From the day they brought her home, the D’Avellas’ black-and-white mutt loathed ringing phones. At the first trill, Jay Dee would bolt from the room and howl until someone picked up. But within a few weeks, the D’Avellas began missing calls. When the phone rang, their friends later told them, someone would pick up and then the line would go dead.

One evening, Aida D’Avella solved the mystery. Sitting in the family room of her Newark, N.J., home, she got up as the phone rang, but the dog beat her to it. Jay Dee lifted the receiver off the hook in her jaws, replaced it and returned contentedly to her spot on the rug.

Just about every pet lover has a story about the astonishing intelligence of his cat, dog, bird, ferret or chinchilla. Ethologists, the scientists who study animal behavior, have amassed thousands of studies showing animals can count, understand cause and effect, form abstractions, solve problems, use tools and even deceive.

This excerpt is from an article originally published by the Wall Street Journal. Please read the full article here.

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