Does he remember?

[berties mum]

I always find it intriguing that if I stroke a cat or dog other than Bertie or Bella, they sniff me accusingly as soon as I walk in through the door and Bella sometimes gets quite upset ... but if I visit the friend who gave Bertie to me as a kitten and play with her cats, who are Bertie's mum and sister, my two don't seem at all bothered when I get home.  It's almost like Bert's mum and sister still smell the same as him, even though he left them at 6 weeks old.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I sometimes think if they can recognise colours, Ginger didn't seem to like any black and white cats after he met Sonny Jim - but his dislike for PEbbles could have been cos she lived upstairs, so both her and SJ just came downstairs one day to his mind, he wasn't in when either of them were brought in. Just seemed odd that he was such a laid back cat, but didn't like black and whites.

[ccmacey]

I would say he thought it was her, although 2 weeks after getting my first kittens I brought their mum over and they didnt remember her, but the mum was trying to clean them so she must have remembered them.

[JackSpratt]

Cats generally work on each others smell as far as I know, but that doesn't rule out the possiblity that Bertie thought it was Matilda. A cats mind is a complex thing!

[berties mum]

Awwww!  I wondered whether it was something other than that with Bertie though, as I'd be less surprised if he recognised another cat by smell, but seemed to recognise something in our neighbour's Matilda-lookalike just by seeing her through the glass.  I wonder whether if he ever gets closer, he'll realise it isn't Matilda?

[Mark]

My mum got a cat (Sukie) when I was living at home still who slept on my pillow. After I moved away there were sometimes gaps of (I'm ashamed to say) a year between visits but she always remembered me - she was blind so obviously went by smell. As soon as she realised I was there, she would go trotting off upstairs to my old bed and wait for me so we could rub faces and purr like we used to. She never forgot.

[berties mum]

That's very true Ela - there was a story on our local news recently about a cat who went missing for eight years and then turned up in a street where his family had lived two years before he went missing!  How's that for a memory!  Also, before I moved house last summer, we used to get visits about every 3 months from the cat whose owners had lived in the house before me - they'd moved 15 miles away and he kept finding his way back!!  He had to cross a very busy A-road to get there, but managed it at least six times!

[Ela]

I swear he thought he'd seen Matilda!

He may have seen Matilda, stranger things have happened. Also remember that some cats go missing for years, yet eventually find there way home and seem to know everyone.

[forever_missing_my_boys(Lisa)]

yea maybe he does still remember her
i know my dog remembers things for ages n ages dont know if cats are the same or not thou

[berties mum]

Here's an interesting one for you all - just wondered whether anyone else has had any similar experiences, out of interest.

I've had Bertie, who's now 2.5 years old, since he was six weeks old.  I got him and his sister Matilda - a gorgeous tortoiseshell cat - from the same litter and they were absolutely inseparable.  Matilda was killed by a car when they were 11 months old, and Bertie and I were both devastated.  I then got Bella from the Cats Protection League to keep Bertie company, and after a few initial wobbles, he seemed to be back to his old self within a month of Matilda's death.

It's now 18 months since she died, and last week, a new family moved into our street who have a tortoiseshell cat very similar to Matilda.  At the weekend, I was woken by Bertie meowing at the back door, and couldn't initially work out what was wrong - then recognised the meow as one he used to do to get Matilda's attention, and which I haven't heard since Bella moved in with us.  I went downstairs and saw that the tortoiseshell cat from over the road was in our garden and Bertie was meowing at her.  I swear he thought he'd seen Matilda!  My OH reckons I'm being mental and there's no way Bertie would still remember after this long - what do you think?