I’ve always been interested in the possibility of communicating with our animal companions in a way that doesn’t involve the voice or hand signals. Many people think this is balderdash, but I have experienced it a few times.

I had a cat that was especially susceptible to this kind of thing. I’d think “Tiny, time for supper,” and she would awaken from her usual heavy late afternoon snooze and gallop to her feeding bowl. Sometimes, she would look at me with her big golden eyes and seem to be telling me “I adore you.” Or that’s what I perceived, anyway.

When I’d silently ask her to get off my lap, just by imagining her leaping to the floor, nine out of ten times she would do just that.

No one will ever be able to convince me she wasn’t a mind reader!