An Engineer Trained His Cat to Put Out Fires

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There are times when we think cats don’t care about humans at all. There are times when they seem to be the most adorable creatures out there. But then we come upon stories that make us think cats might be out to take over the world. It’s a reach, we know. But we’ve always underestimated how smart cats actually are. Time and again, cats have proven they can do more than they let on, and this latest cat story proves just that. It turns out that cats may also have the propensity to become firefighters—on a smaller scale, of course. Perhaps it’s because of its ownership that this particular cat is able to do what it does. YouTuber and mechanical engineer William Osman seems to have done the impossible—he taught his cat how to put out fires. Perhaps it was simply impossible until now because no one’s thought of it before. At the very least, no one’s dared to undertake the process of teaching altogether. After all, what’s the point?

It could’ve been many reasons. For one it’s absolutely pure entertainment. It’s the perfect viral video because who doesn’t love watching cats do crazy things? It’s clear from Osman’s YouTube video that the entire endeavor took some thought, planning, and time. The video itself, which has since gathered well over 1 million views since it was published on September 3, 2020, is over 15 minutes long. Osman has a solid following of 2.11 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and we can imagine that a good number of those subscribers jumped on after watching his latest cat engineer video.

Either way Osman did it, and he did it well. He might’ve done it simply to see if it could work. The motivation came from the laser-baby build Osman had been working on inspired by the TV show The Boys. The build that Osman had been working on was fascinating, but the brilliance really is with the cat involvement. We all know that cats can be quite lazy and reluctant to training most of the time. They’re aloof and almost appear to be too good for that sort of thing. Cats are wonderfully smart creatures. They show their intelligence in many ways. For one, cats like to sit and observe—sometimes even doing so from a distance. This is the reason why many cat owners totally miss it or maybe even feel as if they’re being watched constantly. It’s probably because your cats are actually watching you, not out of desire to take over your world but simply because they’re naturally curious. They’re also mostly curious about you and what you’re doing. It’s one way they also show their affections.

It’s likely that Osman’s cat has been observing the whole process of Osman’s creation. Although it didn’t understand what it was for, it was likely already familiar with the build’s parts and components. So even when Osman was having difficulty training his cat to do the trick, it’s likely due to the fact that it just didn’t want to rather than it couldn’t. We’ve seen some pretty impressive cats on various media outlets. We’ve even seen them on TV talent shows. So we very well know that cats are perfectly capable and smart enough to perform tricks. Even more impressive is the fact that cats will never forget a skill once it’s been learned. This comes in extra handy, especially for the kind of skill that can potentially save lives.

The initial training of pushing the red button was an achievement in and of itself, but Osman was able to creatively put the entire thing together to turn the new skill into a show. Teaching a cat to push a button for a reward may sound simple enough, but we know it’s more complicated than it seems. We all appreciate the efforts, of course. But the true potential of this cat skill is tremendous if we somehow take it seriously enough. Osman’s set up was complete with a fire truck and a burning building. Even his cat had a firefighter outfit on. It was definitely adorable and incredibly fun to watch. However, we can’t help but think of the possibilities after watching Osman’s video. The image may be on a small scale, but it can definitely be applied to a larger picture. Imagine an elderly person at home living with a cat that has this specific skill mastered. If a cat is trained to hit a button when it sees fire or smoke, it can very well translate to a saved life or lives. Let’s say that button alerts a first-response company or simply an alarm group, it makes the world of a difference if no one else is able to get to a phone in time.

Let’s also imagine the scenario where there’s no one at home but your skill-trained cat. With a simple press of a button, a fire can be caught in time before it engulfs an entire house full of memories. While it has been one of the more entertaining things we’ve watched in a while, Osman’s video might actually have practical applications in the real world. Osman might actually have tapped into a new industry for cats. It will take a lot of development to take off, but there’s true potential in it. As Osman has proven in his video, it doesn’t seem impossible to make this happen. It’s a call to cat owners and cat lovers everywhere to get on to training and start brainstorming ways on how to make this happen. Someone’s got to do it, and we can’t expect your cat to make the first move.