The Smartest Thing Your Cat Has Ever Done?

TobiDaDog

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We all know some cats have a head on their shoulders! My Sirvester for example is scary smart with putting 'two and two together.'

He can't open doors like Reese can, but my jaw dropped when I saw him look at an A/C window unit being hauled downstairs, then BOLT to the other end of the house to check the window to see if it was open. He KNEW that that A/C unit wasn't blocking the window anymore. That's some pretty logical thinking if you ask me!
 

bear

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When I only had Furball, I was out in the garage scrubbing FurBall's litter box.
The phone rang and I needed to drive the 50 miles to work ASAP.

When I returned home, I found that FurBall had taken two plastic bags out of recycle storage and spread them where her litter box normally resides. It was the closest thing she could find to replacing her plastic lined box.

She was my best kitty ever.
 
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Caspers Human

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Casper can count.

When I come home from work, he greets me at the door then escorts me to the kitchen to get his kitty cookies. I have to give him EXACTLY eight kitty treats. No more. No less.

If I only give him less than eight, he'll look at me like he's saying, "C'Mon! You're holding out on me!" and wait for me to give him his proper tribute.

If I give him more than eight, he might eat nine but, most often he'll leave the rest and just walk away.

Oh! And...half-treats don't count. If it's not a fully formed cat treat or if it's broken in two, Casper doesn't consider it one of his eight. He only wants whole ones.

I've even tried to trick him by putting down two treats and quickly taking one back. He doesn't fall for it.

It sure seems like Casper is counting his kitty cookies!
 

Lari

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When Lelia was a kitten and she only had three mousie toys (those were the days) and I left out three water bowls for her, I'd come home to find one mouse in each bowl. I joked she had better one to one correspondence than some of my students.

She knows where her toy drawer is and is willing to work at it to get it open, much to my annoyance. I moved the toys up to the next highest drawer and she still got it open (girl is too tall). She's smart and persistent.

And I've only been able to trick her into carriers with different ways once - she only fell for chasing the laser pointer in there once, she only fell for treats in there once. Now I've got a better carrier where I can put her in from the top and I can carry her a bit better, but she learns quickly!

I'm not sure what the smartest thing is, but she's a smart girl.
 

MrHandsomesMama

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I know there are smarter things Emmett has done, but all I can think of at the moment is that he knows how to open doors, and knows even on doors with knobs that that's what you grab to open the door. When we have to lock him in a room for even a minute he starta reaching for or jiggling the knob. I swear it's a good thing our front door is deadbolted!
 

Elphaba09

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Estella is by far our smartest cat. She opens doors, cabinets, and drawers. She plays fetch, but only with my son, with whom she is obsessed. When he and his fiancee are gone and shut their door to their room, she "sacrifices" toilet paper in front of their door. They sleep with their door open, and if Estella hears someone or certain other cats coming upstairs, she shuts their door. She then peeks out every so often to see if the intruder is gone, shutting the door again if someone is in the hallway. She will not let Tara, one of our other cats, in their room. If Tara comes upstairs and goes anywhere other than to the bathroom, Estella will shut their door until it is just open enough for her to get through then she sits in front of the door watching Tara until she leaves. No hissing, just staring. She also knows what time my son comes home from work.

This weekend, they are at an anime con in Columbus. Three rolls have been removed from the cabinet and left in front of their door. We do not know why she gives them toilet paper.

I think the smartest thing she has done is find the valerian root in the cabinet. It is strong smelling, so I double bag it and put it in a metal tea tin. One night, she opened the cabinet, sorted through all my herbs and tea containers, found the valerian, and knocked it down on to the floor so that it popped open. She then tore the bags open and celebrated with the other cats. We know it was her because she has since tried finding it again and been caught. Do not tell her, but it is in the freezer!
 

di and bob

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It always amazes me when I see my cats knock a toy under something and then go around to the back to see if they can see it from there. When something disappears, it is supposed to take 'higher' intelligence to figure out where it went. They will use their paws like hands reaching around to try to grab it too, when they can't see it. They have good memories too, returning again and again to a spot to see if their toy reappears, for days.
 

LittleShadow

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Does it still count as 'my cat' if it's a rehomed bottle baby former feral from my colony? Oh well, still going to talk about her, because you can SEE her thinking, and it is amazing.

Kitten (always name your kittens promptly, before they recognize Kitten as their name and refuse to answer to any other) is either partially or fully blind in one eye, the vet still isn't sure, due to a horrible infection as a kitten that led to her abandonment as a tiny little thing. My friend, also a feral colony caretaker, ended up taking on most of the care for the kitten, as they had a few more resources at that time that allowed her to keep up with the every few hours feedings and medications and eye cleanings required to save the kitten. She ended up being kept as a pet by other colony caretaker as we doubted she'd do well if released. Kitten is one of the most trainable cats I've ever met.

Kitten recognizes that human sounds have meaning, and recognizes a scold sound, a praise sound, and the concept that additional sounds and/or hand motions may have meaning related to her. If you make a praise or scold sound while she is doing something that isn't tied to a previously praised/scolded/trained action, she stops and focuses on the person. Then she very deliberately, slooooooooooowly repeats what she just did when you made the praise/scold.

I've seen her slooooooooowly lift and lower her paw several times in the same spot, just to make sure that it was her paw touching the surface that caused the reaction. Then move her paw over a few inches, repeat. Then move her paw to the nearest surface of a different material, and test. She's successfully learned in this way that kitchen linoleum is a no-touch surface, but that bathroom linoleum is okay, that sitting up for a treat is good, but that lifting her paws above her neck while sitting up for a treat is bad. She also knows that walking on certain tables like the one between the armchair and couch is fine, and certain areas of certain tables are fine, but that stepping on papers, even on previously approved paths, is bad. I could go on, but you probably get the idea. She's also got a variety of word and hand sign trained actions as well.

I've never seen another cat do this slow motion testing of actions, but it makes it gloriously easy to teach her, though like all cats, she sometimes will not care, or will disobey people who aren't consistent. I don't know if any of you have ever encountered a cat like this, but it seriously blows my mind every time I see it.
 

EmersonandEvie

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Dexter figured out the trashcan at four months old.

We hadn't had him very long. I could hear him knocking around the kitchen and it suddenly became quiet. I peeked around the corner to see him standing on his hind legs (very tippy toes, still such a small baby), sniffing the trash. He had seen us throw stuff away (it's one of the ones where you press the lid and it clicks open, then you click it shut). He reached over and tapped the lid, nothing happened...not enough pressure. He then proceeded to jump and USE HIS BODY WEIGHT to open the trashcan. He heard the click, jumped down, it swung open, he jumped back up. He then attempted to explore the tasty treasures he revealed inside. I picked my jaw up off the ground and scolded him. He hasn't done it since.
 

SeventhHeaven

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Using the toilet with no training :jawdrop: Minno Rip flushed all the time. Tortie girl climbed over 3 balconies (other tenants reported sightings ) onto a fridge then safely to ground would holler up to me beaming she had escaped:bliss:They love tablet games.....
 

maggie101

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When my cat was 3months, she made up a game all by herself. She would slide a bottle cap under the door,try to grab it underneath,if not,go on the other side and do it again. She was at it for 40minutes!
 

Stinky15

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My prior male cat had free access to outside,via a cat door. One morning he kept coming in the house meowing, then going outside. I couldn't figure out what he wanted till I went outside to leave and I noticed that a neighbors tree had blown over in the night between our 2 houses.

My current cat decided sometime ago that he needs to wake me up in the morning. He figured out that when I get up I turn off my CPAP machine which is besides the bed. He took it upon himself to try and turn off my CPAP machine. I covered it so he couldn't do that so then he decided that if I couldn't get me up he would knock the alarm clock off the night stand!
 
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Richard2121

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I have a bengal kitten and he's not even the smartest cat in the house LOL. Otis, my orange tabby was adopted from my cousin's farm when he was 10 weeks old. He is still only 8 months of age and yet his curiosity and attention to detail amazes me. He plays a version of simon says with me and watches what I do in the morning before work and learns how to do these actions himself. He now knows when I use the bathroom and waits there to help me open the door. He also knows when I use the toaster and he is close to figuring out how to use that as well. He also helps me scoop wet food into his food dish by placing his paw on my hand or on the spoon to guide it to the bowl :flail:

He is also the only one we have managed to harness and leash train so far. It took him 2 hours to be okay with it.
 
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TobiDaDog

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Reese understands my morning alarm. She's always sleeping beside me through the night, so when my alarm goes off the first time she knows I'm up. But JUST enough up that she can snuggle up close and be petted as she falls back asleep. She will get up and put herself under my hand to get her 'alarm pets'.
I usually have to set my alarm forward a few hours because of work rescheduling me.
So the second alarm goes off and THAT'S when she gets up to start her day, because second alarm means that I'm getting up. Always one step ahead of me there!

Now if for some reason I have to set my alarm in the middle of the day, she will become very confused. You can see it in her face that she KNOWS that the alarm isn't supposed to happen smack at noon. It's a 3 AM thing. She will reluctantly come over as though she's not sure whether to ask for pets or not. The disturbance in her face is very real, and very funny.
 
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