Have you ever wondered...
if your cat is secretly testing your IQ? Is he or she trying to identify your mental strengths and weaknesses? If this is the case, why is it happening? And, what are our feline friends doing with the information they obtain?
I am convinced some type of testing is being administered by the felines in my household. It is the only way I can explain certain events that have been occurring with more and more frequency.
For example, Gracie calmly pushes an object off of the kitchen counter. Afterwards, she sits back on her haunches and waits for me to pick it up and return it to its place - which of course I do. Once I have resumed whatever I was doing, she knocks it off the counter again. This scenario repeats until I get fed up and either leave the object on the ground or hide it somewhere from both of us.
Was this a test to see how many times I would repeat a pointless behavior pattern? Was Gracie counting every time I kept picking the object back up and returning it to a place within her reach? If you go over a certain number of times, does that hurt your ranking as a quality cat caregiver? Do you have to receive some type of remedial cat caregiver training or attend a special meeting with your veterinarian? I must admit I am growing a bit concerned.
After the event described above took place yesterday, I caught Gracie and Benjamin Bunny in what looked like a private meeting. This is the conversation I imagined them to be having.
"Got a minute Benjamin? I just finished the repetition portion of mom's weekly IQ test."
" Sure Gracie. How did mom do? Please tell me a little progress was made. Last week was embarrassing."
"Let's see...It only took six knock-it-off/put-it-back cycles before she decided the activity was getting nowhere. That is two less than last week. So yes Benjamin, we are finally starting to make a little progress. But, let's not get too excited. We still have several more tests to administer before the week is over."
Whatever the case may be, I am definitely going to start thinking twice before allowing myself to be tricked into anymore mindless behavior patterns by my feline friends. Ug....I really wish Gracie would stop climbing onto my shoulders when I type. This will be the third time I've had to move her to the chair next to my desk, and it is getting a bit annoying.
Enlightening comments about today's thought are welcomed, so please feel free to share.
Until next time, remember...
I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not.
Mine had me trained in two days.
-Bill Dana
