Who Is Smarter - Cats or Dogs?

[elizabethann]

I thought I would post this funny story of my dog Fenway in Cat General because you "cat people" may get a kick out of it. Now, I have cats too. I'm a dog & cat person. So I don't want to offend any "dog people".

Anyhow, my dog Fenway spotted a chipmunk that ran into our stonewall in the yard. He spent 30 minutes running & jumping around the stonewall looking for that chipmunk - trying to sniff it out - digging holes - just trying to get the chipmunk out of the stonewall.

In the meantime, my neighbors cat was sitting 10 feet away watching Fenway and probably thinking, "what a crazy son of gun". Just then, the cat walked over to the stonewall, made one quick move and then started walking home with the chipmunk in his mouth!

And Fenway's sitting there looking at the cat and thinking "what the heck?"

This kitty had all the patience in the world while Fenway was just jumping and running around, trying to find the chipmunk. And all this kitty did was wait for the right moment - and....gotcha!

It just goes to show how much patience a cat has.

On the good side, the kitty let the chipmunk go and the chipmunk ran in a hole. So I think it's okay....scared to death...but okay.

Just thought I'd share.

[beeniesmom]

That's cute!
Fenway was trying really hard to get that silly chipmonk.
I bet he was mocking him too. Wiggling his tail on purpose.
Glad Mr. SmartyCat let him go in the end.

[Randy_K]

I believe individual dogs or cats can be very intelligent or dumb as a stump so you can't really generalize. Your example was perhaps not as much intelligence as the application of patience and observation but I suspect that cats are generally better at abstract reasoning than dogs.

After living with an Abyssinian cat I have seen a very intelligent animal learn that very abstract events are related. When he figured out the relationship and reacted to it the next time it occurred I could only ask, "How'd you know that?" If he understood language it would have been easy but he did it by observation and connecting the events.

[catmandu]

The Found Cats are very clever in learning what they truly want to know, like the word Treats, and where thier Steak is just about ready to serve.
And not to lie on the staies when the Oaf is coming.
Dogs show off how smart they are, Cats dont.