Looking for a book about cats walking through walls-- NOT THAT ONE
November 19, 2024 10:37 AM Subscribe
Trying to remember a book where cats teach a girl to walk through walls-- it is NOT "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls" but of course that's all that comes up when I query about books with cats walking through walls. Help?
When I was a kid in the 80s, I read a story about a couple of kids/teens who befriended a pair of large sentient cats that lived down the block of their suburban home (I don't remember if they were aliens or some kind of Uplifted animals or what, but they were like cougar-sized at least, and fairly civilized, like, I think they had jobs as scientists or something)
The cats had discovered a sort of psychokinetic ability to make their molecules pass through solid substances, allowing them to merge with, say, a wall, and then emerge on the other side. The cats taught the girl how to do this, but when she would merge with a substance, she found the experience to be transcendent, like 'becoming one with the universe' and it was a struggle to remain 'herself' and pull herself out-- the cats did not experience this effect, perhaps because they did not have a human's soul, or something.
It was a long time ago, and the main thing I remember is the image of the girl watching the wall, seeing a cat's pawpad slowly pressing through the substance from the inside, and then the rest of the cat emerging, with some effort; it was an amazing discovery they had made. And the girl asking the cats about the strange feeling she herself experienced being inside the wall, and the cats being puzzled because they didn't feel the sensation at all.
It's just occurred to me, that around this age I was also devouring my Dad's back issues of "Analog" and "Omni", so it might have just been a short story in there, in which case I'll probably never find it, but just thought I'd try.
When I was a kid in the 80s, I read a story about a couple of kids/teens who befriended a pair of large sentient cats that lived down the block of their suburban home (I don't remember if they were aliens or some kind of Uplifted animals or what, but they were like cougar-sized at least, and fairly civilized, like, I think they had jobs as scientists or something)
The cats had discovered a sort of psychokinetic ability to make their molecules pass through solid substances, allowing them to merge with, say, a wall, and then emerge on the other side. The cats taught the girl how to do this, but when she would merge with a substance, she found the experience to be transcendent, like 'becoming one with the universe' and it was a struggle to remain 'herself' and pull herself out-- the cats did not experience this effect, perhaps because they did not have a human's soul, or something.
It was a long time ago, and the main thing I remember is the image of the girl watching the wall, seeing a cat's pawpad slowly pressing through the substance from the inside, and then the rest of the cat emerging, with some effort; it was an amazing discovery they had made. And the girl asking the cats about the strange feeling she herself experienced being inside the wall, and the cats being puzzled because they didn't feel the sensation at all.
It's just occurred to me, that around this age I was also devouring my Dad's back issues of "Analog" and "Omni", so it might have just been a short story in there, in which case I'll probably never find it, but just thought I'd try.
I didn't see anything in the OMNI archives, but I get distracted easily when browsing there.
Norton and Madlee's Star Ka'at follows two human children, Jim and Elly, who get 'adopted' by alien cats who are collecting their cat scouts from Earth. The kids describe the cats as large, but the cats are not cougar-sized. They all go up in a ship, but there is no mention transcendent feelings while walking through walls. There are three more books in the Star Ka'at series though. That might be a place to look. Norton did write a lot about cats and published in that 70s-80s time frame. Her five Catfantastic short story anthologies seem to be published a little late for the time you specified, but might also be worth checking if they contain older stories. (Or almost anything else she wrote because she really liked cats)
posted by Avelwood at 2:27 PM on November 19, 2024
Norton and Madlee's Star Ka'at follows two human children, Jim and Elly, who get 'adopted' by alien cats who are collecting their cat scouts from Earth. The kids describe the cats as large, but the cats are not cougar-sized. They all go up in a ship, but there is no mention transcendent feelings while walking through walls. There are three more books in the Star Ka'at series though. That might be a place to look. Norton did write a lot about cats and published in that 70s-80s time frame. Her five Catfantastic short story anthologies seem to be published a little late for the time you specified, but might also be worth checking if they contain older stories. (Or almost anything else she wrote because she really liked cats)
posted by Avelwood at 2:27 PM on November 19, 2024
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posted by being_quiet at 11:46 AM on November 19, 2024