A most intelligent cat investigates the printer mystery

Youtubes of cats and printers- there are a so many of these! But these two caught my eye. In most I've watched, the cat goes wild and crazy pouncing on the paper, and usually destruction ensues, with funny results.

But, watch the way this kitty "Smudge" responds. You can almost read Smudge's mind. Instead of mindlessly pouncing, Smudge wants to understand the details of what's going on. Mostly, I think,

"hmmm... where did that paper come from, and how did it get there? Is there any more where that came from? Hmmmm.... is there more at the back of the printer? Is it hidden in the scanner? Why didn't I see it move from the scanner to the printer?"

Sure looks to me like Smudge has been paying a lot of attention to the situation, and KNOWS that the human hides pieces of paper under the scanner lid. A most intelligent cat!

I wanted to see what Pam/werebear at The Way of Cats had written about cat intelligence, as she is a most astute cat observer- I link her blog in the sidebar. This post Are Cats Intelligent? is great- and, this part, tho it talks about mousies as prey, describes the same type of "thinking" cat:

...We see the cat bounding after their prey in the final act of what has been a much longer drama. When we offer the cat a more complete prey experience (...) we see more of what is going on in the cat’s mind. Given more intelligent prey, cats will study the object, find places to view the object, set themselves up to ambush the object, and then complete the action with their pouncing.

So, let's watch Smudge, the cat detective.