Skills are not easily characterized by age.
Cats have the distinction of being the only domestic animal which is not a herd animal in nature. As a result their understanding of social structures is non-existent. Dogs emphatically do understand social structures and manipulating their owner's feelings. In this respect, dogs are infinitely more intelligent than cats.
This is also why dogs are more trainable.
However cats are competent, independent animals. They are quite inquisitive and capable of understanding the parts of their environment that make sense to them. However our social needs don't make sense to them.
Incidentally this reminds me of a famous navigation test involving dogs and squirrels. Dogs are in most respects more intelligent than squirrels. But in this test they put down 2 posts, and a bowl of food. The rope was tied to one post, and went around the second, and was tied around the animal. The rope wouldn't reach the food in that configuration.
Dogs couldn't figure it out. They would try to reach the food until they got bored (or tired). Then they would ignore it. Then they would notice it again, and repeat. Sometimes, by accident, they solved the puzzle but couldn't reproduce.
No squirrel tested had a problem figuring out that they had to scamper back around the second post to be able to reach.
The difference is that dogs couldn't conceptualize the situation at all, while for a squirrel this kind of "can't get there from here" logic is identical to one they face navigating trees all of the time.
I don't remember whether they tested cats. If they did, I rather suspect the cats spent their time trying to get the annoying rope off of their necks...
Cheers,
Ben