iPalimpsest

Via boingboing, Researchers Jonathan Flombaum and Dr. Laurie Santos, both from Yale University, have found that rhesus monkeys consider whether a competitor can or cannot see them when trying to steal food. (From Current Biology)

We have this folding chair made of transparent plastic, and one day left a cat toy on the seat of the chair, and soon discovered one of our cats not understanding why she couldn't poke her paw through the plastic seat to retrieve the toy. She was very persistant, and finally we gave up watching. A few hours later we came back and the toy was gone, so I imagine she either figured it out, or the toy fell down from the repeated batting.

So, this is an example of the cat not being so good at figuring out what humans know. But, our other cat's a real smartie. He regularly pees on in the corner of our dining alcove, under the table, and he knows we don't like it when he does this. We figured out his routine (we arrive home from work->he scratches post, gets pet on the head, stretches and then poos in the litter box->the litter box is now dirty so he hops out, drinks some water, licks his paws and face-> then he pees under the table), and we started watching for the part where he's licking his face, and then following him around until we see him head for the table (and making sure we clean his box). At this point we grab him and stick him in the litterbox and since he has to go anyway, and he's already there, he seems fine with using it.

We did this for a few days and finally realized that he was watching where we were looking and he'd sneak away, change his routine, throw us off and then pee under the table when we didn't expect it. This is a smart cat. Smarter than most monkeys.