cats see spirits?

There is old myth where I am from that cats see ghosts and spirits and that's why they sometimes suddenly stare at something behind you. My cat does that quite a bit. Just wondering if there is any common explanation of this behavior.

My cats do this too- and while sometimes it can be attributed to a fly buzzing around on the ceiling or wall, sometimes theres nothing there that I can see. I personally think that cats can see spirits.

There are spirits in my house (my personal belief here, trying not to sound hokey) and they don't appear to be nasty ones. I've felt them before, and it wasn't a creepy feeling, just a sense of not being alone in an empty house. My cats frequently look over my shoulder at nothing or up the stairs as if they're watching someone descend. They never seem afraid, just full of cat curiousity.

I think thats actualy kind of funny, because my baby Hobo (3 months old) enjoys bating and chasing after literaly nothing... and I mean nothing. She'll be lying there, all nice and content and then bam she's off and running after something that seems to just illude her.

~ Salem

We lived in a Civil War era house for a while, and sometimes Leo would walk around like he was following someone, then flop over as if for a tummy rub, when there was no one near him. We heard that most of the houses in that area were believed to have ghosts.

This is spooky Most of time my cat does this when I am working late. She will suddenly be very interested in something at the entrance of the living room, never scared - more curiosity than anything with eyes wide open staring for a long time. Sometimes I wave my hand in front of her, she refuses to be distracted. Well if she is looking at a ghost, I think it's a friendly one

Cats can hear sounds we do not hear. So if they seem to see something, we do not see, then maybe there are just concentrated on a noise.
In my opinion cats have only a different sensivitity to noises a we have and they do not see any spirits .

my cat charli stares off into space quite often, which freaks me out now, cuz the idea of ghosts freaks me out! another thing i realized about her is that she always stares at me! i will be sitting on the couch and she will be sitting in the middle of the floor staring at me intently...she makes me feel uncomfortable the way she stares at me, like shes judging me or something...LOL

yea wendy does the same thing she will sit somewhere and just stare at nothing it me out

I believe that there are spirits around even though I am completing a science degree.

I believe that cats can see or sense spirits. Though I think this is more to do with my upbringing. There's a Chinese belief that cats bring good fortune and health and some business and home owners either keep a cat or two around or have those little cat statues at the entrance of their place.

Both of my cats will be quite content purring away in our laps and they will suddenly both look at some point in the air and follow this point with their eyes. This could have been sound from the apartment above us but when they started to growl and become agitated that was when we started to become concerned and all the lights were switched on. We moved out of that apartment the next week. It became too creepy for us after that.

In our new apartment, the only thing we had to worry about was the scent left behind by the old resident cat. And that's a lot easier to deal with than the unkown.

As a practicing Median, I assure you that cats CAN see spirits. They can hear, touch and be petted by them as well. However, if this bothers you, simply cast a clensing spell (very simple with some sage incense and essential oil) which you can find information on in either a library or on the net. This will SAFELY eliminate the spritis from your house, and allow Kitty to focus on the mortal realm.

Yeah, my cat Sulo - the Jekyll&Hyde cat you may recall - does that sometimes. He used to sleep next to me and he'd just get up in the middle of the night and stare at... nothing.

Weird thing is sometimes I could feel something myself, too, like a cat or a dog jumping on the bed, moving about, then lying down next to my legs. Sometimes I'd feel it so clearly that I had to turn in my bed and have a look whether it was Sulo. I like to sometimes imagine that it's the spirit of Osku, a welsh corgi pembroke who used to live in our house before we moved in and who I personally knew very well (I used to walk him and take him to agility, match shows and such). Sadly he got run over by a car when he was a only something like three years old and died.

Anyhow, it's more likely to be just the sensation of the blood in my veins and heart thumping and all those things that I seem to notice much more at night when everything's so calm and quiet, combined with a vivid imagination. I've also felt it when I've been away from home, in another country, so the Osku-theory probably doesn't hold (unless his spirit is following me around!). And it's stopped since I got my new dog, a rough collie named Elli (hence the nickname I use on this site).

So, I don't really know what cats are thinking of when they do that... but I do kind of like the idea of seeing spirits - even though it might creep me out in the middle of the night!

Enjoy your spirit, they can actually be a lot of fun! And yes, if they can pull enough energy off of you or those around you, they can travel.

It is very possible that this is your puppy, especially if you don't hear any "human" noises at night (sighing, crying, etc.) Puppy may be a little afraid of the new dog, which is why she settled down a bit.

If you feel comfortable with it, put out a favorite toy at night, it jsut may end up in another room by morning, and you're pretty much guaranteed that it's puppy letting you know he's around

Yea, I'll catch them staring off at nothingness once in awhile. The only time that really freaked me out was late one night when I was here alone suddenly both cats bolted to my room which is at the back of the apartment. This was before we had Isis. They ran underneath my bed, and then Niko ran to the corner and stuck her head around it to shoot underneath my bed. I sat there and listened and heard nothing. I walked to the living room and heard nothing...was kinda disturbed to see both cats standing behind me at my doorway with these huge eyes side by side, tails sticking straight up. I grabbed Niko as Niko is my precious, and I walked her to the livingroom to show her nothing was there. Oh, she wasn't having that. She looked around twice, growled slightly, and bolted back to my room taking some skin with her. To say the least I went back and shut my door.

This is not unusual! Once they get used to their new "friend" all will be well. Actually, my kitties play all the time with their "friends" and it's quite a show. :witch:

Of course kitties can see spirits, many times it is a pet you owned in the past or a family member looking after you. I would love to have more spirits here to help keep the kittens out of mischief! OK, wishful thinking on my part.
I would feel blessed having a spirit watching over me. Just kick back and enjoy it.

I am fortunate enough to have several spirits and the kitties love them! It's the ultimate in quality entertainmement :bat

Just some interesting perspective. The Muslims believe that a spirit can even take over or live in a cat. Especially black cats. The spirits are called Al-Jinn in Arabic (the i is pronounced as in sit.) My understanding is that Jinn are another creation of God, much like humans except they don't posses their own body. But just as humans, there are good Jinn and bad Jinn. They like to play tricks on humans and even have been thought to have the ability to drive people to insanity. So I wouldn't be suprised if a cat can also see a spirit being.

Tammie

Okay, you guys have offically scared the crap out of me. I'm alone right now and I was reading all your posts, Tybalt, who is my big, fluffy, BLACK cat was staring straight across the room up the wall. Nothing is there. I hope my spirits are friendly, maybe they're sayings it's finally time for me to get out of this crappy apartment

LOL! The Blair Cat Project eh Tybalt?

First off cats do not have some special spirit magic skill where they can see ghosts or spirits.

When they appear to be looking at nothing, that's not true. Since their eyes are far superior to ours, they can see tiny flies, bugs and even dust in the air that we can not. Cats are very interested in anything moving and that's what they are looking at, dust.

It's like when light shines in your house and you see floating dust, cats can see it all the time and that's what gets their attention.

I think this makes more sense than the theory that we all have spirits in our house and only our cats can see them LOL