Telling thetime

My OH used to work irregular hours and often away from home but my collie always knew when he was on the way. She would start sitting up looking out of the front double glazed window about 10-15 minutes before he came in the back door. He would be driving up the 3 mile long main road at that time which we lived on. How she knew I never understood but she was always right.

I had a cat that protected me. I lived in a flat where the guy across the landing waited for me on my return from work (varied times) and often tried to hug or grope me. I hated this. My lovely Fergus cottoned on to this, waited at the front door, sat on my shoulder as I climbed the stair and scratched Jimmy's face when he made a move on me. He did this several times before Jimmy got the message. My hero, died at 17 years old.

You can avoid feeding hasle with cats by simply leaving out good qualty dried food to be snacked on when they feel like it. Water always of course. Some wet food dries out very quickly, but other pate types will last an hour or two before being spurned.

If my brother in law is late with his rescue cat's food she marches into the kitchen, climbs up the shelves and gets herself a pouch of food. She will then bring it down to floor level, rip it open with her claws and eat it. We just thought he was making this up until we had to look after her whilst he was in hospital and saw her do it. She is also a great talker and as soon as he is on the phone to someone starts her own conversation as though she doesn't want to be left out.

Forgot to say daughters cats get fed at 8pm every night ( timer on Alexa) and both cats appear just before and look at everyone expectantly

My cats Jack & Bella are similar in that they have regular feeding times, but will come into the kitchen as soon as I do, in the hope that I am making or preparing food, and can be coaxed into giving them an extra treat (cheese and ham are well thought of, and I keep back a piece of chicken from my husband's dinner, whenever he has that).
If they hear one of us at night, they will shout for attention, but soon go back to sleep, if ignored. They don't sleep with us, as my husband has Asthma and they are not allowed in our bedroom (just everywhere else!).

My cat has dried food and water always available but has a pouch of wet food twice a day. In the morning when I get up ( this varies according to whether I am going to work or staying home, sleep later on home days) cat sleeps on my bed and sometimes gets up with me sometimes not so not worried about time in the morning. However she gets fed at around 6pm most evenings and seems more aware of time then . However whenever I make my lunch she is waiting behind me asking for the treat she always gets and again wants a treat when I come in in the evening . She’s crazy but I love her!

Maybe I should elaborate. I would always leave dry food and water but take great care to check which individual cat desired. I was often given designer food by owners and made sure the cat was given their favoured food but we had to sleep so always left another alternative. Would be down early morning to check on them and never any whining or starving.

Er, as the name says, cattery owner. Can you not leave them food all the time? In my experience, cats rarely over eat. I have just moved home to a large London flat and am considering, just considering, adopting cats because their owner is in hospital.

I don't really know anything about pets. (Allergic) But when staying with a cousin and her (stupid) little chihuahua, which was sitting beside us during dinner and like all dogs, irritatingly watching every mouthful that passed our lips, tongue hanging out. My cousin turned and said " this is MINE go get YOURS! Imagine my amazement when the little chap went and brought back his own bowl and happily sat and dined with us on dry food.

My daughter's cat has a plate which is on a timer (under normal circumstances the whole family are out during the day). The DGC aged 16 and 19 are responsible for priming the plate with cat food.

They are very conscientious about there duties, and the cat always arrives at the plate about 10 minutes before it is due to open. She waits quietly and pounces on the food once it is exposed.....until, one day the DGC forgot to prime the plate. It slid open revealing an empty compartment. My daughter said she thought WW3 had broken out! The howling and wailing were sonic loud, her body language was of utter despair and neglect, and worthy of an over-hammed-up death scene, and when my DGD filled the plate for her she ate like she'd never seen food before!

It took the family a good half-hour to stop laughing at the histrionics!

My cat winds my two labradors up at at feeding times. He has 24hr access to dry food, but gets a pouch twice a day and just like clockwork, he will demand his grub!
Teatime is easy for him. He does the death stare, sitting in front of me, staring intently. The dogs then join him. Three of them, sitting in a row, staring.
I feed them.
Breakfast time is more problematic for cat, so he wakes the dogs up who happily start 'the prowl'. Cat cries, dogs prowl and occasionally whimper until I give in, get up and feed them.
If I lock cat in kitchen, dogs could sleep for Britain?
Cat is not amused.......

My Father came home from work in the evenings at random times; without fail our dog would quietly get up and go to sit by the front door about ten minutes before he arrived. We lived in London with busy streets and traffic noise, but the dog must have heard his footsteps when he was about half a mile away. The dog also knew meal times, and would bounce into the kitchen, tail wagging, when it was time for his breakfast and dinner.

Cats can be great characters can’t they. We have two, brother and sister. He loves to lie on his back and have his tummy rubbed, likes to lounge around most of the time but enjoys a good run outside if he has to. He sleeps late in the morning and is generally very chilled about food. Not a clue about time. Meanwhile his sister is much more full on. She has no idea of time either and will wake to go out anytime from 5 until 8 and has learnt to open all the doors in the house. She loves affection but always on her terms and has much more energy than he does. They both come in late evening either by hanging around or they have both been trained to come to a dog clicker. She comes very quickly but it often takes him longer as I suspect he travel further afield - literally - as there are fields behind our house. When I go for a walk I sneak out so that she doesn’t try to follow but she always knows when I’m coming back and comes to meet me from a few doors down with lots of miaowing and welcoming sounds. Doesn’t do it to anyone else who walks past.

My last cat used to appear from wherever she had been during the evening at 9.30 on the dot and sit and stare at me not to be fed, but for me to go to bed!
My sisters dog used to come and stay with us while they were on holiday. Mum used to walk him in the mornings and I used to do the evening walk.
There were many times when I got home later than usual due to bus problems and didn't matter if I had started, finished or halfway through my meal , at 7pm, he would be standing by by feet, nudging me to go for his evening walk!
Funny thing was, at his own home, he was happy to be taken out whenever it suited them to no timetable at all !

Our cat has good timing. She can be asleep in another room but she knows when it's nearing 10pm because she gets a few treats given to her before we go to bed and comes into the sitting room around that time.
She is also thrown into chaos when the clocks move forward / back and either thinks is weirdos giving them to her early or pesters is if she thinks we are running late !? It takes a good week or so for her bodyclock to adjust.

Our two cats are just the same.
They know breakfast is when we get up but if we have a lie in
two little faces appear on our bed tapping our cheeks gently
as if to say excuse me but we think it’s time to be up and feeding us.
We go to bed at 10pm and our cats are usually sleeping around the house somewhere at 10 pm my husband says quietly ‘ ‘Time for bed ‘ and quess what happens yes your right 2 furry girls come hurdling into the room within seconds of him speaking lol If we decide to watch the tv and the program runs on after 10pm we have two cats sitting in front of us I am sure I have seen one of them look at the clock and then back at us.
?????

Having had cats over the years I am of the opinion its not that they cant run on human time, its more that they don’t want to, they just want what they want when they want it and have figured out that if they yell enough they get their own way.

Its probably the change of routines thats thrown out his timing watermeadow, now youngest son is up later (& sleeps later) if cats woken from his box he sleeps in, in middle of night, he gets confused & gets up, probably thinking its morning, so i have to encourage him to go back to his bed?then he gets up at right time later.

When our cat is out at night, unless its cold or rainy, he won't come in till we shake his pack of treats, when he then meows till we give him a few.Not daft at all arent cats??

At evening meal when i shout 'teatime' to my sons the cat always comes too, and sits licking his lips to let me know he's hungry too- or he will go sit by where his food is kept, or even rub his head against the packs till i take the hint! ??

Our lovely black cat has 'grown up' with my youngest 2 boys- youngest is nearly 18, cat is almost 14- they adore each other- before lockdown, cat always knew when my son was coming home, even when we sat in the garden, he'd be listening out and looking towards the door, even when school then later college bus was late- id ask him "is (name) coming home" & he would meow, then a minute later, my son would come in the door.I read somewhere that cats can hear their owners approaching for over a hundred metres! On a morning cat always wakes up other son (22) early for his breakfast, so since lockdown son has had to explain to cat he's not to wake him before 9!(he's taken gap year this year, his 2nd year, from uni, (till covid dies down we hope) All this has confused the cat though as he's wondering why their routines have changed.He now knows days when we're up early for online college lessons too! (youngest son's shielding so left house only handful of times in a year) it messes up cats 'agreed timings' as well when clocks change! When are they going to let us get rid of this pointless outdated idea of clock-changing? No one knows hardly what the days are lately, and time changes make little difference now we've all been in for so long! I'd better start preparing the cat for the clock change this week??

I’m enjoying reading these cat stories. I had a cat who used to come to meet me whatever time I came home. He couldn’t see me - there were high walls in the way, but he must have been able to feel the vibration of my footsteps or something. Before I turned in at the gate, he would come padding out from the garden into the road to meet me. It was lovely. He then escorted me back to the house.

A lovely vet I had when we got our first cat told me that cats are grazers and prefer to have access to food at all times, so I make sure she's always got some dried food available. She still knows there'll be a pouch of something in the morning and evenings though.

Our cats, who sleep in the utility room, will start yelling and scratching at the door if we don't get up at 8.00 am to let them out and feed them. They know that they get fed at 5.00 pm and will be racing around trying to attract our attention from 4.30 pm onwards in the hope that we will give in and feed them a bit early. They go to bed when we do at 11.30 pm and if we are later than this, they will again start attention seeking, as they get a treat when settled down for the night.