Are cats smart enough to tease you?

I'm really wondering about this. JC doesn't have all-day access to our cellar, since he gets into too much mischief down there, i.e., he opens and pokes through the storage cabinets. We allow him to make his patrols in the morning and evening, but the door is otherwise kept shut. He yowls when he wants to go down there, and we open the door for him. He's still making his twice-daily rounds, but the past few days he's added a new wrinkle. He waits until we're eating or watching the evening news, and then yowls for us to open the door. When one of us gets up and opens it, he looks right at us, yowls like a banshee, and goes tearing upstairs. He has always turned the reading lamp in the living room off when one or both of us is/are reading. What do you think? Can he really plot this type of thing?

Cats definitely know how to get your attention. That's what the cat is doing, more than "teasing" you, I think. He has you well trained, in that he knows when he yells, you'll get up! My cats are the same way. Simon will stand in the kitchen and meow at the top of his lungs. When I go in to see what he wants, he walks away! Little stinker.

The cat turns off the light because you have to pay attention to him and not read when he does it. They are definitely extremely smart that way!

We have a Touch and Grow lamp in our bedroom. It is the type of light that you can turn off and on just by touching the leaves of the plant that grows beneath it. The cats have watched us several times, and now the kittens know that in the middle of the night, all they have to do is go over and tap the plant and the light goes on- tapping it more makes the light brighter. I had to stop keeping it so watered so it wasn't so receptive to light taps on the leaves! LOL

When I'm reading my youngest cat likes to sit on it. Whatever it is....newspaper, cataloge, novel, doesn't matter. She would rather have me pay attention to her than read anything. Oh and if I've been on the computer too long she will either sit on top of the moniter and swat the screen or sit on my lap and bite my handon the mouse. Sneaky devil always keeping me in line!!

Like most cats, Rosie has a thing about sitting on paper.

If i'm curled up with a magazine on my lap, she'll jump up and sit on it!. I don't dare move her either, because she looks so comfy!. She owns me ok!!!

Susan