How is this not common knowledge? Anyone who ever interacted with a cat knows they learn words. Cows, horses and other mammals do too.
I have also loved and been loved by many dogs too. I am not a dog OR cat person - I am AND. When me and the wife met in 2003, she had two dogs and I had two cats. They all lived out their days together happily.
I can't speak for horses and cows - limited personal exposure. I think that the relationship between humans and cats and dogs are rather different. I'm not too sure that cats really learn words in quite the same way that dogs do.
Cats are far less "domesticated" than dogs. Apart from real killers, when was the last time that a dog delivered a disembowelled small mammal/bird/reptile to you and requested your approval?
If you have a few 100 (or 1000) years to spend, why not start off with a population of lions (which do live in prides and are hence pack animals) and breed them down to domestic cat size and somehow domesticate them.
Now compare them with dogs.
I've never communicated with a cat using words - bloody daft! OK I do speak at them out of habit but I use high pitched sounds when "communicating" and never look them in the eye. I've rarely met a cat I could not convince to come on over and be stroked.
As the old saw goes, "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff." And truer words were never spoken!
It's time for us (you, actually) cat owners to rise up and reclaim (y)our world.
I'll need to consult the boss and my employment contract, but I don't believe that's within my purview.
Bear in mind that cats are highly trainable, but most people don't understand how. They aren't as easily trained as a dog because they (cats) have different motivations.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-may-recognize...
There is a lot of stupid common knowledge, from fan death to cold weather causing colds.
Gravity was famously misunderstood through various common knowledges for millennia. Birds, clouds and stars each confounded theories.
That's true, though.