love when you stop a cat from doing something and instead of understanding that they shouldnt be doing that theyre just like. ah sorry my good sir you seem to have interrupted me. no worries let me just shimmy past you and get a taste of that pan of hot oil. please.
As someone who owns cats that will run away if you get up while they are eating from another cat's bowl, but not while they are eating from their own bowl: I am more inclined to agree with the posts that say "cats understand the concept of sin".
sometimes when they see you coming they do the naughty thing faster (eg: when trying to steal an object they cant quite reach, or trying to eat all of something). they realize you're going to stop them, but their thought process doesn't reach the conclusion of "I shouldn't be doing this".
instead they're like "I guess there's a time limit to my task now. but god as my witness I'm gonna complete it."
My favorite cat behavior thing is when you try to stop them doing something and they understand the rules better than they should.
Like, you don't want the cat on the counter, so you yell at them and spray them with the bottle when you see them on the counter.
So they go "Oh, I see! I get it now. I'm not allowed on the counter when people are around". So they make sure not to get caught on the counter.
