Always pay attention to an occupied cat...

[Bibliophile]

If your cat is too "busy" looking at something to come over for rubs, PAY ATTENTION!  I was 3/4 asleep as the alarm just went off and I got out of bed.  Normally my girl will rush to the bed when she hears the alarm so she can get snooze alarm scratchies.  No where to be seen this morning.  I go to the bathroom and she is surprised to see me in there.  I "go".   It's then I notice that she's looking at something.  I look down next to me, I see nothing.  I look at the cat.  She is engrossed in something.  Out of the corner of my eye I see something black scurry.  I scream as a huge water bug races within an inch of my feet - pajama pants around my ankles or not, I practically jumped a foot in the air!  DH yells through the door to see what the problem is  - and curse DH for putting his sandals away the night before or I would've had something to swat it with    As it was, I hurried up with things and ran out of the bathroom.  I told DH it was hiding under the bathmat & now my bathmat is just a bit flatter than it used to be...  Pay attention to your cat.  They are much more aware than you in the morning.

[snowfire]

Yeah, I know THAT look from a cat.  It nearly always means that something with WAAAAAAY too many legs is around. 

[TootsNYC]

I always would get made because I thought the purpose of a cat was to EAT those things!
And my cat would eat spiders or flies. But not the big waterbugs.

He'd just follow them around like a pointer.

[VorFemme]

When Ambrosia Hino was a little girl, my parents lived two doors down from our house.  She was over there playing in the back yard and our indoor/outdoor cat had followed her down.  Bandit was watching something intently enough that Grandpa came over to see what was so interesting.

Once he got over there and looked at the "interesting item" he grabbed a hoe and cut the baby rattlesnake's head off!

Bandit was a hero - as DD had been heading over to see what her kitty was doing, too. 

[wonderfullyanonymous]

I was pregnant with my second, and woke up having to go potty as only a mommy to be has to go potty. When I came out of my bedroom, there was a group of cats staring at something on the floor. I had no glasses on so I couldn't see a dingdaggity thing and I was in emergency potty mode. I step over the cats.

When I was done, I step back over the cats, get to the bedroom, and return to the cats. On the dark carpeting I am trying to locate the subject of their amusement. I wasn't worried about spiders, as those were quickley dispatched and eaten.

On very close inspection I find the inerds of a mouse poor thing never had a chance.

[LadyClaire]

When Ambrosia Hino was a little girl, my parents lived two doors down from our house.  She was over there playing in the back yard and our indoor/outdoor cat had followed her down.  Bandit was watching something intently enough that Grandpa came over to see what was so interesting.

Once he got over there and looked at the "interesting item" he grabbed a hoe and cut the baby rattlesnake's head off!

Bandit was a hero - as DD had been heading over to see what her kitty was doing, too. 

When I was a kid, my mother looked outside to see a 6' eastern diamondback rattlesnake on the porch, with one of her cats stalking along behind it, trying to swat the buzzing rattle on the end of the snake's tail (this particular cat was extremely dumb).

The snake was occupied by trying to strike at the dogs (who were behind a screen door), and wasn't paying attention to the cat.

My dad had to kill the snake..the cat was luckily unharmed.

[iridaceae]

My cat often seems to be fascinated with, as far as I can tell, air molecules. While she did alert me to a big black but harmless beetle, sometimes she's staring intently at nothing and following its every movement.

[Coralreef]

I will point out a spider to my Aussie and she's not even interested enough to look at it for more that 4 seconds, top.  Forget about hunting it.  She will bark at the newspaper guy five houses away, but not at anything within stomping range.  She's a bit useless this way.  On the other hand, she's a good cuddler.

[2littlemonkeys]

This generally applies to very quiet children as well...

We own a small apartment building and used to live in the basement apartment.  The apartment door opened to a basement hallway and you had your choice of entrances.

One night, I had gone to bed and DH was watching TV.  He noticed our cat sitting by the apartment door, occasionally batting at something.  Eventually, DH got up to investigate and opened the door...to see a shoe floating by.  We were experiencing extremely heavy rains and the street water main couldn't keep up.  The water backed up into the pipe and spilled over the basement floor.  The water was seeping into the apartment and the cat was batting at the water.

That was a fun night.  Thank goodness DH was still up.  It only got the area right around the door wet and we didn't really have anything in the hallway. 

[WhiteTigerCub]

I have a small garden outside my bedroom window. Sun begins to come up and I get woken by a "thump....thump....thump.....thump......thump..............." 

I chastise cat (1 of 5) for waking me up with the pounding of her tail on the wall, but as I look out the window I see a very large fat gecko the size of gila monster sitting on the screen, peering in at us.

Ok, that now explains the very large excrement on my back porch area I found yesterday.

Keep telling myself geckos are good because they eat bugs. this one has been eating like a king it seems! Didn't know I had that big of a bug problem!

[Elfmama]

My cat often seems to be fascinated with, as far as I can tell, air molecules. While she did alert me to a big black but harmless beetle, sometimes she's staring intently at nothing and following its every movement.

Ghosts.  Or receiving messages from the Mothership.  Take your choice!

[Amava]

My cat often seems to be fascinated with, as far as I can tell, air molecules. While she did alert me to a big black but harmless beetle, sometimes she's staring intently at nothing and following its every movement.

Ghosts.  Or receiving messages from the Mothership.  Take your choice!

I am almost sure that my dog, Helena, is seeing the ghost of Mira sometimes, or even playing with her.