Fascinating Cat Facts
Nov 15th, 2009 by max
Did you spot the deliberate mistake in the title of this blog? The word fascinating and the word cat put together? Maybe this should read Boring facts about stupid cats instead!
Anyway as a celebration of Monty’s clean bill of health and Piccolo’s new home with Henry’s humans, here are some cat facts for you:
Ailurophilia is the “love of cats.” (sounds more like an illness to me)
Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.
Bouhaki, the earliest cat name on record, dates back to Egyptian writings of 2000 B.C. In the hieroglyphs of that period, bou signifed “house” and “hak” was the symbol for “divine ruler.” (ha, always knew cats had ideas above their station. Divine Ruler indeed!)
In ancient Egypt, entire families were forced by law to shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.
There are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and about 120,000 per square inch on its underside.
The largest litter ever documented was produced by a Burmese/Siamese mother. There were 19 kittens in the litter.
The Giraffe, Camel and Cat are the only animals that walk by moving both their left feet, then both their right feet, when walking. This method of walking ensures speed, agility and silence.
Besides smelling with their noses, cats can smell with an additional organ called the vomeronasal organ (or Jacobson’s organ), located in the upper surface of the mouth
Sir Isaac Newton is credited with the invention of the cat flap-door.
Cat’s ears can be rotated because they are connected to thirty muscles. There are only six muscles connecting human ears – humans are just pathetic, I know.
At top speed, a domestic cat can run over 30 mph.
Every cat’s nose pad, or nose leather, has unique characteristics. Just as no two humans have the same fingerprints, it’s a fact that no two feline noseprints are ever alike.
Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.
Cats are silly and stupid and German Shepherd dogs are far superior in every way!
5 Responses to “Fascinating Cat Facts”
Hello Max,
We would like to introduce ourselves as the four cats (3 black and white, 1 tabby) who live with Piccolo’s Humans’ grandbaby and grandtoddler. We simply refer to him as the Tail Puller and try to stay out of his way. We are relieved to report that the grandbaby (or Smiler as we know her) is not mobile yet.
I should say that it is Pico who is typing this, as the eldest and most sensible of us. (The others are now disagreeing about the sensible part, however I am not changing what I’ve written - Sprite is certainly not sensible).
Anyway, we just wanted to let you know that we have been enjoying your dog blog and thought the cat facts were very interesting. We think all cats should be worshipped like the ones in Egypt and are trying to persuade our humans of this too by leaving them exciting presents of mice in their kitchen. So far they do not seem to be getting the message though.
Welcome Pico, Magic, Sprite and Pixel! Nice to hear from you all. I have heard about the grand-toddler you live with (as he is now, he was the first grand baby of course ) a lot from Henry the cat in the past. It must be very hard living with him. Does he have a tail you can pull too , or is he a poor tail-less human like my grown up ones? I feel very sorry for them at times you know.
Pico sounds sensible (for a cat) I expect silly Sprite spends so much of his time wishing he was a dog so he forgets to be a cat. I am sure my cat Monty does sometimes. At the moment he is asleep in his basket looking innocent and sweet but he is good at catching mice too and my humans are not always appreciative.
I am sure you will soon train the small humans to worship you. Can you also let them know that German Shepherd Dogs are the best, even more regal and superior to you felines.
Incidently, just should we ever meet in real life do not be afraid if I growl and chase you. I have to keep up my status as a big scarey dog and it doesn’t do my reputation in the canine world very well being friends with all these cats! But just let me know who you are and I will only pretend!
My humans and I have enjoyed the Cat Facts. I entirely agree with the fact that cats are so superior. My humans are now wondering if they should have shaved their eyebrows when Henry died.
We were really pleased to hear from the Grand Toddler and Grand Baby’s cats. My humans say they are superb hunters and bring in all kinds of small animals dead and alive. Apparently they do a really good line in goldfish. On one occasion the ones called Sprite and Pixel managed to bring a dead pigeon through the cat flap. Whether they actually caught it or just found it is a matter of conjecture, but they did get it up the stairs. Obviously I have alot to live up to.
The Tail Puller does not have a tail of his own. It is most sad, because I know Sprite would have loved to chase it.
Obviously Piccolo’s humans have briefed her thoroughly on our exploits. Sprite and Pixel think that their honour has been smeared however. Of course they caught the pigeon. It may not have been a particularly smart pigeon though.
It sounds like Monty is a very sensible cat, and it is hard to believe that your humans are not appreciative of his efforts. I think you should educate them further in these matters and help Monty out with his mouse catching. As a superior dog I’m sure a few mice wouldn’t present much of a challenge for you.
We are all very pleased to know that you will only pretend to be scarey should we ever meet. We won’t tell anyone that you’re really friendly, we promise.
Hello, Piccolo and welcome to Maxworld!