Is my cat a familiar?

For a while I had been wanting a new cat, so I went out and got a kitten from petco. It went well, and he's now 2 years old. However, There's something just a little bit different about him.

For one, he understands human speech perfectly. I'll set down 5 different cans of wet food and ask him which one he'd like today. He almost invariably sniffs them all, before rubbing salmon dinner with his cheek. I can ask him questions and he responds like any human would, albeit a mute human.

Also, he exerts a tremendous amount of magical power. I'm kinda new to the whole humans using magic, but my cats show it all the time. For example, Forrest (the cat in question) will eat his wet food. I look up and he's halfway to my room, licking his paw. I turn back and he's still eating. He does such things regularly. His favorite, in my opinion, is leading me to a dead end and appearing behind me. He also does this more often then my other cats.

He is also quite feral in nature, despite his neutered state.

So, just what is it about this cat? I think he might be a familiar, but of course I want everyone's input.

-CL304

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I myself have cats and they are weird creatures. Its strange hiw we humans can befriend tiny tigers with knives on their hands. I have a tortishell cat who acts like a dog sometimes, meaning she'll chase her tail. She understands human speech as well as sometimes when I ask her something she'll respond with a cute meow that sounds like she's talking. But torti's are known for that. Depending on the cats breed it could just be a normal cat messing with your mind. Cats will do that. Their evil. :) jk. But im sure its nothing

Think of any animal in your presence do they seem to understand you do they gravitate to you when you practice magic do they sit there while your talking to them and seemingly hold down there end of a conversation ( ie. They respond in there own manner or you seem to get your answer from nowhere it just pops into your head) . when doing magic and said animal shows up do you feel like the energy your working with becomes easier to handle and focus maybe even feels stronger in its own way. Then there is a good chance your animal is more than likely your familiar .personally I believe they find you . every animal I have had that has met these qualifications has seemed to instantly bonded with me these things just happened I did not train the animal to do them they just did them . I hope this helps otherwise sorry for one of my many rants!

The actual term for "familiar" is a spirit in animal form that you build a companionship with in order for it to do your bidding in the astral realm. Though Raven Grimassi teaches in his book "Witch's Familiar" that there are three types of familiars.

The first one being the astral familiar, which is the entity that takes on an animal form, chooses you, and does your bidding by greeting you in meditation, dreams, etc., and goes out into the astral realm to finish the task you've given it. Though this is no "master servant" relationship, but rather a give and take.

The physical familiar, is, of course, physical. Which could be your pet. And as a member mentioned above, can enhance your workings, raise power, stand guard, and/or help you ground when your task is complete.

And lastly, the artificial familiar. Which is one you create from thought form. This familiar has a similar purpose as the astral familiar, but the artificial has an expiration date, and isn't as reliable.

The idea that a pet is the same as a familiar came from the centuries when poor women who had only a pet for company were often accused of being Witches.. It has continued in modern times because of the crop of poorly researched books on the market these days. But the fact of the matter is that our beloved pets and a Witch's familiar are very, very different things.

A Witch's familiar is an animal spirit or a magical construct created by the Witch or the Magician as an adjunct to their magical workings, as a repository for power, and if needed as a defense against magical attack from another magic user. A Witch or a magician can draw upon the energies of the familiar when they need an extra boost of energy in a magical working. Conceivably if the spell is important enough, the Witch could completely drain the familiar of energy causing it to "die" or cease to exist. And in the case of a magical attack, the attack could be diverted to the familiar so that it would be the familiar which is destroyed rather than the magic user. None of these are things that I think any of us would want to do with our pets.

There is an excellent article on familars here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiar_spirit

Animals are very sensitive to the energies around them and they may be drawn to us when we are working magic because they can sense the energy. They also want to be around their people, which again will make them want to be where we are..and that may be where we are doing magic. Neither of these things makes the animal a familiar or inherently magical in and of itself.

You are right lark I may have oversimplified my explanation ..its mostly about the spiritual connection between you and said animal . but as you remark on the ways of old involving familiars that doesn't mean that because you are not willing to sacrifice your "pet" in such a way that the animal no longer is deemed as a familiar . as you said it was originally a lot of witches of old were lone practitioners and there pets were assumed to be there familiars. But that makes it no less a case that an animal can make a spiritual connection with you that assists you in your magical practices whether it be by proxy of being there calms you and gives a greater connection to the energy your drawing from or that the animal is actually assisting you .

I have two stray cats who have also seemed to have "found me" both understand me and one is very attached to me. But that could just be them being friendly. My torti was a stray also who i found in our yard but she has no interest in people and has a small attension span. Cats are strange creatures and are pretty smart. So maybe you have a smart cat.

I had a cat recently, he walked into my apartment 31/2 years ago
and we connected instantly, i also believed he came for a reason since at the time i was going thru a lot of things, also he was a smart cat i also believed he was a familiar.He was a tuxedo. He left my home on the 22nd of October, he never came back i am so heart-broken, depress i miss him a lot, i suspect my neighbor across from me set a trap and tortured my poor felix to death. I have good reasons to think that since they don't like us, they hit him before, i had to take him to the vet. I am looking for revenge.

Soila, use of punctuation and actually separating sentences will make your posts much easier to read.

If you have reason to suspect your neighbors of heinous animal abuse, your best option is contacting the authorities.