Cat Brain

Today

After much agonising we decided that the kitties had to go. We love them dearly, despite their naughtiness, but Abby just couldn't get used to them.

Lizzie, bless her, has added them to her cat menagerie and it's turning out OK. Agnes has surprised us all with her insouciant way of exploring her new environment, the way in which she intimidated Klaus in his own front room and the fact that she has worked out how to unlock the catflap!

There have been many discussions about the intelligence of cats; unmeasurable, it seems. My experience suggests an enormous variability in the style of their intelligence. Some know just how to please their owners; others how to maximise their standing in the neighbourhood. Some can see themselves in mirrors; others can recognise images on TV or sounds on the radio. All my cats have learnt their names (or approximations - Albinoni looks up if you call him "Al Capone") but Liz doesn't think that Klaus or Stevesie really know their names. I think it's down to a sort of feline cost-benefit analysis.

In My Day

In terms of intelligence that humans can appreciate, I guess that Agamemnon was the tops. He was the only cat I ever had who had worked out the relationship between the door handle and the door opening. He once got the fridge door open and ate his entire next three days' food in one go. He used to hurl himself against the hatch door at Rowan Avenue until the flimsy magnet catch gave way and we were forced to put a bolt on it.

Once at Mead Close he learnt to hang onto the door handle trying with all his strength to open the door. He succeeded once or twice too; if he had been a little weightier he'd have opened it regularly, thus obliging us to fit more bolts. The door handle was covered in scratches where he'd hung unto it trying to depress it.

It seems that, if your animals are clever, we forgive them any naughtiness that transpires.

There's an old story about a cat, pig and dog who'd been trained to expect food after a particular door set into a large wall was opened. The wall was removed and it took the pig and the dog very little time to work out that they could now get to the food whenever they wanted. The cat, however, continued to sit beside the door in the middle of nowhere until it was opened.

Just a stupid cat, I guess, and clearly no equal to my Agamemnon or Agnes.