I cant say ive ever met a "dumb" cat. Stubborn,wily,etc but never dumb. I do believe this pair im living with now are brighter than those ive lived with in the past and i credit that to me being a "stay at home mom". 14 yrs of daily 'conversations" has contributed to them knowing lots of human words and i in turn have learned lots of cat words.
Side note..... the downside of this is the "chubby one" knows every human word for food..

I don't think you can compare the species. Dogs have been domesticated for much longer than cats &, IMO, are much better at knowing what humans like. Plus as opposed to cats they're pack animals which makes them more suited to sociable living.

Now when I compare my cats to one another, I definitely see a difference in IQ. Some of them know their names & will actually respond to basic commands, while some just give you a blank, uncomprehending stare.

Keegan was really smart and communicated well. You could talk to him and he understood the nuances of the conversation. Ask Ed. He was amazed a cat could be so smart. MMM is not so smart. She's really sweet, but kinda of dense. She just doesn't get "no" very well, or she's really doggone stubborn. She somewhat comprehends "up". But what really gets me? She just looks at me strangely when I talk to her. Maggie does get me laughing pretty hard at meal time though. She loves to eat. I have no set time or way that I do it because... she would bug me incessantly if she knew the time was approaching. If I am in the kitchen and she's not bugging me, I'll get the bag out and then........ padump padump padump............. skid over the bowl. I've never seen a cat want to eat so badly in all my life! You'd think I starved that gal.

You cannot compare dog and cat intelligence by the same standards without some cultural biases. ;-) Seriously, there are some very dumb dogs and some very brilliant cats.......as well as the opposite.

I had a beagle who was literally so dumb, she would not come in out of the rain and nearly got pelted to death in a Kansas hail storm until I ran out and brought her in. And my parents had a Great Dane so smart, he knew how to operate their floor fan, and if he was hot would turn one on and lay down in front of it.

Ditto cats. Some serve no greater function than to take up space and be beautiful to look at (my mother's tiny angora with no brain) and others are as stealthy as a guerrilla commander. One of her other cats could operate a door knob and let himself in and out, by hanging on to it, suspended from the floor and swinging back and forth.

Dogs, as it is said, are pack animals and they learn what pleases us, appreciate rewards for their actions and accept human leadership - some are more dumb and stubborn as others, but this is the general way of dogs
They are our companions.
Cats have trained us to do what they demand, sometimes by cuddling and purring and looking pretty, sometimes by threats, such as my Taffy, who had done a number on some wall-coverings, so now I have corrugated cardboard tacked onto the walls he prefers - he definitely taught me how to decorate to his taste. There are scratching posts and a cat-tree and a nice little rocker which is "textured", I call it the sacrificial chair, saves all my other furniture.
They have trained me well, from menu choice to furnishings, to cleaning their bathroom facilities.
Cats are independent contractors.
Some are wiser than others.

I think my cat is smart, but she has an astonishingly narrow range of interests... and no remorse whatsoever. She seems to be a pretty good problem solver... although, she has not yet learned that I can't pour food into her bowl if her head is also in it... this continues to be a daily struggle...

She's smart enough to keep the dogs in line, in spite of the fact that they're 6-7 times bigger than she. I occasionally remark at her "evil-tude" but never her stupidity...

I don't know. I have a cat that I think is smart because he comes when I call him, seems to understand (but fortunately not reach) the doorknob, communicates with us effectively and has learned, when his initial requests go ignored, how to manipulate us into letting him out, giving him cream, etc. He's very interactive, is eager for affection and is a bit of a showoff. I tend to think of my other cat as less smart because he seldom responds to his name and isn't as people-oriented as his pal. But I don't know that that's really true. He learns quickly from other cats and generally knows everything he really needs to know--and he can remember the sound of a can opening even when we haven't given him tuna for six months or more. He may not be dumber--just more narrowly motivated.

Stanley, while not as domestically violent as Mike Tyson, is very Mike Tyson-ish. If you know what I mean. He's very big and has a very sqeaky voice and is possibly, borderline retarded. But he's a sweetheart.

The Dude is an average C- student, for sure. Just gliding by, doing just enough to get along.

Henry is just a coward, but is somehow the only one not afraid of the vaccuum. Does that make him smart or stupid? I'm sure that makes him stupid in the eyes of the other 3.

The Beast has it all figured out. He's the spoiled brat kid who can TOTALLY do his homework 100% on his own, but chooses to LET his parents do it for him.

P.S. These are my parent's cats...my "brothers" - I'm sure you can taste the disdain in my writing.

I think this may be a very subjective conversation. Also I've come to realize that while I love my cats, I really, REALLY love my dog, so I guess that ultimately I'm a dog person at heart.

I don't consider my dog exceptionally smart, but I do consider my dog to be totally in love with me. Of the platoon of cats we've got, I can only think of one that falls into that category. Of the rest, some of them, especially one of the outside cats who has never been inside the house & won't let either one of us touch her yet is still alive after 7 years, I regard as very smart indeed.

OTOH, I have a couple of cats who are dumber than rocks. That means they can barely find the food bowl & often miss the litter box.

We've only had one cat and he was a gem.
He was beautiful and smart and there will never be another.
I sometimes wish we had a cat but we're probably dog people.
Shoot, I guess we're really Poodle people since we've always had poodles.

Isn't it funny how people tend to be one or the other........cat or dog people? I love my dog, but somehow in this household, it is just understood that the schnauzer is my husband's pet and the cats are mine. I think their antics are adorable, he thinks they're way out of line. I think the dog's antics are cloying sometimes and silly, he thinks they're cute.

My cats run the gamut from totally demanding of attention and physically attached to my body when I am in the house, down to wrapping themselves around my neck like a boa and hanging on for dear life as I mop floors. One of the other ones won't even let me touch her, unless it's the tip of her tail, but she'll rub against my leg and 'talk' to me.

I sort of think my cats match my personality, and the dog matches my husband's.

It would be interesting to take some kind of poll to see if that's true. If it is,we don't follow the mold. We've always had dogs and cats at the same time and they were equally loved and equally mourned by both of us. I would always want to have both running around my house.

I was going to pretend I like both equally, but in the last five minutes, kitty has walked over to me and bitten my toe for no apparent reason and Izzy has walked over to me and licked me for no apparent reason. As I type, Izzy at my feet, staring lovingly at me and kitty is on a chair in the breakfast area, rubbing her face on the table, and thinking of jumping up on it. In a moment I'll make a Tss! Tss! noise and Izzy will respond by nudging the cat onto the floor for me. (It's so nice to have her here to enforce the house rules...)

I love them both, but dogs were a part of my childhood and have imprinted themselves on me more deeply. Plus, I prefer kisses to bites.

I grew up with both, but the dogs belonged to mum or one of the brothers, and the cats were usually 'barn' meaning they belonged to themselves but tolerated us, especially while we were milking. Then I was adopted by a cat who must have been a teacher in one of his prior lives, for he taught me that cats can be -and do- almost everything possible for someone who lacks opposable thumbs (but don't discount the skill potential of extended claws). Since then I've had dogs and cats, both together and separately. My favorites were one very intelligent poodle and --equal but different-- two exceptionally intelligent cats. But all the other ranking places go to cats, so I supposed I'm a cat person rather than a dog person.

Personality aside, the smarter ones:
Understood the difference between "get in the car" and "don't get on the table."
Realized that making a figure 8 around my ankles would make me fall; however, I never had to explain the purpose of crutches.
Figured out within a week that if I were outside and the phone was ringing, they could tell me -- and if it really was, they'd get a treat.
Understood that a leash was for taking walks.
Knew how to ask to go out -- although it usually sounded more like "ow-er" than "outt".
Know how to open doors, and I'm grateful that none of them ever figured out the locks.
Knew that begging would get them nothing -- although they all tried it on other folks.
Pretended they understood English, whether they did or not. Didn't pretend to not care about me, whether I understood or not.

Having had dogs and cats almost all of my life, I came to the conclusion that dogs try to please. Cats are of the opinion that if they listen to us , then they have to fetch, hunt, lay down, be, etc. at our command. By ignoring all that, they have us to fetch and throw, lay or sit down, so they have a lap, and in general do what they want to do, not what we want them to do.
A different philosophy of 2 different species.

I've had very smart and very ordinary cats. My current young ones are average, not overly bright. They do come when called by name (if they feel like it) or to a whistle.
I knew some people once who had a huge german shepherd female. One day they forgot the mail in the car and were in the house. One said to the dog "Shirley, why don't you go get the mail out of the car". And she did! At that point they realized that she understood english. Pretty amazing.
kathy

We had a strange pair once. Mama Cat and her daughter, Dusty. Dusty was as dumb as they come but Mama was a stray that had lived for years on her own out in the woods behind the store. If a cat could do it, she knew how. She would bring a dead rat into the garage at lunch time when the mechanics were sitting around eating. She would go and stand in front of them with the dead critter oozing blood until someone would take it away from her, throw it in the trash and share their lunch with her.

Dusty was a beautiful cat and very loving. But it was obvious that she didn't have brain one. We found homes for her litter mates, but we couldn't bring ourselves to part with her. For one thing, Mama never completly weaned her. She would nurse right along with Mama's newest litter. We failed to get her spayed soon enough and soon she had a litter of her own. Mama did most of the tending and nursing as she just didn't seem to know how. She didn't have much milk and the kitties just didn't thrive until Mama started helping out with the nursing. They would lie together with Dusty's kittens in between. Mama would nurse three and Dusty two. After that we had them both spayed, yes, we should have done it sooner, but Mama was supposed to belong to a man down the street. He said he was the one that taught to bring a rat to swap for cat food. Mama liked us best!

all cats are smart. the ones who play dumb are just smarter! some cats have a personality that doesnt mind 'tolerating' humans and they will come when called, stay off furniture, etc., etc., then you have the so called 'dumb' cats who cant remember their name from day to day . never seem to learn that the kitchen counters are off limits and like to swat at anything that moves passed their eyes, no matter if it is a hand. take it from one who knows: these cats know darn well what their name is. try calling them with a can of food in your hand. they also know the counters are not to be jumped on, but that is where they want to lay, so, they pretend they dont understand and look at you with a positivly "did i do something wrong" look.
in the end, the "dumb" cats get their way just as much as the "smart" cats......now....
i am wondering how they train us so well.......
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