What do you do with your pets when you are traveling?

Cats are highly intelegent (most of them, anyway. My first guy was all looks and no brains!) But they will only aply that intelegence to things that benefit them. Like manipulating an auto-feeder, or unscrewing the on the kibble jug. Some cats have learned how to open cupboards to get at food, or open refridgerators. Some have learned how to open doors if they want to get in your room to sleep on your bed. Dogs can be trained because they are eager to please the pack leader. Hunting, retrieving, herding, guarding. They can be taught to guide the blind, making judgement calls about when it was NOT safe to obey. Or how to be ears for the deaf. They taught US they could detect seizures, low blood sugar, cancer cells, and we learned how to make use of this. I think much of the underestimating of animals intelegence is due to the language barrier. When we can't make it clear to a dog what we want of them, they apear rather stupid. And cats are selfserving. I have a colection of buttons with sayings about cats, including one that says; "Cats know what you want. They don't give a damn, but they know."