No, not a topic about whether animals are intelligent or not, but just some (cute?) observations.
My mum is overseas at the moment, and I am looking after her cat. Cats like to sharpen their claws, and one of recommended methods of trying to stop them from sharpening their claws on inapropriate objects (like my nice couch
) is to use a
water pistol to squirt some water at them. Apparently you are
supposed to do it in such a way that the cat does not associate the water / water pistol with the human, but rather with the act of scratching the couch. Well - mum's cat worked out long ago that it was the person squirting the water, and has turned it into a game.
Her typical action is to scratch
once only and then run to where she is just out of reach of the water pistol - if she seriously wants to scratch, she goes to her scratching post, or to one of several cardboard boxes and scratches for about half a minute - but this is just to get attention, so she only scratches the once.
Yesterday morning, I ran out of water in my water pistol, so when I went to squirt her, nothing happened. Normally she would wait at least an hour before playing the game again, but this time she was back in five minutes, scratched once, then came and sat next to the water pistol. She
knew there was nothing I could do, and she was making the most of it.
To keep the room warm, I keep the main door shut over. I don't pay attention to how much it is closed - if she is inside, she will hook her paw behind the door and pull it open - if she is outside she will lean her front two paws up against it until it moves open. Yesterday evening I happened to follow her in. She pushed the door wide open, and I closed it over as I came in. She immediately scratched the couch and raced for the door, only to find that it was closed over. The moment she spotted the door she stopped and looked at me - I could swear she was saying that this is not fair and she is not playing any more.
Andrew