How intelligent is your cat?

[violetbunny]

I know "intelligent" is a subjective description, but between my two cats Boycat is definitely more intelligent than his sister! So many examples, but a few are:

He has cracked any puzzle feeder I've tried in minutes. Girlcat stares at them blankly and walks off.

Unlike Girlcat who is surprised whenever I put her in the carrier to go to the vet, Boycat knows it's coming. He will also learn from the previous times and try different strategies to evade capture.

Boycat is also much better at communicating his needs, for example if he wants to be played with he will walk to his toy box and get your attention. Once when I couldn't feed him breakfast due to a vet procedure, he went and got his treat toy from another room and batted it around in front of me while yelling and making a huge racket (never done this before so he was definitely trying to tell me to feed him!).

How intelligent (or not so intelligent) are your cats?

My old boy is super smart, and nuts, if he has a poorly tummy (if neighbours have fed him too) and can't make it to the garden for his no2s, he has somehow figured out to use the bathroom he will go right next to the toilet!! He also picked up that my eldest son gets creeped out if he goes in his room at night, so he does it without fail, daily!!

One of mine is clever to the point we have had to put childlocks on any cupboard he might be interested in, he’s worked out how to get out of a cat proof fence and can identify any kind of cat or dog food instantly and shred the packaging to get to the goods. However, he can’t work a cat flap and occasionally he accidents where he stands inside the litter tray and shits over the edge.

The other three are just lovely ornaments with nothing between the eyes

*Has accidents

@darlingdodo I love the image of your cat being spun round on an office chair!

He's a whole idiot. Yesterday, I went downstairs to give him his breakfast, and he ran straight past me to go upstairs and look for me. Then came running back down a couple of minutes later in a panic, only to crash straight into me and go "oh there you are!"

He can't work his own cat flap - which he literally just has to walk through - and will stand next to it, meowing and occasionally batting it with a paw until someone helps him. Only on the way out though. For some reason he can work it coming back in.

He's a big old scaredy cat too. I've seen him chased out of his own home by a neighbour's kitten that was about a tenth of his size.

Good job he's pretty!

Not very. Despite having a plethora of cat toys to play with, balls, furry mice, birds, fish, you name it, this morning one of mine is having great fun playing with a cube of stiff polystyrene-type packaging.

One of the others is determined to insert himself into a discarded Velvetiser box, and anyone who has one of those will know that an adult cat will not fit into a box that size. Doesn't stop him trying though. He can either get his head and shoulders in it but not his arse, or vice versa.

There were supposed to be photos attached to that post. Let's see if this works...

Apparently not! Ah well.

Fairly intelligent ginger girl. Knows how to open door handles, tries to open blinds using the blind cord, understands instructions like 'go downstairs'.

She's pretty timid though so I don't get much trouble from her raiding cupboards etc.

Our gorgeous Tortie Mog (RIP Angel Cat) was the smartest cat I have ever known. She was 17 when she passed and had all of us very well trained. She was incredibly vocal and could tell us just with an inflection what it is she wanted us to do. She was not shy about making her needs known. She would give a certain look at our dogs (3) and they would immediately give up their food bowl / bed / treat for her and retreat silently. She chased foxes from our garden. She was also Queen of the 'Fuck You Flick' of the tail if we did not immediately leap to her wants and desires.

She was utterly wonderful.

Girl cat does tricks for treats (she'll sit and high five) and knows exactly when to drop the normal level of aloofness in favour of being friendly and cute to get what she wants. She also gets visibly embarrassed (if she misses a jump etc). But then she also sits and mindlessly licks plastic

Boy cat will do as he's told when getting brushed (his favourite thing) i.e lay down, stretch and roll over, has realised that talking to us gets him what he wants, and has worked out how to help himself to dreamies

Yet we have to have stickers on the patio doors (as both have run into them head first full pelt) and after a couple of years still sit at the wrong side to be let out so I think they are both pretty dim unless motivated

Thick as a barn door.

It's just as well they're pretty.

@chisanunian

Not very. Despite having a plethora of cat toys to play with, balls, furry mice, birds, fish, you name it, this morning one of mine is having great fun playing with a cube of stiff polystyrene-type packaging.

One of the others is determined to insert himself into a discarded Velvetiser box, and anyone who has one of those will know that an adult cat will not fit into a box that size. Doesn't stop him trying though. He can either get his head and shoulders in it but not his arse, or vice versa.

I can't stop imagining him trying to fit one end or the other into the box!
Also love the sound of the cat who wants people to spin him on a chair!
I love both my cats so much, the dumber one is just the cuddliest most affectionate thing ❤️

@DomesticShortHair

All my current and previous cats have been far more intelligent than me. I know this because, while I have to get up and go to work all day, and go to the supermarket, and do all the cleaning and worry about paying the bills, they just get to snooze all day and have their food handed to them on a plate (literally).

Thick as mince, except when it comes to three things.

A) conning either DP or myself that he has not yet had dinner by means of wolfing it down to hide the evidence if we weren't both present when it was served.

B) Sussing out that there's a trip to the cattery or vet coming up.

C) Figuring out that the thin rectangular thing on the nightstand is what wakes us up at breakfast time (we use phone alarms) and using his claws to pick it up one edge and drop it repeatedly thus creating noise to wake us up

In fairness I'm quite impressed by the last one.

Love the bus catching cat!
Boycat is very bright, very confident, rules the house, and bosses girlcat and ddog mercilessly. Girlcat...hmm, I suspect she's not very bright but she is very timid and undemanding, and will let boycat eat her dinner, boot her out of her favourite spot on the bed etc. However she is very cute.

@ImInStealthMode

Thick as mince, except when it comes to three things.

A) conning either DP or myself that he has not yet had dinner by means of wolfing it down to hide the evidence if we weren't both present when it was served.

B) Sussing out that there's a trip to the cattery or vet coming up.

C) Figuring out that the thin rectangular thing on the nightstand is what wakes us up at breakfast time (we use phone alarms) and using his claws to pick it up one edge and drop it repeatedly thus creating noise to wake us up

In fairness I'm quite impressed by the last one.

My childhood cat used to wake me up in the morning by putting her paws over my nostrils.

Good for her she was cute.

*Good thing for her

My beautiful Marley knows when it's the weekend and lets me have a lie in. He scratches the door at 7am every morning when it's the week and work but at weekends he doesn't scratch at all!!

Elder Cat: not at all daft. An accomplished food thief and quite capable of assessing whether Human 2 was present when Human 1 fed him, and therefore whether it's worth putting on a heart rending display of starvation for Human 2.

Forced against his better judgement to look out for Younger Cat who is adorable but endlessly surprised by life. Even those bits of it he last met two minutes ago.

We have a garden pond and when Younger Cat was even younger he watched Elder Cat leap gracefully across the narrow end. He had a look across the pond from where he was sitting (the widest part), sized it up, had a careful think, and then leapt straight into the middle of the pond.

@TheForgetfulCat

Elder Cat: not at all daft. An accomplished food thief and quite capable of assessing whether Human 2 was present when Human 1 fed him, and therefore whether it's worth putting on a heart rending display of starvation for Human 2.

Forced against his better judgement to look out for Younger Cat who is adorable but endlessly surprised by life. Even those bits of it he last met two minutes ago.

We have a garden pond and when Younger Cat was even younger he watched Elder Cat leap gracefully across the narrow end. He had a look across the pond from where he was sitting (the widest part), sized it up, had a careful think, and then leapt straight into the middle of the pond.

Oh my word! The splash 😂 This is totally the sort of thing my girl cat would do.

When I adopted my girl a couple of years ago I thought she would be sweet but a bit of a dimwit. Apparently she thought the same of me and set about training me to her standards. Treats on the staircase? Sure, no problem in fact it’s kind of cute, until my DH stepped on one. Dining Al fresco in fine weather? Absolutely, until I realised it attracted several neighbours cats. Up and down all evening because she refuses to acknowledge her cat flap when a human servant is around.

They are thick. They don't even know their names and we've been using their names every day for nearly a year. No idea. They catch pegs off the washing line and the belt of my dressing gown. I can't think of anything intelligent they do. Except be litter trained.

I’ve often said this

i get up at stupid o clock, and cat is asleep on the bed with paws inn the air. After having woken us for breakfast even earlier, scoffed said breakfast and gone back to bed. I come home, and cat is still asleep on the bed (might have moved, might not have). Cat has tea, mooches for a bit, scrounges for treats, does a massive shit that I have to clear up. Then goes back to sleep.

in the meantime I’ve worked my arse off, stressed, shopped and paid the bloody gas bill. Damn right they are cleverer than we are.

My 10 month old kitten is probably the dumbest cats I have owned 🤣🤣 and I have had a Persian.

She couldn't catch a cold let alone a bird or mouse. She does bring in leaves that she has "hunted" as presents though.

The only slightly clever thing she does is she can climb ladders as quick as a flash.