Mr. Bond was not seeking world domination. He was seeing if he could delegate some duties, and to see how their implementation changed with the messenger.
This is not unusual for cats to do with each other. Some are uncertain and some are unskilled, but all of them interact with each other, and use each other to test theories about humans.
We might not notice cats planning. In fact, they probably won’t like me spilling the secret like this.
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The more we create little tasks and playlets for the cats to participate in, the more our cats will understand.
Even when a cat is going it alone, any other cats will be interested in how this street theater will play out. One of Mr. Bond’s favorite ploys was to send RJ in to ask about breakfast, instead of doing it himself. It was a good teaching moment for RJ, too.
Then we would help Mr. Bond mold RJ into a better messenger. RJ used to get on the bed and stare blankly at us. Mr. Bond had described what he was supposed to do, but once on the bed, RJ was not good at getting our attention. So we would encourage RJ to approach closely and meet our eyes.
We built on Mr. Bond’s plan. Without it, we would not have had this teaching moment with RJ.
Cats who get along, and are interactive already, will be more likely to have many plans running at any given time. We might not realize it, but our feeding and other care schedules were partially created, and carefully supervised, by the cats.
If we don’t think our cats are making any plans, we should consider encouraging them with discussions and mental games, such as hiding toys or creating a special time of day for games.
Sometimes they can play together, sometimes not. Intensely focused cats will find it difficult to take turns.
Sharpen their mind as well as their body, and we will have mental fun, too.
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