This is what I always say, but she said it better:

Here’s a question that could get us in trouble. Are dogs smarter than cats?

It’s a very difficult question to answer in any meaningful way. I could ask you, which is a better tool, a hammer or a screwdriver? They’re designed to do different things. Compare the origins of these animals in the wild, their progenitors, the wolf and the wild African cat. You have one that is an endurance runner, a pack animal that relies on cooperation. You have another that is a relatively asocial, stalking hunter that relies on stealth to be successful. These are completely different social systems and ways of life, and evolution shaped those minds to be really different because they do completely different things in terms of how they make a living.

From this interesting article about dog intelligence.

There’s one thing mentioned about dogs that I’ve noticed in my cats: deceptiveness: “dogs avoid misbehaving if you are watching them”. My cats are geniuses at that.