Of my own three cats I’d say one falls under a and the other two under b. As the the mother of one of them (the A cat) frequently called the operator by walking on the phone, and earned us the wrath of the operator who thought my parents were letting a little kid play with the phone, I think they could all figure out how to answer it. I’m not sure they’d make good telemarketers themselves, though, since they have short attention spans, which would probably lead to their early dismissal.
I’m going with A and B.
I choose** A **because I’ve yet to see a smart cat. I mean a dog is a none-too-bright animal in its own right, but when I say something to a dog, the dog understands. The dog knows to sit, lay down, come here, go away, etc.
When I say something to a cat, I get blank stares.
And don’t give me propoganda about a cat being too smart to do my bidding, or that the cat is training me. I’ve seen no evidence that anything is at work here except that the cat just doesn’t understand what I’m saying. And I’m sticking to that until proven otherwise.
And B because all summer long I’ve been watching my sister’s cats for her while her new house is being built. These things have no impulse control. Moe, for example, will be laying down, being quiet and peaceful and suddenly go tearing around the house yowling as if his ass was on fire, for no apparent reason other than he thought it’d be fun at the time.
I’ve seen Lily wake up, notice her own tail twitch and try to pounce it. And now that I think of it, I think this demonstrates both points.
Crunchy - if you’re being serious about the cats vs. dogs intelligence thing, then you’re thinking about it all the wrong way. Both cats and dogs have the intelligence appropriate to their evolved lifestyles. Dogs need to work in packs, so need social intelligence. Cats live alone and so need problem-solving intelligence. You can’t compare them - both can be very smart in their own way but never on eachothers’ terms.
For example, my friend had a cat that figured out how to open the fridge. So my friend had to jam a chair up against the fridge.
Then the cat figured out that it could push a heavy object off the top of the fridge onto the chair, thus dislodging it and allowing it to open the fridge. I can’t imagine a dog figuring out this chain of events.
On the other hand this same cat would never respond to you in a dog’s way. It clearly knew its name and would even come when called, but there is no way you could ever teach it to sit, or stay. Cats and dogs just don’t function in the same way.
pan
whaddayoumean?
When my cat brings me a bird I always take it - dead or alive - and she never see’s it again. - no prob for her as she can get another one very easy (for her) and fast. One day she brought me 6 birds - IN ABOUT 2.5 HOURS. I just wonder how many she keeps to herself.
C and D
My Dad seems to think the kitty wants praise for being an efficient hunter (kind of like when kids say “Daddy, Mommy, look! Look at what I can do!”) so he pets the kitty and gives him lots of praise, then puts the kill out on the garage floor for the cat to eat.
I read some animal behaviorist’s article that alleged something similar, except that he said the cat was offering first turndowns of the kill to the respected person who has fed him cat food every morning, and only after the person says “Naaah, you go ahead, I’m too full from that bagel to eat a field mouse right now” does the cat proceed to dine.
Either way, the kitty probably doesn’t appreciate you disposing of its prey uneaten.
(OTOH, ours used to leave behind the head and entrails just in case we changed our mind or something, so you may decide that a disappointed unappreciative kitty is the lesser of relevant evils)
Sometimes she just drops it by my door and runs out to get another - I find it on my own later. Either way I don’t let her see me disposing it most of the time. When she does see me dispose of it she thinks I’m playing w/ it. I throw the bird into the canal - She thinks I throwing it for her to retrive but overthrow it into the water. She looks at me as to say:
‘You idiot! - I’m not going swimming just because you have no aim. Plus It’s just easier for me to just get another - and if you are going to play with our food do it in a way that we can eat it when your done’