A friend just sent me the following, asking me who's smarter—the cat or the dog?


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With tongue firmly implanted in cheek, I replied it's obviously the dog. He's the one who sits by and lets the cat do all the work, benefits by being first through the door, and then is the only one smart enough to return to check if he left any incriminating evidence!

But what's REALLY funny, IMO, is the compilation of clips further down the page... Proof that animals not only have a sense of humor (a phenomenon thought to be exclusively human/hominid)—or even perhaps a nasty streak?
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You decide.

Doc

Oh, those clips at the end of the article were hilarious! I especially liked the penguins and the kangaroo!
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We had a ginger and white cat when my son was young.
When we took her upNorth, and she wanted to come in, she would
jump up and hit the doorknocker, and it would make a loud boom
in the house at all hours (high A frame roof which magnified sounds).

The first time she did this really spooked us (being on an island and all) in the middle of the night. The door is heavy oak and a double door...like farms have--split in the middle. The knocker was really never used by humans, but she figured it out!
So eventually we put in a cat door, in the back screen.
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None of our other cats ever did this however, before or since.

Cats can be very clever! Maya is indoors only...but Weez goes out sometimes in the daytime. When Weez wants to come in...Maya lets us know. She has done this since the first week we had her as a little kitten (adopted from a rescue upNorth).

Cats really dislike closed doors...as most cat owners learn quickly. So I think they are highly motivated to open them.

A friend's cat jumps up on the outdoor window sill next to the door and knocks with a paw when she wants in.

It's not uncommon practice to teach dogs to ring a bell when they want to go out (in lieu of barking). We've always been a "bark" family, until recent years. Our current furface has a rather exuberant bark (actually, he's exuberant about just about everything except getting his nails clipped) that startles DW right out of her skin, so we've taught him to 'whisper' instead.
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There's an old saying that kids & dogs are the same because they're always on the wrong side of a door. I've seen a few websites (by mothers I presume), e.g.

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...that enumerate many other ways this it true, and it's being borne out by science as well.


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Doc