CATS KNOW THEIR OWN NAME

Today in science spending time on things we already know, Japanese scientists said that they’ve provided the first experimental evidence that cats can recognize their own name. Atsuko Saito of Sophia University in Tokyo says there’s no evidence cats actually attach meaning to their own names. Instead, they’ve learned that when they hear their names they often get rewards like food or play, so the sound of it becomes special, even if they don’t really understand it refers to their identity. In experiments, each cat heard a recording of its owner’s voice, or another person’s voice, that slowly recited a list of four nouns or other cat’s names, followed by the cat’s own name. Sure enough, on average, these cats perked up when they heard their own name.
* If cats respond to the sound of their name, every cat’s name is Can Opener.
* My cat only responds to “GET OFF THE TABLE!”
* Here’s how stupid cats are: With their back legs in the litter box, they’ll paw the bare floor outside the litter box to try to cover their poop with gravel.
* This experiment took, what, about 10 minutes? It probably took longer to round up the cats.
* The experiment ended when the cats killed the scientists by stopping abruptly while leading the scientists down a flight of stairs.