# Are cats really stupid?



## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

And I ask the question because (no I am not a cat hater, we had cat 4 rescues many years ago whilst living in a different city) where I live in a cul de sac there are quite a few cats and at the moment there are two very pretty stray kittens (I think) who keep coming under our gate into our driveway and when Stanley sees them he goes ballistic and tries to catch them. So far luckily he hasn't because they have quickly escaped. My question is, why do they KEEP coming back when they KNOW there is a bloody dog here? maybe they are hungry I'm not sure, I'm not even positive they are strays but for obvious reasons I don't want to encourage them. I have seen them going into other people's driveways also and am a bit concerned for them. They don't look emaciated or anything and I know one of my neighbours across the road was feeding them at one point and the mother.
Also it is not just them, there are at least another six cats that regularly come onto our property and if Stanley is inside and I see them I always shoo them away so they don't see our house as a 'friendly place to go' for their own safety.
I think it is only a matter of time before he catches one of those cats and I will feel awful, but hey that's life I suppose.

I do believe the old saying that dogs have owners and cats have staff.


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

I think they like to taunt the dogs. Theres a really sweet cat that lives across the street and dogs go ballistic trying to get to her, but she still comes to my door and hangs around front yard.


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

I agree with the taunting. Or they could just be hungry. Annie has gotten a few strays this way 

Tho i do belive my cat may have a mental imparement. She will go to Tucker and bother him untill he picks her up, weather it be by her head, tail or midsection, and carry her around. Once he's carried her around for about 20 minutes, he lays down and licks her for a long time. He will put her down if told, but she will bother him untill he does it again. After he licks her for 20-30 minutes then she will go away.


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## biancaDB (Nov 3, 2011)

There's a cat that taunts my cat through the back window because he knows my cats hates it. My cat screams and hisses at him (doesn't mind dogs or cats IN the house, he just hates seeing them on his property outside) and he keeps coming back. I think cats are smart and sneaky.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Not so long ago, I would have been the first one to say, hell yeah, cats are dumb. That was, until I got one. 
What changed my mind was this. My little mutt (I'm not sure what you call a mixed breed cat) of a kitten Windy wanted to go outside and I was busy with something else. At the door, I had a jumble of leashes and harnesses, Mollies, Windy's and another dogs I was looking after. I watched Windy go over to the leashes, saw her paw her own harness and leash out and separate them from the others, then come over to me, start meowing and go back to her harness and looked at me. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have scoffed that a cat, of all things, could do this. So, yeah, I grudgingly have to give respect where it is due.
I'm sure the cats have another agenda, I truly think they have a sense of humour too, they probably enjoy teasing Stanley. Hope they don't underestimate him though, those greyhounds sure like small furry things!


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

cats are smart as hell.
i have a litle female emaline whos now 14 years old this year and JUST begining to slow down. ema is very sneaky and very smart and you can just watch her little brain making plans.
when we first brought her home at 8 weeks we also had a very very old lhasa apso who was blind as a bat.
ema would climb on the back of the couch and just watch mayling (the lhasa) very closely as soon as seh felt mayling was comfortable or asleep she would run jump off her head and up onto the back of a chair quickly turn around and see her handy work she did this so often and confused and frightend the dog so often that mayling would only go to sleep under our coffee table.

then when my nephew was born my sister layed him on our fold out couch where she was sleeping at the time 9her and her bf were in teh middle of moving out and spent a few nights on the couch) while he was sleeping ema went running and made sure to bounce off that babies head and left a scratch on his forehead.

when my sister first got her poodle puppy (mini) she would chase the puppy behind out couch and not let her come out not ebcuase she was aggressive or afraid but she was having a great time! kira the poodle however was NOT.

you could actually say im more of a cat person then a dog person i adore my cats. i adore watching there behavior its amazing becuase they are evolving into a sociel species and creating there own type of laungue and much like dogs are creating there own pack structures. though its not as consistant as a dog but still i am posative that within the next 50-100 years we will have cats living in groups and clearer forms of comunication between each other.

observing my cats has made me ask alot of questions about animals in general. alot of people say animals dont feel spite or anger yet there have now been 3 differant occassions where ive seen my cats make discisions to attack the dogs (yeh i know it sounds bad)
the first occassion was about a year an a half ago when my sisters poodle kira was still a pup kira and my male cat buddy were out in the kitchen with me my female cats ginger and ema were in the living room next to the kitchen i accedentally stepped on buddies tail he yelled and ran away my females seen him run past then ran into the kitchen to smack kira i had to stop them

why would they attack kira? they SEEn buddy was safe and out of danger running away if it were a reaction to his cries why did they take so long to actually react?

there were two other things jsut like this and each time was the same the femles had a good 10 seconds to think about the situation and still reacted.
it makes me wonder
were they "angry" at the dogs for potentiolly hurting there "male?"
were they attempting to "discipline the dogs for what they did?

ok enough of my rambling


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## porchpotty (Aug 10, 2011)

Well we have 4 cats - all of them adopted and are my dogs' buddies. They're really sweet and clever.


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## brandypup (Jan 23, 2012)

Cats actually love dogs.  And yes they like to taunt them. I placed a friendly stray with a co worker who has a rottweiler. Great dog... in any case I get daily updates on how the cats helps take care of the rottie. Backs him up when guarding the door, eats out of the same bowl lol chases his tail. (natural tail on the rott) 

DO you have TNR programs?


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## hmbutler (Aug 4, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Not so long ago, I would have been the first one to say, hell yeah, cats are dumb. That was, until I got one.
> What changed my mind was this. My little mutt (I'm not sure what you call a mixed breed cat) of a kitten Windy wanted to go outside and I was busy with something else. At the door, I had a jumble of leashes and harnesses, Mollies, Windy's and another dogs I was looking after. I watched Windy go over to the leashes, saw her paw her own harness and leash out and separate them from the others, then come over to me, start meowing and go back to her harness and looked at me. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have scoffed that a cat, of all things, could do this. So, yeah, I grudgingly have to give respect where it is due.
> I'm sure the cats have another agenda, I truly think they have a sense of humour too, they probably enjoy teasing Stanley. Hope they don't underestimate him though, those greyhounds sure like small furry things!


Cat's are definitely this smart hey... Nala has a toy tiger with a bell on his tail (we call him tiggy, she knows his name!), its the only stuffed toy she ever took to. She loves him. She brings him to bed, she carries him out to the living area, she gets him down from the chest of drawers when Duke isnt in the room (we put him up high coz Duke always steals him, and Nala gets upset lol). But one thing she always does, is leave him behind the door when we go out, so that when we get home and open the door, it pushes tiggy along the floor and his bell rattles... she hears the bell and comes running, lol. And at our last house, we use to always come in the side door from the garage, so she would always leave him there. When we got duke and put a fence up between the garage and side door, we started using the front door. It only took her about 3 days to realise we were using the front door now, and thats where tiggy was left lol she's clever!



brandypup said:


> Cats actually love dogs.


Try telling that to Nala... lol, she hates Duke!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I am not a cat person - alot of it is probably because I am badly allergic and cats kept me from visiting friends that had them and I just never spent any time with them. 

Plus, I find it really difficult to pet a cat. They keep moving around. 

And my daughter in law's cat made Snorkels scream when we visited by attacking her in the face. And she didn't run up and attack her - she waited about an hour until we thought nothing would happen, casually walked up to her and started smacking her in the face with her claws out while Snorkels was snorkelling around the back side of the couch. Sneaky but that's not a stupid cat. 

I think they are much, much smarter than dogs and much more conniving. Our neighbor's cat in Indiana teased my dog (not as much as the squirrel though) - he would stroll casually down the fenceline, ALL the way around, with Rebel going nuts inside. There was no other reason for him to do that except that he enjoyed torturing Rebel. 

No way they are stupid. They could probably graduate high school if they had thumbs.


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## hmbutler (Aug 4, 2011)

xellil said:


> No way they are stupid. They could probably graduate high school if they had thumbs.


Haha, we always tease Nala about how she can't do something (that it looks like she is attempting to do, like open a door, etc) because she has no thumbs... and when we say it, she sulks... big time... haha

It's unfortunate you're allergic to cats, they really are an animal that most people have to own in order to realise how awesome they are :wink: I think I will always have cats in my life :smile: (well I definitely will, because Nala is going to live forever coz she isn't allowed to leave me!!)


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

hmbutler said:


> Haha, we always tease Nala about how she can't do something (that it looks like she is attempting to do, like open a door, etc) because she has no thumbs... and when we say it, she sulks... big time... haha
> 
> It's unfortunate you're allergic to cats, they really are an animal that most people have to own in order to realise how awesome they are :wink: I think I will always have cats in my life :smile: (well I definitely will, because Nala is going to live forever coz she isn't allowed to leave me!!)


yep, in a way I understand people who don't like dogs even though I think they are hugely missing out. They weren't socialized with them, like i wasn't socialized with cats.

i have a friend with a cat that is 23. They do tend to live longer than dogs, i think!


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

hmbutler said:


> It's unfortunate you're allergic to cats, they really are an animal that most people have to own in order to realise how awesome they are :wink: I think I will always have cats in my life :smile: (well I definitely will, because Nala is going to live forever coz she isn't allowed to leave me!!)


Whole heartily agree, couldn't have said that better myself.....
Yeah Wind also tries to open the door to the garage. She's not quite there yet thank goodness, that would be a right pain in the ar$e.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

i don't think any animals are stupid. i like the line about dogs and cats.


sozzle said:


> I do believe the old saying that dogs have owners and cats have staff.


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

i will never love another like i love my cat ginger ill never love another cat nor a dog like i love her she is what ive always considerd my own guardian angel.

when i was about 8 i had to get rid of my cat penny whom i loved becuase we were moving over 900 miles and we didnt even have a place t move too and only took one suitcase each of clothes nothing else.
my mom promised once we settled in i could get another kitten. 
so i prayed everynight i prayed to God asking him to bring me a little orange female kitten and i would name her ginger well once we got settled into a house i started noticing a heavily pregnant momma cat coming around she was a simple grey brown tabby with white paws she was so freindly and sweet i loved her but she refused to be kept in our house she would come inside,eat get some cuddles then leave so i begged God to let me have one of HER kittens and me and my mom went searching around the neighboor hood to find out who owned her
well we found out and the mommas name was haily due to the fact that she had been born right as hailys commet was passing over.
the owners told me i could indeed have a kitten once they were born.
so i waited and waited and waited then one day haily came to us NOT pregnant and we went to talk to the owner who told us she had no idea where the kittens were born as she had them outside.
i was upset and gave no more thoughts to getting a kitten or a cat.

thenone day after petting haily for a while she started to walk home and i always tried to walk with her becuase there was a yard she had to cross with two very large very aggresive dogs tied out she ran ahead of me and i jsut walked slowly
when i rounded the corner i seen haily and a little orange kitten come running up to her to rub against her i was so excited i watched for a second as the kitten cuddled haily then i tried to approach but the kitten ran and hide under a car and hissed at me. so i ran home while running home i jsut burst into tears i cant explain why other then i was so happy but i lied to my mom and said i was mad at the owenr for not telling us about the kittens.
so we went to have a talk with her and she told em she would work hard at catching the orange kitten whom i had no idea if it was a female or a male yet i just knew it was mine.
about 2 weeks later the owners brought my kitten down it was a female and OF COARSE i named her ginger! it was just after my 9th birthday that i got her.

im gonna be 24 this year and i still have her shes the love of my life she has NEVER let anyone else really pet or touch her she snubs them so to speak but towards me shes the most affectionate cat in the world when i was younger i used to be terrafied of storms she would lie next to me and stay awake and alert for me all night untill the storm stopped she NEVER fell asleep on "duty" when ever we have dogs if i tell the dogs "no" and they dont listen she will litterly step in to "yell" at them and give em a good smack.
if im fighting with any family members and they raise there voice towards me she will step in and hiss and growl at them and make them step back away from me.
one time when i was dealing with my last bull terrier who was 3 months old and severly aggressive once he tried to attack me so i did a stupid thing grabbed him and held him down (stupid yes it was i was inexperienced and going on the advice of others) while he growled and snarled at me ginger ran up and used her body to grab his head and face and began biting him above the eyes till i pulled her off. lets jsut say that dog NEVER messed with her.

one night i tried to well do away with myself by taking pills and massive amounts of alchol my mom and sister found me and tossed me into the shower ginger never left my side even tried climbing into the running shower with me even though the shower cutian was closed she kept her face inside to watch me i sat in the shower for i think i was told about 3 hours and ginger never left they said after they dragged me to bed ginger stayed there on my pillow the entire night since then she goes with me everytime i take and shower sits on the toilet and watches me.
shes never had a good relationship with anyone else not even the other cats whom one is her brother(we got him by accedent a few weeks later when haily brought him onto our back porch and left and the door for the first and only time ever was blown shut by the wind.)
even though she knows my mom and my mom is the "treat despenser" she doesnt trust anyone else but me if i leave to go to my bf house my mom says she goes thru a routine she will search every room in the house then will sit in the dinning room by the front door for about an hour before heading down to my bedroom to lie on my bed and sleep in the middle untill i come home even its been 3 days she will sleep on my bed getting up only to eat drink and go potty then go right back to bed once im home again shes back to her old self being the "momma" overseeing all is going well and no one is doing anything "silly"

there are so many stories i have about this wonderful cat that most people i tell are like "how strange for a cat!" and there are some things its even hard for me to believe if i hadent seen it myself.

i truly believe she is an angel sent to me created just for me and nothing else has ever made me feel so danged lucky as having her.
shes gonna be 15 years old this year and shes still doing good shes gained weight right along with me i think to make me feel better lol
i cant say that i see her as my child becuase shes always been the one to take care of me more then i had to take care of her! but i love that girl more then anything and everymorning i wake up and shes on the bed i take 30 mintues to jsut love her up and my other kitty emaline to cause shes always on the bed with us actually ive always considerd my bed there bed that im only shareing.

anyways heres a picture of my wonderful angel ginger


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Awww, that almost made me tear up. 
What an absolute sweetheart of a cat, I agree, she is your angel. Some things are just meant to be.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

I wonder if cats just never lost that feeling of being King Of The Jungle like lions. This is why dogs and cats don't do well on the outside because cats will taunt them. My cats even taunt each other... it's just their way I guess.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

mischiefgrrl said:


> I wonder if cats just never lost that feeling of being King Of The Jungle like lions. This is why dogs and cats don't do well on the outside because cats will taunt them. My cats even taunt each other... it's just their way I guess.


I read an article not too long ago (can't find it now) that said cats are domesticated (kind of) but they are one step away from wild - more than any other domesticated animal. They will turn feral very quickly. They really aren't "tame" under the surface.


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

it makes sense if you think about it compare dogs to cats
dogs have been kept to work for people doing jobs like herding,protection,hunting if they didnt pay close attention to the owner they were killed or not fed if they did there job right they were fed dogs around livestock could never be trusted to go out and kill its own food becuase it would simply turn to killing the livestock so the herd dogs or farm dogs were fed. if a dog was used to hunt and it ate the animal it was hunting or tracking you can bet that hunter would have labeld the dog a poor hunting dog and probably killed it. so even dogs taught to hunt learned to not eat the animal it caught unless the owner gave it to them.

cats only job for humans has been to catch mice even nowdays many people will keep cats in the barn to kill mice they were not a danger to livestock so who cares if they were fed meat scraps nightly or not? they killed mice they were no danger to the farm animals if not kept fed.


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