Friday Snippets and Soundbites

It's Friday and that means "Snippets and Soundbites"! If today's edition leaves you wanting more, check out page 38 in the August (and every month) issue of ec. You won't be sorry!

Ready for some fun? Yeah, us too! Let's go!

• Mandy (ec's editor) has a dog who can dance, but Nora the cat has that beat. She plays the piano. Yep, you read that right! She's a 5-year-old shelter rescue cat owned by a couple in Philadelphia and apparently took up piano playing all on her own. One of her owners is a piano teacher who teaches students in the home, which features two pianos side-by-side. Nora sometimes accompanies students on the other piano during their lessons. A feline expert says that Nora probably started playing the piano as a way to get attention and probably learned her musical prowess from watching her owner give piano lessons. Read all about it here. And see videos of Nora playing here.

• Oh, it's August. Which means it's hot and many of you are headed back to school. It's also one of the only months without a holiday. We'd love to know what holiday you would start if you had the chance. Let us know on our poll.

• Speaking of dogs, a researcher in Canada says that the newest research method used to discover how intelligent dogs are is to use test meant for very young children. Stanley Coren, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said these tests will help determine whether dogs have certain thinking skills and help place those skills in comparison to those of humans. Coren has previously speculated that the mental ability of dogs is close to that of two- to two-and-a-half-year-olds. At his presentation last week, he said that dogs can learn about 165 words, including signals; they can count up to four or five and have a basic understanding of arithmetic. So, beware! Your dog may know more than you think! If you'd like to read more about Coren's research and find out what he says are the smartest breeds of dogs, go here.

That's it for today! Have a wonderful day, especially if you're going back to school! :)