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Post by skyfire on Aug 20, 2009 16:58:52 GMT -5
He died back in 2005, after 12 1/2 years of life. so sorry but 12 years was long enough to get that farm going edit - He passed away in 2002; it was one of my other cats that passed away in 2005. As far as the "farm" goes, he didn't even need one. If he saw one of us eating something he was interested in, he'd just steal it right then and there. This included peppermint candies, which he loved to such an extreme that he'd actually pull 'em out of your mouth if he discovered that you had one. He didn't care; he pretty well ran the place.
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Post by Death on Aug 20, 2009 20:02:38 GMT -5
just thought with his long term planning abilities he'd be doing stuff that takes long term planning abilities.
which kinda begs the question
How do you know he had such abilities?
and did I tell you, my cat Oscar would give us Shakespearean soliloquys.
though he usually went only as far as the first word of Richard III
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Post by skyfire on Aug 20, 2009 20:13:47 GMT -5
just thought with his long term planning abilities he'd be doing stuff that takes long term planning abilities. To begin with, he was a rather astute study when it came to figuring out how people and things worked. In time, he could read anyone or anything he came in contact with. Doing things like opening doors or popping out window screens came naturally to him. He also developed little games that he liked to play with people; he especially loved to mess with guests, as they usually had no idea what to expect. Additionally, during the bulk of his life, whenever we would take him to the vet he would, within a few days, prank either my mom, whichever one of my brothers helped take him in, or both. For example, a few evenings after we took him in one time my brothers convinced my mom to watch Braveheart.... in total darkness and with the volume all the way up, just as they liked to watch movies. Whenever anyone in the film lost a limb, it was for real; Mel Gibson hired amputees as extras for these sequences, and they were each fitted with special limbs that would give away once struck. Mom is a bit of a wimp when it comes to violent or scary movies, and so it was all she could do to keep watching. The cat took note of this and waited for another battle sequence to appear. Just as things were getting good and bloody, he used a couple of his front claws to get her from behind. Mom 'bout near had a panic attack, while the cat crawled up into the newly-vacated rocking chair and pretended that nothing had ever happened.
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Post by dantesvirgil on Aug 20, 2009 22:34:18 GMT -5
My cat loves peppermint -- any kind of mint, really. She goes nuts over a pack of Spearmint gum. The other doesn't care at all. Neither of them care to get their general equivalency diploma. They probably think they're smarter than we are anyway.
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Post by Death on Aug 21, 2009 13:20:56 GMT -5
just thought with his long term planning abilities he'd be doing stuff that takes long term planning abilities. To begin with, he was a rather astute study when it came to figuring out how people and things worked. In time, he could read anyone or anything he came in contact with. Doing things like opening doors or popping out window screens came naturally to him. He also developed little games that he liked to play with people; he especially loved to mess with guests, as they usually had no idea what to expect. Additionally, during the bulk of his life, whenever we would take him to the vet he would, within a few days, prank either my mom, whichever one of my brothers helped take him in, or both. For example, a few evenings after we took him in one time my brothers convinced my mom to watch Braveheart.... in total darkness and with the volume all the way up, just as they liked to watch movies. Whenever anyone in the film lost a limb, it was for real; Mel Gibson hired amputees as extras for these sequences, and they were each fitted with special limbs that would give away once struck. Mom is a bit of a wimp when it comes to violent or scary movies, and so it was all she could do to keep watching. The cat took note of this and waited for another battle sequence to appear. Just as things were getting good and bloody, he used a couple of his front claws to get her from behind. Mom 'bout near had a panic attack, while the cat crawled up into the newly-vacated rocking chair and pretended that nothing had ever happened. ya know, studying clear thinking and scientific method is a good thing as well as learning about anthropomorphism
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Aug 22, 2009 17:11:36 GMT -5
...There was a guy on Amazing Animal Videos who trained his dog to mimic words. At least I think that was the show. Bearing in mind that it could only mimic them. I'm pretty sure it's similar for a cat-- and any animal can figure out that they get rewarded when they do x, so they keep doing x. Whether this is clawing at your feet, rolling over, or making a noise that seems to get the humans giddy, they will do that. Now, Parrots... they do seem quite capable of understanding both speech and basic grammar, even reconstructing new sentences out of what words they have learned. Hell, there was even a parrot that could hold basic conversations and identify and name anything. However, that parrot died due to stress. I could find the video article about it, if ya like. Well, if a parrot can do it, I bet my dick a cat can.
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Post by wmdkitty on Aug 23, 2009 19:45:42 GMT -5
Eh, Ash figured out the Comcast remote, kept changing it to Animal Planet. Then he tried to chase the "crawl" on CNN when I changed it back. I'm not sure quite what was going on in his head.
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Post by Redhunter on Aug 24, 2009 7:06:22 GMT -5
Red, maybe all of your cats were just boring ... Possible, but I'm leaning towards the fantasical stories being assmined. Or the necessary requirements for cats to display such a level of intellect were lacking. yeah... probably because it was a fucking cat.
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Post by Maryland Bear on Aug 24, 2009 7:28:30 GMT -5
And George "W" Bush got an MBA. What's your point?
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Post by Redhunter on Aug 24, 2009 7:42:02 GMT -5
just thought with his long term planning abilities he'd be doing stuff that takes long term planning abilities. which kinda begs the question How do you know he had such abilities? and did I tell you, my cat Oscar would give us Shakespearean soliloquys. though he usually went only as far as the first word of Richard III Yeah, mine was that way too. Must've been out of the same batch. He always had a problem with one cat plays too. He'd memorize his lines, hit his marks and did an outstanding job but his voices aways all seemed to sound like the same character. Really takes one out of the moment, you know?
Sure wish he had made some long-term plans to go back to school and get that accounting degree. I told him his decision to put school off in order to tour Europe as a roadie for MudVayne for a year was a bad one. And now after that stint on One Life To Live fell through due to his inability to hide his accent (he's irish) he kind of fell in with a bad crowd of guilt-wracked, financially unstable pyromaniac ferrets and emotionally-crippled heroin-addicted hamsters with deep-seated oedipal complexes and filthy sailor mouths. He did learn a lot of good jokes from them but he now says that he is feels convinced he is a gay female trapped in a Tom's body. He already has body image issues so we're gonna have a long talk about it all over strawberry daiquiris and Arturo Fuentes as soon as he finishes up fixing the brakelines on his chopper.
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Post by Maryland Bear on Aug 24, 2009 8:25:29 GMT -5
There's an update to the story.
The cat is going on to college, and will be studying recent Chinese history.
She plans to write a dissertation on Chairman Meow.
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Post by DeadpanDoubter on Aug 24, 2009 9:22:28 GMT -5
There's an update to the story. The cat is going on to college, and will be studying recent Chinese history. She plans to write a dissertation on Chairman Meow. Ohhhh. That was so bad it hurts.
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Post by Madame Scarlet on Aug 24, 2009 9:39:33 GMT -5
Now, the problem comes in that, how do you know the video wasn't faked? It isn't too hard to say something whenever your cat opens its mouth. But, apparently, the idea is not as alien as I originally thought it was. The cat that said "mama" for treats was fairly believable, but I'm convinced the last one was fake.
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Post by Maryland Bear on Aug 24, 2009 9:56:48 GMT -5
There's an update to the story. The cat is going on to college, and will be studying recent Chinese history. She plans to write a dissertation on Chairman Meow. Ohhhh. That was so bad it hurts. I'll confess to stealing it from a friend, but still... thank you!
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Post by antichrist on Aug 24, 2009 14:52:55 GMT -5
Holy fuck, talk about anthropomorphizing.
Sorry Sky, but I have been around cats longer than you've been alive. If you count the barn cats I've owned, we're probably talking about at least 100 cats.
~ They do not make long term plans ~ They may make noises that mimic us, but it's our response to them that they're interested in. It's basically "hey if I make this sound, they give me attention. I'll have to make that sound more often". You may not think you're giving them any recognition, but they're very responsive to our moods and body language. Also, I think anyone who spends their time going "say mama" to an animal should probably be seeing a shrink.
~ 12 years old is not that old for a cat. The oldest I've had was 23. In fact the average age for a cat is 15.
Dogs are dogs, cats are cats, and we do them a great disservice by treating them as humans.
@ Maryland Bear I actually had a cat named Chairman Mao (because he had the deepest voice imaginable and would sit at the door going Maooo, Maoo).
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