Someone to Watch over Me

Someone to Watch over Me — artwork courtesy of the artist author

On the way home, a cat ran across the street in front of my car, so I followed him. I was hoping he would go to a house and be let in, but no such luck.

I knocked on nearby doors, but no one knew where the cat lived. Then a girl told me that he had showed up a few days ago even though no new people had moved into the neighborhood.

Worse still, she said kids had tried to trap him in a metal mailbox during the hot summer. She wanted to adopt him, but her Mom said no.

Of course, the little guy came home with me.

I wasn’t sure how my two male cats would react to a young, unneutered male cat they had never seen before inside their house.

Cameron and Phoenix walked right to the new guy as soon as I put him down on the floor. Together, they each licked his forehead and he was in!

He was instantly family.

Cameron and Phoenix were in the habit of walking with me. They’d walk side by side about a foot apart. A man once commented that it looked like they were remote controlled.

Teagan, the new guy, was younger and more playful. When he was playing in a field about 30 feet away, I couldn’t get Teagan to come back to the yard.

I randomly said to Phoenix why don’t you get him to come back. Phoenix had seen me try to coax Teagan back, so I wasn’t surprised that he acted as if he understood.

Phoenix walked out from behind evergreens to where he and Teagan could see each other. They both froze looking at each other.

I couldn’t see them signaling with any movement or hear them make any sound, but Teagan immediately walked straight toward Phoenix. Confident in Teagan’s response, Phoenix turned and walked back to me with Teagan following in his footsteps.

If I’d known that would work, I would have tried it years ago!

Was this another example of cats appearing to be remote controlled? Or, was it an example of cats trusting each other implicitly?

With abilities that would make a super hero proud, cats distinguish happiness odors from fear odors. With a sense of smell that’s about 14 times stronger than ours, they read us emotionally by detecting stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol in breath and sweat.

Cats can also sense chemical markers of various illnesses, including cancer and diabetes. Scientific studies show that cats can be medical alert animals.

Territorial, cats make a mental map of familiar scents in their environment and they mark each other and us with their scent.

Cats use the planet’s magnetic field to determine direction. I’m lost when I can’t see mountains to the West.

They see ultra violet light and only require about one-sixth of the amount of light that humans need to see clearly.

So, as an inferior being, I’ll just have to accept that Teagan pays more attention to Phoenix than he does to me. Teagan shows he loves me in spite of my shortcomings.

I’m glad Teagan has Phoenix to watch over him. Like any human, lucky enough to be loved by a cat, I’m glad my cat friends with their super hero powers watch over me, too.