging, slinking retreat to the safety of the underside of the bed.) He also lacks the virtue of a "catlike" grace. (He frequently runs into things.) Still, there is strange talent in the creature. When I'm away, Toby seems to know when I'm coming home... Mrs. CapeCodAlan can tell when I'm near because 5 minutes prior to my arrival, the cat will hunker down by the front door and stare at it in anticipation. I don't know whether he can hear the car's engine, or what, but he's shown this behavior over and over and over again under completely random circumstances... I walk into the house and his stare... Kinda' makes my skin crawl to be honest...
So here's Toby...
If anyone has seen similar behavior in an animal, I'd like to hear about it...
'Till later...
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Still, it happens... There are times when the words just don't flow. This is one of those times. Thankfully, I can fall back on the informality of backyard birding itself.... So I figured I'd just sort of ramble about a crow and a cat...
Was playing with the NovaBird remote camera... Dang that's fun! (Though we may have a problem... The 'Bird has taken to turning itself off... I'll have to look into this further.) Regardless, here's yet another crow picture. (This is getting to be too easy.)
Onward...
I'll preface this next bit by simply stating that I don't believe that the U.S. Government is hiding dead "ET"s in Area 51, and I don't believe in ESP... I'm an engineer, and I trust that which can be measured and repeated. That being said, our Ragdoll Cat "Toby" is really beginning to freak me out... He seems to know when I'll be home... Here's the deal...
Toby lacks the virtue of bravery. (Footsteps approaching the front door always spark a rapid, belly-dragging, slinking retreat to the safety of the underside of the bed.) He also lacks the virtue of a "catlike" grace. (He frequently runs into things.) Still, there is strange talent in the creature. When I'm away, Toby seems to know when I'm coming home... Mrs. CapeCodAlan can tell when I'm near because 5 minutes prior to my arrival, the cat will hunker down by the front door and stare at it in anticipation. I don't know whether he can hear the car's engine, or what, but he's shown this behavior over and over and over again under completely random circumstances... I walk into the house and his stare... Kinda' makes my skin crawl to be honest...
So here's Toby...
If anyone has seen similar behavior in an animal, I'd like to hear about it...
'Till later...
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Comments
Animals are quite intuitive... not unusual behavior in dogs and cats.
Posted by: kathryn | October 1, 2007 7:04 PM
Gotta love Toby - I had a cat that used to do the same thing...kinda weird isn't it?
Posted by: Teresa | October 4, 2007 9:01 PM
Same habit/behaviour over here!
All our 5 cats + 2 dogs...
when I come home from work (no matter at what time/from which direction)...they start ~ 5 minutes prior to my arrival to leave their daily sleeping places, stretch, yawn and proceed to the front window and front door to welcome me...
random circumstances but... always 5 minutes prior to my arrival....
and can`t be linked with the sound of the car.. because I changed my car this june - and they knew from the very first day....
So.. seems to be a non-racial, non-behavioral habit... based on kind of "superstition"...
Monika
Posted by: Monika | October 5, 2007 5:36 AM