To what extent to cats have an imagination?

[Lynds]

Cosmic post lol   

I think building a little cat fort is a lovely thing to do for your wee moggy. My Izzy isn't the slightest bit interested in boxes.

[Catbird]

This morning, before I left for work, Dot and I played the Evil Hand Game.  This involves me "spidering" my hand towards her and then Dot grabbing the hand with both front paws and slashing it with her back paws.  The great thing is that she does this with NO CLAWS  , so even imagining the Evil Hand she knows it's just a game and not to hurt Fat Hooman.  I hid more treats in her cardboard Village of the Damned before I left for work and she was happily terrifying the non-existent when I went out the door.   

I'd love to see inside her head sometimes, I really would.

C.

[soudicca]

Jake, my big black boy, certainly shows self awareness.  He likes to admire himself in the mirror or any reflective surface.  I tried sneaking up on him but he watched me the whole time... in the mirror, eventually right at the last minute looking over his shoulder straight at me and giving me 'the look'.

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

........... Hope they are well and not too lost and lonely ...

      

[blackcat]

Smidgen is a highly intelligent, but not terribly academic cat. He will play with his own tail for hours on end. And will suddenly leap to attention and attack a seemingly innocent pattern on the carpet. Esther, on the other hand, focusses all her play behaviours on 'people' (two legged or four) and on objects. She has had me runing downstairs in the dead of night in response to her more vigourous games with the catnip bag. But with her, it is clear that she knows that what she is playing with is what it is. Not something imaginary. With Smidgen, well who knows what goes on inside that head of his. The nicest times are when his games involve smooching up to Shadow ... Hope they are well and not too lost and lonely ...

[James]

When I see my guys chasing nothing or on a perfectly clean mark free floor going for something that isn't there I have to wonder if thats pure imagination.

It's good to know it's not just my cat - I just thought he was a bit loopy 
He's not that good at problem solving either - I think it's cause he was in a 'rescue centre' for 4 years, so didn't have to think much.
I would think they must have imaginations, cause of the dreaming - they are imagining situations.... (?)

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

...........................cats are great puzzle-solvers...

My first cats certainly were.   I once arrived home with a bag of shopping just as the phone was ringing so I dumped the bag on the kitchen floor and went to answer it.  When I returned, Ginger had fished a tub of cream out of the bag, made holes in the lid and was rolling it up and down the kitchen floor, licking up all the cream that spilled out of the holes. Puzzle-solving definitely but whether it was imagination or greed I wouldn't like to say.

[Christine (Blip)]

Here's something that may interest you, Catbird (and others too):

http://www.grandin.com/references/animal.consciousness.html

[Dark Moon]

This is a discussion I used to have with my Dad years and years (o.k. - decades) ago....

He maintained that animals (cats included) have no sense of self-awareness. Bosh! One cannot feel and exhibit jealousy without feeling threatened, and to feel threatened one has to have a sense of the self being threatened. And - just watch as you give one food or a catnip toy or some such and see if they don't feel jealous!

I do not believe they think as we do. Hope not, anyway! But they do have a sense of self awareness. And they do think. And they are creative - hence exhibiting imagination - in their own ways and with what is important to them.

We judge too much by our own limited understanding. Something that might be terribly innovative in the cat world might pass us by unnoticed because it simply isn't 'important' enough. To us.

They've managed to survive and thrive without us - and (likely even harder!) with us - for eons. That in itself shows imagination!

[2d]

I think that there must be some imagination in them - to what extent we'll likely never know unless we're reincarnated as cats (or happen to meet a talking one who can tell us).

[Catbird]

I think that they must have imagination to play hunt, without imagination of some kind then you could not convince them that an empty toilet roll is *actually* a mouse or rabbit  

Also hunters need an imagination to work out which way prey will leap etc

Or they could just be prepared to chase the empty toilet roll just because it moves, in the absence of real livestock.

[Catbird]

Or maybe the game she is playing is 'watch mummy act the fool'

Could very well be.

[Indys Mamma]

I think that they must have imagination to play hunt, without imagination of some kind then you could not convince them that an empty toilet roll is *actually* a mouse or rabbit  

Also hunters need an imagination to work out which way prey will leap etc

[tigerbaby]

I think cats have a vivid imagination! Well going from what I've seen with my indoor pud Capone!! He will suddenly set off, charge around, stop, look left, look right (ears glued to his head!) then charge off again as if he's seen a ghost.

I think it's his way of starting his own playtime!

[blackcat]

Or maybe the game she is playing is 'watch mummy act the fool'

[Catbird]

Puzzle solving requires imagination and cats are great puzzle-solvers...

Strangely though, Dot is not good at puzzles.  I put her favourite cat treats in an eggbox and she's totally lost, no matter how many times I show her the treats and how the eggbox works!  I think she just likes running around visiting furry death on her (imaginary) unfortunate little empire!

C.

[Christine (Blip)]

That's a very big question that you ask, Catbird, as it links to the questions of consciousness and self-awareness - one of the most interesting areas of science, for my money.

I'm not answering, you'll note 

[Joote]

haha definatley have a good use of imagination - Mine seem to imagine they own the place and that food ect comes from thin air!

[Janeyk]

Definitely lots of imagination going on with cats when you watch them, especially at play

[MrsR]

When I see my guys chasing nothing or on a perfectly clean mark free floor going for something that isn't there I have to wonder if thats pure imagination.

[blackcat]

It's kind of hard to work out where imagination ends and instinct kicks in. But having seen my lot play some quite inventive games from time to time, I have to assume they have an imagination. Puzzle solving requires imagination and cats are great puzzle-solvers...

[Catbird]

Yesterday afternoon I set up Dot's little empire of cardboard boxes, tubes and crinkle tunnel.  She hasn't played with this for a while, as it takes ages to set up and takes over the whole of my 18' X 12' living room.  However, since the living room is pretty much Dot's exclusively (I live in the study and my bedroom) away she goes 

Now, she's been having terrific fun diving in and out of tubes, boxes etc.  I hid treats within all this and added large, thick pieces of crinkled up brown paper but even after the treats had been found and devoured, she played on.  This is where the question comes in: she seems to be playing an organised, imaginative game.  I am almost convinced that she is imagining herself to be some huge frightening creature ("is CATZILLA, stoopid Fat Hooman!" - Dot) terrorizing a community of small victims.

So... do cats have the intellect to play imaginative games?  They can obviously dream in an active way, does this suggest that they can use their imaginations, or am I just being daft?  I hid more treats within Dot's "victim community" before I went to work this morning and unless her morning nap has overtaken her, I guess she is still munching and terrorizing 

C.