A cat will spend nearly 30% of her life grooming herself!
Cats have one thing to lord over the “King of Beasts” and other more formidable felines. A cat can purr, but the lion can’t, nor can any big feline. The tiger can rumble a friendly greeting but only on the exhale. No big cat can get his motor running the way household cats can, purring constantly as effortlessly as breathing, both in and out.
Cats can purr to express pain or fear in addition to expressing pleasure. Female cats often purr when they are in labor, as well as when they are nursing their kittens!
A cat’s brain is more similar to a man’s brain than that of a dog!
Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion!
Cats respond better to women than to men, probably due to the fact that women’s voices have a higher pitch!
If your cat snores, or rolls over on his back to expose his belly, it means he trusts you!
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
Chinese parents used to embroider a cat’s head on the shoes of a baby learning to walk, to make it surefooted.
Abraham Lincoln loved cats. He had four of them while he lived in the White House.
The term, “cat’s pajamas” comes from an English tailor of the late seventeen and early eighteen hundreds who made fine silk pajamas for royalty and other rich patrons. His name was E. B. Katz.
If domestic cats were left to breed on their own, without human interference, there would be very few long haired cats and very few solid colored ones. Genetically, the normal cat would be a tabby with a mostly grayish-brown coat and familiar striping. That is also the typical coat of many of the world’s smaller wild cats. Most of the larger cats, such as leopards and tigers, have spots or stripes to help conceal them when they stalk prey. Even solid colored cats, such as lions and cougars, have coats of muted colors that serve as camouflage. For a predator in the wild, a grey-brown coat with irregular stripes is the perfect camouflage, so the grey-brown tabby is, because of the coat, the perfect stalking machine!
Cats eyes reflect light. The reflective layer called the tapetum within a cat’s eye intensifies any light coming in. In a low light situation, a cat’s pupils are dilated enormously and that is when you feel as if you are looking into 2 small mirrors when you look into her eyes. Sometimes humans seem to have eyes that are more reflective than normal and we often say that such a person has cat eyes.
There are three types of cat hair. The longest are the guard hairs which form the topcoat, along with the shorter bristly awn hairs. Underneath these is the undercoat, which insulates and is composed of short, soft down hairs. Some hot climate breeds such as the Siamese, lack down hair, while cold climate breeds, such as the Maine Coon, have thicker down. A cat’s skin, like human skin, has erector muscles that raise or lower the hairs in response to emotion or temperature.
The predator instinct is inborn, but, kittens also learn hunting by watching their mothers. Most kittens can catch and kill a mouse at the age of 2 months. A minority of cats are afraid to hunt, and those cats are also fearful of humans. A cat who doesn’t like to hunt can make a poor pet. There is an old axiom…a good hunter is also a warm companion.
Many white cats are deaf, particularly cats with blue eyes. This is caused by genetics and there is no known way to prevent it…yet! There are plenty of perfectly contented deaf cats in the world. Their owners just need to be a little extra watchful.
