What have YOUR cats learned?

emrldsky

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Nuh uh...might give me away!
I'm sure all of us have those moments when we think, "How on earth did they figure that out?"

My mom's most recent:

I forgot to tell you. I was sleeping the other night and I couldn't breath; my cpap was off. So I look over and there is Chloe sitting next to it watching me. The stinker had shut it off. When she saw that I was awake, she went to her room, because they were out of food.
Now, for those who don't know what a CPAP machine is, it's essentially an oxygen machine for those who suffer from sleep apnea. Without it, those with sleep apnea wake up struggling to breath.

Chloe, my mom's cat, managed to turn off the machine, wake my mom up, and let her know she was hungry. I have a feeling my mom is in for some LONG nights.
 

momofmany

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My Muddy has learned that if he wants to be picked up and you are trying to walk away from him, that wrapping his arms around your ankles and nibbling on you are a sure fired way to make you stop and pick him up.

They always find ways to train us, don't they?!?!?
 

-_aj_-

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flash has worked out how to open the kitchen door and get through to our bedroom, and with her jingling colar it always sounds like santa is bursting through the door
 

jonesy66

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When Momcat was still a visiting stray she learned how to open our patio door when she wanted to leave. Which was ok but she should at least shut it behind her,now that would be a trick.

When she would spend her nights outside she also learned to give me a wake up call in the morning.I'd hear a faint meowing outside the window just after sunrise.There she'd be waiting for me to go around and open up the door to let her sometimes with a bird from her nightly excursions.

Thing is at the time I don't know how she knew where our bedroom was at the time she would come in to eat but wouldn't go past our living room.She always needed to be in site of the door.Now she sleeps on the bed.
 

butzie

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When Butzie wanted to go out and I was not inclined to let her, she figured out that she could terrorize my budgies by putting her face next to their cages. I let her out, until I realized what she was doing. Now, she gets exiled to the downstairs away from the budgies.

Turn about fair play: if the birds want to get Butzie out of their feathers, they will both buzz her in my presence. I used to immediately make Butzie go downstairs. Now, I chase them into the kitchen and let Butzie stay in the bedroom.

So, my birds and my cat are training me. If I could only get them working on training DH to be a perfect hubby, I would be rich.
 

cmedeiros17

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My kitties ( all four of them!) have successfully figured out how to wake up mommy if she did not get up on time to feed them. One of them will start by sitting on me and staring at me (and sometimes meowing loudly)..... I swear they are trying to use mind control! If that doesnt work they take to grooming my hair face and hands with their scratchy tongues. Usually that will wake me, but if not then they resort to running over my head.....jumping down off the bed circling around and running over my head again. This will continue until I wake up. Now, this is usually the entire crew working together......little stinkers!!!
 

othie

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Mai Sai found his toys in the living room (we keep all the cats toys on a low coffee table) so when he wants to play fetch while we are downstairs, he will run up the stairs, grab his favorite toy in his mouth (while on his hind legs) and run back down to me, dropping it at my feet
 

emy4cats

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Belle and TigerLilly learned how to open up the screan door and sliding glass door. We had to put a lock on the door so they would not get out. They also know how to open doors. My parents house has handles on the doors so they can jump up and open the door. They did it to my sister once when she was in the shower


Flower has learned how to get my attention no matter what I am doing. If I am at the computer she knows to stand in fronf of the screan and meow at me. If I am sleeping she purrs nice and loud and starts needing on my chest with her claws out. Or she will just jump up onto my shoulder and meow in my ear.
 

Anne

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Here's a story I like to tell people with cats that tend to wake them up at nights. In my former incarnation as a cat behavior consultant, I used to deal with these issues often. One of the things to do, in such cases, is to completely and utterly ignore your cat until a certain hour in the morning. Then, and only then, you can acknoledge their presence in any way. Amazing, how quickly cats learn the time, and will patiently wait until that exact hour.

One day, I had a client who was a nurse, and we had to deal with her irregular hours. Working night shifts on some days of the week, there was no fixed hour in the morning for her to wake up at. We ended up using an alarm clock. The sound of the alarm was to be the cue for the cat that attention can be received. It took only a couple of nights/days for Kitty to get the point. The nurse later told me that a few days later, she woke up before the alarm went off, but as per the training routine, she stayed in bed and didn't show any signs of life to the cat. She was curious however, since the cat was quiet, so she opened one eye and took a peek. The cat was sitting and staring at the alarm clock!
 

erzsebet

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When Zena was alive her actually learned how to open the kitchen cabinet door that held his treat bottle. And since it was actually not a screw top but just a regular push closed top, he learned how to hold the bottle down with his paw. And then proceed top open the bottle with his teeth!!! All the other kitties would stand around till it was jackpot time and dig in!!!!! We eventually had to hide the treat bottle all together!!!!!
 

sarahp

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Originally Posted by Anne

We ended up using an alarm clock. The sound of the alarm was to be the cue for the cat that attention can be received.
That's pretty much what I was going to say!

Lily has learnt that when the alarm goes off, that we're awake and will give her love. She generally comes running in most mornings as soon as she hears it
 

cocoalily

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This isn't so much a "how did she learn that" moment, but Clementine has recently learned that if she stand in front of my computer I'll either a) pet her, or b) give her more food. She's definitely learning, but they're not quite good habits!
 

graciecat

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My dear little Gracie who lets just say is a couple of french fries short of a Happy Meal has learned how to stack the rings off of milk jugs perfectly one on top of the other right over the drain in the shower.

They never fall over, at first I thought one of our skin kids was doing it until I saw Gracie carrying the rings one at a time into the bathroom.
Then she sits there and turns her little head from side to side looking at them.
After a while she knocks them over, takes them out of the bathroom and starts all over again.

She's very, very inbred but she's sure not dumb!
 
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