Last week my son was felled by a triple whammy virus that gave him simultaneous sinusitis, a throat infection, an ear infection, and made his head swell like the losing boxer in a bout with a successful heavyweight.

As he lay propped on the sofa in the middle of the night, in the dark, unable to lay flat, photophobic, and with his head pounding with pain - both the cats showed great interest. First the girlie came up and sniffed him and put her feet up next to his head and peered into his face. Then she got down, and slowly walked away. Then the old boy, creakily eased himself down off his chair, walked over, studied the prone form, and lay down on the carpet, looking at him.

My black belt martial artist son immediately thought:

"That's it - I'm a goner and the cats have sensed it - animals know these things"

And lay back to await the end.

The next day his girl friend took him to the emergency doctor and they gave him antibiotics which sorted it all out in no time - but the question remains - do we give animals credit for knowing these things with justification, or not.

Well, I can't answer for Greyfriars Bobby, famous for standing guard on his master's grave for 25 years or so,and his ilk - but I'm not very sure about our moggies.

I am inclined to think that the appearance of one of their clan of humans on the sofa in the middle of the night, in the dark and emitting no doubt the occasional moan - was unusual enough to pique the attention of the Large Girl, and not only because that is where she usually sleeps.

I am willing to believe that she could have given a wordless communication to the Old Boy, and even stirred his interest enough for him to fall out of his chair, but I doubt that they have any supernatural powers. If they have, then the Other Side must be pretty mystified by the messages.

These are after all the same animals that are scared of the dark at the top of the stairs and that think the dustman has come for them every single week, despite the evidence every single week that he has not.

She also runs out of the cat flap every time the door bell rings. Why? Is it someone for her that she doesn't want to see? An uninvited feline follower with fantastic paw- and -eye co-ordination? The Feline Income Tax man? Even thought the door bells rings a lot, and has anything menacing to her ever come through it? No. Does she sense this? Apparently not.

One of them thought for ages that the cat flap was the window to a parallel universe that resembled our driveway, and the other is convinced she is the One True Ruler of the world, and the Elizabeth Taylor of felines to boot (not young, but still fair of face and generously proportioned).

While She is clever and patient enough to sit by the cat flap waiting for Sparky to slide in for a quick snack and ambush, she is also sufficiently delusional to think that she can still fit on the tiny cushion on the sofa that she long ago earmarked as her own, and which she now overflows like an oil slick.

Still, it must be noted that she is also clever enough to wait hidden outside for Sparky to oil her way in for aforesaid quick snack, and then take up position on the step with her huge black and white moon face filling the cat flap with an expression of - "Coming out? Through me? Go ahead make my night….." Which sends the other little cat running round in whingeing circles until one of us notices and opens the garden door. But this is just fiendish executive planning and forethought, not extra-sensory perception.

In a similar way as I don't believe in spoons bending, I don't think the cats are getting messages from the ether either. However, I will concede that they have an innate ability to imply to us that they might know something we don't. I remember hearing a well-known author (I can't remember who) relate how, when she was about 3 years old, she was playing on the floor and looked up just as the well loved family cat came into the room and for moment they looked straight into each other's eyes, and from that moment on she was careful never ever to be alone in a room with a cat. Even into adulthood. There was a moment of fear of the unknown apparent depths of that look. And anyone who has ever had a cat stare at them in the bath will be familiar with that frisson of self-consciousness - is this a secret closed circuit reality TV show on the Feline TV Network?

But when it all comes down to it I think they are just here, and so are we, and the most we can hope for is that we can all live gratefully together in harmony for as long as we can.

Or until the cats find out and tell us otherwise…..

(c) Thelma Mitchell 2002