Fun Topic - Are acros smarter than other cats?

There have been several comments recently about how smart our acros are. Are they smarter than normal cats? Do you have a good story?

Boo is a very, very smart cat. Her specialty is opening doors. She started with the cat door - it's one of those that has different settings (open, closed, out->in, in->out). She had a very bad temper as a youngster and would get very angry if I didn't let her go out. She would throw temper tantrums at the door, until she figured out that if the grabbed it just right with a claw, she could pull it inwards and get out. I had to make a plywood door to fit over the opening just to protect it!

Well, that knowledge transferred to cabinet doors. Now, anytime we go to the vets, she jumps down on the floor and opens a cabinet door, and hides inside. :mrgreen:

This last trip to the vet, she was in a holding cage all day. Vetty said Boo was so, so interested in the latch, and spent most of the day trying to get to it and open it.

So, who knows...maybe that dang tumor stimulates some other brain cells to grow as well?

 

Lanky is a very smart kitty too as evidenced by the following:

1 - He decided to loose his abusive household & then took a couple of months to incrementally move into our household by first getting me to take him to the vet to remove the wire holding his jaw together after he was kicked (nobody bothered to remove it after he had healed months earlier). Then hanging out under the laundry room window where I would have a perfect, unavoidable view of him every time I entered to clean LB, give fluids, change laundry, iron, mop (you get the picture), so I fed those big, beautiful, expressive eyes. Then he started working on Dad by following him around the yard constantly chattering about something, and when the weather turned cold be behaved gentlemanly, appreciating his box and heating pad but never being pushy, begging, or confronting the "regulars". One fine day when Mom was particularly depressed and feeling sad, Dad brought Lanky in door to lay on the couch with Mom to comfort her which he did effectively. His good indoor behavior & deference to the other kitties, sealed his fate as a full standing member of the household. When Mom went over to the neighbors to tell them that she was caring for & feeding him, they said fine & they really did not care because he was the outdoor cat.

2 - Soon after Mom learned that dry kibble is verboten and was in the process of weaning most of the kitties off the stuff, Lanky managed to knock Tupper Ware off the kitchen counter, unseal the lid, & pig out, sharing the kibble with the rest of the herd. He quickly became the resident hero.

3 - Lanky loves his 1/4 tab PepcidAC tucked in a Pill Pocket so much so that he unearthed one prior to pill time by carefully removing the heavy ceramic cover on the pill saucer, setting it aside on the kitchen table among plants, medicine, all his BG stuff with nothing getting broken, spilled, or falling off the table. The only clue I had was a faint clank of a ceramic sound.

4 - Lanky is the best & most successful hunter of the bunch: bugs, lizards, gophers, mice...etc. He is definitely a survivor & just plain happy all the time!

But then I know I am prejudice when it comes to Lanky Boy!

 

smarter!

1. several years ago a arrived home to my apartment building to see smoke billowing out- the fire truck had arrived just as i did. very dumb of me, i know, but i snuck up the back staircase of the building to rescue pony. my apartment was filling with smoke and i searched everywhere but couldn't find her. as the smoke thickened i realized i had to leave her, but then i heard a meow. pony has never been a hider, but on this day she had found a smokeless nook by squeezing behind the oven and going inside the back of it. later, i realized that this was genius place to hide, and that even if flames had come through, she may have survived because she was essentially in a metal box. a brilliant hiding spot! i had to wrestle with the oven, but was able to grab her out and escape.

2. pony HATES to travel. once, a friend i rarely see picked us up and we immediately left on a car trip, which of course, was awful for pony. pony loves all people, and is the kind of cat that will just sleep on her back in front of a doorway so that visitors must step over her. well, several years after that trip, that same friend who i hadn't seen since came to visit me. as soon as they came to the door pony ran and hid. and people say animals don't remember people after a time! ha! pony remembered the driver of her treacherous car trip after just a glimpse!

3. in recent years i have taken pony to maine over the winter so that i could care for my grandma there. my grandma is not the type to think that animals should be kissed and snuggled and allowed in the house. however, she allowed pony into her home and "tolerated" her because that was the only way she could get my help. last winter, before we left for maine, pony had developed the habit of pooping just outside of her litter box. i was terrified of how my grandma would react when this occurred at her house. however, pony is a GENIUS and promptly decided to start pooping back IN the box as soon as we got to grandma's.