Yesterday, my cat jumped up onto my lap as per usual, then suddenly freaked, leapt in the air landed on the carpet, continue to jerk about, then went all weird, big eyes, ears back, creeping about appearing to be staring at things around my seat. Wouldn't respond to my verbal attempts to reassure him. He's done similar things around doorways, where he goes all fearful and jumps through them as if to avoid something trying to get him. Very strange. He seems fine this morning, but wondered if anyone else has a cat who randomly behaves oddly. He didn't make any sound at all, by the way, didn't seem hurt, just very frightened, like he'd seen a ghost or something!

It sort of freaked me out too, to be honest!

They say that animals/children can often see spirits as they don't have the cynical attitude if adults.

It could be something physical though, I remember seeing some cases where cats behave irrationally due to medical conditions on 'My Cat From Hell'.

I'd take him to the vet, as Richard says, there are neurological condictions that can cause this.

Thanks for replies. He's been back to normal since. However, he is due vaccinations so I will mention it to the vet.

To quote Deanna Troi - "Data, sometimes a cat is just a cat".

They just do these things from time to time - it is part of their enigmatic behaviour. Ours do this sort of stuff all the time.

My theory is they are actually " sleep walking" as cats can sleep with eyes open.

I would not be worried in slightest if cat is normally eating and drinking

I wouldn't be too worried either.

I'd definitely have a word with the vet though.

I didn't know that cats can sleep with their eyes open!

Mine seem to like to protect their eyes when asleep. There are times when I've opened a cats eye and found that s/he had also closed their inner eyelid.

If I'm not sure if a cat is asleep or not, I look to see if their eyelids are closed, it looks like this is pointless then

I guess that if the cats eyes were open, I could move my finger left to right to see if the head moved like at Wimbledon

There again, the cat might not be asleep and is just deciding to be aloof (as is so often the case)....cats can be so difficult!!!!!!!!