8 ms·

Skunks apparently make great pets (but need to have their stink glands surgically extracted), the pitch is smart like a cat but faithful like dogs

by inasio 10mo ago

cinntaile 10mo ago
I think dogs in general are smarter than cats.
- Sohcahtoa82 10mo ago
  Dogs are certainly better at looking intelligent. I think dogs, being a more social animal, are more eager to please, and so are willing to be trained. Cats can vary wildly. One of my cats seems dumb as a box of rocks and haven't even grasped the idea of object permanence. If she's tracking a laser, and I move it around a corner, she can't figure out where it went. She goes from intense staring and tracking to standing up and looking around, confused. When I bring the laser back around the corner, she's instantly back to squatting and tracking it.
  - estimator7292 10mo ago
    I've known many dogs that fail this test, too.
  - coderenegade 10mo ago
    Our dog remembers the location of toys at the park over long periods of time, though being able to sniff them out probably helps. He also expresses genuine surprise and suspicion when he sees novel objects (e.g. the large Christmas tree that was put up in the park, a horse and rider), because he knows they're not usually there. He doesn't like fat people, which is embarrassing, but I also knew a dog as a teenager that freaked out anytime it saw someone who wasn't Asian. Just given the amount of back and forth communication that happens between most owners and their dogs, they're very clever. Cats are some of the best hunters in the animal kingdom, but I've never felt that they're there in the way that dogs are.
  - cosmic_cheese 10mo ago
    > Cats can vary wildly. One of my cats seems dumb as a box of rocks and haven't even grasped the idea of object permanence Similarly I've seen cats have one of two reactions to a mirror: ignoring it entirely or actually using it by e.g. looking me in the eyes and meowing at me through it. While I've not witnessed it personally on the internet there's also tons of videos of cats freaking out and trying to fight the other cat in the mirror. This supports the idea that the gamut of intelligence in cats is quite wide.
    - IAmBroom 10mo ago
      I had a kitty that met her reflection on our first day together. Step 1: Meow at "other" kitty. Step 2: Walk around mirror to meet other kitty. Step 3: Stare other kitty in face near edge of mirror, then suddenly bat paw around the edge to tag that elusive sucker. Step 4: Sit and ponder. Step 5: Accept that there is no other kitty. Hmmph. One. Smart. Cat.
      - cindyllm 10mo ago
        [dead]
  - doctorshady 10mo ago
    I had a cat for a while that seemed surprisingly capable when he was motivated. The most interesting thing I saw him pull off was pushing a heavy bag of cat food off the top of a refrigerator to split it open. Occasionally, he'd demonstrate the ability to plan too. When he started to get territorial and start fights with neighborhood cats, we started keeping him inside. Naturally, this didn't sit right with him. After watching someone enter the house every day in the evening, eventually, he would perch next to the door in the evening waiting to bolt out the moment the door opened.
  - dhosek 10mo ago
    I had a cat once who didn’t grasp the idea of a box having an inside. I used a cardboard box as a laundry basket and when folding laundry, I would ball pairs of socks and toss them inside the box. He always ran behind the box and couldn’t figure out where the socks went.
- nunez 10mo ago
  Dogs and cats have different modalities for intelligence. Dogs are social animals that have evolved to be human companions a long time ago. This is why they are "trainable" and, therefore, seem more intelligent. Cats are not; they are extremely good hunters that by and large tolerate humans in exchange for easy access to food and water. You can't really train them, but they will find hiding spots you didn't even know existed and you will NEVER have problems with mice with one around.
  - BeFlatXIII 10mo ago
    I'll echo Sohcahtoa's sibling comment to yours, but with a different pair of species: horses and donkeys (mules count as donkeys for this one). Donkeys have a reputation for being stupid and stubborn because they're smarter than horses. Too independent for easy training, and will refuse an idiotic command.
- ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
  > I think dogs in general are smarter than cats. This is exactly what a dog would say.
  - Dilettante_ 10mo ago
    And that's exactly what a cat would say! (≖_≖ )
mc32 10mo ago
Are they as randy in real life as Pepe lePew?
- dhosek 10mo ago
  Only towards black cats with a white stripe.
TylerE 10mo ago
Removing the scent glands of a skunk is considered about as ethical as declawing a cat. It just isn't really done anymore. Maybe 30 years ago...
- cogman10 10mo ago
  I don't really understand this. Isn't it about as surgically invasive as getting a pet spayed? Does the scent gland do anything more than just stinking? For a cat, removing the claws literally removes bones from them. It limits their mobility and hurts like hell. (Not that I want a pet skunk. Just curious as to why it's unethical)
  - TylerE 10mo ago
    I mean, you're removing part of a living animal for human convenience. If the ethical issue isn't obvious I don't know what to tell you. The practice has been banned in the UK for almost 20 years, under the exact same laws as ban declawing cats. It's unnecessary mutilation with no medical justification.
    - quickthrowman 10mo ago
      We neuter male cats so they don’t spray piss everywhere and spay female cats so they don’t go into heat and scream incessantly to be let outside. Both procedures seem slightly more invasive than removing a scent gland in a skunk, given that it removes the sex organs that secrete hormones and changes their behavior for the rest of their life. It’s possible that a skunk gets anxious when it tries to spray and nothing comes out, I can’t say I’m an expert in skunk behavior, it just seems less invasive than spaying or neutering to me.
      - TylerE 10mo ago
        No, we neuter and spay so we are not overrun with feral cats. Not to control where they piss.
        10mo ago

Skunks apparently make great pets (but need to have their stink glands surgically extracted), the pitch is smart like a cat but faithful like dogs

by inasio 10mo ago

Skunks apparently make great pets (but need to have their stink glands surgically extracted), the pitch is smart like a cat but faithful like dogs

cinntaile 10mo ago

I think dogs in general are smarter than cats.

Sohcahtoa82 10mo ago
Dogs are certainly better at looking intelligent. I think dogs, being a more social animal, are more eager to please, and so are willing to be trained. Cats can vary wildly. One of my cats seems dumb as a box of rocks and haven't even grasped the idea of object permanence. If she's tracking a laser, and I move it around a corner, she can't figure out where it went. She goes from intense staring and tracking to standing up and looking around, confused. When I bring the laser back around the corner, she's instantly back to squatting and tracking it.
- estimator7292 10mo ago
  I've known many dogs that fail this test, too.
- coderenegade 10mo ago
  Our dog remembers the location of toys at the park over long periods of time, though being able to sniff them out probably helps. He also expresses genuine surprise and suspicion when he sees novel objects (e.g. the large Christmas tree that was put up in the park, a horse and rider), because he knows they're not usually there. He doesn't like fat people, which is embarrassing, but I also knew a dog as a teenager that freaked out anytime it saw someone who wasn't Asian. Just given the amount of back and forth communication that happens between most owners and their dogs, they're very clever. Cats are some of the best hunters in the animal kingdom, but I've never felt that they're there in the way that dogs are.
- cosmic_cheese 10mo ago
  > Cats can vary wildly. One of my cats seems dumb as a box of rocks and haven't even grasped the idea of object permanence Similarly I've seen cats have one of two reactions to a mirror: ignoring it entirely or actually using it by e.g. looking me in the eyes and meowing at me through it. While I've not witnessed it personally on the internet there's also tons of videos of cats freaking out and trying to fight the other cat in the mirror. This supports the idea that the gamut of intelligence in cats is quite wide.
  - IAmBroom 10mo ago
    I had a kitty that met her reflection on our first day together. Step 1: Meow at "other" kitty. Step 2: Walk around mirror to meet other kitty. Step 3: Stare other kitty in face near edge of mirror, then suddenly bat paw around the edge to tag that elusive sucker. Step 4: Sit and ponder. Step 5: Accept that there is no other kitty. Hmmph. One. Smart. Cat.
    - cindyllm 10mo ago
      [dead]
- doctorshady 10mo ago
  I had a cat for a while that seemed surprisingly capable when he was motivated. The most interesting thing I saw him pull off was pushing a heavy bag of cat food off the top of a refrigerator to split it open. Occasionally, he'd demonstrate the ability to plan too. When he started to get territorial and start fights with neighborhood cats, we started keeping him inside. Naturally, this didn't sit right with him. After watching someone enter the house every day in the evening, eventually, he would perch next to the door in the evening waiting to bolt out the moment the door opened.
- dhosek 10mo ago
  I had a cat once who didn’t grasp the idea of a box having an inside. I used a cardboard box as a laundry basket and when folding laundry, I would ball pairs of socks and toss them inside the box. He always ran behind the box and couldn’t figure out where the socks went.
nunez 10mo ago
Dogs and cats have different modalities for intelligence. Dogs are social animals that have evolved to be human companions a long time ago. This is why they are "trainable" and, therefore, seem more intelligent. Cats are not; they are extremely good hunters that by and large tolerate humans in exchange for easy access to food and water. You can't really train them, but they will find hiding spots you didn't even know existed and you will NEVER have problems with mice with one around.
- BeFlatXIII 10mo ago
  I'll echo Sohcahtoa's sibling comment to yours, but with a different pair of species: horses and donkeys (mules count as donkeys for this one). Donkeys have a reputation for being stupid and stubborn because they're smarter than horses. Too independent for easy training, and will refuse an idiotic command.
ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
> I think dogs in general are smarter than cats. This is exactly what a dog would say.
- Dilettante_ 10mo ago
  And that's exactly what a cat would say! (≖_≖ )

mc32 10mo ago

Are they as randy in real life as Pepe lePew?

dhosek 10mo ago
Only towards black cats with a white stripe.

TylerE 10mo ago

Removing the scent glands of a skunk is considered about as ethical as declawing a cat. It just isn't really done anymore. Maybe 30 years ago...

cogman10 10mo ago
I don't really understand this. Isn't it about as surgically invasive as getting a pet spayed? Does the scent gland do anything more than just stinking? For a cat, removing the claws literally removes bones from them. It limits their mobility and hurts like hell. (Not that I want a pet skunk. Just curious as to why it's unethical)
- TylerE 10mo ago
  I mean, you're removing part of a living animal for human convenience. If the ethical issue isn't obvious I don't know what to tell you. The practice has been banned in the UK for almost 20 years, under the exact same laws as ban declawing cats. It's unnecessary mutilation with no medical justification.
  - quickthrowman 10mo ago
    We neuter male cats so they don’t spray piss everywhere and spay female cats so they don’t go into heat and scream incessantly to be let outside. Both procedures seem slightly more invasive than removing a scent gland in a skunk, given that it removes the sex organs that secrete hormones and changes their behavior for the rest of their life. It’s possible that a skunk gets anxious when it tries to spray and nothing comes out, I can’t say I’m an expert in skunk behavior, it just seems less invasive than spaying or neutering to me.
    - TylerE 10mo ago
      No, we neuter and spay so we are not overrun with feral cats. Not to control where they piss.
      - 10mo ago