No matter how many times the cups are moved, this cat always knows which cup the ball is in.

Over the years, we’ve seen cats ringing bells for food, playing tag on the street, and even talking with their human before nap-time. Now we’ve discovered another clever cat in Japan, and this one is amazing everyone with his uncanny ability to play a ball-in-the-cup game, knowing exactly which cup is hiding the ball every time.

The master of the game is a cute cat called Snow, a one-and-a-half-year-old American Curl who is blessed with a unique pattern on his chest that resembles the character Totoro from the Studio Ghibli anime film Spirited Away.

While Snow looks like any other ordinary cat, his hidden abilities come to the fore when his owner brings out a ping pong ball and a set of paper cups. After hiding the ball in one cup, Snow’s owner shuffles the cups around and then takes her hands away. See how Snow reacts to the game in the video below!

Originally known as the “Shell Game”, this cup-and-ball trick is often played around the world by humans, who sometimes wager money on the cups when playing. With Snow’s incredible 100-percent success rate with the game, he’d be one rich cat if he ever decided to play the game for money!

While some commenters have suggested Snow’s impressive skills might be due to the heightened ability of felines to hear or see the ball inside the paper cup, the fact that Snow plays the game quite happily over and over again is warming people’s hearts everywhere, with the cute cat receiving adoring comments from viewers all around the world.

To see more of Snow’s amazing abilities, check out this cute compilation video on YouTube:

As Snow’s owner says, the thing that’s so precious about the game is the fact that her cat understands it and likes to play and interact with her. We might not be able to speak the language of cats just yet, but until we can, interactive games like these might just be the next best thing!

Featured image: Instagram/curlysnow0915
[ Read in Japanese ]