I have thought for a long time now that most animals have more psychic abilities than we give them credit for. My beloved Chipper seems to understand almost anything I say, and when he doesn't understand, you can see the puzzled look on his face as he tries to figure it out. Some of the stories that @Ken Anderson shares about his cats seem to show a lot of understanding, too. Here is a cat that can pick out which cup the ball is hidden under, and he seems to enjoy the game. Can your cats do this, Ken ?
My cats will only do tricks when they think of it first. Truthfully, I don't for one moment believe that dogs are smarter than cats, although they are surely more trainable. I think that the difference is in motivation. Dogs are more eager to please than cats are. Typically, a cat doesn't care if you're impressed. Although cats are not entirely indifferent to the people they love, "Good dog" means a whole lot more to a dog than "Good kitty" means to a cat. For example, a simple request such as, "Come here, Ella" will not result in Ella coming to me, at least not directly. In fact, she is more likely to come to me if I am not asking her to. When I ask her to come, she will pointedly walk past me, out of reach, act indifferent for a while, then come up by me, not in obedience to my command but to see if there actually was anything in it for her.
This is one of those "oh, my goodness, how did that happen ?" videos. Cat is discovered on the airplane wing, and the cat does NOT look at all happy to be out there flying around. It is amazing that he stayed on the wing at all !
That poor kitty looks like it wants to say something on the order of, "Are you kidding me? Hang ten don't cover it."
Steeple-chase rabbits, who would have guessed ! Just when you think you have seen it all, along comes bunny show jumping competitions. It really looks like these little guys seem to enjoy the fun as much as those who are watching them out there hopping over the obstacle course. This will definitely have you smiling......
Here is one of the videos from my Facebook feed, it's from the dachshund site I follow. I can just see Pickles enjoying this, lol.