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American Cats are really Intelligent, aren't they?

Miss Chicken

Miss Chicken

Little three legged cat with attitude
Admiral
I like detective novels and I love cats. This means I was very happy when I found a few copies of the Cat Who Series of books (by Lilian Jackson Braun). I read those few books and marvelled at the sleuthing abilities of Koko and Yum Yum.

I decided I needed to buy more of the series so I went searching on Amazon.com and I was surprised to find a second series about investigating felines in the Mrs Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown.

Then I discovered there was another series about cat detectives, names the Jacques and Cleo Mysteries by Gilbert Morris.

Then a fourth series about Sam the Cat Detective by Linda Stewart

Then yet another cat detective, Joe Gray by Shirley Rousseau Murphy.

I have decided that either there are a lot of clever cats in America, or else many crazy authors.

I am ashamed to admit that my cats are too stupid to sleuth, how about yours?

Also can anyone recommend any other quirky mystery series?
 
I for one welcome our new feline overlords.

I'm already at work on a the first post-human history of the world.
 
One of my cats is smart enough to know the that the doorknob is involved in opening the door. When he wants to go out, he repeatedly jumps up trying to whack the knob in a futile effort to make the door open.

Of course, he's Siberian, not American...
 
I sort of wonder why I haven't come across similar detective novels featuring dogs. Maybe there are some, I just don't know about them.
 
Miss Chicken said:
I sort of wonder why I haven't come across similar detective novels featuring dogs. Maybe there are some, I just don't know about them.
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Maybe it's because the capabilities of real police dogs are known?

On the other hand--there have been a number of "super-dogs" in popular culture, who have probably solved a few crimes in their time.

Here in Canada, we had a TV show between 1979 and 1985 called The Littlest Hobo about a stray German shepherd who went around righting wrongs and solving people's problems.
 
The Littliest Hobo used to be shown on Australian TV as well. I loved it.

I was a bit surprised at the dates you gave for it run as I know I had seen it as a child not as an adult (and I was an adult in 1979).

I looked it up and it seems you saw the second run of the show.

The Littlest Hobo is a Canadian television series, based upon a 1958 American film directed by Charles R. Rondeau. The show first aired from 1963 to 1965, and was then revived for a popular second run on CTV from 1979 to 1985.
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Miss Chicken said:
I sort of wonder why I haven't come across similar detective novels featuring dogs. Maybe there are some, I just don't know about them.
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Dog On It . A really unique mystery novel where we see the story through the eyes of the detective's companion, a dog named Chet. It's funny and rather unique. The mystery part of the story is pretty decent too. It's a good read, and it's hopefully the first in a long series. :bolian:
 
:borg:
Shikarnov said:
One of my cats is smart enough to know the that the doorknob is involved in opening the door. When he wants to go out, he repeatedly jumps up trying to whack the knob in a futile effort to make the door open.

Of course, he's Siberian, not American...
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One of my cats used to use the knocker on the door when he was outside wanting to come in. Unffortunately for him when we moved our new house didn't have a knocker.
 
Camelopard said:
There's also Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story.

EDIT: Sounds like I'd enjoy this one.
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They both sound like they would be an enjoyable read. I have added them to my Wish List.

Dog On It . A really unique mystery novel where we see the story through the eyes of the detective's companion, a dog named Chet. It's funny and rather unique. The mystery part of the story is pretty decent too. It's a good read, and it's hopefully the first in a long series.
Click to expand...

Also added to my Wish List.

My Wish List is getting rather long. The only reason I sometimes wish I had more money is to buy books.
 
I used to adore the Cat Who series, I must've read a dozen of them over one summer holiday, hehe.

Cats are inquisitive and smart, dogs are just stupid and meh. =)
 
I've read a couple of the Rita Mae Brown books, but I haven't even heard of most of the rest.

As for supersmart dogs, don't forget the ultimate: Lassie. :cool:

Cats have become rather a sub-genre in and of themselves. There have been several cat-centric genre anthologies; Cat Fantastic was one. In fact, I believe there was a short-lived magazine devoted to genre cat fiction.

Having had cats all my life, I can vouch for the fact that some of them can be quite brilliant. And some can be quite stupid. And all of them are stark raving mad. :rommie:
 
My cat has learned to successfully stalk and capture prey by blending perfectly into the background as seen here. He is essentially invisible during the hunt :)
 
Shikarnov said:
One of my cats is smart enough to know the that the doorknob is involved in opening the door. When he wants to go out, he repeatedly jumps up trying to whack the knob in a futile effort to make the door open.
Click to expand...
When my daughter got her kitten in college she lived in an apartment with lever style doorknobs. He quickly figure out how to jump and later reach up and pull the lever down to open the door. After she graduated he came to live with me and we have the regular old round doorknobs. He's finally figured out how those work though and I regularly catch him standing up with a paw on either side of the knob trying to turn it. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to have the forearm power to make that happen. Yet.
 
The Mrs. Murphy books are pretty good. It also features a Corgi as part of the sluthing team, so dogs get a good rep. there.

One of my mom's cats can open the door when he wants out. Has many times, so they have to keep it unlocked. I think he can open it from the outside and inside. I think my cat is pretty cunning, in a devilish/playful way.
 
When I was a kid I read a book called "Walk a Lonely Road" by Joyce Stranger. It was about a police dog and I loved it. (Talking late 70s very early 80s). She wrote a lot of animal stories and was popular at the time, but I've not heard about any of her books for years. Also, it's so many years since I read the book, I have no idea what it was about!
 
Shikarnov said:
One of my cats is smart enough to know the that the doorknob is involved in opening the door. When he wants to go out, he repeatedly jumps up trying to whack the knob in a futile effort to make the door open.

Of course, he's Siberian, not American...
Click to expand...

My in-laws have two cats, one of them highly intelligent. They had to childproof some things in their house like cabinets, trash, etc, because he kept getting into them. This cat has opened a locked bedroom door, not even the lever kind, several times. He has also pushed open the sliding glass door in their basement. It wasn't locked at the time, but it was closed all the way and takes a great deal of force (and knowledge, if you're a cat) to open. The other pets escaped with him that time and we were searching for them but he led them all back as well, it seems. I've also fallen asleep at their house to wake up with him actually putting a paw up my shirt!

His intelligence freaks me out at times.
 
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