Cat smarts

I did not witness this. My husband told me about it over breakfast. At bedtime, Bonnie was on the cat tower in its new popular location. My husband closed the curtains and Bonnie wanted them open. She couldn't find the opening in the folds to part them, so she jumped up on the curtain rod and separated them from the top, just a few inches so she could see out. Then she hopped back down and returned to her nap.

All of the cats know what door handles do and sink faucets too. Thankfully they haven't figured out how to turn any of them. I once knew a dog that could open the refrigerator. Mack knows how to bite an opening in a bag of treats, so now the treats live in Tupperware containers. We had to replace the bathroom trash cans with metal ones that have lids because Daisy liked to pull things out of the open ones. Our bedroom closet has sliding doors, and we have to keep a stick in the track to keep the cats out. Daisy knows how the remove the stick. Her favorite time to do it is while we are trying to fall asleep. Or in the middle of the night. On one occasion, she forced open the bedroom door by jiggling it from underneath until the latch popped out of the face plate. And when we adopted Bonnie, it was Daisy who muscled aside a gate with twelve pounds of lead weights holding it down, in order to get to Bonnie's bowl of kibble. Daisy weighs only eight pounds herself. So that was the end of Bonnie's safe room, which lasted all of half a day. So our house is only somewhat cat proof. They are clever and good observers and have lots of time to figure things out.