I bet that was an interesting thing to watch!

Dr. Amen MD (who does the PET scans on the brain etc) has
lectures on PBS during pledge times. On one lecture he stated that cats do not have much of a prefrontal cortex and therefore cannot "plan" like dogs can. Dogs have about an 8-10% prefrontal area by comparison.

But cats do learn, from my experience. And my current cats really know language. Maya will raise a paw now to ask "please"...for food or to be let in from the porch. I taught this quickly with raising my hand in a begging gesture (fingers curled inward) and saying footie dootie up!...she learned this in one day. But she did not think it up herself (that would be a cortex executive function). Sometimes she will raise both paws, but not often.

They will follow a command from us, too accompanied by language. For example, to jump up on a little table I say and point with my finger... jump up on the chair...point point, and then the table. And bingo that only takes one time and they do it. Weezie is older and more experienced with language but they both figure things out this way with a bit of help. (it helps that this little table is where I often give them a "treat". )

I think cats are very intelligent, but theirs is somewhat different than dogs.

This is one of my favorite cat videos... from Australia.
The owner is a dog trainer and also trains cats (obviously). this video never fails to make me laugh.
Check out his channel on YouTube..all of his videos are worth watching!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRbakPKgU5Y

Early training of Didga as a kitten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh-Biuq33ic