118 Of The Most Unbelievably Smart Things Animals Have Done That Surprised People

This is not worryingly smart...more like, I'm here today because of my cat. I had just arrived home from school as an eleven-year-old. Nobody else was home. The cat always trotted towards the kitchen since I always fed her as soon as I got home. That day I had just bought a giant gobstopper (it was the 80's) and somehow inhaled the thing about three steps inside the house. The cat halfway trotted to the kitchen, heard me make the weird sound of a giant ball of candy lodging in my throat and stopped to turn around and look at me...looked me straight in the eye very focused like. I knew I was fucked...couldn't breathe in, couldn't cough and hadn't learned the self Heimlich maneuver yet (throwing yourself on a chair back). I sort of sat heavily on a nearby couch starting to panic. Well, the cat, with the very focused stare still in effect, charged at me...full cat sprint... and jumped hard on my stomach and out popped the gobstopper. I started sort of crying from the release of stress. The cat started purring and curled up in my lap. She saved her boy.

My cat liked to sleep under a lamp I had on my floor because of the warmth. But the light was bright, so he knocked down an empty trash can and put his head under it. But the trash can was hard-sided, so he dragged a sock over from the dirty clothes pile and used it as a pillow.

I came home to find him like this.

I have two very fat cats. One of them purrs at every touch while the other only purrs for my boyfriend. People will pet him, but he never ever purrs unless my boyfriend is petting him. He is a fairly smart cat and will lay next to us if we're feeling sick, I think so that we may feel better. This cat's name is Shade.

One day, I was extremely depressed. I couldn't get out of bed because what was the point? I silently sobbed to myself the whole night and the next morning, worried about the future.

And then I felt the weight of my cat hopping onto the bed. It was Shade. He very unexpectedly walked right up to my face and sat down next to me. I reached out to touch him.

He purred. He purred for me. He had never purred for anyone else before. It was that moment that I knew he knew something was wrong and he wanted me to feel better, however way he could do it. He knew it wasn't physical illness, but something deeper. He thought that maybe if he could convey that I make him feel good, that I would feel better. It worked; I suddenly felt that even if the whole world was against me, I still had him by my side.

I love my cats.

Bees are...not so smart when it comes to not drowning. You keep their water bowl shallow and with rough edges and lots of rocks in it for standing on, but some still fall in.

So one day I see a drowning lady in the water dish and I'm about to scoop her out when I see two others save her instead.

The two bees were on one of the rocks and they faced one another and held each other's legs, then and as a unit, backed down the rock until the farthest bee's back legs were in reach of the drowning bee. She grabbed on, then as a unit they scooted back up the rock until she was outta the water, then they helped her dry off.

Bees are amazing and fascinating and I've seen some cool shit in a hive, but that right there was next level awesome.

- Be living with myself and my two pets, a cat and a dog;
- Dog barks at everything and cat never give a **** about anything or anyone;
- Be asleep;
- Hear my dog barking;
- He shuts up after 30 seconds;
- I try to fall asleep again;
- After two minutes my dog start barking again like crazy;
- I go down to tell him to shut up;
- When I get down there is a freaking burglar on the bookshelf;
- Ski mask and all;
- On the floor lies a gun;
- Beneath bookshelf is my dog barking and jumping up after him;
- On the couch sits my cat looking like he found my tuna stash;
- I call the police;
- They arrest the guy;
- I give my dog a sausage for being a good guard dog;
- A couple of days later a guy calls from the station;
- During the interrogation the burglar admitted that he broke into my house, kicked my cat and lured my dog into a closet;
- My dog jumped him two minutes later;
- The burglar didn't know my dog can open doors;
- He can't;
- My cat being "**** everyone else" - king of the house can though;
- Taught himself so he can come and go as he pleases;
- My cat must have become pissed and released my dog so he could attack the burglar;
- MFW my cat is a ****;
- MFW I added animal cruelty to the charges.

My cat used to walk to the local vet by himself whenever he had a tick or wound. He'd go before I ever even knew there was a problem. There was a lot of confusion surrounding his patches of shaved hair and seemingly treated wounds before we found out what was going on. I have many, many stories about that cat.

I have a blind (born with fucked up eyes), 150lbs of solid muscle, American Bulldog.

He loves everyone. If he hears a new voice, the "love wiggles" begin. He is just a huge lover dog. Sleeps with my 4-year-old every night. Gets along with my cats and other dogs.

Just a giant sweetheart.

Well, a work buddy of mine gave me a ride home once. Invited him in for a bit. We walk in. My pup starts his love wiggles...

...and stops. Ears fall. Tail droops. His expression changes from his usual happy-go-lucky self into... the dog he looks like: A vicious monster.

Well... he bears his teeth, starts growling at my buddy, and when my son walked into the room, he went nuts. He lunged at my buddy, snarling, teeth barred.

WTF? He never acts like this. EVER.

I was so confused and embarrassed. My buddy leaves. I scold my pup. Life goes on.

Fast forward a few months and it turns out the buddy of mine from work is arrested for possession of kiddy-porn.

My blind beast who loves everyone... somehow knew to hate this guy. He instinctively disliked him. And when my son came into the room, he went into protect-mode and tried to get the guy.

Creepy stuff.

I made a crow friend while smoking on the porch. I gave it fragments of whatever food I could find on the way out. One day, I found an empty pack of Marb on the porch. Puzzled, but I threw it away. A few days later, I found my crow bro standing behind 3 empty packs of cigarettes. I tried to pick them to throw away, but the crow bro was protecting them for some reason. Frustrated, but I gave it a small chunk of meat as I took another drag. As I gave it the meat, the crow picked up one of the packs and placed it in front of me. Then, it hit me: the crow is trading with me. The trade went on for few more times until the winter hit Minnesota.

TL;dr; a crow traded cigarette packaging for food with me.

I had a cat that learned how to open the fridge, and then my dog started begging my cat for food. And then the cat started getting into the fridge just to feed the dog.

I patiently await the day where my pets decide to overthrow me and have me fixed. I'm not fighting it, that'll only make it worse in the long run.

I had a German Shepherd-Chow mix who was incredibly smart and loyal. She was a rescue our family picked up from a shelter when she was about 8 months old. Her name was Jazz, and I have never seen another like her.

When my brother was about two years old, he learned to unlock and open doors. We had a fenced in backyard with a large pool. We did have a sturdy cover on the pool at this time because it was dead of winter, but some water seeped on top of the cover, like most covers, if you were to try to walk across it.

One day, my brother opened the back door and headed straight for the pool. The lady who helped clean our house saw what was happening through the window over the sink. She screamed, and we all ran outside to go get him. What we saw was my wonderful dog stand in front of him, gently take his hand in her mouth and lead him away from the pool.

She was incredible.

My dog is a total idiot. I mean she regularly fails all of those dog intelligence tests, she's kind of neurotic and has a slightly deformed leg. She was once in a forest hiking with my mom and failed to notice a bear 10 yards away.

Anyways, my mom took her hiking with my aunt and her chocolate lab and they got seriously lost in the mountains. Mom was having a heat stroke, it was well in the 90's and my aunt didn't know where to go. My dog, who normally just lays down uselessly when it's too hot, lead them for six miles out of the forest- where she'd never been before. My mom and aunt occasionally thought she was wrong and tried to take a different term but she'd start whining and sit where the right trail was.

It took hours but my dog got everyone home safe and sound.

I worked at a pet store.

We had a guard dog. Mean looking pit bull dog.

When customers would show up before the store opened and bang on the door to get in, the owner would say "Sic 'em Butch" and the dog would run out of the back, barking and snarling, and slam into the front door glass till the customer went away and waited for the store to open.

One day, I was in the back of the store, and a customer came rapping on the front glass to get in early. Nobody was in the retail area of the store, the dog was in the back and didn't hear the rapping... But, the store mascot parrot was on his perch in the front of the store, and suddenly, called out, "Sic, em Butch!"

The dog came running, snarling and chased the customer away.

no humans were involved inside the store.

I just sat in amazement as I watched the whole thing.

Every morning for breakfast I always eat fruit and that weekend there was a farmers market selling fruit for cheap so I bought a TON. I couldn't fit them in the fridge so I left a few bags on the side in the dining room (reachable distance)

I **** you not, I woke up and was surprised to see an apple next to me. Over the next few days, my dog would get up in the morning, go in the bag, and get a fruit to put next to me on the bed. He proceeded to do this for the next two weeks until we ran out. I thought it was the cutest thing ever but a part of me is like holy ****.

There was a flock of little birds outside of a French bakery in California. They would pick at bits of scones and croissants people threw away in the trash cans nearby, and many of them would approach people for scraps. We noticed one particular bird hopping around on one leg begging for scraps, and we gave it a little bit of our bread. As soon as it had the bit of food in its beak, I swear to god it looked right at me and dropped its other leg to the ground.

My cat can operate the recliner, turn on/off the faucet, open doors, turn off lights, and defeat her food dispenser (she found the button that dispenses regardless of the timer).

At this point, it's like having a fat, furry roommate.

There was crow who would drop walnuts on the road waiting for cars to run them over. It would then wait at the crosswalk with people for the light to change. When it would it would walk over and eat the broken walnut.

When my big orange tabby cat wanted me up to feed him breakfast he got into the habit of coming into the bedroom and meowing loudly around 5 am. I soon cured him of that by getting up and quietly locking him in the bathroom for an hour or so while I got some more sleep. Sure enough, after a few times, he stopped waking me up with those loud "MEOOOWS!"

But I found I still would wake up early for some unknown reason with the cat on the floor by my bed staring at me expecting breakfast. It wasn't until one morning when I woke up really early and was just lying in bed thinking of getting up when I heard the smallest meow you could ever hear -just a little tiny kitten like "mew". He then waited a minute or two and then repeated. He basically did this non-stop at irregular intervals just within hearing range so I wouldn't know that he had woken me up.

Smart cat.

My parent's old dog would bring people's shoes to them, and she always matched the right shoes to the right people. It was especially awesome when we would have company that overstayed their welcome (my folks are farmers who like to go to bed early) when she would walk up and drop their shoes in their lap.

This was my dog.

I was eating a bagel on the couch and he was sitting on the floor next to me, just eyeing me down. You could tell he wanted some, but I wasn't giving in to his cute persuasions.

He calmly walks over the mudroom door and rings his bell that lets us know that he has to go to the bathroom. So I get off the couch, put my bagel on the coffee table and walk into the mudroom. Well between the time I got up and walked to the mudroom door, he ran around, back through the kitchen and had snagged my bagel off the table. I didn't even try to get it back from him, the slick bastard deserved his prize.

I realized who was the smartest being in the house that day.

I had an Australian Shepherd that I swore just plain understood English.

One day, we had a friend visiting from out of town and she had her little sheltie mix named Ginger with her. The friend lived in the city whereas we lived out in the country, so her dog was usually never outside without being on a leash, but my dogs free roam.

She decided to let Ginger off the leash. After a few minutes of exploring the yard, Ginger started to go into the woods. My friend got nervous and tried to call her back, but she wouldn't come.

My Aussie, Bauser, was there at my feet. In a conversational tone, I said, "Bauser, go get Ginger and bring her back."

Bauser got up, went over to where Ginger was in the woods, had a little "woof" conversation, and they both came trotting back.

My friend's jaw dropped. "How did you get her to do that??!"

Honestly, I was just as surprised as she was!