He compares getting the serval out of the tub to negotiating with Hamas, lolol.
Well, to give him just a small amount of credit, the larger the cat, the less they listen to humans. Servals, in particular, are known for not listening to humans. I have actually seen a "pet" serval throw a hissy fit (literally) because she was hot and tired, and wouldn't move from where she was lying down unless her human carried her into the house and presented her with food and water, like a spoiled princess.
I find that once cats hit a certain size, seems to be around ~70 lbs (so large Canadian Lynx size), they stop listening to people entirely and now only tolerate human presence. The last level seems to be between ~150-200 lbs, which is when they realize they are as big as we are, or bigger, and now we potentially end up on the menu, with the larger the cat, the more likely that is to happen.
I say this from having worked with larger cats to a limited extent when I was interning for experience when applying to a "big animal" focused veterinary program (pardon my powerlevel).
Interestingly enough sometimes it seems like they're peoplewatching on me while I'm going about some tasks outside.
That is actually likely true. From the more recent understanding of Corvid brain structures, it has been learned that for a very long time we have vastly underestimated how intelligent they are as a result of not understanding now their brains were organized.
Humans tends to stack functional groupings of higher order process circuits horizontally, so you can think of it as a "wide" distribution. As a result of this, we generally always classified animal neural anatomy and intelligence according to how similar it was to our brain/the brains of other members of the great apes since this is the predominant neural structuring in mammals.
However, we have discovered this is not appropriate for how advanced birds structure their brains. It was discovered that the functional groupings of higher order process circuits for their brains are vertical, in column like structures, so a "tall" distribution. This actually allows them to pack much more circuitry in a much smaller space, so they get much more neural processing power out of their smaller neural volume compared to a comparable brain in a mammal. As such, people have vastly underestimated how intelligent the advanced birds are. It is now believed based on behavioral testing and modern neuroanatomical and neurophysiological modeling that the Corvids are at least as intelligent as a 4-5 year old child.
