1.<\/p>\n
Our cat Nikita insisted that I brush her teeth with an electric toothbrush. No matter where in the house she was, if she heard me brushing my teeth, she would run and jump on the bathroom counter and try to dig her brush out of the drawer (I refused to share mine.) It became a daily ritual she refused to let go of, as if she understood hygiene better than I expected. I would have to remove my head, put hers on, wet it (no paste), turn it on and brush. Vet was always impressed with her teeth, often asking what our \u201csecret\u201d was, while Nikita sat there looking completely satisfied with herself.<\/p>\n
2.<\/p>\n
Dog comes into the room before bedtime. Looks at me. Me: \u201cHi, pupster. Do you want to get your toy before you go to sleep? It\u2019s in the living room.\u201d Pup: trots all the way to the living room, gets his toy, comes back and plops down on his bed.
\nWhat still surprises me is how precise the timing is\u2014like he waits for full instructions before moving, processing every word. I knew he could understand a lot of what I say, I\u2019d talk to him like a person \u2014 but my roommate had her jaw on the floor. She was like, \u201cHe understands English?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cI guess so.\u201d And ever since then, we started noticing he \u201cwaits\u201d for sentences to finish before reacting.<\/p>\n
3.<\/p>\n
I was a toddler when this happened, but my mother has told me the story many times. A stray dog (German Shepard) showed up one day, and it was hot, so my mother gave him water, later a little food. He was polite and not aggressive so she kept giving him pity food\/water, so he, of course, kept sticking around and after a week he was a regular fixture on our porch just sitting or sleeping there.
\nMy dad didn\u2019t want to adopt him. About a week or 2 into this dog hanging around, a delivery arrived, and my mother was bringing it inside, holding my younger brother (he was a couple months old). While she was busy and had her hands full, I somehow managed to slip out the front door unnoticed.
\nBy the time my mother realized I was not in the house, I had toddled most of the way down to the busy street in front of our house. My mother ran around the house calling for me and looking for me. When she got to the front door, she saw me at this point at the curb right at the busy street and screamed.
\nBefore my mom could react, the stray dog jumped up and ran down to where I was. He gently put his mouth over my arm and pulled me back from the curb and kept me there until my mother got to me. It felt like he understood danger before any human voice could reach him. Needless to say, we adopted the dog that day.<\/p>\n
4.<\/p>\n
I was walking my dog, it was getting dark. And he got stuck under a bush and stood there. What was he looking for there? I pulled him and called him.
\nHe refused to move, staring deep into the bushes as if something important was hidden there. I even thought he was being stubborn or distracted by a scent. In the end, I had to pick him up and carry him away. I scolded him on the way, saying how stubborn he was. When we got to the entrance, it suddenly dawned on me. I ran back to that bush, because that\u2019s where my lost keys were.
\nI was embarrassed in front of Woody. And I finally realized why he wanted to find them so much. Because when he and I plan to go for a walk, I always say, \u201cOkay, the leash is here. Where are the keys? Woody, we won\u2019t go anywhere until we find the keys!\u201d It was as if he had been repeating my own words back to me through his actions.<\/p>\n
5.<\/p>\n
My Samoyed knows he can use his nose to turn off my Xbox and get my attention. He always gets a drink of water before going on a walk. Over time, I started realizing these weren\u2019t random habits but carefully learned patterns of cause and effect. He also knows he can sneak more food off of a platter left too close to the edge of the table, if he slowly takes nibbles when nobody is watching, instead of knocking down the whole tray. Sometimes I catch him freezing mid-action, checking if I noticed\u2014then continuing only when I pretend not to see.<\/p>\n
6.<\/p>\n
My daughter was always angry at our dog Torro for knocking her down when he greeted her after school. But one day I witnessed a scene worthy of an Oscar!
\nI was sick and didn\u2019t go to work. And then it\u2019s time for my daughter to come home from school. Torro runs to the door. Suddenly he hears the sound of a key turning in the lock!
\nTorro jumps up and runs to the bed. He lies down and shuts his eyes as if he were asleep. My daughter comes in and calls out to him, \u201cTorro, my boy, where are you?\u201d The dog doesn\u2019t react.
\nEva goes over to him and bends down. And at that moment, Torro opens his eyes and stretches sweetly, as if he had been asleep all day, and he has no concern about her coming at all! If I hadn\u2019t seen him worrying and running to the door, I would have believed that he really slept all day and Eva woke him up. It was almost like he had rehearsed being \u201cinnocent\u201d perfectly.<\/p>\n
7.<\/p>\n
My dog plays hide and seek with my daughter. I\u2019ll hold his face and talk to him so he doesn\u2019t look while she\u2019s hiding, then I ask him where she is, and he goes running around the house looking for her. He loves this game and will jump at the chance to run around the house and look for her, but he only plays like 5 or so rounds before he gets tired of it for a bit.
\nWhat\u2019s strange is how quickly he adapts\u2014he starts checking the same hiding spots she used before, as if he\u2019s building a memory map of her tricks.<\/p>\n
8.<\/p>\n
The dog started limping. Took him to the vet \u2014 sprained ligament. They prescribed therapy, said that if he shook his leg on a walk, he should be carried home. But nothing helped.
\nWhen we go for a walk, he\u2019s fine, and when we come back, he\u2019s in our arms. We started to get really worried. Then our neighbor suddenly got 2 puppies. And then a miracle happened!
\nOur Chuck, forgetting about his \u201csick\u201d leg, immediately rushed to play with the kids. He galloped so fast, even stood on his hind legs! And just imagine, he jumped happily home!
\nBut if he doesn\u2019t meet the puppies, he does it all over again: leg up, trembling and looking at us with universal anguish. \u201cCarry me. Can\u2019t you see, I\u2019m in agony?!\u201d There he is, my faker! We figured out his cunning just recently, and now we can never trust his \u201cinjuries\u201d again.<\/p>\n
9.<\/p>\n
One of my pet rats was kinda smart. When they would walk around on my bed, they were able to step onto the windowsill. I used to have blinds in front of my window, and the little cord hung over it down to the ground. At the end of the cord there was this little weight.
\nSo my pet rat tried to lift the cord upward, but, of course, it kept falling back down because of the little weight. He thought for a minute, and then lifted the cord again, put his front paw on the cord, gripped another part of the cord with his teeth, lifted it upward a little further, put his paw on top of it, etc. He managed to get the rest of the cord and little weight on the windowsill.
\nHe did that every day after that. I thought that was pretty smart. Also, I used to have 2 rats that could spin around their axis on command. They knew they would get a snack if they did that. So whenever I opened a bag of potato chips (for myself!), they started spinning around like 10 times hoping they would get some. I never give my rats chips, for the record, but they never stopped trying anyway.<\/p>\n
10.<\/p>\n
We lived in a flat on the second floor. Every evening, our cat would jump on the windowsill at a certain time and stare intensely into the distance. It was like she was waiting for something invisible. And always, 3\u20135 minutes later, our car, driven by my husband, would drive into the courtyard. The cat would stare at the car until it reached the car park.
\nAnd the second my husband entered the house, she would jump off the windowsill and run into the corridor. The door would open, my husband would enter the flat, they would \u201csay hello,\u201d and the cat would go to lie down on the sofa with a sense of accomplishment.
\nAnd this repeated day after day! The time of my husband\u2019s arrival could vary, he could come an hour earlier or later. But the cat was always at the window exactly 5 minutes before he arrived! It felt like she wasn\u2019t watching time\u2014but sensing it.<\/p>\n
11.<\/p>\n
My Corgi helps hold open inside doors for my 3-legged dog (named Wobbles) we adopted when he realized Wobbles couldn\u2019t follow him due to the doors shutting behind him.
\nAt first it looked accidental, but soon we noticed he was actually positioning himself deliberately, waiting until Wobbles caught up before letting the door swing back.<\/p>\n
12.<\/p>\n
We had a cat for 16 years, a very intelligent creature who understood everything. When he was young, his favorite place was the top of the wardrobe. But as he got older, he couldn\u2019t jump on it anymore.
\nOnce a neighbor called, we talked about our pets, and I said to her, \u201cOur cat is quite old now, he can no longer jump on the wardrobe.\u201d And the cat wasn\u2019t in the room with me. I enter the room where the wardrobe is, and what do I see?
\nThe cat sits on the wardrobe and looks at me intently, as if saying, \u201cI am old?! I\u2019m young!\u201d It was like he refused the truth itself and proved it in one jump.<\/p>\n
13.<\/p>\n
It was the early \u201990s. One day I got stuck in the elevator between the fifth and sixth floors. As usual, the emergency call button didn\u2019t work. \u201cWell,\u201d I thought, \u201cI\u2019m gonna be stuck here for a long time.\u201d Imagine my surprise when my dad came to the rescue.
\nIt turns out that our sheepdog started whining, barking and asking outside. My parents decided she needed to go to the toilet. My dad got dressed and went out with her, but for some reason the dog started barking at the elevator shaft, where I got stuck. By the way, my parents lived on the twelfth floor!
\nNow we have a Swiss mountain dog. It\u2019s an amazing dog! She makes her own \u201cbed\u201d in the doghouse, and if someone changes something there, she immediately removes everything from the doghouse and starts all over again, according to her \u201ctaste\u201d! It\u2019s as if order itself matters more than comfort.<\/p>\n
14.<\/p>\n
I had a very clever Jack Russell Terrier dog. She could escape from her cage without opening the door when still a tiny puppy. She had me stumped on this one for a while.
\nWe were visiting my sister-in-law and had gone out to dinner. When we left, the dog was in her crate, the door latched. When we came home, the dog was out of her crate and the door was still closed and latched. Did she shut the door behind her after she got out? Nope.
\nWhat she would do was to climb up in the corner of the crate, and use her head to force the lid of the crate up enough for her to squeeze through. No muss, no fuss, but it baffled the hell out of me until I saw her do it. She also warned us of 2 kitchen fires before they could spread and do any damage, barking at the exact moment something started to go wrong.<\/p>\n
15.<\/p>\n
My cat has this thing about drinking water from a bowl. She would always tip it over, lick it off the floor. We got tired of stepping on a wet floor in socks on daily, so we wedged the water bowl between 2 heavier objects so that she couldn\u2019t tip it over.
\nShe realized she could get a running start to jump onto a rolling office chair to create enough force to move the bowl enough to spill it onto the floor. I feel like she has a pretty good grasp on simple physics and using tools to get her way. It honestly felt like she was testing limits more than accidently spilling anything.
\nThis was a couple of years ago, and I did end up getting her a little fountain to drink from! She and her little sister have their own fountain, and we haven\u2019t had any issues since.<\/p>\n
16.<\/p>\n
My hamster used to fix his wheel all by himself. As soon as it stopped spinning, he would immediately look for the breakage.
\nUsually it was bits of bedding getting stuck between the spokes. The first thing he\u2019d do was check the axle, although it was always in good working order. Then he would inspect the entire wheel diameter, find the blockage and fix it. It was almost like he refused to accept that something in his world could stay \u201cbroken\u201d for long.<\/p>\n
17.<\/p>\n
My grandmother has an incredibly curious and intelligent cat. Every night before she goes to bed, my grandmother makes a round of the flat \u2014 checking the gas, locks, lights, and water. And the cat goes with her. The cat looks at the lock, then in the sink, then on the stove, like she\u2019s really checking.
\nAnd if Grandma is watching TV and doesn\u2019t go to check on time, the cat sits on the threshold of the room and starts meowing. One time, Grandma told her, \u201cWell, go check it yourself.\u201d And the cat jumped up and ran. Grandma followed her out of interest, and the cat made a full round, checking the door, the gas and the water. It felt less like imitation and more like she had learned the ritual by heart.<\/p>\n
18.<\/p>\n
My cat noticed that I would tap my husband on the shoulder if I wanted to get his attention (he uses headphones often). He started mimicking this, and now reaches up and taps us on the arm like a toddler would to get our attention. It\u2019s pretty adorable (and effective!). Over time, it became his preferred \u201clanguage\u201d for being heard.<\/p>\n
19.<\/p>\n
My 2 dogs and I were on a hike and one of my dogs ran ahead while the other stayed back and barked at me, almost as if she was trying to keep me in place. I soon realized there was a bear ahead, the bigger dog was charging at him until the bear ran up a tree while the smaller dog stayed with me and remained between the bear and I. It\u2019s like they had a full safety system in place, and it blew my mind. The coordination felt almost planned, like they had roles without ever being taught them.<\/p>\n
20.<\/p>\n
When I got my cat, I was in a very toxic and confusing relationship, but wasn\u2019t aware of it at the time. My unstable relationship led me to some very dark and unstable moments. I remember one day I had a panic attack and was too fragile to literally do anything that day. I curled up on my couch like a little girl crying my heart out.
\nToo sad to move, I laid there for hours. The entire time, my cat laid on my upper back and didn\u2019t get up until I finally did. He has been my mini shadow ever since. He lays wherever I sit\/rest and whenever I get up or walk to another room. It\u2019s as if he decided, without hesitation, that staying close was his only job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Our cat Nikita insisted that I brush her teeth with an electric toothbrush. No matter where in the house she was, if she heard me brushing my teeth, she would run and jump on the bathroom counter and try to dig her brush out of the drawer (I refused to share mine.) It became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales"],"yoast_head":"\n