Pop quiz, hot shot. You think you know all there is to know about cats? We all know cats have been a source of fascination for humankind throughout history. Today cats have become one of the world’s most popular pets perfectly suited to the lifestyle of our day. They are beautiful, intriguing yet enigmatic and easy to care for as pets. But where and when did the domestic cat originate? Is your cat truly happy when purring??? Read on to learn more information. You can stump your cat owning friends with …
- A study in the UK found that, like people, cats are either right-handed or left-handed, though some are ambidextrous. Females are more likely to be right-handed while males are more frequently left-handed.
- A study performed by researchers at Turkey's Ataturk University in 1991 showed that the majority of domestic cats are right pawed (50 percent), 10 percent are ambidextrous and the remaining 40 percent favor their left paws.
- The tufts of hair in a cat's ear that help keep out dirt, direct sounds into the ear and insulate the ears are called 'ear furnishings.'
- Blue-eyed white cats are more likely to be deaf. If a cat has one blue eye, the cat is likely deaf on the blue-eyed side.
- A study published in Science magazine found that when a cat drinks, its tongue skims the water's surface instead of piercing it, like dogs' tongues. Cats lap at the right frequency to maximize the volume of liquid per lap.
- All feline tongues, from tabby house pets to 600-pound Bengal tigers, are covered with tiny barbs or hooks, giving the tongue a rough texture. These microscopic projections, called 'filiform papillae' face toward the cat's throat and are the tools that help it groom its coat. The barbs work like a comb, catching and cleaning the cat's fur.
- Cats have only 473 taste buds, compared with about 9,000 in people. @HillsPet tweet.
- Did you know? A cat can't climb head first down a tree because every claw on a cat's paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down.
- Did you know? Cats have whiskers above the eyelids, around the muzzle and on the lower inside part of their forelegs that help them move smoothly in the dark.
- Cats have more bones in a key part of their spine than people do. Cats have a combined 20 thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, compared with 17 in people. The number of bones in the mid-spine region accounts in part for the power and flexibility cats have when it comes to fast acceleration and leaping ability.
- Collar bones in #cats are unattached to other bones, enabling them to squeeze through small places.
- According to cat expert Dr. Arnold Plotnick, approximately one calico in 3,000 is male, thanks to a genetic oddity known as 'Klinefelter syndrome.' An animal with this condition has X and Y chromosomes, making it a male, but also it has an extra X chromosome (which allows for the expression of the calico coat pattern).
- One retrospective study cited in the American Heartworm Society's 2014 Feline Guidelines states that approximately 25 percent of cats diagnosed with adult heartworms were considered indoor-only cats.
- According to the Humane Society, an estimated 50 percent of cats don't respond to catnip—it's an inherited sensitivity.
- Did you know? Animal hairballs were once thought to cure epilepsy, the plague, and poisoning. During the Middle Ages, hairballs were even set in gold.
- While many parts of Europe and North America consider the black cat a sign of bad luck, in Britain and Australia, black cats are considered lucky.
- Long ago, some believed that cats could start storms through magic, so sailors always made sure cats were content.
- Have you ever heard a cat chatter? Some say that this sound indicates frustration, like when an indoor cat finds it's unable to get to the birds at the feeder outside.
- It has been reported that a cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.
- The oldest cat ever was Creme Puff, who was born on Aug. 3, 1967 and lived until Aug. 6, 2005—that's 38 years and 3 days!
- The loudest purr by a domestic cat is 67.7 dB (LA peak)
- The purr sound #cats make is produced both on the inhale and the exhale, with an instantaneous break between breaths. ( @ASPCATweet)
- In January 2012, the BBC reported that the larges hairball found to date (which was surgically removed from the cat’s stomach). It was actually a 5-in wide hairball that weighed 7.5 ounces!
- Cats have powerful night vision, allowing them to see at light levels 6 times lower than what a human needs in order to see. (#sciencedaily Tweet)
- Did you know? It is believed that cats respond more readily to names ending in '-ie' or '-y.'
- Disneyland keeps 200 feral #cats on hand to rid it of rodents at night. (@CNN
Tweet) - Cats recognize their owners' voices, but may still ignore them! (@dvm360
Tweet). - In the 1870s, the Belgian village of Liège trained 37 mail #cats to deliver letters. It didn't last long.
- Cats sleep an average of 15 hours a day.@petmedtweet.
- Although cats sleep up to 16 hours a day, three-quarters of that sleep is snoozing, not deep sleep. @catsterats tweet.
- Fact: Domestic #cats can jump up to five times their own height. @CornellVetMed.
- Fact: Cats spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours grooming. @CornellVetMed tweet.
- Cats have a memory of up to 16 hours (vs. five minutes in dogs). @VPI tweet.
- The book 'Communicating with your cat' reports that a cat's field of vision is 285 degrees, compared with 210 in people. #cats tweet.
- Cats can hear up to 100,000 Hz, while dogs hear at a top range of 35,000 to 40,000 Hz. (People's top range—20,000 Hz). @ArdenKnowsPets tweet.
Compiled by Robert Z Berry, DVM
Source Material from DVM360