Don’t Underestimate the Intelligence of Your Cat

It is quite easy for a cat owner to treat their domestic cat as a “dumb animal” and “only a cat”. By contrast cat guardians treat their cats as sentient beings with brains and feelings together with wonderfully impressive senses.

Cats can display pure logical intelligence and learning-by-observation-skills. I think this cat learned how to get out by observing people using the bolt when they wanted to release other cats in the facility for whatever reason. The video reminds us that cats want to get out of cages if we need reminding of that obvious fact.

This smart cat is a mascot cat (I guess that is a resident cat) at a veterinary clinic in Marseille, France. S(he) was put in the cage to show how he gets out.

The behaviour of this cat may surprise a lot of people but it won’t surprise people who know and understand domestic cats. The dog is said to be more intelligent but this does not take into account different types of intelligence.

We are told that certain cat breeds are more intelligent than others. I don’t really believe it. It is more about individual cats some of which are more intelligent than others and some are more confident allowing them to display intelligence.

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7 thoughts on “Don’t Underestimate the Intelligence of Your Cat”

  1. Cats are intelligent we used to have a cat, Tasha who would ferret in the kitchen bin for scraps for our GSD, Monty. She would bring him things like paper that meat had been in, a used tea bag, she even rolled a nut kernel to him once bless her, he would look at her as if to say you know this stuff is useless can’t you get me something tasty? Yet when she had dropped something between his paws she would look so proud of herself then she would sit and watch him licking whatever she had bought. It was as if she was a mom feeding her baby, she really loved him but sadly she got knocked down and killed by a car I think she was only about 5, she was an absolute darling.

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  2. I’ve had similar experiences with one of my other cat Tammy. She was very clever. She could open front doors by jumping up on the door handle esp if it was half open. When I had a smaller Fridge/Freezer she could open that with a Paw. I often had to put a brick in front of it so she couldn’t open it. Along with other things, like knocking objects off window Stills, then watching it fall to the ground. I think all Cats have alot of Cleverness in them. They often wait till no one is paying attention then go and do something we dont expect.

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  3. I’ve had some really bright and clever cats over the years that were able to outsmart me sometimes. And, I’ve had a few that preferred to let their intellect lay dormant but were darling nonetheless.

    I’ve noticed a correlation between intellect and attention span. Most of my smartest cats stayed focused on their activities and surroundings much longer than others. They weren’t easily distracted by a housefly as some were.

    I’m sure there’s no scientific data about that. It’s just my own observation.

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  4. Cats are very intelligent, so much more than we humans are, there is much we don’t know about cats and never will!

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  5. This is so wonderful to see. How clever. I wish when I was young I’d had the ability to film all the animals we kept. All their endearing characteristics.
    I used to have a tabby called Scotty who had a white underside and he was secretly caught one day leaping up onto our back door, which was a stable type door, and by swinging he released the top part of the door and let himself out! I was totally amused and proud of such a clever boy. He must’ve learnt this from our Alsatian dog who would also use her front paws to open any door or her mouth even, to twist the door handles.
    Animals are truly amazing and very intelligent. It’s just we don’t yet understand their intelligence in a way that seems logical to us. Plus they can’t talk so communication is a special understanding between the animal and the human being by being on their ‘wave-length’. They have evolved over thousands of years and their instincts are so finely tuned from birth. Unlike us, who have to pursue and grow into our own intelligence from babies, not much is instinct with us, we learn from example or error or practice. Animals just have an innate complex behavioural system that superceeds us humans. And many learn to copy our behaviours. Which is in turn their empathy towards us. Some humans don’t realise this.
    To be cruel to animals or to taunt or injure them is ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy on the humans part, sadly.

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