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[Terry von Feledae]

Teaching cats tricks? My cat teaches me tricks.

[Calessa Lynn Orphiel]

Well, cats do this IRL for social/dominance reasons: the alpha gets first dibs on any food, just like with dogs.

Um, no.  Cats are not pack animals.  They are social, but do not have a pack mentality and are EXTREMELY independent.  If a cat brings you a 'gift' it is usually because the cat has already sated itself and wishes to share.

The cat's independent nature is what makes it difficult to train.  The problem is that many people think trainability has something to do with overall intelligence.  It doesn't.

As for intelligence of respective species, cats and dogs trump eachother in various categories, but the scale is generally well-balanced.

[eerr]

dogs can't put two and two together
(many dogs!)

cats only do what they "feel" like
(almost 100% of cats)


teaching dumb dogs to be smart and disobedient cats to obey is possible though,
its an uphill battle.

[Jreengus]

My cats go beyond just opening doors themselves if they are outside the house and the front door is shut they knock on by headbutting it until you open it.

[Tormy]

My cats go beyond just opening doors themselves if they are outside the house and the front door is shut they knock on by headbutting it until you open it.

Since I am a visual type person, I lol'ed while reading this ^. 

[scribbler]

Both cats and dogs are considered to have the intelligence of a 4 year old human. Most people can't see it because cats and dogs lack thumbs, high resolution vision (necessary to read) and the capacity for a large vocabulary (necessary to abstract thought).

Dogs are generally considered (by dog lovers mostly) to be smarter than cats because dogs are thought to be more trainable. This is another fallacy based on the assumption that training requires punishment. Cats don't respond to negative reinforcement. Cats, and for that matter most animals, are quite easy to deal with if you take the time to learn about them and give them some basic respect.

As for cats disposing of their kills properly, they do. Just like all hunter groups they bring home the useful stuff (everything) and if you're not cat enough to eat a mouse then there's just no hope for you.

[Fuzzy]

No thumbs, eh? Admittedly, they're not opposable, but my brother's cat does indeed have thumbs. She uses them for grabbing strings and cleaning her ears. It's basically the result of polydactyly, a fairly common trait in cats, but it's a bit odd the first time you see her use it to grab something...

Personally, I think that cats bringing dead animals to their owners has less to do with submission, or a gesture of friendship and more to do with either "Hey, watch how my owner freaks out when I set a dead mouse on her" or "Hey, I'm done with this. Throw it out for me, will you?" But, then again, I'm a cynic in that I believe that cats are just as petty and cruel as human beings.

[Badfuzzy]

Great name Fuzzy 

[Tormy]

Btw wow  , check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

I never thought that lions can have a behaviour + memory like this.

[Terry von Feledae]

There have been theories that when a cat brings a dead animal to its owners feet, it is trying to teach them to hunt. This is actually pretty likely because cats start teaching their children to hunt by putting dead animals in front of them and allowing them to play with those before using live animals.

[Dwaref]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjuNZCz1K3A&feature=related

[Hyndis]

That explains my (RL) cats perfectly... They just think I'm starving.

Are you serious that your cats bring the stuff what they catch to you? I thought that this is not possible, considering that the cat is a very dumb animal.  I always learn something new! 

What, are you serious? Cats are pretty smart. It's very common for them to catch birds and mice and things and leave them on your doorstep/in your shoe/on your face as you're sleeping. It's considered a "gift".

When the cat sees you leave for the day and come back with food for them, they think you were out hunting and then brought back some extra food for them to eat. No, they don't understand food processing and stores and the Friskies company, all they know is that you leave for most of the day and when you come back, you fill up their food bowls.

So when they go out hunting and catch something, they're returning the favor by bringing it to you.

[Hyndis]

It is because a lot of people believe that because for the most part you cannot train, or cannot easily train, a cat to do tricks that it is automatically stupid.

I've met people who thought my dog was stupid because I couldn't train him the paw trick.

Cats can only be trained if they want to trained. If they're not interested, they can't be arsed to do it. Unlike dogs who are far more obedient. Remember that while cats are social animals, they are not pack animals.

I have a cat who has figured out how to operate doors on his own as well as how to get into his food in pantry, even when the bag is sealed and tightly secured behind a cabinet door. Opening the door involves turning the knob and then walking backwards with it because the door opens out, and he does this on a regular basis, learned simply by watching me and other people use the doors.

[Hyndis]

My cats go beyond just opening doors themselves if they are outside the house and the front door is shut they knock on by headbutting it until you open it.

My cats let me know if they want in by meowing or pawing at the window. The door is on the other side of the building however, so they seem me leave the room to head to the door, but they know what I'm doing in the house, as they walk to the door at just the right time to reach it at the same time I reach the door. They can also track my movement in the house by looking at the lights on in various windows at night.