Can cats tell the time?

[GoingOnHol]

I know not really but you know how's there's always stories about dogs waiting for their owners to get home from work at the right time, well a cat who lives on my street always seems to know when I finish work.
If I'm WFH she's sat on The doorstep when I go out after work and if I'm in the office she's sat on the drive when I get back.
She's a lovely little cat and we always like to see her and it makes us laugh that she seems to know when we are coming & going 😺

Cats can do everything and anything, including telling the time.

They just mostly choose not to.

What happened to cat tax?

Ours supervises us to make sure we are in bed, but then goes off for a wander. He always walks up the stairs meowing loudly when we are in the bedroom and we say "we're IN THE BEDROOM like EVERY night".

Mine definitely can. They also know when it's the weekend!

One of ours has a perfect internal clock and can tell food time to the second (although frequently tries it on hours before actual mealtimes). Another knows when the catflap curfew starts working and frequently wakes from sleep to pop out before it closes so he can stay up late.

Yes, our cat wakes me up 10 minutes before my alarm every day. He doesn't understand weekends and gets really put out when we are off work and hanging round the house too much. He also gets annoyed if we have stayed up too late and will start going up and down the stairs as a hint. I've also seen him watching the door at the time our dd should have been home from activities as if he's letting me know that they're late!

Finlay definitely knows when it’s his feeding time!

A colleague used to refer to his dog's "tummy alarm" 😊

I have a cat who appears at 5pm on the dot which is when they get fed if I'm at home.

I used to have a cat who (rightly it turns out) hated my then partner. He wasn't remotely consistent with his coming home time but precisely 10 minutes before he came home, she would hide behind the curtains and I knew to start dinner. She was a far better judge of character than I was.

Absolutely they can. I know when it’s 5pm exactly because my cat starts screaming for food.

When my children were younger we had a dear old boy that would go down the lane where we lived to meet them off the school bus! So yes they definitely know the time.

I'm in the US and it's 6:00 p.m. where I'm at. It's dinner time for Daisy. And she's sitting at my side making sure that I don't mistake what time it is. I find it funny that I found this particular question at the right time.

We started splitting our cat’s meals during the pandemic because she would get really put out if we were having lunch and she was having nothing. I WFH on Mondays and she usually goes out after her breakfast, then has a nap. At 11.45 she pops up screeching for lunch. (We have never ever had lunch at 11.45) Usually she can be held off until 12, but woe betide me if I am on a call. Dinner is 6.30 and she starts campaigning for it from about 5.30.

Poor wee starving critter, often threatening to report us to the police because she is never ever fed in her whole life.

I don't know if it's good to hear that other people have cats who like to eat at the same time as you do! I know have to feed the cat at the same time as breakfast lunch and dinner or he looks really peed off. He waits to eat with us.

Mine have very strict routines, and are extremely displeased if someone's visiting and sitting on the preferred bit of the sofa for "napping on the sofa" time*. This is a pain as it's also a good "pop over for a mid-morning coffee" time with my neighbour if the weather's too bad to sit outside.

*Which is different to "napping on the radiator box" time (2:30pm) , and "napping on the duvet in the loft conversion" time (9:15am).

I had a childhood cat - she was the matriarch of our feline family! - and she knew what time my younger sister would get off the school bus! She waited for her in the garden!

I'm a rescue volunteer and a few years ago I spent a couple of hours a day for several months with a particularly traumatised cat in order to coax her to trust humans again. I always arrived at precisely 1pm. At 12.55 she would creep out from her safe space and wait at the edge of her pen for my car to arrive. Every single day at the exactly the same time.

Ours can. When DH worked in an office regularly and I came home first, they'd be waiting just inside the door for me. A coincidence, I thought. I would feed and fuss on them and they'd go nap. They would independently get up and head to the door about 10-5 minutes before DH came home. DH wouldn't be feeding them so it wasn't hunger, they just knew he was due home. They would get agitated if he was late home too.

I'm sure mine can, he meows at the exact same times every day... breakfast, lunch, tea and bedtime.

He even times his wees and poops 😂... think he just really likes routine.

Cat One and Cat Three start waiting at the door if it’s 3.30 and DH isn’t home.
Sometimes they start waiting for him at 3.20.
Cat Two waits for no man. But she goes to supervise when they all have a nonno nap.

Mine too, and even when the clocks go back/forward it doesn't take them long to cotton on!

The paw watch is clearly broken with this one! He's the reason I'm currently awake 😫

When I was mid 20s I moved into hospital accommodation about 200 miles from home and my dog went to live with my parents.

He would tell my parents when I was coming 'home' and wait by the door for me.

Yes! Mine (sister main coon kittens) know to walk all over me at 3am even when my partner isn't here (he gets up at 3am for work). They also jump on the worktops when I'm cooking as it's their dinner time too. Also trilling for treats mid afternoon. I am their slave.