I Bet You Didn`t Know.......

The Jacobson`s organ in the roof of the cat`s mouth allows them to "taste" smells. To use this, they open their mouths a little and look as though they are grimacing. This is called the Flehmen response and is used particularly to find out about the reproductive status of other cats.

The Chlorine in fresh tap water irritates sensitive parts of the cat`s nose.

The average cat food meal is the equivalent to about 5 mice.

The catgut formerly used as stringsin tennies rackets and musical instruments, does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs and horses.

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.

Ten human years translates to about sixty cat years. A one year old cat is similar in age to an
eighteen year old human.

In ancient Egypt, mummies were made of cats and
embalmed mice were placed with them in their tombs. In one ancient city, over three hundred thousand mummies were found.

In the Middle Ages, during the Festival of Saint
John, cats were burned alive in town squares.

Today there are about 0ne hundred distinct breeds of the domestic cat.

Genetic mutation created the domestic cat, which
is tame from birth.

Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth`s magnetic field. A cat taken 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.

Hunting is not instinctive for cats. Kittens born to non-hunting mothers may never learn to hunt.

Cats bury their faeces to cover their trail from predators.

Among other tasks, cats can be taught to use a toilet, come, sit, bed, eat with their paws, heel,
jump through a hoop, play the piano, play dead, roll over, open a door, hide in food boxes, shake, and fetch.

The term "Tabby" is believed to come from "Atabi" the local word in Baghdad for a silky type of material characterised by it`s wavy markings.

The fishing cat of Eastern Asia is a small but heavily built animal. It has adapted for it`s sem-aquatic lifestyle by developing partially webbed toes to aid swimming.

The genes a kitten inherits from his father will determine how friendly he will become. His mother`s genes will also play a part but the effect is not so strong.

Friendly mothers are more likely to produce sociable kittens as they show their offspring that there is nothing to be afraid of.

A cat that has been to the vet may come back smelling very differently and may be treated like a stranger by other cats that once lived in harmony with him. Separating them and swapping their scents with a cloth can help.

The amount of socialization a kitten has with people while he is between two and seven weeks old
will determine how well he will interact with people later in life. Good experiences in early life will produce a friendly, outgoing cat.

Different cats dig in their claws while being stroked to different degrees, but this is a natural behaviour and it is not possible to train them not to do it.

Cats will not understand if you punish them for digging their claws in. Placing a thick blanket or towel underneath them when they sit on your lap
can help prevent any discomfort, as well as keeping any stray hairs off your clothes.

Cats start to purr when they are one week old.

They can purr continously as they inhale and exhale.

Purring is usually a sign of contentment, but cats also purr when they are in pain.

Adult cats are more likely to adjust to a new kitten than to a new adult cat that is introduced
into the household.

Newcomers such as other animals or even babies and new people can result in the cat feeling insecure.

Cats that feel their home security has been breached may spray urine or scratch in strategic places to make themselves feel more secure.

Cats are extremely good at making accurate mental maps od their territory.

It takes time to know the territory well and this is why cats are so unsettled for the first six months in a new house.

Scientists have been able to isolate the chemical common to all cats that is rubbed on surfaces from the cheek glands. It is now reproduced synthetically and sold commercially to help make cats feel more at home in a new or disrupted environment.

Insecure cats that feel their territory is threatened may spray in strategic places around the home. This fills their territory with their scent and helps them to feel more secure.

Things that cause a cat to spray in the home can
range from smells brought in on shoes and bags, to being bullied by another cat whenever they step
outside the cat flap.

Owners are often oblivious to these causes and punish the cat for being "dirty" in the house, which further adds to his insecurity.

The area in the nose for detecting scent is ten times larger in cats than in humans. They also have a correspondingly larger part of the brain to help them decipher these scent messages.

This increased ability to detect scents and the greater degree of complexity of information received accounts for the large amount of time cats spend locating and reading scent messages left behind by others.

By sniffing a tom cat`s urine, female cats can tell whether or not he is a suitable mate. They are aable to detect by-products of his food, which tell them how much fresh meat he has eaten and, hence, how good a hunter he is. This helps determine how suitable he would be as a father for her kittens.

Rogue cats that bully others can cause local cats to stop venturing out. This can lead to toileting
problems. Agreeing a time-share system between neighbours for letting cats out can help.

Cats explore vigorously to get to know a new territorywell, and build up a detailed map inside their head. Using this map, they are able to find new routes home even if they have never been that way before.

Cats have been known to travel many miles to get back to their familiar territory if their owners
move house and let them out too soon..

Conversely, cats have travelled vast distances to their owner`s new home after being left behind. No-one knows how they knew which direction to take
or how they knew where their owner`s lived.

Cats prefer to hunt during dawn and dusk when small mammals are active.

Cat`s eyes are specially adapted so that they see
better at lower light levels, to enable them to hunt successfully when the light is dim.

Cats prefer to hunt small mammals rather than birds if they can find them. To catch them, cats wait patiently beside the runs and passages that they use.

If out hunting during the day, only birds may be available. To catch birds cats conceal themselves
in undergrowth and wait for the birds to land.

The sharp hooks on the ends of their claws allow cats to grip their prey.

These hooks can snag in clothes and cause panic if cats cannot free their paws.

Cats often appear to be playing with their prey as they injure them a little, let them go and recapture them.

"Playing" with their prey is probably due to lack of experience, causing them to be poor killers.

"Playing" can also be a way of weakening prey that may otherwise bite its attacker in self-defence, before the cat puts its face close enough to dispatch the victim.

A fit, healthy cat can jump up to five times his own height.

Cats have special vertebrae in their spines that allow them to twist and flex much more than they would be able to with a more rigid backbone.

Some cats have stronger predatory instincts and a stronger desire to hunt than others.

Keeping voracious hunters entertained at home with mock chases and capture of toys can help to prevent them going out to hunt. However, once outside surrounded by opportunity, hunting will be back on their agenda.

Some cats like to eat wool, plastic and other materials that are not part of their normal diet.

This tendency is more common in some breeds than others. It may be connected to the unsatisfied dessire to chew and consume food in a more natural form, since domestic cats are generally provided with a diet that is easily swallowed.

Cats are opportunistic feeders and, if they are sociable, it is not unusual for them to have two or three feeding stations around the neighbour-
hood, where they can cadge a free meal from a friendly human.

Cats sometimes miss and deposit faeces just out-side the litter tray. Placing the litter tray inside a larger one, or using one with higher sides can prevent this.

Cats have a small collarbone compared with most animals, and more supporting muscle instead. There
fore, their shoulders are not rigid and this allows them to be very flexible when the cat is grooming, twisting or pouncing on toys or prey.

Kittens are born with their claws extended. Graduallly the muscles develop that retracts them
into a protective sheath of skin.

The pads of the feet are very sensitive and incorporate many touch receptors.

Some cats behave strangely just before an earthquake hits. Perhaps they can detect vibrations of the earth through their sensitive pads.

The ancestors of our domestic cats were originally desert-living animals.

Consequently, they are comfortable lying on surfaces that are heated up to temperatures that seem too hot for us to stand on.

The tail ears, eyes, whiskers and body postures all help us to determine how a cat may be feeling. Studying each individually, helps to identify a range of emotions that the cat may be experiencing and decipher an overall picture that is confusing and difficult to interpret.

Providing shelves and surfaces that can be reached
easily can help to give shy cats an escape route
from other pets and small children that may cause them concern.

Cats that live in built-up areas may not have much opportunity to practise tree climbing. If they are forced to climb to escape a danger on the ground, they may need to be rescued later.

Cats seem to work on the principal that if they cannot see you, you cannot see them. They will often hide their eyes from view and stay very still if they can`t get completely out of sight.

Most aggressive behaviour is designed to prevent conflict rather than invite it. The various signals, body postures and noises are usually intended to keep others away rather than draw them nearer.

Real fights are rare and last for only a short time.

Severe injuries are often inflicted in a real fight.

Teeth and claws are used to good effect during fighting.

During a fight, the defensive cat will roll over so that he can use the claws on all four feet.

A wild female cat`s range will be determined by the availability of food. She will need enough to feed herself and her kittens.

A wild male cat`s range will be considerably larger {up to three and a half times larger} during the breeding season, and will be determined by the number of potential mates within it.

Daylength and availability of food will determine when a female cat will come into season.

Cats that live in the wild will usually have kittens in the spring when food is plentiful.

Domestic cats with an unlimited food supply can have two or three litters a year, unless they are neutered.

Kittens go limp when picked up by the scruff of the neck. This helps the mother cat when she needs to carry them to a new nest site.

Mother cats will move their kittens if they do not feel safe or the nest becomes dirty.

Cats are not seen as "property" in the eyes of the law andconsequently owners cannot be held responsible for damage that their cat does when on
other people`s property.

Cats blink and narrow their eyes when they accidentally make eye contact.

To make friends with an unfamiliar cat, blink and look away when you catch his eye.

The more gentle handling a kitten has had during the early weeks, the more friendly he will be with people.

A kitten that has had at least four handlers during the early weeks will be relaxed and friendly with most people.

Any action that is rewarded or is self-rewarding will happen more often.

Any action that is ignored and is not intrin-
sically rewarding will happen less often.

Hiding toys in such a way that they flick in and out of cover will entice most cats to play.

Darting movements from side to side in front on the cat are more likely to result in play than movements up and down.

Toys that move erratically or that are very fast,
then stationary are more likely to be "hunted".

Many cats jump up on their hind legs when greeting their owners or friends. This is simply a case of the cat trying to reach the person`s face, cats normally greet each other by rubbing faces, and this is what the cat is trying to achieve. If the person lowers their face to the cat`s level, the cat will rub faces with the person.

A cat's normal heart rate per minute is:
140 - 240 (with an average of 195).

A cat has this many bones: 230 (humans have 206).

A cat's field of vision is about: 185 degrees.

A Cat`s hearing stops at 65 khz.(humans' hearing stops at 20 khz.)

Cats have 30 vertebrae (5 more than humans have.)
A cat has a total of 24 whiskers.{4 rows of whiskers on each side.}

A kitten can hear at 2 weeks of age.

Kittens usually open their eyes between 7 and 10 days, but can be as early as 2 days.

There are nearly 10% of the cats bones in the tail

A cat can see 6 times better than human`s at night
Cats eyes have a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.

A cat has 30 teeth. 12 incisors, 10 premolars. 4 canines, and 4 molars.

Kittens have baby teeth, which are replaced by permanent teeth around the age of 7 months.

A cat takes 20 - 40 breaths per minute.

A cats normal body temperature is 102 Fahrenheit.

A cat has 60 - 80 million olfactory cells {these are cells for the cats ability to smell. A human has between 5 - 20 million.

Cats have 30 vertebrae. 5 more than human`s.

Imprisoned by Henry VIII in the Tower of London, Sir Henry Wyatt, close to starvation, was saved by a cat who showed up with a pidgeon in its mouth for him to dine on.

The heaviest domestic cat on record was a neutered male tabby named Himmy, weighing in at 46 lb. 15 ½ oz. (neck 15 in., waist 33 in., length 38 in.)

The smallest domestic cat on record was a male blue point Himalayan-Persian cat named Tinker Toy, is just 2 3/4 in. tall and 7 1/2 in. long.

People who like cats are called ailurophiles. This word comes from the ancient Greek language.

The oldest feline mother Kitty, owned by George Johnstone of England produced in May 1987, two kittens at age 30. She died just short of her 32nd birthday, having given birth to a known total of 218 kittens during her lifetime.

The most prolific cat was a tabby named Dusty of Bonham, she lived in Texas, and produced 420 kittens during her life time.

The first formal cat show was held in England in 1871; the first in America was in 1895.

It has been scientifically proven that stroking a cat can lower one's blood pressure.

Cats respond most readily to names that end in an "ee" sound.

The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. Wild cats hold their tail horizontally, or tucked between their legs while walking.

Cats are said to see colour. Studies have been able to prove that cats can distinguish between red and green; red and blue; red and grey; green and blue; green and grey; blue and grey; yellow and blue, and yellow and grey.

To drink, a cat laps liquid from the underside of its tongue, rather than the top.

Female cats can reach adulthood in as little as five months, but male cats can take nine months to a year to reach adulthood. Most breeds of cats have reached their full growth by two years.

Whiskers tell a cat whether the space they are entering is big enough for it.

The bottom two rows of whiskers on a cat can move independently of the top two rows.

Cats aren't hunters by nature - their mothers teach them to hunt.

A cat's sense of smell is 14 times stronger than a human's. Besides their noses, cats can smell with something called the "Jacobson's organ", located in the upper surface of their mouths. This is what cats are using when they scrunch up their eyes and open their mouths after sniffing something intently.

Cats have 32 muscles in each ear.

The largest litter of kittens on record is 19, from a Burmese/Siamese cat in 1970.

Cats can purr to express pain or fear in addition to expressing pleasure. Female cats often purr when they are in labour, as well as when they are nursing their kittens.

Cats have about 100 different vocalisation sounds. In comparison, dogs have about 10.

Cats only sweat from the pads of their paws. Ever notice how wet the examination room table gets when you take your cat to the vet?

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.

Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech, and seems to enjoy human companionship.

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.

Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed.

When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change colour over a period of months to the final eye colour.

When well treated, a cat can live twenty or more years.

A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find titbits on the floor.

The gene in cats that causes the orange coat colour is sexed linked, and is on the X sex chromosome. This gene may display orange or black. Thus, as female cat with two X chromosomes may have orange and black colours in its coat. A male, with only one X chromosome, can have only orange or black, not both.

If a male cat is both orange and black it is (besides being extremely rare) sterile. To have both the orange and the black coat colours, the male cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat sterile.

Cats have AB blood groups just like humans.

Siamese coat colour and crossed eyes may be caused by the same gene. The colour of the points in Siamese cats is heat related. Cool areas are darker.

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.

Though rare, cats can contract canine heartworms.

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.

Studies now show that the allergen in cats is related to their scent glands.

Cats have scent glands on their faces and at the base of their tails.

Entire male cats generate the most scent.

If this secretion from the scent glands is the allergen, allergic people should tolerate spayed female cats the best.

Cats do not think that they are little people. They think that we are big cats. This influences their behavior in many ways.

Cats are subject to gum disease and to dental caries. They should have their teeth cleaned by the vet or the cat dentist once a year.

Cats, especially older cats, do get cancer. Many times this disease can be treated successfully.

Most cats have no eyelashes.

Many cats cannot properly digest cow's milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhea.

Cats lack a true collarbone. Because of this lack, cats can generally squeeze their bodies through any space they can get their heads through. You may have seen a cat testing the size of an opening by careful measurement with the head.

Cats with white fur and skin on their ears are very prone to sunburn.

Frequent sunburns can lead to skin cancer.

Many white cats need surgery to remove all or part of a cancerous ear. Preventive measures include sunscreen, or better, keeping the cat indoors.

Cats have a full inner-eyelid, or nictitating membrane. This inner-eyelid serves to help protect the eyes from dryness and damage.

When the cat is ill, the inner-eyelid will frequently close partially, making it visible to the observer.

You can tell a cat's mood by looking into its eyes. A frightened or excited cat will have large, round pupils. An angry cat will have narrow pupils.

The pupil size is related as much to the cat's emotions as to the degree of light.

A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days. This is roughly two months.

Cats respond better to women than men.

One reason this might be is that women have higher pitched voices which reminds cats of a mother cat calling her kittens.

White paws on cats are referred to as gloves, but they are often called boots.

White cats with blue eyes are often born deaf. The reason for this is because the gene that gives them the white coat is connected to deafness.

Mother cats are properly referred to as Queens.

The father cat is properly called the Tom.

The largest breed of domestic cat is the Ragdoll.

Scientific studies have compared and examined both a cat's brain and a dog's brain. The results established that the cat's brain is more similar to a humans than that of a dog.

Almost 10% of a cat's bones is in its tail. The cat's body contains 245 bones, but as they age some of the bones fuse together and the number of bones decreases.

Cats have only thirty teeth. Kittens have baby teeth which are replaced by permanent fangs at around seven months of age.

A cats hearing is incredibly sharp. They can recognize their owners footsteps from hundreds of feet away.

The roughness of a cat's tongue has a very useful purpose. It gives the cat an extremely effective grooming tool with which to clean their fur and paws.

The cat is one of nature's cleanest animals. Cats spend around 30% of their time grooming themselves.

Because cats have an amazing sense of balance they rarely become ill when travelling by car.

The average life expectancy of a cat is between 15 to 18 years

Although the oldest cat on record lived to be 36 years old.

However, the oldest reliably recorded cat was a female tabby named Ma, who lived to the age of 34.

Cats should not be fed raw egg whites because they contain an enzyme that breaks down the vitamin biotin, which is essential to cat health.

The oldest known fossilized record that has a similarity to today's cats has been aged at 12 million years old.

Fish isn't a "natural" food for cats.

Cat origins are in the desert where rodents, birds, and insects are found, not fish.

One theory that explains why cats today eat fish is that during World War II, meat was scarce, expensive, carefully rationed.

Cat food manufacturers had to find a cheap source of protein, so they started to use fish and fish by-products in cat food.

Except for one cat breed in India, in the wild, cats won't hunt for fish.

The smallest species of cat is native to Africa: the Black-Footed Cat (Felis Nigripes). Its top weight is 5.5 pounds which is considerably smaller than the average housecat.

Female cats reach sexual maturity between 6-10 months of age and male cats between 9-12 months. A cat's pregnancy lasts 62-65 days from conception to delivery and the average litter is 2-6 kittens.

The average life span for an outside cat is only 3-5 years, whereas an indoor cat can live for 16 years or more. Their life expectancy has doubled over the last fifty years.

Cats have more bones than human beings, humans have 205 and cats have 230. They have 4 toes on their front paws and 5 toes on their back paws. An adult cat has 30 teeth, 16 at the top and 14 at the bottom.

The cats hearing is far more sensitive than humans or dogs and they can see six times better than humans in the dark. Their tails are used to maintain balance.

Domestic cats can run at speeds of 30 mph and did you know that they sleep on average for 16 hours a day?

Although we always assume that a cat is happy when purring, they also purr loudly if in pain or distress.

The reason you sometimes see cats eating grass is that it helps to aid their digestion and also helps them to get rid of any fur in their stomach.

Whilst we often associate cats with drinking milk, it can in fact, give some cats diarrhoea.

All cats need taurine in their diet to avoid blindness, they also need fat in their diets, as they cannot produce their own.

The cat family split from the other mammals at least 40 million years ago, making them one of the oldest mammalian families.

Calico cats are nearly always female.

A cat will amost never meow at another cat. Cats use this sound for their mothers and their human care-givers.

A cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than that of a dog.

Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.

Cats must have fat in their diet, because they can't produce it on their own. Never feed your cat dog food, because cats need five times more protein than dogs do.

Human painkillers such acetaminophen (Tylenol) are toxic to cats. Chocolate is also poisonous to cats. Beware!

It has been established that people who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.

A cat's ear pivots 180 degrees.

The giraffe, camel, and cat are the only animals that walk by both their left feet, then both their right feet when walking.

Cats average 16 hours of sleep a day, more than any other mammal.

A cat will spend nearly 30% of its waking hours grooming itself.

The domestic cat is the only cat species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. All wild cats hold their tails horizontally or tucked between their legs while walking. A tail held high means happiness; a twitching tail is a warning sign; and a tucked tail is a sign of insecurity.

In relation to their body size, cats have the largest eyes of any mammal.

Cats can see up to 120 feet away. Their peripheral vision is about 285 degrees.

Young cats can distinuish between two identical sounds that are just 18 inches apart at a distance of up to 60 feet.

The Gotoku-ji Temple still stands in what are now the suburbs of Tokyo. The outside of the temple is liberally decorated with pictures of the Maneki-Neko, and adjoining the temple is a cemetery where hundreds of cats are buried. People bring offerings to the shrine at the temple, and in the cemetery there is a stone statue of a cat - the spirit cat that watches over the souls of the cats buried there. Owners also come to the shrine to pray for their departed cats. The Beckoning Cat is thought to bring good luck, protect domestic homes and bring prosperity to businesses.

Ancient mariners believed that a cat's behavior could foretell a change in the weather. Some sailors considered black cats unlucky since they were thought to bring bad weather. Tortoiseshell cats were often held by seafarers to be lucky and Japanese sailors in particular would carry a tri-colored cat aboard. They believed that such a cat could give early enough warning of an approaching storm for the vessel to return to port to avoid it, and would also send the cat up the mast to "put the storm devils to flight".

A widespread belief among seafarers was that if the ship's cat began to frolic, it signified the approach of a gale. Such behavior would be described as the cat having "a gale of wind in her tail". The small ripples that are sometimes seen on the surface of an otherwise calm sea are known as cat's paws and are said to be caused by the ghosts of ships's cats dancing ahead of the wind.

Ailurophilia is the "love of cats."

Cats are now Britain’s favourite pet: there are 7.7 million cats as opposed to 6.6 million dogs.

The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, just like the fingerprint of a human.

British cat owners spend roughly 550 million pounds a year on cat food. Americans spend almost 3 billion dollars a year on food for their cats, yet, for comparison, America spends only 700 million dollars on drug prevention and treatment programs.

A man named Sir Henry Wyat was sentenced to the Tower of London, at a time when prisoners generally starved to death. Sir Henry's cat seemed to understand the situation because she snuck into the Tower bringing him a freshly-killed pigeon every day. When the king heard of this, he must have felt sad for the cat, because he immediately set Sir Henry free.

On February 28, 1 980 a female cat climbed 70 feet up the sheer pebble-dash outside wall of a block of flats in Bradford, Yorkshire and took refuge in the roof space. She had been frightened by a dog.

Cats will not walk on aluminum foil. This is good to know when you are trying to protect something that your cat would tend to walk on such as a part-done jigsaw puzzle.

Why are cats so meticulous about keeping clean? They lick off all blood and odor-causing matter to prevent attracting flies and bigger predators that would be interested in the odor of blood. Also the less scent that they give off the better they will be at hunting as their prey will not be able to smell them.

If your cat scratches up valuable furniture, tape balloons to it. The cat will never scratch there again.

If you need to give liquid medicine to a cat, don't try to feed it to the cat. This would only result in a battle. Instead, spill the medicine on the kitty's fur. The cat will lick it off in the process of cleaning.

When a cat turns around and around before laying down, this is an instinct left over from the days when they slept in tall grass. The turning action pushed the grass down into a nest.

Cats get their sense of security from your voice. Talk to your cats! And be mindful of your tone of voice. Cats know when you're yelling at them (though they may not care). The more cats are spoken to, the more they will speak to you.

Cats are often considered the most supersitstious animal after all they do have nine lives. The Egyptian cat for example was glorified and worshipped and at the same time, eargerly associated with evil.

However on a positive note, it's lucky if a black cat crosses your path but unlucky when it crosses from left to right. Cat is a taboo word at sea.