Cat Experiments

The other night, Iain and I were sitting in the living room with the front door open to let in what was a very lovely cool evening breeze, through the screened-in top of the storm door. Its bottom is just a regular window, and Olivia loves to sit on the welcome mat just inside the door looking out.

Suddenly she ran into the living room and walked over to the French door between the living room and kitchen (right), where she peered into the lower window panes. The door is almost always open, so there's nothing on the other side of the windows besides a wall. As I watched her, she began to move her head back and forth, then stopped, then did it again, then stopped. And then she walked back around to the front door and started to chirp and mew.

I got up to see if I could figure out what she was up to.

On the other side of the door was a furry wee visitor. But not just any visitor—a visitor who looks a lot like Olivia.


Livs—who, unlike any other cat I've ever had, has been fascinated with mirrors and her own reflection since she was a kitten—had seemingly come around to the French door to check out her reflection and examine how it looked and moved when she moved, then gone back to the front door and compare it with the image of the visiting cat she was seeing through the window. Only when she was satisfied it was a different cat did she start communicating with it.


I pointed out to Iain what she was doing and said, "Our cat is doing science experiments."

Iain replied, "She canny be that self-aware. It's too terrifying."


"What?"
The next night, she did it again.

Yesterday afternoon, when our new friend visited a third time (and I took these pix), apparently Olivia was satisfied that zie was not an apparition in the glass. She went up to hir and confidently mewed hello.

I expect a gentleman called Schrödinger to show up on the porch alongside the cat any day now, conjured merely by Olivia's will.