Jun 17, 2009 0
Cats Outsmart Scientists By Pretending To Be Thick
This piece in the Guardian, reporting on a scientific “test” that proudly puffs out that cats are actually not that bright, is of course entirely wrong.
That a cat will not co-operate with an insultingly banal examination of its behaviour is not in the least bit surprising. Quite frankly I’d give them some misleading results and have a good old snigger about it if I was a cat. In fact I’d probably have a crap in their lunchboxes on the way out too, just for good measure.
Cats know perfectly well about all kinds of behaviour – that of live beings and that of inanimate objects – and they certainly understand cause and effect (mine have learned to open doors, find and conceal escape routes out of the garden, all kinds of smart and sophisticated stuff that requires cause and effect to be understood) and my money here would be on them outsmarting the scientists by refusing to do what’s expected of them and royally fucking with a stupid experiment that they rightly feel to be beneath them.
As one commenter wryly (& correctly) points out; “Dogs have owners, cats have staff”.
Anyway it’s as good an excuse as any to post up Eddie Izzard’s “Pavlov’s Cat” routine…
