How clever are cats?

Kind of relation to Ians thread, with cats knowing their names... and inspired by http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=514085 ... sorry, it's in Norwegian... it's the story of the feline hero Odin, who saved a cow and her unborn calf from death.

Odin came home one afternoon and was behaving very oddy. He started madly banging his head against the door. The farmer opened the door, and when Odin set off towards the barn, she quickly follwed him, knowing it was something he wanted to show her. There he went up to one of the cows... which was laying on her back. This can cause gases to biuld up, as the cow then isn't able to "dispose" of them, resulting in death. If Odin hadn't fetched the farmer, the result would more then likely have been death for both the cow and her unborn calf...

A researcher at the vet institute made the following comment: Cats can guide someones attention to things. They will use their sight and running, making sure they are being followed to lead people to the area they want to show off. If this cat had any interest in the cows wellbeing is another matter, that I cannot comment on.




So... did Odin do it to save the cow? Or did he just want to show his "slave" that something was going on in the barn?

Personally I think that Odin picked up on the cow being in distress, and wanted to show his owner that that was happening, so she could fix it. The compassion I've seen even amongst my goldfish, has given me such a different view of how animals and fish think... if fish can show compassion and help eachother, then why cannot a cat want to help a cow?

I do ofcourse, like human, cats have different degrees of intelligence. I think Pok is a full blown genious! lol! Wheras BG, isn't the samrtest cookie I've ever met... that said, she a clever little girl, and will scream like a maniac for me to come if she's caught a spider! Do I think Pok would have shown me a cow who's in disteress...? No, as he wouldn't care. BG on the other hand would have, as she's loving and caring.

Very interesting thought, i too agree that cats are intelligent (emotionally intelligent too) but as you say this varies from cat to cat. All of mine are clever in different ways (or equally as stupid )

LOL! Mads does the 'follow me' thing, where she'll meow, or more likely howl, til she gets attention and will then run off, stop, look back to make sure her slaves are following, if not, she'll howl again, and will do this til, we are where she wants us! She's done this a few times, once, was when just before I moved in with my partner, and I'd came home from work, to find my babys car still on the drive, and opened the front door. Mads came running downstairs, them did 'follow me' so I followed and my partner was curled up on the bathroom floor unable to move with a severe migrane. The other time have just been to let us know she wanted to be stroked on her radiator bed! LOL

Bramble? No, not at all, she's our little in-bred that runs into windows and mirrors! LOL, but we love her all the same. x