Weirdest Thing Ever - Lucy the Cat Talks in English

[Danger]

So, here I goes...
I had just polished off a 26er of Scotch and started in on a new one, so there was a modicum of inebriation involved. For comparison, I am now about 1/4 of the way through the second bottle. All of that is irrelevant to what I'm about to post, but I want to have it out there so you can factor it into your decisions regarding my sanity. The stuff that I'm going to relate happened about 5 minutes after I got off of the phone with Lacy33, so I'll leave it up to her to determine whether or not I was coherent at the time.
Most of you know that I'm somewhat insane at the best of times, and have been observed cracking a joke now and then, but I am deadly serious about this particular incident.
Soon after Lacy33 and I parted ways via the phone, I heard Lucy moaning in the bathroom. I did my usual "Daddy" thing as in asking her if she was okay and what was wrong. She responded, in perfect English "I don't know". After a bit of prompting, she then said (again in perfect English) "I'm ill."
Well, there wasn't much that I could do about it, but she came out and sat on the couch with me for a while, and she's totally alright.
Those of you who already know me realize what is so spooky about this.
For newcomers to PF, I now point out that Lucy is my cat.
She's incredibly intelligent, even by cat standards, but her expressing something in my own native language just blew my mind. Even moreso, the words that she used were compatible with the biological structure of her mouth and vocal chords.
If anyone has some sort of explanation for this event, I''ll be more than happy to hear it. Maybe Ivan & Tsu, since they have a lot of experience with cats.
I'm a scientist by nature, although not by education, so I have already expended all avenues of logic in this regard. I know that bloody animals can't talk, but she did. As a point of perspective, I am now further into the second bottle, and she is again talking to me. This time, however, as usual, she is speaking Cat. I don't entirely understand it, but the basic translation is "feed me, you lazy bastard".

 

[Cyrus]

I wish I could write sober half as well as you do sloshed. Damn, you're good.

 

[pallidin]

I wish I could write sober half as well as you do sloshed. Damn, you're good.

I'll speak for myself, but that's called an "alcoholic"
I am able to drink far more than my friends and remain reasonably coherent, BUT, that's ONLY because I have done it for a long time. My mind has adjusted to the higher levels of alcohol(tolerance) over a long time. Not unusual. Doesn't happen with everyone though.

Back to the issue, cats don't speak human language. Mimic? Possible. Communicatively? Forget it.
For you to hear your cat speaking English I gently suspect that your recreational intoxicant included more than just alcohol.

 

[pallidin]

Oh, and regarding sanity? I find you quite sane.
Perhaps stressed at times(which for me is why I drink- I have an anxiety disorder), but sane nonetheless.

 

[Danger]

I wish I could write sober half as well as you do sloshed. Damn, you're good.

Not really... I'm just trying to keep up appearances.

I'll speak for myself, but that's called an "alcoholic"
I am able to drink far more than my friends and remain reasonably coherent, BUT, that's ONLY because I have done it for a long time. My mind has adjusted to the higher levels of alcohol(tolerance) over a long time. Not unusual. Doesn't happen with everyone though.

Back to the issue, cats don't speak human language. Mimic? Possible. Communicatively? Forget it.
For you to hear your cat speaking English I gently suspect that your recreational intoxicant included more than just alcohol.

I agree with everything that you said, except for your last sentence. I am indeed an alcoholic, and I make no apologies for it. Drugs, though... no way. I love the smell of weed when someone else is doing it, but if I take a single toke it just makes me sick for a week or so. I have my SSRI's, an occasional antihistamine, a spoonful of chest decongestant when I simply can't breathe despite the inhalers, and some ibuprofen in the event of a headache (no other pain bothers me).
Back to the cat thing... I've experienced coincidences of mimicry, mis-hearing, etc. in the past. What weirded me out in this case was that her "remarks" were entirely appropriate for the given situation. I asked her if she was okay, and she said "I don't know". After a bit of soothing "Daddy talk", I asked her what was wrong. She said "I'm ill". I'm more than willing to put either one of those down as pure coincidence, but both is kind of stretching it.
I realize that I'm coming across as some kind of moron here, sort of like a twit trying to explain why he believes that horoscopes work, but I am seriously at a loss to explain it.

 

[pallidin]

Ok, so this is not drug influenced, per se. Excepting the fact that alcohol and SSRI's in combination can have unusual psychological consequences.
Some of the time it's OK.
With hard liquor(Scotch in your case) I would be cautious, though.
Strong alcohol is definitely not OK in combo with a SSRI, even if the SSRI was taken hours earlier.

Who knows if this has anything to do with your case!
But cat's don't speak human language conversationally.
So, something is going on.

 

[Danger]

I'm inclined to agree with you, Pallidin, because your logic is flawless. This was just so weird, though... I've been drinking heavily since the early 80's, and taking the antidepressants for over 10 years, but nothing like this has ever happened before. I wish that I'd had a tape recorder going, because I can't possibly expect anyone to believe that I heard what I did. If I hadn't been here, I wouldn't believe it myself.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Danger, your cat said she was ill when nothing was wrong. Obviously the cat is messing with your head.

 

[turbo]

Danger, your cat said she was ill when nothing was wrong. Obviously the cat is messing with your head.

Cats are evil and manipulative! Nuf' sed!

 

[Math Is Hard]

Jellyroll let's out a deep, loud, "oh, woe!" about 20 seconds before a hairball arrives on the scene.

 

[Proton Soup]

Back to the cat thing... I've experienced coincidences of mimicry, mis-hearing, etc. in the past. What weirded me out in this case was that her "remarks" were entirely appropriate for the given situation. I asked her if she was okay, and she said "I don't know". After a bit of soothing "Daddy talk", I asked her what was wrong. She said "I'm ill". I'm more than willing to put either one of those down as pure coincidence, but both is kind of stretching it.
I realize that I'm coming across as some kind of moron here, sort of like a twit trying to explain why he believes that horoscopes work, but I am seriously at a loss to explain it.

yeah, i don't find it odd at all. our brains fill in the missing pieces all the time, usually with stuff that is at least appropriate to our mood or situation. if you were sober, you would have immediately realized the mistake, perhaps replaying the sound in your head and noticing the fault.

but yeah, cats can sound like babies crying at certain times. no wonder it would bring out the "daddy" part of your brain.

 

[Danger]

yeah, i don't find it odd at all. our brains fill in the missing pieces all the time, usually with stuff that is at least appropriate to our mood or situation.

Now there is something that I'm very familiar with and yet never considered in this situation. It's almost like deja vu, wherein your brain overwrites a pre-existing memory in order to match it to a current situation. Good thought there, PS.
By the bye, though... one bottle of Scotch doesn't get me drunk. I was a wee bit tipsy, but far from looped. It's not as if I was guzzling... I consumed it over the course of almost 8 hours, and had a peanut butter sandwich during that time.

 

[Danger]

Danger, your cat said she was ill when nothing was wrong. Obviously the cat is messing with your head.

But she wasn't lying. She's prone to stomach aches that last anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. I knew by her initial moaning that she was undergoing such an attack at the time, before any of the "talking" took place. She's a sneak-thief of the highest order, but not a liar.

 

[drizzle]

... Did you let your cat get drunk?

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

A friend of mine who is an alchie said that he had started having hallucinations and on a far more grand scale than this. He was genuinely afraid that he was going insane and actually drank more to make "the voices" and such stop.

 

[Borek]

she is speaking Cat

I think correct form is "Catese".

 

[Danger]

Sorry to necropost here, but I have a new development.
First off, though... Stats, I have hallucinated only twice in my life. Once was almost 40 years ago on some jacked-up weed, and once about 20 years ago when I had a really high fever. Never on alcohol.
Anyhow, I just thought of a possible explanation for the event. I've mentioned a couple of times that I have a rather peculiar hearing problem which necessitates lip-reading in noisy environments or with someone who doesn't enunciate clearly. My sound reception is perfect, but I have trouble interpreting speech, particularly through my right ear. It isn't Wernicke's aphasia, but I suspect that the same brain area is involved. Anyhow, under any adverse sound conditions, I can hear people speaking but it seems as if they're using Japanese or Vulcan or something. It just doesn't make sense to me, even if they repeat it. In such a situation, I have to read lips as I listen (I can't just read lips; it has to be in conjunction with hearing).
Anyhow, what struck me is that perhaps this process can also occasionally operate in reverse, wherein something that doesn't really make sense is interpreted as clear speech. Any neurophysiologists or speech therapists out there? Any thoughts from the rest of you regarding the theory?

edit: I just noticed, upon re-reading this, that I use the word "anyhow" far too often. I'll try to correct that in future.