Strange But True Smart Animal Stories

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I'm not sure what the above line says. It was typed by my cat, Holly, who has no qualms about walking across my computer keyboard. At times she has signed me out of a website, brought up an ad, and typed comments in my chat room.

One day I was reading an article about a little boy who was knocked off his bicycle by the neighbor's dog and how the boy's cat chased the dog away before it could bite the child. My cat was looking at the pictures and when she saw the one of the cat, she stretched out her paw and placed it on the photo – almost as if saying, "Good job!"

I've heard the term, "dumb animals," many, many times. I beg to differ.

My mother told me of how a cat saved her, my father and my grandfather from a house fire.

My parents were living with my grandfather. His health wasn't very good, so they were taking care of him. They had taken in a stray cat they found living under the porch. Mom said they named the cat Ring because it was all white except for a black ring around one eye.

A few months later, Ring woke up my father in the middle of the night. Thinking the cat wanted to go outside, Dad got out of bed and went to the kitchen, intending to open the outside door. However, the kitchen was full of smoke. Dad located the source of the smoke – a pair of work gloves sitting in the space between the ceiling and the top of the cupboards. He grabbed the gloves and threw them out the door. Mom said that as soon as the gloves hit the air, they exploded into flames.

Dad told me that before Ring woke him up, he had not smelled the smoke because of the distance from the kitchen to the bedroom.

For a long time after our cat, Scraps, died, I didn't want another pet. But three years ago, I decided I wanted a cat again. I visited the cat rescue shelter in Glasgow and within the matter of 20 minutes was adopted by an all black cat who had lost its ears to frost. Since it was the week before Christmas, she was named Holly and took up residence with us.

On the nights my knees are causing me a lot of pain, Holly will curl up on my bed right next to me in an effort to comfort me. She seems to sense my every mood. She knows when I'm getting ready to leave the house for a couple of days because she walks with me towards the door, but then sits down and watches me go. When I get back, she is at the door to greet me before I even open it.

Animals are far from dumb. Take, for example, service dogs, K-9 dogs, and now dogs that can detect cancer, sometimes before a person even knows they have it.

Cats, dogs, horses and more – there are many stories of how they've rescued people and saved lives. I've read articles about pets that have gotten lost yet eventually find their way home.

I'm quite sure many of you reading this have stories of your own about your pets and how smart they are.

Dumb animals? I think not.