Does anyone else have a natural cat-radar?

Last night my husband and I went camping at a very remote" primative" camp site in the middle of no where! We were sitting around the campfire and had been dicussing some serious news topics, and I had been aggressively talking for quite awhile, and out in the distance I heard a faint cat cry. I was aware of the cat, took what I thought was a quick mental note of it in my mind, and thought I wasnt concerned with it. I was so surprised when my husband said to me, "Yes it was a cat, go on with your story". I then realized, without knowing it, I had stopped talking, and my mind was blank, and I was waiting to hear the cat again. It was the strangest feeling of reality that instantly came flooding over me, when I realized what had just happened. It was like hearing that cat cry put me in a trance, only to be brought around by my husbands words. I knew I had a natural cat radar, but WOW...that was so weird to not be aware of that I had stopped talking and my mind a changed channels without me knowing it!

I have something to that effect. If my cats are out on our enclosed porches and another cat comes around or something is wrong, I can hear something in their meows and chirps that alerts me to that fact and I go and check on them. I can be on the opposite side of the house and hear them on the front porch or vise versa. It's strange, I never thought I had a "mommy" instinct but I guess I have it to some degree.(at least in a cat sense! LOL)

Cats & Dogs always know I'm an animal lover and flock to me!

Hubby calls it my kitty magnet. We went over the mountain to get hay and took the dog for a walk in the forest and came back with two orphaned kittens. We went to taco bell to grab something to eat and came back with a kitty found under the dumpster when I went to throw something away. They come to my back door to eat, and they just seem to find me no matter where I go.

I cant stop smiling hissy! It's exactly the same for me...everywhere I go, there will be a kitten that usually comes home with me, or they just come to my door and cry. It's almost like they send out telepathy communications to each other, saying, Ok she's at the bank right now and her car is parked in the 3rd row...now she's at home, be quick and she'll feed you...she's walking in the park, stay behind the willow and cry for all your worth as she rounds the corner...LOL! It's almost a daily occurance anymore Hi! I'm over here! LOL!

I have been doing rescue a very long time, and my theory is they network. I think they communicate via scent and rub a certain safe, happy scent on bushes and other objects that let other cats know that it's a safe place. I will never forget one year, a strange cat coming out of the bushes back by the creek, carrying something in her mouth. She sprinted across the pasture, ran into the shop and dropped a kitten on my surprised husband's lap! We had NEVER seen her before, not in the yard, not at the feral feeders. She did this four more times. We took her and the four kittens upstairs to the house and she laid with them until dusk and then she started an unholy racket to get out of there! I took a chance and let her out, and she vanished, returning 30 minutes later with the biggest kitten I have ever seen! She then yowled at our door to come in, and went upstairs with her family like she owned the place. Four days later when I went up to check on her in the morning, as I did every morning since she arrived, I found her dead with her kittens struggling against her. We bottle fed the babies, kept two and found homes for the others.

We're just so lucky we don't have the huge stray problem here like they do in the states

Ah Hissy...that story gives me chills. I do think my house is marked..and over the almost 10 years, the rate of cats seeming to need or want caring that come to my yard is increasing.

I heard a screaming cat cry a few days ago - mentioned it here...I ran out in my purple nightgown (ha!) and just knew it was Itty Bitty Blue, my current little ? whatever he is (can't get my hands on him, so he's either very savey re strangers but with an owner, or he has no owner). Sure enough, it was his voice, and he was being chased by a long time indoor/outdoor kitty from up the block. Itty Bitty has a very tiny, girlish meow, very distinctive. I was able to break it up with a good shout at the older cat, and was rewarded (so it seems to me) by Itty Bitty, coming by the next day to spend an entire day napping on our deck in various really cute poses. Haven't seen him into the two days since though

Oh hissy, that is the sweetest and sadest story! Brought me to tears I couldnt agree more with your network theory! I have a sense of realization to my questions of how and why now! And even more so, a sense of goodness and love. Thank you I needed that!

My sweetie swears that I rub catnip on myself. If there is a cat, particlarly a hungry one, anywhere near, it will find me. I have a kitty buddy at work that sits on or under my car and waits for me to come out. I have been feeding a feral family lately, and momcat brings her kittens to eat. They will sit in a line across the parking lot and wait patiently for me. If I get the house in the country I am looking at, my kitty buddy is going to become my outside cat. He is used to the outside, and he can be safe there. He has been neutered, so he has either been abandoned, or does not have a very good home.

Yup yup. We definitely don't have the stray problem around here like in other parts, but I've never met a cat that doesn't instantly know I'm safe to be around, and I certainly feel like I have an affinity with them. I used to call myself the Cat Whisperer but now I've changed it to the Baby Whisperer cos I'm the only one who can hold my new niece and put her to sleep without her bawling!! :lole3:

salem, I know exactly what you mean....I am increasingly aware of cat presence in my neighbourhood now, especially after taking in Rocky...I have always been really aware of the caterwauling of the ferals down by the river from me (it sends chills and glues me to the spot) but now, as I am say, walking and talking with a friend or BF, I hear a kit or see one up in a tree, and I stop mid-sentence and evaluate the situation withouth knowing it...BF and friends always bug me "oh, gonna take that one in too???"....

And I have only taken one in off the street so far..I can't imagine if say my friends and BF met some of the rescuers on here!!! They think that more than one cat makes someone a "cat lady" and I just look at them with disbelief or confusion

Originally Posted by Loveysmummy

And I have only taken one in off the street so far..I can't imagine if say my friends and BF met some of the rescuers on here!!! They think that more than one cat makes someone a "cat lady" and I just look at them with disbelief or confusion

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I keep trying(or trying to trick) to get my husband to come and read a post of a rescuer's many cats(he tolerates all the rescue babies I bring home, but doesnt like it) Just to let him see that I'm not the only one that brings home every kitten that I find!

I certainly think that kitties know they will get a sympathetic reaction at our house. We've had a succession of bad luck stories adopt our garden over the years that we have lived here.

It may be that they scout out all the gardens in the road and we're the only ones who talk to them; or it may be that they know to come here. Guess we'll never know which one it is.