The Doppelganger

[Lilith]

I was waking up this morning when I heard a lusty stropping of the staircarpet (nothing unusual) and then a jangle of the windchime behind the bedroom curtains. Again nothing unusual; Molly likes to get up on the windowsill and disturb the curtains and play the windchime.

At the same time I felt something twitch by my foot. I raised my head. Molly was on the bed, stretched out in attitude of catly slumber. Longterm slumber. She didn't even wake up when I went to the loo.

My other cat, Mouse, refuses to come upstairs any more. She wasn't on the windowsill - I checked. Avatar cat Emily left us last August and although she liked the windowsill, she never stropped her claws on the staircarpet; SHE used the small log I screwed to the bathroom doorframe and which made a nice rumbling noise when someone used it.

So that only leaves Molly. But Molly was on the bed. I also heard her sharpening her claws on the staircarpet and playing the windchime ... at the same time ...

While she was on the bed. When she gets down from the windowsill by the way there is a loud thump. That didn't happen in this case and she certainly didn't look as if she'd freshly landed on the bed. She was zonked and blissful. No draughts, not a window open, nothing to disturb the curtains and play the windchime ...

I've always sworn that cat is capable of being in two places at once ...

[Mollycat]

Ohhh spoooky!!!

And even more spooky that my Molly also teleports.

After I got my boy, and was talking to the cat rescue about a suitable companion for him, one morning I was sitting at the table drinking my coffee when I clearly saw a grey cat walk past me past the sofa towards the armchair behind me. I was so sure I had seen it I actually got up and checked everywhere. I live in a flat and it's not on the ground floor, no way another cat could get in. Turned out when i got her Molly is grey and I'm not the only one who has witnessed this teleportation business.

[Ruth B]

Sounds like your Molly was doing her own homecheck before she decided to make sure you adopted her.

Saturn is my teleport artist but it only seems to activate to the sound of the fridge door opening (no surprise there). He can be fast asleep somewhere and then the moment I turn around with whatever out of the fridge he is sat there with a hopeful look on his face.

I also had a really weird experience once. I had a bad ear infection and was on a second lot of antibiotics, stronger ones than normally handed out. I'm normally fine with antibiotics but these ones left me feeling rather rough. I was sat on the bed reading when i felt a cat jump on the bed and curl up beside me, I could hear them purring and feel the warmth and pressure of them against my leg. I was rather engrossed in what I was reading so it was a few minutes before I reached down to give them some fuss, that was when I suddenly realised there was no cat there. The moment I realised my hand wasn't encountering a cat all the sensation of heat and pressure and the sound of the purr vanished. My leg actually felt distinctly cold as it would if a warm body had just moved away but the bed didn't have any residual heat. Part of me says it was an hallucination brought on by the medication, part of me wonders if one of my previous cat came back for a short visit to make sure I was alright.

[alanc]

Terry Pratchet had the answer - they are all Schroedingers cats, who can time travel as a matter of course!

[Mollycat]

Terry Pratchet had a lot of answers! Like giving some of our time to someone else. And I can't say pork without thinking Ankh-more-pork.

[Lilith]

Hah, Mollycat - the Precursor!

You remind me of the time I had Siamese ... one of them ran past and I put down a hand to pet her and ... NOT one of my 'meezes. I had a seal, a chocolate and a blue. This was the delicate pinkish grey-pointed known as lilac. The episode lasted seconds and the cat faded into nothing through my fingers; I never thought about it until Annie, my lilac point, arrived ...

Ruth, I found my seal-point, Majdhar, sitting on my chest (her favourite place and apt to cause dreams about being suffocated) and purring, early one morning. After her death.

It's such a comfort when they come back.

Oh Alan, Schroedinger's cat is too sad, and that bit about the cat only remembering that it was alive ...

I've never read anything of Terry Pratchett's apart from his cat book but he's always struck me as a Good Chap with a wacky sense of humour.

I once had another doppelganger experience, told this story before but basically it was about a litter of Siamese, two on the hearthrug with Mother, the other three rampaging upstairs. Several times my then OH asked me to fetch them down as it was late and they might need their tray. Every time they disappeared - until I returned to the front room. Neighbour was out; other animals in the big back livingroom; nothing to account for sound of scampering upstairs. Eventually I happened to glance into the big basket that housed the litter ... there were the naughty three, fast asleep.

And upstairs, overhead, still went the gallop gallop gallop of tiny paws ...

Cats!