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Show have identifying marks or behavior so unique that it cannot be nustaken for another animal. The animal must have traveled at least 30 miles. Veterinarians, friends, witnesses are queried; photographs are examined; in some cases, the animal himself receives a visit from a Duke investigator. Among the dozens of cases reported to the Duke Laboratory, many—possibly a majority—are true. But only a few have beenofficially accepted because of the stringent standards. One is Smoky, a male cat who waseasily identified not only by a peculiar mark under his chin but also by his behavior habits. When his 14-year-old mistress played the piano, Smoky always sat at her right and placed his paws on the keys. Smoky escaped from the car during a family move from Tulsa, Okla., to Memphis, Tenn., returned to his old home for a lonely two-week vigil, and then disappeared egain. A year later, a smoke-colored cat with a red spot underhis chin arrived in Memphis. The crucial test, of course, The Love Cats Feel For People... The Journeys Their Love was the piano. When his mistress sat down to play, so Inspires did Smoky. Another case accepted at Duke is that of Sugar, a cream-colored male, part Persian cat with an unusual bone deformity in his left hip joint. When his family By Felicia Ames way back to the old home. Like Smoky, he stayed moved from California to Oklahoma, Sugar escaped from the car and—in classic cat fashion—made his around for several weeks, then he too disappeared. Fourteen months later, a cream-colored cat leaped through an open downstairs window and onto the shoulder of his mistress in Gage, Okla. She had only to stroke his left leg to know it was Sugar. He had Whatbuilt-in cat radar led Clementine through endless miles of unknown country to the one house and one family in the world she waslooking for? traveled 1,500 miles! A 1,500-mile hike through the mountains and deserts of the Southwest is as rough an endurance test as any cat could ask for. But it is probably no more perilous than tracking through city traffic. There is no easier place in the world to get lost, for example, than in the great urban sprawl of Los Angeles. But a cat named Old Tom, born and raised on a quiet country ranch 100 miles away, followed his family on foot after they moved to the city. It took Tom one year to the day to find the right house, the right street, in a city of eight million people. How Yong would it take to waik from Dunkirk, N. Y. to Denver, Col.? A cat named Clementine could tell you. It took her four paw-bruising months to make that 1,600-mile trek. But then, Clementine didn’t know the way. When Mr.and Mrs. Robert Lundmark moved from Dunkirk to Denver, they left their pet black cat with neighbors because Clementine was in the family way. Once the litter was weaned, however, Clementine abandoned her brood and hit the road. Four months later an exhausted female cat appeared on the Lund- marks’ Denver doorstep. There was no doubt it was Clementine, for this amazing ammal was unique in other ways. She had seven toes on each front paw, two white spots on her stomach and scaronherleft shoulder. That she survived the journey was remarkabl in itself. But how did she find the way? Whai cat radar, sixth sense orinstinct led her through endless miles af unknown country to the one house and one family in the world she was looking for? The feline is famous, of course, for his homing in- stinct. There are countless tales of cats, lost or abandoned by their owners, traveling hundreds and even thousands of miles to make their way back to the hearth. Take the case of Wahoo, a blue-eyed, long-haired male with bizarre markings and coloration. Every spring Wahoo's owner, Walter Coleman, goes to Alaska to work on the family’s homestead, leaving his wife, children—and usuall* Wahoo—at home in Seattle. Two years ago he decided to take Wahoo with him for company, but when the Alaska-bound travelers hit Gold Pan, B.C., 300 miles north of Seattle, Wahoo bolted from the car ard disappeared. Eleven monthslater, a tired and bedraggled blue-eyed cat, his long hair dirty and matted, appeared in Seattle. Wahoo was home again. Or consider Tom of Kokomo, Ind. Shipped by train to Augusta, Ga., when one branch of his family moved there, Tom gave Augusta exactly three weeks —a fair trial, by cat standards—before homesickness overpowered him. Twenty-one dayslater he arrived in Kokomo, having averaged better than 30 miles per day in his 720-mile journey. As remarkable as Wahoo and Tom are, they did have one enormous advantage o er Clementine. At least they were aiming at a familiar goal. They were headed home, and it is possible that the senses of smell, sight, touch, hearing. or some retnembered experience, helped to guide them. It is the trail blazers like Clementine that are the real puzzlers. Not only did she travel an enormous disiance, but sbe was seeking a destination totally unknown to her. The regular senses could not have helped her chart her course. Scientists have a name for this mysterious directionfinding ability. They call it “psi-trailing” (“psi” is a general term that loosely approximates the word “psychic")—or, more specifically in the case of animais, “anpsi.” For the past 20 years scientists at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University have been studying this phenomenon as one possible manifestation of extrasensory perception in animals. . Dr. J. B, Rhine and his associates at Duke have assembled a case-history file of animals that have tracked owners wh» have moved to new locations that the animal never visited. Many stories of psi-trailing Another cat performed the same magic when his owners moved from Cleveland to Chicago, a distance of some 375 miles. It took this intrepid psi-trailer eight months to find his family, living somewhere in several hundred square miles of the bustling city of Chicago. ft does seem to be sort of magic, this ability to track downone spot in a destination alien and remote. What is the force that guides these animals? Many theories have been proposed, and all are guesswork. One suggests that cats may use some form of celestial navigation; another is that cats may be so sensitive to the earth's magnetic forces that they use them in direction-finding. But the most common theory, and one that dates from time immemorial,is that cats are somchow psychic. That is why psi-trailing is under study at Duke University. ESP (extrasensory perception) in people has been pretty clearly established. The Duke University Laboratory is studying evidence of the same powers in animals in the hope thatis will reveal further knowledge of psychic powers in human beings. Meanwhile, the file of psi-trailing stories—touching, heroic, incredible—grows. One thing, at least, is clear. Whatever the homing instinct or direction-finding ability is, it is born—not bred—in the cat. Een kittens are endowed with this particular form of sorcery. A recent news item from Pisa, Italy, tells of an eightmonth-old cat who was given to relatives 300 miles away because he insisted on sleeping on a cot with the baby. Three hundred miles is a long lap for one so young, but kitty came home—and walked straight to are reported to the Duke labocatory, but only those the cot. @ that pass rigid standards ofverification are accepted as authentic, First, the owners or narrators are investigated to eliminate hoax. Next, the animal must Felicia Ames, pet authority, is Director of the Friskies Cat Council. She is a recogrized expert on animal behavior and a leading advocate of humane causes. Family Weekly. July 25,1971 |