Cats May See Things We Cannot

Has your cat ever acted as if there is some invisible thing that scares him? This article is a pondering of what the cause of this is. My first experience with this behavior was when my cat was fairly young, at age one. He didn't want to go under our porch, where he normally loved to hang out. If we put him under it, he would dash away and act terrified. My first reaction was that a visitor cat had sprayed under there or something. A while later, when he was perfectly fine with going under the porch again, this idea was proved wrong when my cat was scared of his box, normally one of his favorite places to sleep. There were no other cats in the house.

Quite recently, my cat was sitting around in our mudroom, one of his favorite places to sit around. I was working and not paying attention to him, when it sounded as if he slipped on the rug, and he ran upstairs. Sure enough, the rug had been moved. I don't know why he slipped on the rug, as he wasn't playing. If playing, slipping would be normal, because he could have been running around and moved the rug. He kept returning to the mudroom and acted how he does when interacting with other felines. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he dashed upstairs, as if something was chasing him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark gray shadow going after him.

Immediately I thought of shadow people. You can't see them head on, just out of the corner of your eye and then they vanish. Upon looking in up, I discovered that many people see shadow animals. Do you think what I saw was a shadow cat?

Some may think that their cat interacts with spirits, perhaps earthbound cats, the ghost of the past. The house I live in is over one-hundred years old, do you think that perhaps it was the ghost of a past pet? Since animals can sense when disaster is about to strike, do you think that they can sense things beyond this world?

Earlier this month, before the "shadow cat" incident, a family member had mentioned that she had seen a glimpse of a "phantom" cat. She walked into the kitchen and glanced towards the doorway. There was a cat sitting in the doorway, while our cat was walking calmly past her. The cat in the doorway vanished. These kinds of things happen to people all the time. Do you think it's just our eyes playing tricks on us, or something truly supernatural?

If your cats acts as if there is something invisible that he sees, don't overreact. Don't think that you have to move out because there is a ghost infestation or something.

There are numerous reasons why a cat would appear to see something invisible. Some discover that when their cat appears to be playing with invisible things, it turns out that it was a speck of dust, or microscopic bug. Think about it. What do YOU think your cat sees?

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Here's an update that's more on the scientific side. Studies have shown that cats can see ultra-violet (UV) light. That means that that they can see in a range that is beyond what humans can see. This would be particularly helpful for cats and other prey animals when searching for food in the outdoors. 

More resources:

• What Cats and Dogs Can See That Humans Can't. You Won't Believe It!
• Shadow People