Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:
I have a male mackerel (striped) tabby named Charlie. He walks twice a day on a harness and leash, he tells me when he wants to eat and go out by touching the door knob. When he gets kicked out of our bedroom at night, he continues to try to turn the door knob to get back in. He is a very small tabby cat with intelligence far superior to his size. Are tabbies typically this intelligent? I heard someone say it might have something to do with the amount of black in their mouths. Is this true?
~ Cynthia
Thomas: Well, of course! As a tabby cat, I can tell you that tabbies are far superior in intelligence when compared to other cats!
Bella: Oh, stop it, Thomas! You know black cats like me are the smartest of all!
Thomas: Actually, Cynthia, intelligence in cats is no more determined by our fur color than your intelligence is determined by your hair color.
Bella: So, what does determine intelligence? The intelligence of the parents, for one thing, and good nutrition both while inside the mother and in young kittenhood while the brain is developing.
Thomas: We’re quite certain that catnip use during pregnancy does not influence feline intelligence, so if you’re fostering a pregnant kitty, don’t be shy about giving her a bit of the ‘nip!
Bella: Intellectual stimulation during kittenhood can encourage brain development, so we encourage interactive play and some toys like puzzle feeders.
Thomas: We’ve also never heard of any correlation between the amount of black pigment in a cat’s mouth and intelligence.
Bella: Put simply, most humans are not foolish enough to believe that there’s any correlation between humans’ appearance and their intelligence level. The same thing is true of cats.
Thomas: There’s a philosophy phrase, correlation does not equal causation. What that means is, you may know a tabby cat who is exceptionally smart, but that does not mean the tabby coloration caused the intelligence, or vice versa.
Bella: The genes that code for intelligence have very little if any association with the genes that code for pigmentation of the skin and fur.
Thomas: So although I’d like to think that I’m exceptionally smart, the only thing my tabby and white coloration does for me is to make me strikingly handsome.
Bella: And humble, too.
Thomas: What about you other readers? Do you have any experience with exceptionally intelligent cats or families of cats? Do you know enough about genetics to comment on any connection between appearance and intelligence in cats? Tell us about it, and.
Bella: Oh, and tell us about the smartest — or the dumbest — cat you ever met!
JaneA Kelley is a punk rock cat mom and award-winning blogger. She is a regular columnist for Catster Magazine, and she and the Paws and Effect Gang share a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
I never thought any one color of cat is smarter than another. But I belong to Facebook groups dedicated to Gingers, Tuxedos and Tortishells. Each group claims that their cats are the smartest.
However, I agree with Thomas and Bella. My Tortie Spicy was very dumb in intelligence but very smart in emotional intelligence. I would almost pass out because of low blood pressure and she would try to help me get up. And when she couldn’t, she would lay by my ear and purr until I was able to get up on my own.
My Tuxedo TC know how to get under the covers of the made smooth bed and has even helped her big brother do it too. But she eats plastic whenever she can get it and then throws up! She hasn’t learned not to do it.
I could go on but you get the idea. Each cat has their good and bad and that’s what makes them so special to us pet parents!
I think they are all smart.:)
I believe cats are like people, some are smart in some ways, some in other. All have so many different personalities. I had one who seemed to be knocking on the door when he wanted in. This same cat (a tuxedo named Scooby) also seemed to know how to get the television in the bedroom on when I was away at work. I’d always thought I just forgot and left it on until after he passed (at only 5 1/2 from leukemia). I was very emotional about his death and after a short while I would find the television on when I came home from work (again). Again I thought I’d forgotten to shut it off when one day, after tanning on my deck, I’d been thinking of him and I walked into the bedroom and looked out the window. Suddenly I heard the sound of voice in the room and I turned and the tv was on. I just smiled through my tears and said “go ahead and watch it, Scoob.” After quite a while it quit coming on then died. But I believe he was very intelligent even in the next life. They all are special and have special gifts.
I am with you there; when they say cats can have 9 lives, I believe it may imply nine lives not necessarily consecutively, but some simultaneously aka ‘parallel lives’ in humans.
That makes since why i wake up in the middle of the night to my cat bay moving chairs and opening door its creepy!