People From Around The World Share Clever Animal Stories


People From Around The World Share Clever Animal Stories


Humans claim we are the most intelligent animals out there. This may be true (as far as we know), but some of the calculated moves other animals make prove that they are not as un-evolved as we sometimes think they are. Between problem-solving, multi-step planning, and mischievous scheming, animals are able to accomplish some pretty complicated stuff, no matter if their end goal is constructive or simply to have a little fun.

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70. Good toys for good boys

My little dog could never keep a toy if my big dog decided she wanted to play with it. He is no match for her since she outweighs him by 60 pounds.

One day she stole his brand new toy and laid on the living room floor playing with it. Defeated yet again he ran upstairs, laid down with his head on his paws, and watched her from the top step.

All of the sudden he jumped up, tilted his head while looking at her and I could practically see a cartoon lightbulb go off over his head. He then raced down the stairs barking like crazy and jumped up on the couch looking out the window and continued to bark at absolutely....NOTHING.

My big dog immediately dropped the toy and jumped up on the couch to bark at whatever the heck he was barking at. My little dog then swooped down, picked up the coveted toy and ran back upstairs and laid down with a very human like triumphant look on his face.

Meanwhile my big dog was still looking out the window trying to figure out what he had been barking at. She also totally forgot about the toy for the rest of the day.

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69. Nushi the self-taught cat

I'm hard of hearing. I wear hearing aids. I don't wear them when I'm sleeping, though, obviously.

I used to live with Nushi the cat. Sometimes, things would happen in the middle of the night and I'd miss them, because I didn't hear them. The first time this happened, the dog had locked herself in the laundry room and was whining. At first Nushi tried to wake me up by jumping on me and then running to the area of the problem. I thought, "Nice, she's gone, I can go back to sleep!" Totally missed the message.

So Nushi ran to the laundry room door and started screaming. "MEEEEROWWOOOO! MROOOWOWW!"

That was too obnoxious to ignore, so I went to the laundry room door and heard the dog whining. I let her out.

Nushi also alerted me to my phone vibrating, the toilet overflowing, and someone's fireworks starting the grass nearby on fire. (The fire was no danger; there was a creek between the grass and the townhomes.)

She learned that standing by something and making a crapload of obnoxious noise is the way to get me to address it when I can't hear it myself.

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68. The Xbox is home free

My cat Tim used to steal food off your plate when he was a kitten. We got a squirt gun. He learned pretty fast that the Xbox was a safe zone. He could scope out the situation by the xbox and use it for cover if his plan didn't work.

We lived in an old house with a lot of hallways and I could hear my roommate yelling at him about the food he had just made. Finally he gets the squirt gun and chases him. He gets to my room and asks if the cat came this way. I said I haven't seen him and my roommate's face drops, very "Mother of God" like.

He runs back to where he was eating to find a missing chicken breast. The cat lured him away from the food and hid in a box when he got around a corner giving him just enough time to take the chicken breast before the roommate got back to his plate.

Not even mad.

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67. The good girl always knocks twice

My dog, in her old age, used to bang her head on doors until we opened them for her in a doggy version of knocking.

In the middle of the night if she wanted to go out I'd hear "boof...boof..." so I would get out of bed and she would be waiting patiently by the door.

If she wanted something that didn't involve a door she could knock on, she would start by huffing gently and then slowly working her way up to a bark. It was very considerate of her.

Then again, she once got stuck in a bush (and she was a big dog) so maybe she wasn't that smart.

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66. All my friends get to run free

My horse would get bored sometimes, so he'd let himself out of his stall and then let all of the other horses he liked out of theirs. We had to devise new ways of securing his door fairly often because he would figure it out every time.

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65. Dogs lead the dogs

We had a dog who was elderly and had gone blind. He was always bumping in to things, and liked to be led by his humans, and had to be constantly touched to let him know he was safe to walk where he was walking. One day I heard his pitter-patter coming down the hardwood floors of the hallway from my bedroom, where I'd left him, into the kitchen, where I was.

I'd hear him take 3 or so steps, stop, then 3 more, and so on. I went to him to see what was going on. That's when I saw my other dog leading the blind dog down the hallway. He'd move forward, stop, and wait for the blind dog to catch up to him. Then the blind dog would touch his nose to the leg of my other dog, they'd move forward. So on and so forth. No one taught these dogs how to do this, so I was amazed. The little blind doggie has since passed.

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64. Bee a hero

Bees are...not so smart when it comes to not drowning. You keep their water bowl shallow and with rough edges and lots of rocks in it for standing on, but some still fall in.

So one day I see a drowning lady in the water dish and I'm about to scoop her out when I see two others save her instead.

The two bees were on one of the rocks and they faced one another and held each other's legs, then and as a unit, backed down the rock until the farthest bee's back legs were in reach of the drowning bee. She grabbed on, then as a unit they scooted back up the rock until she was outta the water, then they helped her dry off.

Bees are amazing and fascinating and I've seen some cool stuff in a hive, but that right there was next level awesome.

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63. Smart enough to be confused

I was once showing a video to a friend of something funny my dog did (I am that friend) and while watching it on my TV the same dog walks into the room, looks at the TV, gets visibly confused and then walks to the real life place the video took place to investigate what was going on.

To have the intelligence to understand the situation enough to be confused by it blew me away.

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62. That's how he places his order

I give my dogs beef marrow bones a couple of times a week. These can be messy so I put a couple of towels on the floor and the dogs know to keep their bones on the towels. All I did to train that was remove any bone that ended up off the towel, both dogs learned very quickly how the rule worked. That's not the smartest part.

My standard poodle didn't have access to the bones but he could reach the towels. When he wanted it to be "bone night" he'd go drag out two towels and bring them to the living room, then look at me and wait for me to do my part.

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61. Maybe she should start paying rent

My cat can operate the recliner, turn on/off the faucet, open doors, turn off lights, and defeat her food dispenser (she found the button that dispenses regardless of the timer).

At this point, it's like having a fat, furry roommate.

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60. Wow -- most people aren't that smart

I dog sit and most of the dogs I look after are pretty average. Adorable and loving, but average. However, a few weeks ago I sat a couple of kelpies. It was only for a couple days but I quickly realised the girl was extraordinarily smart and the owner hadn't noticed.

When we went to the beach I didn't have to put a leash on either of them (it was a leash-free beach, no worries). I could tell them where I wanted them to go and not repeat it. But the boy was hopeless when it came to fetch. He could get but not give, so instead when he dropped it the girl could pick it up and drop it elsewhere. I thought she was just as hopeless, but as we walked I noticed she would drop it ahead and pretty much every time it had rolled down the slope of the beach to right where I had just reached.

This dog was calculating how fast I was walking and how long it'd take for the ball to roll down the sand to where I would be by the time I got there. She didn't just drop it directly in my path because it would have rolled away into the water by then.

On top of that, she would go wash the ball off in the water for me and never leave it behind. She knew she was responsible for that ball and not to leave it behind.

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59. Cockatoo is a film buff

My cockatoo would take macadamia nuts still in the shell and throw them out of her cage. When the cat would pounce on it she would throw another a little closer. The cat would pounce on the new one. Then she would just very carefully drop a third one out of her cage, the cat would pounce and the bird would grab the cat's tail and yank. The bird would do this once a week or so, and the cat would never learn.

Same bird would also have a sheet over her cage when it was night time and we would tell her "it's bedtime" when we put it on. Her cage was in the living room and she would chew small eye-holes in the blanket and watch movies with us at night. You could see her little eye in the hole. If she didn't like the movie, or if there was a really loud scene, she would put her beak to the hole and say "it's bedtime". If it was an action movie she would say it loud and indignantly, and if it was a scary movie she would say it softly.

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58. Stealth dog

My dog, is not allowed in the kitchen. We have hardwood flooring throughout the house, so it's really easy to hear when he's walking around. Well one day, it got quiet. I was suspicious so I started looking for him. I walked by the kitchen, and saw him out of the corner of my eye, walking super weird. I stopped, and watched, and I realized he was walking on the pads of his feet, so his claws wouldn't make any noise.

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57. Pets from a sheltie

I have three dogs: an Australian Shepherd, a Basset hound, and a sheltie mix. My sheltie mix is so smart. If you tell the sheltie to "Go get (other dogs name)!" she will go and get them. And she knows the difference between the Aussie and the basset.

Also, the sheltie is very protective over my mom. So she's always at my mom's feet or right next to her on the couch. If another dog gets too close, she will growl and snarl at them. When she does this and my mom tells her to stop it, the sheltie will actually somewhat pet the dog she was originally growling at. It's so cute.

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56. Dog outsmarts 10 humans

When I was in high school I had about 9ish friends over to play airsoft in my yard. For those unfamiliar, airsoft is like paintball, you shoot little pellets at each other and pretend you're all a SWAT team.

Anyway, in between matches my friends and I take a rest during which my Mom brings out snacks and drinks (thanks Mom!). My dog also ran out of the house with her, and he was bent on getting those snacks. At first it wasn't so hard for 10 high-school boys to just make a defensive perimeter around the snacks, but we were completely ignoring our airsoft gear. My dog picked up my friend's airsoft rifle like it was a stick and bolted.

At first 9 of us laughed as my friend ran after my dog, but that dog spun and ran circles around him. Soon we had to send more and more people after him, but that dog didn't give a damn. He would run right at your knees until you crouched and then jump body slam you're lowered face just to rub in his absolute mastery of "catch me if you can."

Finally we all decided that we had to circle this dog. From all sides we penned him in and slowly began to constrict. If he moved we moved in formation, not trying to stop him but just trying to keep him between us.

Now, finally knowing he is caught, my dog drops the airsoft rifle and sits down. Finally! We've corralled him! My friend breaks the ranks pick up his rifle and the moment he hits center circle, my dog just bolts straight for the house. Oh well, we think -- we've got what we want. No big deal. And then we look up. The house is a good 30 meters away, and the snacks are all completely unprotected.

My dog pulled of a successful bait and switch against 10 boys reenacting tactical warfare-and we just stood there, completely exhausted and dumbfounded.

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55. The cats are becoming self-aware!

When she was just old enough and came home I watched my kitten look at a mirror, go to touch the cat in there, look at her paw, wave it, look in the mirror, wave her paw again...and then she was fine with reflections. Years later when her brother was freaking out at a mirror I temporarily placed on the floor I watched her try to calm him down by waving and basically...pointing.

The smartest moment though? Right after he attacked his reflection again she walked away with a stiff "Idiot...." look on her face.

How many humans do you know that are smart enough to not argue with stupid?

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54. Clever boys

Dogs used to pack-hunt my lunch like a bunch of Raptors.

One would whelp, fake an injury, when I'd go over to check on him the other would run, jump up on my chair, grab my sandwich and run away and hide with it. As I'd spin to stop him "hurt boy" would run away and join him.

Those little turds did it once and I was just confused.

Second time they did it was a couple of weeks later, instant reaction was to check out doggy 1 the faker again, then as the alarm bell that we'd been here before started ringing in my head doggy 2 executed the plan again.

Third time I was onto them.

Clever boys.

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53. Snap, grackle, pop

I once watched a grackle (dark-colored bird native to South Texas) trying to get a half a bagel out of a small paper bag. The bag was kind of crumpled at the top and the grackle was having no luck.

After a couple of minutes of trying it walked around to the back side of the bag, grabbed the bottom with its beak, and picked up the bag, dumping the bagel onto the street.

I thought it was pretty neat watching this bird come upon a challenge and figure out a solution.

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52. The morning routine

One of our cats wants to eat at 4:30 every morning. And wants NEW food. Leaving food out isn't good enough.

So he comes into the bed and starts nuzzling the face. If you ignore him, he jumps down and walks back and forth in the vertical blinds making the rattling noise. If you manage to ignore that, he jumps up, bites to corner of the comforter and literally pulls it completely off the bed (it has a satin sheen and slides easily).

At that point my husband cannot ignore and he gets up and feeds that cat.

If I am home alone and continue to ignore it, he goes over to the closet door and bangs on it. If that wakes up my son, he will go feed it. If that doesn't work, he goes to my son's door and bangs on that until he my son wakes up, feeds him and the cat wins.

The cat does this in the exact order every time.

I am the only one that doesn't give in.

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51. The smart and the hungry

I had two border collies. One was the dumbest and most easily scared dog I've ever had (but really good at herding sheep)

The other one was probably the smartest dog I'll ever own. The first few weeks that we had them, they would steal food off the table. So we tied a string around a small metal pan lid. The other end, we tied around a piece of ham, so that when they grabbed the piece of ham, they would pull the pan lid off the table and scare them enough so that they wouldn't do it again.

My dumb dog Tarzan was the first one to try it. Nellie was out for a walk so that she couldn't catch on. He went straight for it, pulled down the lid, scared him witless. He never took food from the table ever again.

Then it was Nellie's turn. We were all watching, excited to she if she's go for it or not. She calmly walked up to the table, stood on her hind legs. She then looked at the lid, then followed the string with her eyes, looked at the piece of ham. Then she ate the ham off of both sides of the string, not pulling on the string even the slightest. Then, just to add insult to injury, she removed the tiny piece of ham, still inside the knot of the string, with her canines, and then walked away. So smug.

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50. No Humans Needed

I worked at a pet store. We had a guard dog, a mean-looking pit bull.

When customers would show up before the store opened and bang on the door to get in, the owner would say "Sic 'em Butch," and the dog would run out of the back barking and snarling, and slam into the front door glass until the customer went away and waited for the store to open.

One day, I was in the back of the store, and a customer came rapping on the front glass to get in early. Nobody was in the retail area of the store. The dog was in the back and didn't hear the rapping. But, the store mascot parrot was on his perch in the front of the store, and suddenly, called out, "Sic, em Butch!"

The dog came running, snarling and chased the customer away.

No humans were involved inside the store. I just sat in amazement as I watched the whole thing.


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49. A Little Help For His Friends

My horse knows how to unlock gates with his nose. Most of the stalls have a slide lock that the horses usually just leave alone. Not Rex. We had to put a bottom lock on the door that he couldn't reach.

One day, one of the newer people locked him in his stall, but forgot the bottom latch, then walked away. Rex unlocked his door and then went to the other stalls and let the other horses out. Then he led them on a charge to grassy freedom.

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48. He Takes Breakfast Seriously

When my big orange tabby cat wanted me awake to feed him breakfast, he got into the habit of coming into the bedroom and meowing loudly around 5 AM. I soon cured him of that by getting up and quietly locking him in the bathroom for an hour or so while I got some more sleep. Sure enough, after a few times, he stopped waking me up with those loud "MEOWS!"

But I found I still would wake up early for some unknown reason, with the cat on the floor by my bed staring at me expecting breakfast. It wasn't until one morning when I woke up really early and was just lying in bed thinking of getting up when I heard the smallest meow you could ever hear. It was just a little tiny kitten-like "mew." He then waited a minute or two and then repeated. He basically did this non-stop at irregular intervals just within hearing range so I wouldn't know that he had woken me up.

Smart cat.

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47. Crossing Guard

I was once walking from my grandparents' house to the shop, and accidentally went the very long way, which happened to go past a creek and a park where ducks liked to live. I saw two ducks walk towards the road, and at the edge, one duck put its wing in front of the other duck to stop it, looked both ways, waited for a car to pass, walked to the center line of the road with the other duck, and repeated. I have never regretted not bringing my camera more.

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46. An Elaborate Showdown

A few years ago, there were a few slices of bread in the middle of the street for whatever reason. Some crows kept flying down and treating themselves, but whenever they did, one of the neighborhood dogs came and chased them off. One crow tried about three times to eat in peace, but the dog chased it off every time.

So the crow then decided to land a little bit away from the slices of bread and the dog ran towards it. The crow then flew off and landed about a meter away from where it just landed. The dog followed again. The crow repeated this until the dog was on a different street, and then the crow came back and chowed down.

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45. Whatever Gets The Job Done

There was a crow who would drop walnuts on the road waiting for cars to run them over. It would then wait at the crosswalk with people for the light to change. Then it would walk over and eat the broken walnut.

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44. Sweet Revenge

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was with my family on a beach. There was a seagull there that had stolen a sandwich from our beach blanket. It had grabbed the sandwich, flew away and landed about 100 feet from us.

So I picked up a racquetball and tried to hit the seagull with it. I missed but was close enough to startle the seagull. It flew into the air, swooped back down, picked up the ball, and proceeded to drop it like 200 yards out at sea.

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43. A True Criminal

My grandfather used to keep pigs. As kids, we were allowed to get into the pig pens to play with the pigs, except for one. This pig was criminally insane.

I watched one day as he worked a little patch of mud with his snout and feet, carrying water over to it in his mouth from his water drip. This went on for maybe half an hour until he had the consistency just right. Then he carried some grain from his feeding trough and dumped it into the center of his little mud pit, before going back up to his covered sty to hide and wait.

Maybe 20 minutes later, a chicken flew into his pen, and as it went to eat the grain, got stuck in the mud. The pig barrelled out and chomped down on the chicken.

This was one of many devious schemes the pig had cooked up to catch the chickens. Eventually, my grandfather had to build some wire mesh over his enclosure so the chickens couldn't fly in.

axialage

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42. Outsmarted By A House Dog

I was eating a bagel on the couch and my dog was sitting on the floor next to me, just eyeing me down. You could tell he wanted some, but I wasn't giving in to his cute persuasions.

He calmly walked over to the mudroom door and rang his bell that let us know that he had to go to the bathroom. So I got off the couch, put my bagel on the coffee table, and walked into the mudroom. Well within the time I got up and walked to the mudroom door, he ran around back through the kitchen and had snagged my bagel off the table. I didn't even try to get it back from him. He deserved his prize.

I realized who was the smartest being in the house that day.

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41. The Mimicking Master

Grandfather had an extremely smart parrot, who learned to imitate my step-grandmother's voice perfectly. The parrot would manipulate my grandfather (who was a drinker and not always on his game) into doing stuff by imitating her tone of voice. Want granddad to leave the house so the parrot can attack the cat? Shout at him to go fishing out back. Want to hitch a ride on the dog? Calmly ask for the husky to be let into the house.

But the best was he loved certain foods and would suggest them to my grandfather from the next room. More than once my grandfather would leave and come home with pizza to the bewilderment of my step-grandmother, insisting she had asked him to go get it. Clever bird.

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40. Pug Turned Architect

My oldest dog (a pug) constructed a staircase from moving boxes to get on our pub-height dining room table. The boxes were in the same room but not near each other.

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39. The Strange Inner Workings Of A Mama Raccoon

Working at a summer camp, we were sitting around outside at night, planning out the next few days, eating snacks, and chatting. We heard a noise by a tree nearby where a friend had left his backpack. Shining a light on the pack revealed a large mother raccoon and three small babies. The mama, without breaking eye contact with us, used her tiny, creepy, human-like hands to unzip the backpack zipper, remove a bag of Cheetos, pass it back to her babies, and ZIP THE BAG BACK CLOSED. A few moments went by in silence before my friend whispered, "but why did she zip it closed...?"

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38. A Civilized Beast

My ex noticed one day that his cat hadn't used the litter box at all during the day while he was at work. He thought it was odd, but nothing to be concerned about at first. A few more days went by, and he started to get concerned. The cat didn't seem sick or uncomfortable, but he rushed it to the vet, who found nothing wrong and sent them on their way.

That night, we were watching a movie on his couch and heard the toilet flush. Nobody else was in the apartment, except the cat. We turned to look and the cat casually strolled out of the bathroom. Apparently, the cat had learned to use and flush the toilet without having been trained to do so.

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37. Just Call Him Iago

I babysat for a woman who had an African Grey parrot and two dogs. The parrot would say, "Wanna go out?" As in, do the dogs want to go outside. Then they'd get all riled up and excited to go out. The bird would "laugh" and say "suckers!" That thing was evil.

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36. What A Dog Will Do For Some Peace And Quiet

I used to live on a farm with a bunch of dogs. The oldest, smartest one, Gabe, could open and close the front door. Sometimes when the other dogs were annoying him, he would perk up like he had heard something (though he couldn't hear because he was deaf), and then start barking and head to the door. The other dogs would get excited and bark along with him. He would then open the door and they'd all run out to see what was up. He would then close the door on them, trapping them outside, giving himself peace and quiet and all the best napping spots.

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35. Role Reversal

One time, my dog was chasing my cat. The cat usually would just run to the basement, but not this time. The cat simply ducked behind the first stair. My dog assumed the cat had just run down the stairs and very nonchalantly turned around. As soon as he did, my cat gave me this look like, "Watch this." He jumped several feet in the air onto my dogs back and scared the daylight out of him. Clawed him pretty good too. Seriously, that was the last time the dog harassed the cat.

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34. Chimps And Their Tools

I worked at a chimp sanctuary, and one chimp tied bamboo sticks together with dishcloths (both provided for enrichment) to pull the fire alarm outside of the enclosure.

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33. A Counting Cat

My husband was playing with our cat one day. At one point, my husband peeked around a corner at the cat, who was hiding behind an object. Once my husband saw the cat was looking, he hid behind the corner again, then stuck his arm out from behind the corner three times so that the cat could see. One, two, three. Then, he peeked back out and saw that the cat was looking at him. The cat gave him a direct look, hid behind the object, and stuck out his paw three times. One, two, three. Then, the cat looked back at my husband.

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32. Calculated Warfare

We used to have birds and a cat, and all the time we would find worms on our floor and couldn't figure out why. One night, we were all sitting around, and we had the front door open because it was a nice night. The cat walked in with a worm in its mouth and went and laid the worm on the carpet in front of the bird cage. The cat then went and hid under the coffee table to wait for his chance to strike.

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31. Generosity In The Wild

I once saw a dominant male kangaroo squeeze under a fence, and whilst halfway under, it stopped, arched its back, and then let the other kangaroos in its troop slide under the fence. It waited until roughly 15 other smaller kangaroos went through until it finally went through all the way itself.

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30. Imitation Goes A Long Way

I had pet rats for a while and had raised my first two from babies. The two girls heard me hiss at the cat when it got too close to their cage, and one day as I was watching the cat creep up to the cage, I got ready to hiss. Then the rats took over. I watched as the girls started puffing air to make hissing noises and lunge at the cage edge to scare off the cat. I never had to hiss at the cat again. They did it for me. I loved my rats. They were so clever.

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29. Humans Are Not The Only Ones Who Know How To Fish

I saw a bird do some fishing. It was in Kinabalu, Malaysia, and we were walking by the edge of a harbor. The bird had a crust of bread that it dropped by the edge of the water. It repositioned the bread several times until a fish came along interested in eating the bread. Then the bird caught the fish. I thought it was a crazy intelligent fluke of a bird but have since seen the same thing again happen in Perth, Australia.

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28. Problem Solved

I was at a zoo and saw a monkey with its hand on its brow shielding its eyes from the sun. I came back five minutes later. The monkey now had a trash can lid on its head. Instant shade. Problem solved.

27. A Great Consolation Prize

When we were younger, my brother and I were fighting over a video game controller. He'd played too much and I wanted my turn.

I lost the fight and was extremely upset. My St. Bernard noticed, and figured, "Hey my chew toy is pretty cool!"

He brought it over and sat it in my hands. Clearly, it was better than the controller.

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26. True Love Will Find A Way

I have two black labs. I took them for a walk up to the usual pond where they'd go for a swim. One day it was frozen over.

The youngest of my two ran over the ice, but fell through, getting stuck under the ice. The other one calculated the shortest distance to jump from the edge of the pond and broke the ice nearest her, allowed her to swim to the edge.

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25. Safety First

I had a hamster that was a master of escape. We used a fairly large aquarium tank for him instead of a cage. At first, we didn't use a lid, but he quickly learned to climb the water bottle to get out, so we got a mesh cover for the tank. That didn't stop him from climbing the water bottle, then using his nose to lift and move the mesh cover over little by little until there was an opening. So then I started placing some textbooks on the corner to make it heavier. He then learned to push the hamster wheel to the opposite corner, then shove the wood chips under it until it wouldn't rotate. Then he would climb on top of that wheel so he was up higher and had more leverage, and therefore enough strength to push the mesh off. I actually sat there once watching him shoving the chips under the wheel, then test it, add a little more, test it again until it wouldn't rotate anymore.

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24. A Serious Aversion To Pills

My Labrador had to take a course of antibiotics. He wouldn't take them wrapped in cheese or any other goodness, so I'd have to put the pill at the back of his mouth and sort of massage his throat so he'd swallow. We did this every morning until the meds were done. A few weeks later, I was cleaning. I moved the throw rug where he'd sit for his meds, and I discovered a stash of his pills. The little sneak cheeked his pills then spit them out and hid them when I walked away. He was a great dog.

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23. Patience Is A Virtue To Pigeons Too

I once watched a group of pigeons forming a line in front of some outside plumbing that was leaking, and the droplets of water were falling down one by one. The first pigeon was drinking, and every other was patiently waiting in the line. Once the first pigeon was done, the line shifted and the new first in line started drinking.

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22. Not A Quirk After All

My old roommate's dog would, for the longest time dip, his whole snout in his water bowl and then hover over his food bowl, letting the water drip off his snout onto his food. We always laughed at it, thinking it was just some quirk he had. Finally, it dawned on me. He was softening his food. Maybe it was just too crunchy for him. We started sprinkling a little water on his food for him and he stopped doing it. Smart little guy.

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21. Teamwork Of An Unlikely Pair

My cat (a Maine Coon) will jump onto the counter and push the bag of bread off of the counter and onto the kitchen floor. My dog will then tear open the plastic, and they both chow down. He's done it three or four times, so now I have a fancy bread box.

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20. That Little Sneak

My girlfriend has a rule that her dog is not allowed in the kitchen. Whenever he tries to break this rule, she puts him on the carpet right outside the kitchen with a stern talking to.

The second she turns her back, he will slide one paw forward like two inches to barely touch the kitchen floor.

Her dog is very passive-aggressive, kind of like his owner.

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19. Ravens Just Want To Have Fun

My friend told me a story of a raven his family kept as a pet when he was younger. He said the raven tried to copy him and his friends going down a small metal slide, but couldn't figure out how to squat correctly, despite trying several times. It flew into the house and brought back a plastic lid, placed it on the slide, and used the lid to slide down.

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18. Killing Three Birds With One... Cat

I was watching my cat one day. He climbed a tree and grabbed a baby bird out of the nest and brought it down to the ground. He put it underneath him and stood over it. Some time passed with the baby bird chirping, and the parents came to save it. My cat wanted this. When the adult birds swooped down, he killed them both.

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17. Psychopathic Dog

I used to find dead mice in my dog's water bowl. I couldn't figure out why these stupid mice kept drowning themselves. Then, one day, I was watching my dog stalking a mouse on the back porch. She caught it in her teeth, brought it to the water bowl, and held it under water with her teeth until it drowned. Then she walked away like it was nothing. Scariest thing I've ever seen.

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16. Thinking Several Steps Ahead

My old apartment had a very narrow driveway for cars to come into the yard from the street for parking in front of the house. So one day I noticed a dead hedgehog on the driveway and nudged it to a nearby bush with my foot.

As I came back later, the hedgehog was in the middle of the road again.

Puzzled, I lay in wait to see what happened once I had put the carcass back in the bush again. And then I saw it. Crows pulled the carcass from the bush into the driveway to the exact spot where the cars couldn't swerve around it. They did this so the tires would mush the hedgehog for the crows to pick.

Obviously, the crows didn't like the spikes.

1920px-Corbeau_Parc_Town_Moor_Newcastle_Tyne_3-300x200.jpgWikimedia

15. Simple Click Of A Button

I was riding in the car one day with our dog on my lap. I guess he wanted to stick his head out the window. By watching us roll the window down so many times, he must have caught on that the button on the door rolled it down. I watched as he placed his paw on the button to roll the window down, then looked up at the window. His paw wasn't strong enough to push the button and roll it down. He then did several back and forths between the button and the window before finally looking at me as if to say, "What am I doing wrong?"

avi-richards-438741-unsplash-300x225.jpgPhoto by Avi Richards on Unsplash

14. Few Things Are Too High

I didn't see it, but there was enough evidence that it happened.

We went away one weekend and left our two cats with plenty of food, water, and litter. They decided it wasn't enough for them and got into the cat treats. But we keep the treats in a cabinet above the pantry, so in order for them to create the scene we returned to, they had to:

Stand on the counter alongside the pantry to reach up and around to open the cabinet door.

Jump up to the top of the refrigerator.

Leap across from the fridge to the treat cabinet.

Bring down one container of treats.

Go back for six more containers.

nick-karvounis-538864-unsplash-300x200.jpgUnsplash

13. I Could Rip It To Bits

My dog LOVES to rip the fluff out of his toys. He doesn't really play with them beyond that, just gut the things and destroy any squeakers inside. Because I hate cleaning up the mess and money's been a bit tight lately, he went through a dry spell without fresh plushies to destroy for a few months.

A few weeks ago, I was watching a movie and he brought over the sad, deflated corpse of one of his toys, then another. He then sat, staring at me for a minute with the two fuzzy shells stretched out right in front of him. Just. Stared.

After 10 minutes or so, he left and returned with this specially stuffed cow of my husband's. It has sentimental value and is kept on a shelf, where we thought it was out of his reach. The dog sat down with the cow, right by the remains of his retired toys, dropped it on the floor, and while maintaining eye co tact, stretched his mouth open and slowly lowered his head over the cow, clearly showing he could destroy it, but was being merciful.

I bought him a cheap toy the next day, and when Zuul had finished gutting it, he rolled around in the fluff as if it was the best illegal substance money could buy.

justin-veenema-156591-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Justin Veenema on Unsplash

12. Love Hate Relationship

My previous roommate had a mischievous Doberman (call him D)who was HATED by my German Shepherd (GS). D would frequently take my roommate's shoes and chew them on his bed for which he would get punished by my roommate. Sitting in my room one day, I notice my dog peeking into my roommate's room where the D is sleeping on the bed.

After about a minute, GS goes downstairs and comes back with my roommate's shoe in his mouth. Looking around to make sure my roommate is not around, he quietly goes into my roommate's room and carefully places the shoe next to D's face (who is still asleep) and then goes into my room as if nothing happened. My roommate comes back and nearly goes crazy on D for an apparent attempt to chew his shoes...(I stopped him and told him the whole story TLDR: My dog attempted to frame his mortal enemy

blake-barlow-645743-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Blake Barlow on Unsplash

11. Cricket, Turtle Surfing

This won't ever see the light of day, but a cricket rode around on my turtle's back for over 24 hours. If he's that smart, the cricket deserves to live. We set him free to propagate his genes.

joel-magenta-mathey-735844-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Joel Magenta Mathey on Unsplash

10. Charlotte's Web

I used to have a spider living in the corner of my front door. It would spin its web across the door and I'd take it down when I went to work. By the time I came home, the web would be back up, so I'd take it down again and go into the house. This went on for some time until, eventually, the web wasn't there any more.

I looked in the corner of the door, the spider was still there and it was still alive. I blew on it and it moved. For weeks, no web across the door or anywhere else I could see. I was starting to get concerned. The wee thing didn't seem to want to move on, but at the same time it was still alive.

Then, one night, I was keeping odd hours. I was throwing out trash at 2 AM and, the web was across the door. The spider would wait for me to get home from work, put up the web, then take it down before I left in the morning. Same thing after I left for work.

andrew-rate-758986-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Andrew Rate on Unsplash

9. Monkey See Doggy Do

My old house has a huge garden and we had all sorts of tropical fruit trees planted in the garden. I had two family dogs. Whenever it's durian season the monkeys from the mountain nearby would travel to my house via the telegraph poles. They couldn't really enter the garden when my dogs were guarding the place. But because occasionally the durian fruit would fall outside the fence, the monkeys would pick the fruit up, dig the durian flesh and start throwing it at my dogs to bribe them.

When we weren't looking my dogs would start ignoring them and let them enter the garden. It's funny though as soon as my dogs see any of us family members they'll start to bark at the monkeys, just to put on a show that they are good dogs.

lewis-roberts-457034-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Lewis Roberts on Unsplash

8. A Mother's Protection

One time my father sprayed a baby crow with the hose to try to get it out of the way of some yard work he was doing. For that entire summer the mother crow dive bombed him every time he left the house, and would follow him tree to tree when he would take bike rides around the neighborhood.

qurratul-ayin-sadia-453416-unsplash-300x198.jpgPhoto by Qurratul Ayin Sadia on Unsplash

7. Delicious Soggy Bread

This summer we had a couple of weeks where it was really really hot, and no rain; so I put out bowls of water for the birds in the garden. I saw this magpie fly into my garden with a whole slice of stale bread, put the whole slice in the water, wait, then take it out and eat small chunks. Clearly not soft enough, it put the slice of bread back in the water for a bit and ate the rest.

viktor-kern-65578-unsplash-300x169.jpgPhoto by Viktor Kern on Unsplash

6. Just Horsing Around

I've worked with horses for several years. One day I took a mare out to be worked and she took a few funny steps so I got off and checked her and nothing was hot, no injuries, nothing. So I lunged her (chased her in a circle on a long rope so I can see her move) and she was limping on one leg. I figured she pulled something so I took off her equipment and put her back out to pasture.

The second I let the horse go, she goes tearing off. She goes prances by and looks absolutely fine. I mean nothing looks wrong at all. I swear she was gloating.

Next day, she tries again with another girl. Other girl falls for it and lets her out in pasture where she again goes galloping off, perfectly fine.

So I take her out the following day, she tries for 10 minutes to convince me her leg has fallen off but I just ignored it and she eventually gave up.

Surprisingly not uncommon in the horse world!

alberto-de-quevedo-697323-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Alberto De quevedo on Unsplash

5. I Don't Like Being Bothered

I had recently moved in with my girlfriend and was adjusting to living with her cats, which was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed messing with the alpha cat.

One day he was sitting on the back of the sofa and I got down to eye level with him and I started blowing in his face repeatedly to annoy him. He let it go on for so long, then he looked at me with an intense stare, then grabbed my face with his paw, claws extended. I stayed still. He brought his open mouth to my cheeck and slowly pressed his teeth into my skin, taking caution as to not break the skin. He then held his teeth there, with my cheek between his jaws for about 20 seconds while I was remained frozen. He could have seriously bit my check, but he chose not to. He slowly backed his mouth away from my check, then took his paw off of my face and resumed sitting on the back of the sofa.

I never blew in his face again after that.

This was the cat version of "I could bite you, but I'm choosing not to. Quit messing with me, ok?"

At that moment, we came to terms on a gentleman's agreement and I respected him. We had an amazing bond after that incident and we had a great relationship after that.

krystian-tambur-101318-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash

4. A Deadly Smart Horse

A couple of years ago I went to catch my horse in the pasture. I called and he came running, and as he got to where I was standing, he started rearing up and pummeling the ground next to me over and over. This from a sweet horse who wouldn't think of biting or hurting a person. I look down and he's in the process of killing a mole. Most calculated and single-minded (and out of character) thing I ever saw him do.

Another time I was riding him down a muddy, deep, slippery trail and it was getting dangerous. He stopped, I urged him forward. He took another step and stopped. I asked him forward again and he turned around, looked me dead in the eye as if to say 'Lady, if you wanna go down there you're going alone, because this big, black horse is done.' We turned around. Smart horse - he'd even fetch for me like a dog.

erin-dolson-547848-unsplash-300x200.jpgPhoto by Erin Dolson on Unsplash

3. Cat-Like Reflexes

This is one of my favourite stories, so I'll tell it even though it probably won't be seen.

I grew up in the desert in Australia. We had this cat. She was a mongrel born under our house who we kept. All day she wandered around in the nearby scrub and did what she wanted. At night she would come home, eat her cat food and then let herself into the house to be scratched on the head and drool all over the carpet. She was also a keen hunter.

One day, I was about nine, I was sitting in the paved area of our backyard. I looked up by coincidence and saw a brown snake moving towards me. I was so afraid I couldn't move. Out of nowhere appeared the cat. She wasn't even normally in the yard at that time of day. She looked at me, then the snake, then me again. Then she darted forward and just coolly swiped off the head of this snake before it could even react. She meowed at me, then took the snake's body off to wherever she went to eat her spoils, and left the head there.

david-clode-715465-unsplash-300x202.jpgPhoto by David Clode on Unsplash

2. A True Hero

I had a cat that was ridiculously smart. He was allowed outdoors but always slept inside at night. We had recently found some abandoned kittens, which we fed, and they made a home in our backyard. One night, our indoor cat came up to my room meowing incessantly and left, so I ignored him. He came back again a couple of minutes later and then left, so again I let him be. The third time he did this I decided to follow him, and he led me to the sliding glass back door and just stood there. I turned on the light and looked outside, and these poor kittens were cornered by some raccoons. The confrontation had not become physical yet, thankfully, and I managed to scare the raccoons away. I am still amazed to this day by some of the things this cat did.

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1. An Eye For An Eye

When I was young and stupid, I would grab my doberman by the snout and fart on her nose...which typically resulted in her sneezing or some other insanity. One evening while watching TV, my dog walks right past me, stops with her butt in my face and lets one rip. She turned back to look at me. I swear I saw her smile.

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