Seattle's NEKO Cat Cafe already knew cats were awesome and could do the unthinkable.
They lead lost walkers in the mountains back to safety, purr to heal themselves of broken bones and damaged tissue and now Didga is the first cat to perform 20 tricks in under one minute.
This video shows her owner Robert Dollwet instructing Didja on a number of tricks like a high-five, side step (shuffle) and jumping up onto his hands --only to hop down from his knee and onto a skateboard.
Dollwet explained that Didja has been performing tricks since she was adopted from the shelter as a baby. But even in the beginning Didja didn't do it for free: she needed some positive reinforcement along the way.
"When she was a kitten, I would just have her food on the skateboard," Dollwet said. "She would get up on her skateboard and eat, and it didn't even roll in the beginning stages." As time passed, Dollwet began to push the skateboard while Didja was eating. If she stopped eating, he would stop rolling the skateboard. "It became such a positive experience [for her]", Dollwet said.
Dollwet explained that training a cat takes a lot of patience of positive reinforcement, so he never forces the training if she doesn't seem interested. Training a cat to be so amazing takes time!
