Are Cats Psychic?

I often think about that cat that made headlines a year or two ago when it was hanging out in the nursing home and it would occasionally jump on the lap of some poor unsuspecting geriatric patient (I think it was in a hospice unit, or perhaps a "senior living facility?") There this typically misanthropic kitty would sit quietly and sleep or give comfort to the family of the future victim--because this kitty became the Harbinger of Death...(yikes!!)  Now, I certainly am no cat whisperer, even though my family would accuse me of this talent constantly, I do suspect cats have an innate sense of our human suffering and a need to provide us with companionship if they believe we are depressed, ill, or just plain down on our luck.

My particular feline favorite, Tigger, is very sensitive to my mood swings and gives me a wide berth when I'm agitated and energetic.  He is the most social of the three cats we own--we also have Toonsis who is 2, and Pepper who is 8 months.  Tigger, being the older and wiser 13yr old that he is, follows me around like a dog to heel, and will seldom be found in any room by himself without either the other cats or a human unless he isn't well.  But this brings me to my question...do cats know when WE aren't well??  Over the last three years I've had multiple surgeries and the most recent diagnosis of Lupus and so I've spent countless hours either sleeping to recover or just laying around draped over a couch or feeling sorry for myself and he is literally pasted to my leg.  I have to climb OVER him to get up, and even then, he won't leave me unless I get the squirt bottle or if there is something yummy to eat elsewhere.  Recently, I had a fever and felt so awful and it was in one of those moments that I just felt dizzy and lethargic and he came to me to gave me one of his head bump kisses, almost as if to say "It's going to be okay, I'm not leaving." And then he curled his big 22lb. body down around me.  He has these precious cross-eyes and this loud rhythmic purr which any cat lover knows is music to our ears when we just need a meditative moment to chill.  So there he is, spooning me, (or using my body heat, however you want to see it) and I feel so comforted and LOVED.  But what I also noticed in that moment is that he stayed with me until my fever broke and constantly got up to walk up to me and give me those head bumps just to check on me.

Now, I don't want to assume someday he is going to be a Harbinger of Death.  I don't want him to be the last sight I see before I nod off for the last time.  And frankly, if I knew about that senior center kitty and saw him coming to a relative's room I would have probably freaked out and shooed him off!  But I do think that animals possess a sixth sense and at the very least they know more about suffering than we do (well, maybe not MY cats, but I do know a lot of poor abused kitties and doggies at the shelter who could tell some stories).    But wouldn't it be great if we knew for sure?  Because then we could assume they see dead people.  And maybe, after all, that's why that Grim Reaper kitty was going to the bedside of the old people--maybe he was just hanging out with the people we couldn't see, not just marking people for extermination?  How creepy is that?  Just wondering.  Don't judge, it's the kind of thing my cat lover brain thinks about when I have a fever and I'm being squished by my feline caretaker.  Maybe it's time for another Advil.