I believe that they can sense things before they happen. They also remember words too. My cat Storm knows what the word treat means. If I say the word when he's sleeping, he'll wake up and run into the kitchen and start meowing. He also remembers that he'll get treats after I groom him. After I groom him he'll wait in the kitchen until he gets his treat. If I have some rice pudding in the refrigerator and I try to sneak it out, all three of them somehow know what it is and they surround me and start begging for it. I think a lot of it has to do with their great sense of smell and their acute hearing too.