"Ablang" wrote in message
...
Some people say that pets are just stupid, some people say they are smart,
that maybe they really can understand a few English phrases.

Are they (cats & dogs) able to remember? Let's hear your story supporting
this.


Cats definitely can remember. I adopted my first cat (at least, the first
one that was "my own" as an adult) when I was graduate school -- feral, and
developed into a marvellous companion. I still spent summers with my
parents and continued to spend several weeks at their home even after I left
graduate school and was "on my own." On one occasion when I was visiting
them, they had some minor construction work done. The handyman who was
working for them went into their basement, opened a hole into the wall,
removed ductwork that extended upward from the basement into the second
story of the home, and inserted new ductwork. I wasn't home at the time,
but my father stood at the exterior door to the basement until everything
was inside just to make sure that nothing could happen to my cat.

By the time I returned home, everything had been completed. I started to
hear my cat (Raucher) cry out. I kept calling him and he kept crying. I
followed the cry all over the house and couldn't figure out where he was.
Then I looked up and discovered his paw sticking out of an airconditioning
vent (ceiling height) of the first floor. He had somehow crawled up the
wall, the ductwork was inserted (fortunately without injuring him), and he
was now plastered in the wall!! My father went up to the second story where
the ductwork ended beneath a closet. He sawed a small hole in the closet
floor and called my cat. Raucher crawled up to him, lifted himself part-way
out of the hole but realized it was too small, then backed down and hung on
and waited for Dad to enlarge the hole. I have always thought that was
incredibly smart -- in a similar circumstance, I would probably have
panicked and gotten myself wedged by trying to force myself through a
too-small opening.

As to your specific question: from that time on (and this went on for
several years because my parents used this same person as a general handyman
for many projects), every time that man's truck entered the driveway,
Raucher would disappear. He did it only for this person's truck -- he never
hid out from anyone else, and he even didn't hide from the handyman if he
came in his car instead of the truck. He would go into hiding as soon as
the truck entered the driveway and would remain in hiding until it left.
The minute the truck exited the driveway, Raucher would reappear.
Remarkably intelligent, I think!

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

"Ablang" wrote in message
Are they (cats & dogs) able to remember? Let's hear your story supporting
this.

Can they remember things? Yes
Are they necessarily logical about these memories? Hell no

My dog was walking by my bicycle when it nearly fell on her. For the next
year, she gave it a wiiiide berth whenever she went around it. Most dogs I
have seen have very strong memories for anything that scared them or caused
them pain. I would hazard that humans are very similar in that regard.

Training depends on memory, if the dog doesn't remember that after something
sounding like "sit" she should sit, then she would be pretty hard to train,
right?

David - who points out that dogs can obviously be trained

"Ablang" wrote:

Some people say that pets are just stupid, some people say they are smart,
that maybe they really can understand a few English phrases.

Are they (cats & dogs) able to remember? Let's hear your story supporting
this.

Oh, I'm absolutely convinced that cats are capable of learning to recognize a
select number of words. We have four domesticated cats in the house right now,
and each one knows his or her name. If three or four of them are in the room
and I call Blackie's name, Blackie will come to me and the others will ignore
me. (Blackie also learned very, very quickly that the sound of can opener
means food. We only recently started buying canned cat food to feed the
strays, and it only took him a few days before he started literally running
into the kitchen when he hears the can opener running.)

Invisibo was very fond of playing fetch with a toy mousie when he was younger.
It turned into a fairly elaborate game where I'd get down on the ground and
tell him to get ready, and then I'd flick it across the room and say, "Go get
it!" He'd usually bring it back. Nowadays, all I have to do is say,
"Invisibo, where's your mousie?" and he'll immediately start looking around for
it. (I know it's not just the tone of voice I'm using, either. I was talking
to my wife about buying new mousies for the cats, and as soon as Invisibo heard
that word, he meowed excitedly and started looking around the room.)

Banshee waits up for me every night. Sometimes she'll sit on my lap while I
read my e-mail, but as soon as I sign off AOL and she hears the "Good-bye!"
sound, she immediately jumps down. She's learned to associate that sound with
me getting up from the computer chair. I think she also understands when I
tell her it's bedtime, because she takes that as her cue to race into the
bedroom and hop up onto the bed.

Obviously, some cats are more easily trained than others. I tried to teach the
others to fetch, but Invisibo remains the only one who remembers the commands
associated with the game and carries out the appropriate actions. Whether the
others simply aren't smart enough, or are far too stubborn to deign to play a
dog's game, is anyone's guess.


--
Zobovor, who has no .sig for this newsgroup yet.

I'm no animal psychologist, but i know that dogs recognise ONE outright
master/mistress, but will happily live with the others in the house allowing
them a certain or even unconditional and unlimited amount of affection. My
dog will do anything i ask him, but can be a bit ignorant of the others in
the house but he still loves them.
If i gave my dog every ounce of affection and loyalty, then suddenly
disappeared only to return a year or so later i think he'd be pretty pissed
with me!
i go out early every morning to work but i come back every afternoon; my dog
is conditioned to know that I'll be back later and eagerly waits for me
giving me one 'ell of a welcome when i return, he gives my wife and daughter
the same welcome but i am the master over all.
Be careful how you chastise a dog too because it will remember it, if it
thinks all its gonna get is a row it'll always associate your call with that
and will then always be quite reluctant to come to you.
"Ablang" wrote in message
...
Some people say that pets are just stupid, some people say they are smart,
that maybe they really can understand a few English phrases.

Are they (cats & dogs) able to remember? Let's hear your story supporting
this.

A girl I used to work with, named Wendy told me that she had a dog. Can't
remember what breed it was. She allowed it to sleep in her bed with her
every night. Her 1st semester of college, she went away to dorms, leaving
the dog with her Mom. At the end of the semester, Wendy came home to
visit
Mom & dog. The dog growled at Wendy whenever she tried to touch or pet
it.
Mom says the dog was pretty pissed when Wendy left for college.

Wendy starting visiting Mom & dog more often, and gradually, the dog
started to allow her to pet it once again.

Funny story. I wonder if cats can remember anything, considering the
popular myth of their 10-second memories.

--
Hilary Duff is America's Sweetheart & an international HeartBreaker.

"FAILING = Finding An Important Lesson, Inviting Needed Growth" -- Gary
Busey

"David H" wrote in message news:

My dog was walking by my bicycle when it nearly fell on her. For the next
year, she gave it a wiiiide berth whenever she went around it. Most dogs I
have seen have very strong memories for anything that scared them or caused
them pain. I would hazard that humans are very similar in that regard.

Training depends on memory, if the dog doesn't remember that after something
sounding like "sit" she should sit, then she would be pretty hard to train,
right?

Human interpretations of anecdotal incidents aside, animals make
lasting associations with situations, items, people, etc. and respond
on the basis of those associations (in addition to instinct). They
don't have the same kind of memories of an event history that humans
do.

Lynn K.

here is a strange on I have no answer if some has I would like to know.

When I first started seeing my now wife I used to stay regularly at her
parents house. Her farther every night went down the pub. Came back at the
same time and the dog ignored him, all apart from Friday night. On Friday
night her Dad would feed the dog biscuits. But he would line them up on the
floor in front of the fire. Now the dog remember ignored him coming home
every other night but on Friday as soon as he heard him enter the house
would run into the living room and sit by the fire waiting for the biscuits.
If he did not get them he would go into the kitchen and bark at the biscuit
tin. I saw this on many Fridays. Now how the hell did the Dog know it was
Friday ? His owner did nothing at all different in fact he tried duplicating
the events exactly on a Saturday even down to the clothes he went out in.
Guess what, the dog ignored him when he came home.
Theories

1. The dog could count ( the days)
2. Something else always happened on a Friday and he worked out the day this
happened was the day he got his biscuit treat.

If 2 is true, then he could remember. if not then I have no idea any
thoughts ?

--
Tim Pace
" A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves
himself."

Ablang wrote:

Funny story. I wonder if cats can remember anything, considering the
popular myth of their 10-second memories.

Are you just looking for anecdotes or some factual information? Studies of how
long an animal can remember which of a series of containers holds a piece of
food showed that cats have the longest memories of any animal tested, save
chimpanzees. They could remember where the food was located much longer than
could dogs, for example.

So what ?
Bees cant fly, Greyfriars Bobby remembered for 14 years where Jock was
buried. Extraordinary animals (including Humans) will always defy logic
because emotion will sometimes proves logic wrong fact is a statement of
what we know to be true UP TO NOW. Always remember this. Many things in
history was thought to be true based on the facts of the day many of them
now are laughed at. When someone "feels" it is wrong they will eventually go
on to discover a fact to back up the new theory

--
Tim Pace
Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.