Today DK managed to knock over the plastic cat food container (typical) and unscrew it (first time). Fortunately, it was nearly empty. I was impressed and will have to start hiding the crunchy container now.

I'll have to make a map, though. I'm sorry to say that last week I hid the porcelain "Queen Kitty" food bowl so well, I can't find it now. Major downside: it's full of food.

He's sitting on my lap purring right now. He's a good kitty. And he just made a silent meow!

Meanwhile, I remembered that the other kitties taught DS8 how to open doors when he was a baby. They would use their front paws/hands to pull the door open when it was slightly ajar, and he copied them. I have no idea how old he was, but they were two.

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I have to hit the sack.

Val

My GT kittie plays fetch. We never had a dog play fetch but my kittie is a natural with it.
She loves sitting on my lap but hates being carried. She'll ride on my shoulder instead. She was also extremely jealous of my granddaughter when granddaughter was just born. I'd hold GD and kittie would try to push her way between GD & me.
We have two indoor kitties and both open doors.
So, that's my GT kittie story for the day.

Great stories! I have always been more of a dog person, but since we adopted two kittens last year, I have been surprised at how clever and entertaining they are. We also have a cat who plays a game, though I wouldn't call it fetch. She sits and we throw a soft pom pom at her. She bats it back, and this can go on for a LONG time. She purrs and lets us know that she really enjoys this. It's funny though, her brother has no use for the game.

Both of the cats often like to sit in a big picture window that overlooks the driveway, and they seem to always be waiting there whenever someone drives up. They usually sit there to "wave goodbye" too.

All our cats would fetch. When they stopped bringing the paper wad back, they were saying "I'm done playing now."

My cat also opens doors. He puts both paws on the doorknob and turns it. My former roommate wants him to teacher he cat how to do it.

His real gift was athletic leaps and twirls in midair, though. He's too old now, but in his youth, he was the Baryshnikov of the feline world! Glorious to watch!

Ahhhh,, I love the gifted kitties stories. Thanks for the morning smiles!

I've always loved cats because they are aloof!

I'm also a dog person.

I always leave the t.v. on and change the channel to Animal Planet(HD of course) for our sweet little dog.

When I come home, he's always laying in MY favorite chair watching the t.v.

Dottie, how does the hamster get the fridge door open? That IS GT! Darn near overachieving.



(Really, I do get it. But I got that image of a hamster opening the door in my head, and I HAD to share it!)

when i was a kids we had a dog that could unlock the door open it, unlock the screen door, open that- and then get in the yard, and get over a 6 foot wooden feet by running up it and tossing himself over it.... he was one crazy dog!

I don't know... we've only ever had cats and both of them were dumber than a bag of rocks! One of them took several weeks to remember we'd replaced the screen in the door (where he'd destroyed it once already)... banged his nose on it when we let him out. every. single. time. Very sweet and cuddly, both of them, but no great thinkers! LOL

Oh and I forgot our not-so-bright rat! We had two rats and while one was of at least average rat intelligence, the other was, uh, not. When we fed them we would put all the food in one bowl, and Squeaker would proceed to "hide" it in the other bowl, while Climber (the brighter of the two) would build a stash (taking from BOTH bowls) in the igloo-house and then sit in the doorway to block it.

Maybe Climber is above average though... When she was a single rat, instead of taking the food out of the bowl to hide she started bringing bedding up to it and just hiding it right there. That was pretty clever! LOL

We have a brilliant plecostemus. A bottom feeder by nature, he learned to swim upside down just under the surface of the water and vacuum goldfish flakes into his mouth.

Maybe I'm not that nurturing!! I mean, the smacking his nose into the screen door thing -was- pretty funny to watch..... LOL

I had a guinea Pig in college that would squeal every time I opened my little fridge. He figured he was going to get some veggies.

I found the missing bowl of crunchies! They were in the cabinet where we keep the sheets.

Val

I had a cat that was oxygen-deprived at birth, and bless her cuddly little heart, she was a whole different level of dumb. She used to nurse on my earlobe and she forgot to clean her nose after she ate.

Anyway, I told the vet that she wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and the kindly, animal-adoring woman looked at me like I was Satan himself. How COULD I say somethng so mean about my pet? I tried to explain that it was merely reality, that I loved her very much, but a mother knows her baby's flaws. Penelope was SOOOOO not a GT cat!

I had to leave Penelope overnight for some treatment, and when I came back the next day, the vet brought Penelope into the exam room with a very sheepish look on her (human) face. She told me that there's a thumbnail IQ test for cats. (No numbers though, Dottie. Sorry! ) You flip the cat's ear inside-out, so it cups backwards instead of forwards, convex instead of concave. The faster the cat flips it back, the smarter the animal is. The really smart cats won't even let you do it. The dumbest of cats take 30 seconds or so to notice.

My poor, dear Penelope sat there for THIRTY MINUTES with her ear inside out! "I couldn't take it any more," said the vet, "so I gave up and flipped it back for her."

I had to laugh! So yes, trust your mom gut about intelligence. We know! (Even when the "baby" is a cat!)

Ah, would that it were so easy to figure it out with human kids!

too funny! have to try this on the pooches too...

Think there will be a sudden rash of pets with inside-out ears tonight? LOL!

(And BTW, my GT gato who can open doors won't let me turn his ears inside out. Naturally I raced home as soon as the vet told me about the trick and tried it on him!)

My DH had a dog in college who would ride the bus from one campus to the other, somehow knew the time of day and DH's schedule to sit outside the right building (she would wait at different ones different times/days) to meet him each day. Everyone knew the dog that rode the bus (only some knew DH). The dog was featured in the yearbook--big picture. Very smart dog.

DH always credits the dog with attracting nice girlfriends

NO WAY!

That is unbelievable. I would be shocked if ANYONE can top that one!

My roommate had a cat who could talk.

She said "Me-out" very clearly when she wanted to go out, and she said "Me-in" when she was ready to come in.

We thought that was pretty good.

Ooh Ooh! I do have a friend whose pets have always been "smarter than the average bear"... (LOL!) One was a dog named Lewis who could follow very conversational commands, in different tones of voice and with different wording... like "Would you like to take a seat?" instead of "Lewis! Sit!" And she had a guinea pig who every time you said "greens" would squeal back what seriously -sounded- like "greens! greens!"

LOL!

Well, our cows are pastured in a rotational grazing system. They're only on a paddock for a few days before moved to a fresh paddock. When they've eaten all the good stuff and are ready to go to a fresh paddock, if they see me they all start saying "MOOOOVE". Ever hear 30-40 cows singing a chorus of "MOOOOOve"? hehehe.

LOL! I liked this so much that I read it to my kids, OHG.

But did the owner attract cute dogs?

I had a bull who was pretty smart and I could do just about anything with him.

He'd let me lay against him in the field when he was laying down. I could use him to lead a group of new cows or calves back to the herd. He saved my bacon when I fell into a deep ditch with the herd following me - he straddled me while the herd crossed the creek. He could open gates latched with just a chain in a slot. He got his horn stuck one day in a gate in the corral and patiently let me use a torch and saw to cut the gate and corral panels down.

He'd play practical jokes on me - such as sneaking up and putting his horn under my butt when I was bent over working on a water valve - then prance around when I chased him with a hammer. LOL.

He went through a phase where he would get out a lot just to poke around. It took several extended stays in the corral to teach him to stay in. I felt sorry for him and let him hang out around the ranch house if he was at the gate.

I eventually sold him to a retired Doctor who wanted a gentle bull. My DW was PISSED.

Austin, that is some bull story!

Not a cock-and-bull story, though, right?

Hahaha, my first impression was it was pretty far-fetched, but the more I thought about it the more I realized every bit could be true. We've had some cows exhibit behaviors that make you wonder about their intelligence and ability to bond with humans.

Thank you Mark for keeping these old threads. This one just cheered me up before a (sure to be frustrating) Gifted Advisory panel meeting for our school district.

I feel like I'm late to the party but wanted to share the stories of my two cats. Both have passed, one recently. We had a bengal/maine coon mixed cat who could open doors and loved to fetch. She was a wiry thing and loved to climb. I'm not sure how GT she was because she was always getting into predicaments such as climbing up a tall straight tree and not being able to get down. My favorite was when she climbed up on the patio roof and decided she needed to come down by jumping onto the concrete and landing with a thump on her head. Not much grace with that cat!

My other cat was a maine coon/siamese mix who looked all maine coon but had the voice of a siamese and acted like a terrible 2 toddler. He did not like to be corrected and would let you know with sassing back. Many a times I was meet with a "NO" and one time on the way to the vet he was putting sentences together: "No Mama no!". I had him before my DH was in the picture and the cat was super jealous of DH. One day the DH, than boyfriend, came over after getting over the flu so he wasn't up to his usual energy and laid around on the couch. Temee, the cat, used the opportunity to show just how much he despised him. Running full force down the hall and whipping around the corner; he jumped, landing a full head butt right into DH stomach. Another time DH was watching a movie with me on the couch and had his arm around me. Temee was not happy with that arrangement so he climbed on top of the couch and grabbed his shirt with his teeth, pulling his arm away from my shoulders. Oh how I loved that cat ... full of personality. He is sorely missed.

OMG.....I have a Himalayan Persian and you can't even get his ears to do that (hahaha not from want of trying). What does that mean!!!!!!LOL.

Perhaps that he is beyond the ability of the test to measure?

No, really, I have no idea. I get the feeling it isn't an exact science... LOL!

I found this old thread entertaining, and thought others may enjoy it too. Clever pet stories!

Did anyone see a story on Nature about cleverness. Parrots are amazingly clever. And, interestingly, brain size per mass put them on the percentage range as chimps.
They showed them using "tools" and could do puzzle locks. And if you removed a piece of the puzzle lock so they could start lower, they knew. It was very cool.

OK, now I have to chime in (six years late?) with my GT kitty story.

He used to open a louvered window to get out of the house when we were trying to make him an indoor cat. We had no idea how he was getting out - everything would be closed up, then he'd be outside. By pulling on the louvers he could open it enough to slip out, then the weight of the louvers would close the window again. (We discovered this when we tightened up the screens and he got stuck between the window and the screen one morning.)

He also found a peer kitty. The friend taught him to come over and visit at the other cat's house. They played together every day. Mine had a particular scratch at our front door to come in; one day we heard it, but DK was on the rug. He answered the door and went out to play.