CAT FACTS!

Did you know...

• Cats can't taste sweets.
• A cat's tongue consists of small "hooks," which come in handy when tearing up food.
• Americans spend more annually on cat food than on baby food.
• In 1987 cats overtook dogs as the number one pet in America.
• A group of youngsters (kittens) is called a kindle; those old-timers (adult cats) form a clowder.
• The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
• Black cat superstitions are as American as apple pie. In Asia and England, black cats are considered lucky.
• Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw.
• Cats have true fur, in that they have both an undercoat and an outer coat.
• When a domestic cat goes after mice, about one pounce in three results in a catch.
• The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract it's claws.
• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
• In cats, the calico and tortiseshell coats are sex-linked traits. All cats displaying these coats are female... or occasionally sterile males.
• A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
• Neutering a cat extends it's life span by two or three years.
• Cats must have fat in their diet because they can't produce it on their own.
• Cat's urine glows under a black light.
• The heaviest cat ever recorded was 46 lbs.
• Cats have a third eyelid called a haw and you will probably only see it when kitty isn't feeling well.
• A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum, a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
• Adult cats with no health problems are in deep sleep 15 percent of their lives. They are in light sleep 50 percent of the time.
• Cats are the only animal that walk on their claws, not the pads of their feet.
• Newborn kittens have closed ear canals that don't begin to open for nine days.When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change color over a period of months to the final eye color.
• Most cats have no eyelashes.
• A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor.
• It is a common belief that cats are color blind. However, recent studies have shown that cats can see blue, green and red.
• A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes do not have this disability.
• Cats with white fur and skin on their ears are very prone to sunburn.
• Abraham Lincoln loved cats. He had four of them while he lived in the White House.
• Napoleon was terrified of cats.
• Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box.
• The way you treat kittens in the early stages of it's life will render it's personality traits later in life.
• Tylenol and chocolate are both poisionous to cats.
• The average cat food meal is the equivalent to about five mice.
• Cats have AB blood groups just like people.
• A form of AIDS exists in cats.
• Siamese kittens are born white because of the heat inside the mother's uterus before birth. This heat keeps the kittens' hair from darkening on the points.
• People who are allergic to cats are actually allergic to cat saliva or to cat dander. If the resident cat is bathed regularly the allergic people tolerate it better.
• The ancestor of all domestic cats is the African Wild Cat which still exists today.
• In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death.
• In ancient Egypt, mummies were made of cats, and embalmed mice were placed with them in their tombs. In one ancient city, over 300,000 cat mummies were found.
• In the Middle Ages, during the Festival of Saint John, cats were burned alive in town squares.
• Today there are about 100 distinct breeds of the domestic cat.
• Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses it's biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth's magnetic field. A cat taken far from it's home can return to it. But if a cat's owners move far from it's home, the cat can't find them.
• Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. When cats are asleep, they are still alert to incoming stimuli. If you poke the tail of a sleeping cat, it will respond accordingly.
• Besides smelling with their nose, cats can smell with an additional organ called the Jacobson's organ, located in the upper surface of the mouth.
• The chlorine in fresh tap water irritates sensitive parts of the cat's nose. Let tap water sit for 24 hours before giving it to a cat.
• A cat has four rows of whiskers on each side.
• Purring does not always mean happiness. Purring could mean a cat is in terrible pain such as during childbirth. Kittens will purr to their mother to let her know they are getting enough milk while nursing. Purring is a process of inhaling and exhaling, usually performed while the mouth is closed. But don't worry, if your cat is purring while your gently petting her and holding her close to you - that is a happy cat!
• The catnip plant contains an oil called hepetalactone which does for cats what marijuana does to some people. Not all cats react to it; those that do appear to enter a trancelike state. A positive reaction takes the form of the cat sniffing the catnip, then licking, biting, chewing it, rub & rolling on it repeatedly, purring, meowing & even leaping in the air.
• A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
• A cat can jump even seven times as high as it is tall.
• A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days.
• If left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. This is why population control using neutering and spaying is so important.
• Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run. The only other animals to do this are the giraffe and the camel.
• In ancient Egypt, entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.