Cat Punctuality

[roserivers]

how do they do that? From the time Kai and Kit arrived at our home, I've got up at 7 AM exactly to feed them. It didn't take long before they were either jumping off daughter's bed at 6.58 and/or sitting in my bedroom at 6.59 demanding breakfast, very loudly and persistently.  Just how do they time it so well? Where's their pocket watches or is it the clear face of the clock in the kitchen?

(Something slipped today, though, for some reason they were both on my bed, which is unusual. We share cats, one on each bed usually. Today both of them were curled up, sleeping, at 7 AM. I had to wake them with kisses and cuddles.)

It's this 'knowing' which is so obvious with animals, cats in particular, it seems. My daughter shares her life between our home and her boyfriend's flat, two roads away. She has taken to coming home most nights, rather than stay over and the cats seem to know which she is going to do. She wasn't well yesterday, bad cold and general lethargy. Kai didn't even think of coming onto  my bed until he heard her come in, his usual routine, but stayed downstairs by the kitchen door (there's a hint, if ever there was one!) and yes, she came home early from boyfriend's home. They're on our wavelength whether we accept it or not.

Her previous boyfriend's father had two Jack Russells. They used to get agitated, start roaming around the kitchen and play fighting at 7 PM every day. That was the moment their owner left work at the end of his shift. I hear stories of animals who know when someone's in the same street, or recognise the engine of the car or whatever, but knowing when someone leaves work 8-9miles away is something else.

We should never under estimate the power of their intuition and connection with us, should we?

 

[di and bob]

I agree! My cats are all on the bed purring, meowing and making pests of themselves at two minutes before I get up, They even adjust for daylight savings, come on!

 

[tabbytom]

Cats are Crepuscular creatures, meaning that they are most active at dusk and dawn. That explains their pocket watches :lol3: They are very punctual.

My boy sleeps on my bed right next to me. He'll get up around 4am and ask to open the door to be let out. At 5 sharp, he'll come in and wake me up to feed him. On time, everytime! :lol3:

 

[tiptopper]

So true! I walked to my job (7-3:30 shift) and from the picture window my mother would see me coming up the hill. Minutes before I walked in she said she would hear the cats jumping off my bed upstairs and coming down to the door to wait for me. Same time every day like they knew what time it was. Happened for many years.

 

[molly92]

I saw a piece of a documentary once where they tested a theory about how dogs could "tell time" based on how much the smell of their owner had disappated. These 2 dogs always seemed to know exactly when their dad was supposed to come home from work even as the seasons changed. At first they thought maybe it was because they started getting hungry for dinner around that time, but they changed their meal schedule and the dogs still knew exactly when it was 5 pm. So they had the man wear certain items of clothing most of the day and picked them up from him and then placed them around the house a few hours before he was due home so that his scent was still strong in the house in the evening, and the dogs slept right through 5 pm and were very pleased and surprised that their dad came home unexpectedly! They could tell how long someone had been gone based on how much of their scent was left. As cats are pretty reliant on scent themselves, I would not be surprised if they had a similar method!

 

[roserivers]

that's sooo interesting. The cats are always sniffing, especially when I get in from work, bringing all those different smells with me that I don't notice. Sometimes a dog's been in the shop, then they go crazy sniffing my clothes.

 

[basscat]

All of ours are like that. They know what time dinner time is.
I think they can sense when we are sick or feeling bad as well.  Two of them seem almost sympathetic to our weakness. The other seems to think this would be a good time to eat us.

 

[roserivers]

Definitely agree with the sickness thing. My beloved partner/friend (we worked together for over 20 years) said goodbye to a beautiful cat who thought he owned the world. My partner wanted another cat, preferably one that would sit on and be a comfort to his wife, who was confined to a recliner chair. He ended up with litter sisters, half Siamese, (one tortoiseshell, the other seal point) who never went near his wife, probably due to her illness (COPD) which was a disappointment to her.

Our two know what's going on, they also know how to 'demand'. I find Kit sitting in the middle of the kitchen doorway ten minutes before supper is due. The other night they were both there as early as that.

 

[molly92]

I saw a piece of a documentary once where they tested a theory about how dogs could "tell time" based on how much the smell of their owner had disappated. These 2 dogs always seemed to know exactly when their dad was supposed to come home from work even as the seasons changed. At first they thought maybe it was because they started getting hungry for dinner around that time, but they changed their meal schedule and the dogs still knew exactly when it was 5 pm. So they had the man wear certain items of clothing most of the day and picked them up from him and then placed them around the house a few hours before he was due home so that his scent was still strong in the house in the evening, and the dogs slept right through 5 pm and were very pleased and surprised that their dad came home unexpectedly! They could tell how long someone had been gone based on how much of their scent was left. As cats are pretty reliant on scent themselves, I would not be surprised if they had a similar method!

I found the clip!


(I remembered a few of the details wrong, sorry about that! But the concept is the same.)

 

[jcat]

I saw a piece of a documentary once where they tested a theory about how dogs could "tell time" based on how much the smell of their owner had disappated. These 2 dogs always seemed to know exactly when their dad was supposed to come home from work even as the seasons changed. At first they thought maybe it was because they started getting hungry for dinner around that time, but they changed their meal schedule and the dogs still knew exactly when it was 5 pm. So they had the man wear certain items of clothing most of the day and picked them up from him and then placed them around the house a few hours before he was due home so that his scent was still strong in the house in the evening, and the dogs slept right through 5 pm and were very pleased and surprised that their dad came home unexpectedly! They could tell how long someone had been gone based on how much of their scent was left. As cats are pretty reliant on scent themselves, I would not be surprised if they had a similar method!

I found the clip!




(I remembered a few of the details wrong, sorry about that! But the concept is the same.)

That's really interesting, but would only explain how pets know when to expect their owners to get home.

It's easy to explain how Mogli knows it's breakfast time, as he hears our neighbor get up for work, but how does he know it's 7:30 p.m. and therefore "milk time"? A while ago he was slightly constipated, so I gave him some cat milk to increase his fluid intake. The next evening (and all subsequent evenings), he ran into the kitchen at 7:30 looking for his milk, while I was still in the living room or upstairs. :lol3:

My father-in-law had a 5 to 10-minute walk to work. Every Wednesday he'd bring a doggy bag of leftover fried liver from the factory cafeteria for our dog. Fifteen or 20 minutes before he came, the dog would start watching out the front window for him - only on Wednesdays.

I commuted to work by train for decades, and walked to the train station. My teaching schedule not only differed from day to day, but changed every semester. Every pet we had would start waiting in the kitchen window for me - before the train pulled into the station. My husband always knew when I'd stayed later or missed the train just by watching the pet(s).