How does your cat know when you're coming home?

Last week on a flight to Singapore I found myself discussing cats with the purser, Jacqueline Albano. She said her children Patrick and Ronique were pleased to read about my pusakal housemates because they themselves have a pusakal in the house.

Four years ago they adopted a kitten and named her Pepper for her black and white coloring. Pepper is now four years old, affectionate, and so attached to her humans that she sits on the table while they’re doing homework. Once, they went on vacation out of town, leaving Pepper at home. The cat was so distraught at their absence that she stopped eating. She seemed depressed and was literally wasting away; they thought she was going to die.

Then her humans returned and she perked up instantly. She started eating again and was soon back to normal. She is still very attached to her humans, and somehow she always knows when they are about to arrive. A few minutes before they walk through the door she takes her position, and when they come in she greets them.

How do cats know when their humans are coming home?

I’ve wondered about this myself, and not just because every time I open the door two of them are sitting on the floor, looking up at me with expressions of “Where’ve you been?” I could show up in the middle of the afternoon or late at night, and they’ll be expecting me.

Obviously they hear your footsteps in the hallway, you might say. Maybe so, but a few years ago, when my sister was living with us, I noticed that they could tell when she was about to arrive. My sister, who makes the term “workaholic” seem mild (Surely there is some 12-step program she should get on), has always kept strange hours. No matter what time she would come home, 10 minutes before her key turned in the lock the cats would be perched on the table, staring expectantly at the door.

This behavior is also common among dogs; in the 1990s biologist Rupert Sheldrake wrote a book with the imaginative title, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home.

So how do cats know when their humans are about to walk in the door?

Cat people like to think that their felines are psychic — they have knowing expressions and they seem to possess mysterious abilities. It wouldn’t be the first time humans have ascribed paranormal powers to cats — the ancient Egyptians declared them gods and built temples to them. When their cats died they were mummified like Pharaohs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the smug, superior looks on my feline housemates’ faces comes from the genetic memory of having been worshipped as deities.

Do cats have telepathic bonds with their humans? Whenever I’m in a specialty store I hear my cats’ voices in my head going, “Buy us gourmet cat food! Caviar! Foie gras!” However, I know it’s just me because they are speaking English with accents out of a P.G. Wodehouse story. I may be a slave to cats but I know they don’t really speak. (Although there is that Russian cat on YouTube who says “No, no, no” very clearly, and my youngest cat Mat sometimes looks me in the eye and says “Nyork” or “Nyatch”).

The more likely explanation for their “psychic” behavior is that cats have an excellent sense of hearing. They can probably hear your car or your unique footstep from a great distance.

I consulted one of my favorite references on cats, Catwatching by Desmond Morris, acclaimed author of The Naked Ape. He does not tackle our question, but he does have a section titled “Can cats predict earthquakes?” The answer is yes, though we’re not sure how they do it. Cats could be sensitive to vibrations of the earth so faint as to be undetectable by instruments. They may be responsive to the increase in static electricity that happens before an earthquake. Or they may be able to detect sudden shifts in the earth’s magnetic field.

The explanation could be a combination of the three. One afternoon in 2000, my ginger cat Koosi (She prefers to be called “Mighty Goddess Bast”) stood in a corner and started howling like some sort of alarm. I’d never heard her make that sound. Five minutes later there was a strong earthquake. It appears that she detected vibrations, increased static electricity, a magnetic shift, or all of the above. Then again Koosi is an especially megalomaniacal cat, and probably thinks she ordered the earth to move.

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If you wish to discuss some cat-related issue (Do they prefer Tolstoy or Dostoevsky?) or show off pictures of your cats, email saffron.safin@gmail.com.