The cat I have now, does the exact same things at
times.

He will look past me - like someone is at my shoulder.
When I turn and look, the cat will look at me and
back.

I have lost 3 loved ones all in a short time - and one
of them loved this cat dearly.

I thought I was just wishful thinking, or imagining.

But, now, I just believe what makes me feel good. :)

I've always thought it to be a cat's practical joke. All of my cats over the years have done it. They stare at something, we look to see what it is, they laugh at us.

Oh wow.
Hey Dottie, weren't you the one who posted a year or more ago that there were some peanuts in your hallway, and your son Brian loved peanuts?

Maybe y(our) pets do sense things far beyond our knowledge. Try not to let it creep you out, but I know I would be, nonetheless. Try to take comfort in what he's doing.

Molly, that would creep me out, to turn around and then your cat looking at you and back again.

.....but then again Roxie is an excellent bug-hunter.
She will stare at the wall and I have to get up and look closely, and sure enough, there's a little fly, ladybug, or something smaller, that she's wanting to get.

and it always seems to happen when you're alone, lol..this house has been the least bothersome of all our homes...

I really don't believe that cats "see" people who have passed on.

I have had Lottie for about 14 years. She was a young, but grown, cat when I got her.

When I brought her to my house, she started looking up to the pull down steps in the hall. I let her go up any time she wanted to, which was quite often. If she heard the steps being pulled down, she was the first one to run up there. Never could figure out why she wanted to go there.

Where I live now doesn't have an attic, so no steps. She sometimes runs through the house, very fast, yowling loud and goes to the linen closet door, looks at me like I'm supposed to understand what she is trying to tell me.

She did not "know" any of my past family or friends when I got her, and I am the first person to live in this new house.

I need a Cat Whisperer to solve this!

Sue

You're gonna make of it what you will, cat or no cat.

I don't believe they have special powers either. Cats have an enormous amount of patience and can sit and stare at a speck of dust for hours. No genius or supernatural there.

Those of you that remember when my husband died, probably remember CeCe's story! I've never caught him staring at anything...but he's certainly done some things that have made me scratch my head and wonder WTH!!!

actually,its been said that animals do not necessarily "see" but "sense" the departed--I tend to think of it as believing..animals and children "believe"..so anything is possible,I s'pose

That would frighten me if my cat did that!

I had a dog, Lena (passed last August), who would stare at me. I'd look up and she'd be across the room just watching me. Sometimes I thought maybe she sensed I wasn't feeling well or something. I can still see those big brown eyes looking up at me.

The unexplained thing that happened after Brian passed, was an 5X7 photo of Brian and his wife, smooching on the beach. I had taken the pic when I visited them in CA. I had the photo on the dining room table, and it was gone. I search all over the apartment, but couldn't find it. I figured it had gotten mixed in with the news papers when Hubs was getting them ready to take out. I was bummed out because I really liked that picture. A day or so later, I went into my bedroom and there was the picture laying in the middle of my bed. I don't know how it got there, but I like to think Brian had something to do with it's return.

Years ago we rented a big farm house, and so often the three cats would sit in the dining room and in unison, the three of them would be watching 'something' going up the strairs. It always gave the willies.

oh Dotmom, that is bizarre about the picture!! I wasn't around here when your son passed, was he ill? And the dil that you lost, was that Brian's wife? I'm so sorry for all your losses!!

It's almost Halloween....right...?

When I was growing up, we lived in a house where the previous owner had an accident, she fell down the stairs, breaking her neck. My german shepherd once watched something/somebody with great interest as it walked around the Christmas tree inspecting the ornaments....according to my dogs eyes. She kept looking back at me to see what I was going to do. You see there were 2 doors side by side. One door went to the steep basement stairs, the other to the babys room. In the middle of the night she opened the wrong door and .....well.....

We could never keep "that" door closed. I told my mom, she said I wasn't closing the door so it latched. So I demonstrated by pulling on the door knob to show it was latched, then walking away....the door swung open behind me.

Personally...I don't know if cats or dogs can see something. Maybe it "was" a drafty house?

Here is a link that might be useful: Stories of pets & seeing Ghosts.......maybe.....

Dotmom,our previous cats did that, all 4 of them. Even tho they did so independently of one another, they never lived together. They would run to the staircase and watch something go up or down the steps as the case may be.

I do believe that our departed loved ones absolutely visit us, and they leave us signs.

At first I'd pass it off as the critter saw a bug or fly or something, but when I had the two cats both looking at the steps and heads moving up and down I can't buy that they were *both* so interested in what was going on. And now the one that's left is often upset. I just say Sunny's back and haunting her for the bad time she gave him and she has it coming. Her head will snap and look and get a look of fear on her face. She'll be fidgety for quite a while. Yes it can be explained in other ways. Or it can be explained in this way. IDK.

The whole thing about afterlife has me puzzled and in a lot of ways. *If* someone or something can come back and hang around, move things or whatever. If people can come back, why not get some justice? Someone murdered someone else why wouldn't they haunt them, put things in the steps to trip them, etc. Sylvia Brown talked about it several times saying it's that once you're dead you don't care about things like that. Well OK, if I accept that theory, then why do they want to make someone feel good? And if there isn't something of an afterlife, then lots of religious people are going to be surprised when they die! Or will they, if there is no afterlife! Not that any of these TV psychics have that much credibility with me, but her comments on that were interesting.

Strange things do happen. I've had things disappear and I turn around and they're back. Yeah, I know, "just didn't see it" but how many times? Times I moved something and it was back, I took a cell charger out of my old vehicle - would need it for a trip. Couldn't find it in the new vehicle, searched the house, the vehicle... found it back in the old one.

I don't know if it's something paranormal out there or not Dotmom, but I wouldn't let it creep you out. I figure it this way, I'm flattered and comforted if my friends, loved ones and pets want to hang around with me. I thing you should take it as a comfort too. A lot of it can be wanting to believe in something but it doesn't hurt to want something like this whether it's real or not.

Tell Brian if he wants to stop by my place and throw a tennis ball, my dog Rookie will be glad to chase it! :) Just warn him not to tick off the blonde. Just an old GF. She's harmless but whines a lot and throws tantrums. But has a good heart. Well had one that is...

O guess I put this into the category of One of lives little mysteries. Cynic, Brian was such an animal person, I'm sure he would be glad to toss the ball for your Rookie.

Juellie, to answer your Q's, Brian died in his sleep at the age of 50. Silent heart attack was what I was told. Our DDIL was the wife of our other son, Scott. She was well known on this forum as Dir_tyfingernails. I'm pretty much at the place where I can think of them and smile about good memories I have of them, but the other day, while driving, a song came on the radio that just broke me up. It was so fitting for Brian's passing. It was by Vince Gill....Go rest high upon that mountain. What a beautiful song. I researched it and Vince had written it for his brothers passing.

I've had many cats over my lifetime. They all stare at nothing. Probably a predator behavior=they watch their victims before pouncing. At least that's my guess. I don't think cats have any unusual psychic abilities.

(((((Dot)))))

I haven't noticed anything from my cats, but with six pets and two kids I don't know if I would. Someone is always moving and getting my attention.

When my son was little, about 18/19 months old, he was playing alone in his room one evening and I could hear him talking and giggling. It wasn't the same as making your toys talk, it sounded like a conversation. Our house was very small so I was never far away. I finally stepped in and said 'Hey buddy, who are you talking to?" he said 'Toby'. That was the name of my uncle that had just died about three month earlier. I just said 'Ok, tell Toby I said hi.' unfortunately there wasn't much conversation after that. Maybe another minute. I was very close to my uncle growing up. I took my son to see him when he was sick. Brenden had just turned one and was very active. My uncle tried to hold him and visit with him , but my son didn't want to. I remember my uncle looking disappointed. I always figured he was finally getting his chance to meet his only niece's son.

I believe your cat can 'see' departed loved ones. I went to a medium a few years ago and she said my Dad visited us regularly and she saw him sitting on the back screened porch with my Mom and our black cat. (She didn't know my mom lived with us, nor that we have a black cat.) She also said Daddy would be out in the garden with my husband and his tomato vines. (That year my hubby had planted a huge tomato garden - and she would have no idea that we had a garden as we live in a mostly urban area.) When the visit was ending, I asked if our pets are waiting for us on the other side. She said that animals that are very close to us do. She saw a little black dog with my Dad. We had a little black dog that had passed a couple of years before at the age of 18! She also saw a redhaired woman who had died with something to do with her neck. She saw a nickel as well. My aunt's last name was Nichols, and she had hung herself. She said my aunt regretted all the pain she had caused because of it. She had red hair. You can say what you want about mediums, but I really believe this lady has the gift. I told her absolutely nothing about myself, and she was here from out of town - she came in to give a seminar and had no prior knowledge of me. She consented to giving a few readings while she was here - totally unplanned.

I've always thought cats see things we can't. One of the cats I have now will get frightened by something, looks totally scared to death then takes off as fast as she can. That freaks me out when she does that, it scares my other cat too. But maybe she is totally nuts.

I don't equate seeing or even communicating with, and I hate to use the term "ghosts", but nevertheless I don't consider that as psychic ability. The ones who talk back and forth with them, contact them and "see the future, to me that's more of a psychic ability.

For the sake of argument, let's say that "ghosts" (or "spirits" or whatever you wish to call them) do exist. If they exist then why should it take psychic ability to see them? Now if they don't exist, then there can be a lot of explanations as to why people would see them, including the stress of wanting to see them making an hallucination, or it could be a dream from just waking up, or the person could just be a lunatic. Or something else.

I know I don't have all the answers. (There's enough others around who think *they* do! LOL) The point I've made several times in the past is I do happen to believe that a lot of people have psychic abilities, many don't even know it. However I also think there' the scam artists like John Edward and the "Psychic Friends Network" who bilked people and give all of them a bad name. Unfortunately it's that way in every situation. A few bad apples so to speak.

I find this far easier to accept than the theory that there's one grand spirit sitting in a recliner somewhere watching everything going let's see we've had 14 prayers now, but I'm not curing Emil Schlotsky's cancer until I get 37 prayers. Clock is ticking. and all the while getting credit for all good but no blame for any bad. That's the one that's hard to accept but that's just a comment on the topic at hand, not intended to or needing to convert into a religious discussion.