20+ Pets That Amazed Owners With Their Intelligence

Only someone who doesn’t have a pet can say that pets are not smart. Dogs, cats, ferrets, and even fish sometimes do things that seem totally mind-blowing to us humans.

We at Bright Side are huge fans of stories about the heroic deeds and little things that pets do. And it would be totally unfair if we didn’t share a piece of our huge collection with you.

• My cat doesn’t like our robot vacuum. She watched it for a long time and realized that if something gets stuck in it, it stops. So, she just thought about it — and started bringing toys close to it. They’d get stuck and the robot would stop moving around. © Shapoklajk Lenusik / Facebook
• I had a ferret named Caramel. She really loved playing in the bathtub, but she didn’t like swimming. She loved it when the water was there, just above the surface. We put her in the bathtub and turned on the warm water. She ran around and enjoyed it, but when there was a bit too much water, she would take the plug out and bring it to the other end of the tub. The water level would go down and she’d put the plug back in. © Larisa Vradiy / Facebook
• Luffy is a border collie/golden retriever mix. Once we were at the park and he pulled his leash free from my hand in order to run to stop a 2-year-old human child from wandering into the lake, while his mother was busy with the child’s brothers. © Neal Murthy / Quora

Luffy the rescuer

• Our fridge has small locks attached to it, because the cats can open it. Once, after we bought a new fridge, we found our cats feasting on chicken and salads. We started putting a huge bottle of water next to the door so they couldn’t open it. But 3 days later, we saw this: between the bottle and the door, we saw the big fat cat Bonnie, who was trying to push the bottle with her weight, and the most cunning one, Jacky, was opening the door. The others were waiting nearby waiting for the results. © Dn Alya / Facebook
• I’ve got a few big, old black moor goldfish that I’ve had for years now. When I got them, I thought they had a 5-second attention span, but no no no. I usually feed them when I get off work around 5, but if I forget, by 7 those guys start splashing water out of the tank. © Letspretendweregrown / Reddit
• Once, our cat simulated a chronic disease. At first, his paw really hurt. And we took such good care of him. We fed him in his bed, we took him to the litterbox, and he would walk with a limp. I told the vet that the treatment wasn’t effective, but the doctor quickly realized that it was. It was actually a smart trick. © Natalya Shipilova / Facebook

That faker cat

• Chispa found me when she was about 10 weeks old. Once, at about 2 a.m. — I was 7 months pregnant with my first child — my husband and I were sleeping, when I suddenly woke up to Chispa standing on my chest, with one paw in my face meowing loudly. As I opened my eyes, I noticed a thick layer of smoke covering the whole room about a foot above us! I woke my husband up, picked up Chispa, covering her and my face, and I got out. My husband was able to put out the fire with the help of a few neighbors. We were all fine. The kitchen was burned out completely and if Chispa had not woken us up, we would probably have suffocated long before the fire had actually reached us. © Sophie Gonzalez / Quora
• Our dog, a toy terrier, was looking after me when I was a baby, while my mom was busy. When I’d start crying, the dog would call my mom. Also, she took offense to things when she felt slighted: she would sit and face the wall, and wouldn’t react when she was called. She would then decide for herself when to stop being offended. Danita Kimberg / Facebook
• My cat sits with me when I am programming, staring at the screen, looking at the details as I type. She has gotten so smart, that every time I make a syntax error, and the code becomes highlighted, she says “meow.” If I don’t pay attention to the screen, I have a vocal cue of the bug. I give her a treat when she alerts me to each bug. © Rohit Malshe / Quora

Programmer cat

• A friend’s cat figured out how to get the cover off of the butter container so he could lick it. The funny part is he learned how to PUT IT BACK ON, so my friend and his wife would uncover it and find huge dents in the middle of the stick. It took them months to figure out what was going on, and now they have to buy lockable butter dishes. © Violist03 / Reddit
• I had a cat that would jump on the door handle and open the door to his street friend that would come to our place to eat. It was hilarious: every day, at the same time, his friend would follow him to the bowl, eat, and then leave. The only problem was that my cat wouldn’t close the door after his friend. © Olga Deni / Facebook
• Robbie is smarter than most people I know! If I tell Robbie that I’m going grocery shopping, he will sit patiently by the front door waiting for me or my wife to return. When I walk in, I lean out the door, pop the back hatch on the car, and tell him, Robbie, get groceries! Robbie will calmly walk to the rear of the car, and one by one, grab the grocery bags and bring them to whoever’s in the kitchen. © Gene Barnett / Quora

Robbie, the assistant

• Our cat warns my husband when he shouldn’t go fishing: he might pee on the backpack or bite on his fishing equipment. At first, my husband thought the cat was misbehaving, but after 3 predictions were correct and the fishing was terrible, my husband started listening to our cat. © Elena Bondareva / Facebook
• My cat figured out how to fill up my bathtub. He learned how to close the drain, would turn the water handle, and would just sit there and watch the tub slowly fill up. It took me weeks to figure out what was going on. © Mr-Havera / Reddit
• My sister has a cocker spaniel named Max. If you know this breed, you know they are ready to do anything for a treat. At first, he just sits down when you’re eating and looks at you with his sad eyes. When that doesn’t work, he takes something inedible, comes up to us, and hints that he’ll eat it and feel bad. So, then you have to give him something in return.

Smart cocker spaniel exchanges some junk for a treat.

• I had a dog named Bob. Once, I dropped a heavy plank on my foot. It was so painful that I cried. He looked at me and ran away. And then he brought me the bread I gave him earlier. He gave me something tasty, so that I would feel better. © Gulchehra Mavlyanova / Facebook

• One of my cats learned how to turn the internet off. I mean, he realized everybody goes crazy when he goes behind the TV stand and messes with the wires. So when we’re not paying enough attention to him (usually if we’re on our phones or our computers), he just unplugs the router. I don’t think he knows how much power he has. © claustrophobiic / Reddit

• I had a ferret once that was super friendly and smart. She had a huge cage, but I rarely locked her in. Her favorite place to sleep was inside my bedroom closet. She figured out that when my alarm clock went off, I would get out of bed, and if I didn’t, she would climb into bed with me and either bounce around or take over the pillow. One night I was getting ready before an early day at work and I said to her, “You have to make sure I get up early tomorrow.” At 5 a.m. my alarm went off and as I got up, a very sleepy ferret stumbled out of the closet. She looked up at me like she was saying “You’re up? All good? Great.” Then she turned and went back to bed. I swear she knew she was supposed to help me wake up. © sky705 / Reddit

• My friends’ parents lived in the countryside, they worked a lot, and their cat was very thoughtful economically speaking — he brought a lot of things home. Once, they came home after being at a sauna and wanted to drink tea. They were enjoying the tea, when the cat jumped up into the window from the outside carrying a huge rat in his mouth. He came to the party with his own food. © Tatyana Petrova / Facebook
• My cat could heal me. After I was involved in an accident, my arm hurt for a long time. Every night, my cat would lie next to that arm, he would totally stretch to cover my whole arm, and he slept like this the entire night. The pain really did disappear. © Yana Kharkov / Facebook
• I have 2 “dogs”: a tabby cat and a Pekingese. They adore me and they hate it when I go on business trips. When I’m preparing for a trip, the Pekingese jumps in the luggage and imitates a death by torture: he barely breathes, drools, etc. And the other “dog” is also “dying” next to him: he lies on his back and starts groaning. © Alyssa Krivosheina / Facebook

Your pet is probably also very smart! Maybe you have your own amazing stories that you can share with us?