# Have scientists figured out "homing cats" yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156 "2010-02-08T17:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/1 "2010-02-08T17:08:02Z")
I’m talking about those freaky stories where the family moves away, the cat is given to the neighbors, and a year later it turns up on the family’s new doorstep. The most famous one was Sugar, a Persian who walked from Oklahoma to California to find her family’s new home. Do researchers have any idea how they do that? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/2 "2010-02-08T17:44:56Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I’m talking about those freaky stories where the family moves away, the cat is given to the neighbors, and a year later it turns up on the family’s new doorstep. The most famous one was Sugar, a Persian who walked from Oklahoma to California to find her family’s new home. > > Do researchers have any idea how they do that? Yes… the family is willing to believe that a similar-looking stray is actually their cat. After a year, their memories have faded slightly, and their eagerness to believe that the cat isn’t dead or lost makes them willing to adjust the remaining memories to be consistent with the new cat. Things like “She lost weight,” “We can only imagine how tough her experience was” and “She must have been in a fight” go a long way to explaining any differences in behavior or appearance. I suppose it’s a good deal all the way around. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/3 "2010-02-08T18:02:27Z")
Of course, if any of the cats were ear-chipped, well bang goes your theory. Anyone know of cases of chipped cats making it back? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/4 "2010-02-08T18:14:31Z")
In the case of Suger, she had an unusual bone deformity. The vet confirmed it was the same cat. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/5 "2010-02-08T19:04:16Z")
The common stories of Sugar the family finding cat all seem to leave out one thing. Apparently the cat used to live on the farm in Oklahoma where it returned to from California (assuming the identification was correct that it was the same cat). This version is told in a 2006 book called _[Understanding and Training Your Cat or Kitten](http://books.google.com/books?id=1iut5j1Yf0IC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=sugar+cat+oklahoma+california&source=bl&ots=-7LehkSCZn&sig=G0_tHLkDboyyVgAnXJhqGv-1lCg&hl=en&ei=uldwS7-UG4rcsgPQh_2xDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=sugar%20cat%20oklahoma%20california&f=false)_ tells a version that makes it slightly less mystical in terms of the cat’s people finding skills. The authors cite a 1970 young adult non-fiction book for the story (_The Strange World of Animals and Pets_ by Vincent H. Gaddis and Margaret Gaddis; this book in turn recounts that the event took place in 1952.) > [@](#): > > I have always been fascinated by accounts of animals traveling hundreds of miles across mountains and interstates to come home. Vincent and Margaret Gaddis recount and interesting story in their book _The Strange World of Animals and Pets_ about a couple who had left Oklahoma with their cat Sugar for the bright lights of California. Later, the displaced Okies decided to return home to the farm in Oklahoma, and left Sugar with a friend in California. Fourteen months later, bedraggled Sugar showed up at the Oklahoma farm just in time for milking. So, according to this version of the story the cat did not find them in an unknown place but rather returned to a previously known place. Unfortunately the 1970 book is not available in the same way (but the snippet returned by Google Books gave the 1952 date for the original story) but here’s what I can get before I can’t find a search that returns earlier or later snippets: > [@](#): > > …moved from Gage, Oklahoma, to Anderson, California, taking with them their yellow cat, Sugar. In June, 1951, the family decided to return to Gage, and left the cat behind with a friend. Sugar stayed with the friend about two weeks, then vanished. Fourteen months later, in August, 1952, Mr. and Mrs. Woods were milking in their barn at Gage when a bedraggled ball of fluff leaped through an open window… So, if we accept that cats will travel long distances returning to places they’ve been, this story would appear to belong in that category. Not, [as this page suggests](http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/116172), in the category of pets psychically knowing where you moved to. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/6 "2010-02-08T19:07:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Fourteen months later, bedraggled Sugar showed up at the Oklahoma farm just in time for milking. That’s a pretty hardscrabble way to make a living. I guess things really didn’t work out in California. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/7 "2010-02-08T20:24:46Z")
You’re right, that has been left out in the versions I’ve heard. The question still stands, though. -Even if the cat had been familiar with the location, we’re talking a huge area (fifteen hundred miles in Sugar’s case). Take a human from Oklahoma and drop them in California, and they’d be totally lost and disoriented (at least until they got hold of a map). Cats don’t have maps and compasses and cars- how do they find their way? -There’s supposedly another miraculous migrating cat who _did_ show up at an unknown new house. This cat was also identified by a bone deformity (in its tail), and often shows up right next to Sugar’s story. Unfortunately, none of the sources I’ve seen identify cat or man, even in the book I first saw it mentioned in. Does anyone know anything about this supposedly authenticated case? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/8 "2010-02-08T20:40:35Z")
You’re right, it doesn’t answer the question and I don’t know the answer to the question, just providing some data that would change the nature of the answer being sought (how does a cat find a place it’s been to before vs. how does a cat find people who are in a location the cat has never been to before). Do you have any links to the other story? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/9 "2010-02-08T20:46:52Z")
Yes, but Google is not my friend. Each time I see it, I try to find it again, but I don’t know how I got there. It’s quoted on a lot of pseudoscience sites, and I can’t remember if it’s on any reputable and/or not blatantly insane sites. The book where I saw it mentioned is at home, and I won’t be back there until Thursday night. I suppose I could post back to you then. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/10 "2010-02-08T20:55:02Z")
I found these two other stories [here](http://www.thecatco.com/strangetrue.html), both of which I’m finding repeated frequently on sites and in books related to the psychic abilities of pets. I’ll try to track down any more details if possible. What is odd is that several sites (see [here](http://books.google.com/books?id=1vfwKVHj36QC&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=smoky+persian+cat+tennessee&source=bl&ots=OCT0cAND87&sig=qUnnHe09Zt9IOj8K3gVw9YMGY5c&hl=en&ei=5XhwS6msAYnStgPYrLyyDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=smoky%20persian%20cat%20tennessee&f=false) for an example) refer to this one as the best authenticated example of cats finding people in unknown locations and yet I’ve not found anybody who points to a single cite or even gives the name of the cat or vet in question. > [@](#): > > What is even more amazing is that cats can find their way “home” to places they’ve never even seen before! For example, there is the New York veterinarian who found a new home for his cat rather than subject it to the long trip to California, where he was moving. Months later a cat that looked just like his former companion – right down to the distinctive bump on its tail that left no room for doubt – showed up at his new West Coast house! > [@](#): > > Then there’s Smoky, a Persian cat who got lost at a roadside stop in Oklahoma while his family was moving to Tennessee. Smoky showed up at the new home in Tennessee —although he had never seen it before— exactly one year later! ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/11 "2010-02-08T21:12:47Z")
Ok, apparently all of these stories of animals following humans to unknown locations source to a single journal article by J.B. Rhine (the “father of modern parasychology” according to the Parapsychological Association) in 1962. In a 1962 issue of the Journal of Parapsychology ("The study of cases of psi-tailing in animals) he published a study of “psi-tailing” by pets where they tracked followed humans to unknown locations. According to a recap in _[The Cat: A Complete Authoritative Compendium of Information About Domestic Cats](http://books.google.com/books?id=tnjgqpNKYksC&pg=PA196&dq=smoky+persian+tennessee&lr=&cd=19#v=onepage&q=sugar&f=false)_ (1979) he reviewed all of the claimed incidents and filtered it down to 28 reported cases that passed muster. Sugar is one of them. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the Journal of Parasychology to read it and get a sense of how reliable that would be (for example, did he do interviews or just accept stories that included sufficient detail to apparently rule out incorrect identification). Little of Rhine’s other research is particularly reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/12 "2010-02-08T21:27:39Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Anyone know of cases of chipped cats making it back? Sure, but they were all pretty close to the green to begin with, so I don’t think that’s what the OP is looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/13 "2010-02-08T21:28:29Z")
The stories, at least, predate 1962. _The Incredible Journey_, written in 1961, is a fictional account of such a trip made by two dogs and a cat. It’s occasionally claimed that it’s based on a true story, but I haven’t been able to find any details of this alleged true story. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/14 "2010-02-08T21:40:37Z")
It’s been a very long time but isn’t _The Incredible Journey_ a story of pets returning to a home they already knew? But the stories of them finding owners in completely new locations do as well. The Sugar story apparently dates to 1952. J.B. Rhine’s article apparently was a review of received stories and he started with more than 500, narrowing it down to 28 (per the summary I cited above). Don’t know how old those stories were. So far Sugar is the only one I can find with a date associated. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/15 "2010-02-08T21:49:43Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > In the case of Suger, she had an unusual bone deformity. The vet confirmed it was the same cat. The possibility that the vet was either mistaken or flat out lied to the distraught kitty owners is, of course, just not possible. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/16 "2010-02-08T21:58:07Z")
Actually that element of the story, if accurate, kind of gives lie to the idea that the cat found them in an entirely new location. After all, how would the vet know it was the same cat unless it had seen the cat before (suggesting then either the cat had been in Oklahoma before or they drove the cat back to California to confirm identity)? But I’m guessing that’s an embellishment on the story. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/17 "2010-02-09T00:11:42Z")
James Randi’s cat apparently found its way home on its own after being lost over 300km away. At first, it seemed like an amazing feat, but then there turned out to be a more mundane coincidence involved. I can’t find the original article where he wrote about it on his site, but a poster on his message board remembered it too: [International Skeptics Forum - View Single Post - Animals finding their way home](http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=2237279&postcount=3) ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/18 "2010-02-09T00:35:29Z")
I don’t know if this counts, but I moved 40 miles once, taking my cat, Brute, with me. A week or so after the move, he got out and was nowhere to be found. Three weeks later he showed up on my son’s best friend’s doorstep. I guess it was the area he was attached to rather than us. Rather than risk his life with the same trip, we gave him to the friends he sought out. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/19 "2010-02-09T01:05:30Z")
My friend/co-worker moved across the city, a very convoluted distance of 7 miles, across a wide waterway which is crossable only by a highway or a railroad bridge. Her cat disappeared the first week after the move, and four days later, her old landlord called her and told her her cat was hanging around the basement of the old apartment building and to come get it. I was with her when all this happened, so it’s not just an anecdote. It wasn’t a huge distance, but it was one that would have been virtually impossible for a human to have navigated without a map. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156/20 "2010-02-09T01:48:48Z")
There seem to be several obvious possibilities here that have nothing to do with pets having any unusual homing instincts. 1. As has been noted, **people are misguided**. They find a similar animal and assume it’s theirs as \*\* dracoi\*\* says, or as noted in \*\* Ponderoid\*\*’s linked thread, they are actively lied to by other people. In these instances of animals allegedly having telltale injuries, birthmarks or crown shaped crown shaped tattoos the first question we need to ask is “How common are such marks?”. If 10% of cats have broken tails then how meaningful is it that a cat with a broken tail shows up at your house? I think it’s interesting that the majority of these cases apply to cats rather than dogs, which to me reinforces this explanation. The behaviour, personality and interaction of a dog makes it so much harder to mistake one dog for another with a similar appearance, regardless of the assumed stress of being lost. 2. **The journey isn’t really remarkable at all**. In \*\* Ponderoid\*\*’s link somebody is impressed that their cat found its way back to its old house within amonth… over a “staggering” distance of 3 miles. 3 miles is just a bit over a good night’s prowl for a cat. It would be more amazing if the cat _didn’t_ immediately find its way home. Even if this was an indoors cat, 3 miles is well within the olfactory range of a cat. Cats may not have the sense of smell of a dog, but it’s still orders of magnitude better than human smell. From 3 miles away a cat could probably smell its own litter tray. Even without that, a random walk would probably take it home. The fact that people can be impressed by a cat travelling 3 miles in 4 weeks speaks volumes about how little people understand about their pets’ capabilities. And the stories then have a tendency to grow in the telling. That person is impressed with his cat travelling 3 mile sin a month. The next person to tell the tale it will be 10 miles in 6 months and then cross country in a year. 3. **The animals travelled by mundane means**. Once again, in \*\* Ponderoid\*\*’s link, the cat travels a seemingly impressive distance, but in a car. Such events may be rare, or they may not. In many cases, such as holiday spots or highway service stations, most traffic leaving will be travelling back to the cat’s place of origin anyway. So if a cat gets picked up it will have a very high probability of ending up within 10km or so of home by very mundane means, as in the example in the link. And we then are back to point 2 above: from such short distances it really isn’t all that remarkable for some animals to make their way home. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-scientists-figured-out-homing-cats-yet/528156.md?page=2)