Cats don't have owners, they have staff.

It's a well-known fact that Cats are independent creatures. With that said, unlike their canine counterparts, domestic cats are not the type to wait on all paws for their owners [humans]. Cats tend to come and go whenever they please, and like to have their own way in the household. In their perfect little 'kitty' world, cats would be telling humans exactly what they want and when they want it, for example, when they want dinner or a snack.

Speaking of snacks, a totally awesome and adorable video is now taking the internet by storm, showing two cats ringing a bell and being fed treats in a conditioning game.

Ding ding ding

In the video, the cats are side by side, each with their own plate and bell. It almost looks as though they are in a restaurant! They both take turns tapping the bell with their paws and every time the bell rings, someone [their waiter] quickly feeds them a treat. The footage is fun and entertaining to watch, and viewers have expressed fascination with the intelligence displayed by the two kitties. Here's what one user on Twitter had to say about the whole thing:

Watch how the cats are focused on getting their main objective: the treats!

Understanding cats better

What is seen here is quite similar to Pavlov's famous dog experiment, where a dog was conditioned to associate food with the sound of a bell. Here, the cats know that as long as they touch the bell and it sounds off, they will get the treat. The mere fact that it happens every time is teaching them to ask for [or demand] the treat by ringing the bell with their paw. It doesn't even matter which bell, it seems, as we see the darker colored kitty using the other's bell at one point. The sound is the key factor. But were the cats training the human 'waiter' instead?

A recent study of 50 cats found that cats actually prefer spending time with humans to playing with toys and eating food.

According to researchers, this finding could help owners to train their pet cats by using quality time as a reward. In a research paper, scientists wrote: "Domestic cats engage in a variety of relationships with humans. Nonetheless, it is still a common belief that cats are not especially sociable or trainable. This disconnect may be due, in part, to a lack of knowledge of what stimuli cats prefer, and thus may be most motivated to work for."