As many of you know, Djoser is all black with an inscrutable look on his face. Well, I have decided that look is hiding arcane secrets.

I know his ancestry from before I got him in 1994. He was born of a grey tabby housecat and a feral tom. He has led a very typical life in all these years. But somehow he obtained Arcane Knowledge that the other cats don't have. Is it because of his blackness making a connection to the Other Side? Or is he more in tune with the Mothership?

Specifically, he Opens doors! Now that might not seem like much in the way of arcane knowledge. And my house is very old and settled and creaks and groans and no wall or floor is straight. Maybe the doors just come open from the house settling or from temperature differences. At least I have a storm door that he can't open.

But many is the time I have closed the front door as I leave and come back to find it open. Sometimes I catch him in the act of pulling at the bottom of the door. But I always wondered, how did he get it to unlatch before pulling at it?

When the cats are outside, Djoser won't come in when Amber is on the porch for fear of an ambush. So I close the house door before I open the porch storm door. Today that is just what I did. However, when I went to open the front door to let him in the living room, it was locked. It has a little button by the knob on the inside that is easy to accidentally push. So I keep a spare set of keys in a secret place on the porch.

Djoser was standing with his nose practically touching the door and looking up at the knob. I tried to turn the knob and then tried to push the door, thinking I might not have closed it all the way. It was definitely locked with the bolt thingie in the latch. I turned and got the key and started to put it in the lock. But The Door Was Open!!! And Djoser walked on through nonchalantly. I tested the knob and it was still in the lock position!

How did he do that? I felt like I was in a time warp or something. I Know that door was locked securely. Is he magic? Is he telekinetic?

Copyright © Catherine Jo Sadler
February 3, 2003