Okay so I have read repeatedly that cats are very intellegent and learn from observation and experience….and that cats will sometimes observe and imitate what they have seen us do to achieve a certain goal. It has been said that the cat’s lack of opposable thumbs is what thwarts them from being able to imitate everything they observe us doing, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know HOW something works. Now the observation part I know is definitely true, because every cat I have had has always been interested in watching my morning beauty regiment.
For instance, for the longest time Percy would sit on the toilet lid and watch me put on make-up and comb my hair and brush my teeth in the morning. He would watch so carefully, and I would wonder why he was so interested in what I was doing. However, I have never observed any of my cats really imitating anything that I do (except maybe opening cabinets and doors).
Well, now I have become a believer in the cat’s observation and imitation skills. I took an old pet water fountain down from the attic, because I thought my cats Ralphie and Percy might just drink more water if I hooked it up, because cats prefer to drink running water. I’m really paraniod about them getting a urinary blockage, because male cats are prone to that, and I know that drinking more water prevents this from happening. So anyhow, long story short, I cleaned it up and reesembled it.
Now the whole time I was putting it together Percy was super interested. He watched the entire time I put it together. After it was esembled he and Ralphie were both mesmerized by the running water, and trying to figure out what exactly this contraption was for. They soon figured it out after some careful investigation work. Percy also learned that he could wash his paws in the fountain as well, thus I started to find lots of cat litter floating in the fountain (and I know it was Percy because he is ALWAYS the culprit, by now I don’t have to catch him in the act to know what he is responsible for).
Anyways, after the first time of assembling the fountain, Percy had watched enough to know how to remove the top. So over and over again when I would happen upon the drinking fountain the top would be missing. Then after a couple more times of Percy watching me refill the fountain, he learned how to remove the filter. So now, I started to find the top off and the filter lying nearby in a wet heap on the floor. Everytime I saw the dismantled fountain I would promptly put it back together and warn Percy to leave it alone. He would look at me and walk right back up to it, and take it apart right in front of my face.
Finally, Percy won the battle when I came upstairs one day to find that he had removed not only the top, and the filter, but also the big water resevior. I put it back together again and again only to find it repeatedly stripped of all its parts. So finally Percy taught me to stop putting the fountain back together, because he obviously likes it better this way. So lack of opposable thumbs and all, I was defeated by a cat.
Something really humerous when I think about it is that at the Henry County Humane Society they have the same exact drinking fountain that I have for my cats. However, they only have 1 for about 20 cats. Yet time and time again when I arrive there, the drinking fountain is all in one piece. Which makes me wonder, is Percy super smart or WHAT? 20 cats have no desire or knowledge to be able to dismantle this complex appliance, and yet 1 cat out of spite for me repeatedly does this? Very interesting indeed.
I’d be interested to know if anybody else’s cats do things like this? If so, leave a comment about it, I want to hear!
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