*blink* Cats are strange. And maybe smarter than I know.

[xiphias]

So, Boopsie was standing by her food bowls (plural -- since she's been sick, there are a half-dozen bowls with a half-dozen different kinds of human food in them to try to tempt her to eat), looking up at me expectantly. I kept refilling different food bowls with different things, and she'd wander over to them, take a tentative lick, then look back up at me.

Finally, I walked over to her meds, got her Pepsid tablet (the vet put her on heartburn medication), popped her jaw open and dropped the pill down her throat. And Boopsie walked directly over to her food bowls and started eating.

So, it sure looks like she knows "THIS pill makes my stomach hurt less so I can eat." Weird, hunh?

Comments

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Have you posted a pic of Boopsie? I'd love to see one (if you have, I probably missed it...I have a way of missing obvious things these days, not sure why).

She's the first cat I've heard make the connection between a pill and feeling better...but that's awesome. It means she also must feel extra affectionate towards you, if she associates you with the pill with feeling better! :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I haven't, but Lis has. Especially now that she got a cell phone with a camera in it.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Ooooh Boopsie's beautiful...!

(And I actually get the feed from Rita Rambles...I never connected the two of you, though. Sometimes the internet boggles my mind!)

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

Pretty kitty!

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

This doesn't surprise me, as I have watched my cat reason out a solution to a problem before. It was oddly disturbing, and kind of cool.

Boopsie is very pretty!

N.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed.

Have you tried gerber chicken? My parents have been feeding that to their poor jaw-wired kitty. I expect after he recovers he'll no longer be willing to eat anything else -- it used to be the 'where the heck is Frankie?' treat of last resort.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Oh, also the fish flakes like what you sometimes have on Japanese food.

[michele-blue.livejournal.com]

Aw. :) And yes, I've watched my cats puzzle through amazing things. One of them is about 75% toward learning how to open doorknobs. She's going to be very sad when she realizes she doesn't have thumbs.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Heh. I don't know if one cat can learn to do it (although one of ours opens drawers with the handles), but I knew a pair of them who would have one hang from the doorknob and turn while the other pushed.

[michele-blue.livejournal.com]

...that's fantastic. Hee! They're so smart.

[geekosaur]

Oh, cats definitely learn to relate pills to medical issues. One of my parents' cats had asthma; she learned quickly to associate the pills we got for her with "hey, I can breathe!".

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Awww, good for her! I'm glad something's helping her, too.

I can believe it. Ours get treats when they use the scratching post - and every so often, one of them will scratch and then march over to the door and LOOK at me. It's clear that she's reasoned out that she gets something she wants when she performs, and this time she'd like to substitute a different Thing She Wants, please.

[cheshyre]

[cheshyre]

[cheshyre]

[cheshyre]

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is impressive! I've generally gotten the impression that cats are quite smart, they're just not that interested in applying their intelligence to things humans want them to do.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is smart...

Side-issue, though: when Barry first moved in and wasn't eating, I did that same thing with half a dozen bowls of differently-desirable foods, and he sniffed and licked variously and didn't eat any of them. When I talked to the vet, she said not to do that, it's counter-productive (probably because they keep hoping that a seventh bowl of superfood will eventually appear?); a single bowl of something desirable-but-simple (chicken & rice was her own recommendation) is better, she said. Which worked with Barry. On the other hand, if Pepsids work for Boopsie...