We all know how clever animals can be. From dogs who’ve taught themselves to walk on their two hind legs and help their human with their construction jobs to cats pulling off heists and warning their humans about intruders, pets have impressed us with their antics on countless occasions. However, few have appeared more intelligent than a feline in a recent viral TikTok.
In the 66-second video, uploaded by the @ruby_thelabrador account, a man teaches Ruby (the account’s eponymous Labrador) how to press the leaver to make a recliner recline in the presence of his cat. The pup masters the move and receives a treat for her efforts. The man then leaves the camera running when he leaves the house, and it catches something rather remarkable.
The cat jumps onto the top of a cage in front of the recliner and knocks over a cup containing some edible treats, resulting in the treats falling into the cage, setting a trap. The cat then departs the scene. When Ruby reluctantly goes into the cage to retrieve the treats (after checking the cat has gone), the cat returns and presses the lever on the recliner, which sets the recliner into motion, knocking it into the cage door, closing it, and locking Ruby inside. It was like some ingenious but overly elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. The cat then nonchalantly departs, knowing precisely what it’s just done. The unbelievable video attracted a lot of views, likes, and comments from amazed TikTok users.
How did TikTok react?
Most users wanted to point out how intelligent the cat was, writing things like, “That cat is incredibly smart,” “Who said cats aren’t smart,” “The dog was just listening, but the cat was taking notes. planning something diabolical,” “Not only did the cat perfectly execute his plan, he didn’t even look back when he pulled that lever. He KNEW it would work, no doubt,” and “The cat was studying not only how the recliner works but how the human gets the dog to stay in place.”
Several users were flabbergasted by what they’d seen, with comments conveying their shock, including, “What in the Tom & Jerry did I just watch,” “I don’t know if I’m terrified or utterly amazed,” “I wouldn’t have believed it, if I didn’t just see it,” and “But how SMART !!!?”
Some people weren’t convinced the video wasn’t staged in some way, with those individuals commenting things like, “Staged or not this is highly impressive what,” “Was this staged? I mean, i don’t see how it could have been.. I’m hoping it was ring cam footage edited tbh,” and “THEYRE PAID ACTORS.”
Meanwhile, one person saw a parallel between the cat and dog in the video and a particular fictional feline and his canine coinhabitant, simply writing, “Garfield & Odie.”
A 2017 National Geographic article revealed that a team of researchers had looked into which animal was the smartest out of dogs and cats. The results were published in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. The researchers found that, despite having smaller brains, dogs have around double the number of neurons in their cerebral cortexes compared to cats, which suggests they could be around twice as intelligent. Let’s just say those findings go entirely against what the video above suggests!