Did You Know.........

One Queen Cat can produce 20,000. descendants in 5 years,if all kittens were to survive. Please get your cat neutered. A Feral Colony is always set away by an Unneutered Domestic Cat. A Cat is a meat eater. Never ever place your cat on a vegetarian diet. A Cat needs Minerals in his diet, this is obtained in Cat Food, whether tinned or dried. Never ever give your cat dog food, dog food does not contain the minerals your cat needs to sustain a healthy life. Brother and sister kittens will breed once they mature. Modern day cats have Ed Lowe to thank for the contents of their litter trays! Up until 1947, cats that were privileged enough had to use cinders, sands and earth and a mysterious substance called Japanese Mould {presumably some kind of moss}, this was contained in old roasting dishes or frying pans {with the handles removed} or large earthenware saucers from flower pots. At this time, Ed was working for his father, having just left the Navy. A friend complained about her cat leaving paw prints all over the house after using her "litter box". Ed`s father sold Fuller`s Earth, a natural mineral clay used to absorb oil and grease in garages, and as nesting material on chicken farms. For thousands of years, it was used by fullers, to absorb oil from wool. Ancient Roman`s used it as a beautiful face pack. Ed offered some to his neighbour, she loved it, and - more importantly - the cat loved it! Others tried it, they loved it, and so did their cats! Ed took it on the road, visiting cat shows, pet stores and supermarkets. However, it wasn`t until the 1960`s, some twenty years later, that the idea began to grow in popularity. Today, only one-third of households provide a "full-time" litter tray for their cats. Dicken Medal This award was instituted by the People`s Dispensary for Sick Animals, in memory of the movement`s founder, Maria Elizabeth Dickin, to honour brave feats by animals in battle. It was first awarded in 1943 and was often regarded as the "Animal Victoria Cross". The last of the 53 Dickin Medals was awarded on 31st July 1949 to Simon, ship`s cat of HMS Amethyst, after the Royal Navy frigate broke free from a four-month Communist Chinese blockade and heavy bombardment on the Yangtse River. Simon earned the medal for helping preserve the ship`s food stocks during the long seige, by killing large numbers of rats, despite being wounded by shell-fire and trapped under wreckage for four days. Sadly Simon`s wounds were severe and, after returning to this country, he died in quarantine on 28th November 1949. Simon was the only cat ever to win this medal, other brave aninals being three horses, eighteen dogs and thirty one pigeons! Simon`s medal raised £23,100 when auctioned in September 1993 to fund a project to make a film series about animal heroes. The Dickin Medal has now been replaced by the PDSA`s Silver Medal, which does not require recipients to show bravery in battle! A 29 year old ginger and white cat called Spike was officially entered in the Guinness Book of Records as Britain`s oldest living cat ever, died in Devon in 1957 aged 34 years. Spike at 29, is the equivalent of 103 in human years and his owner, an aromatherapist, puts the "healing" plant aloe vera in his food every day, which she says keeps his fur healthy and protects him against rheumatism. And yet, in 1939. A tabby cat named Puss, from Devon died the day after his 36th Birthday Software that prevents a cat screwing up your computer when it walks across the keyboard, has been developed by an Arizona company. BitBoost`s PawSense is a background application that can tell the difference between cat walking and human typing. The company says the average cat`s paw depresses two or three adjacent keys when the feline takes a stroll across the keyboard. But before Fluffy can accidentally crash applications, change the name of files, or delete hours of work, the software cuts off keyboard input and plays an irritating sound to shoo Fluffy away. "This teaches your cat that getting on the keyboard is bad, even if, humans aren`t watching," company literature says. Some of the worlds most notorius dictators - Hitler, Napoleon and Alexander the Great, hated and feared cats. A Female Spayed Tortoiseshell cat named Towser was "employed" as a rodent catcher by a whiskey distillery in Scotland until her death in 1987. During her working life she caught nearly 29,000 rats and mice. The Ancient Egyptian word for cat is "mau" which meant "To see". The Egyptians believed that the cat`s luminescent eyes, mirrored the rays of the sun and protected mankind from darkness. Egyptian families kept cats as a mark of respect to the gods, and when a pet cat died the entire housedhold went into mourning, demonstrating their grief by shaving off their eyebrows. Cats were life-savers during the Blitz on Britain in World War II. Their acute hearing enabled them to sense enemy aircraft approaching from a long way away, they would then run and hide, their owners knew it was time for them to go to their shelters. Sir Issac Newton is credited with the invention of the cat flap, it is said that he cut two holes in his door, one large one for mum cat to get through, and a smaller one for her kittens to get through. An Adult cat requires forty different nutrients from it`s food, it also needs twice as much protein as a dog. Because so many cats were killed in the Middle Ages, the rat population in Europe multiplied, without the cat there was nothing to stop this happening. Rat fleas carried bubonic plague, which was also known as "The Black Death" this is known to have killed some 25 million people between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Siamese kittens are pure white when they are born, the dark patches on face, legs, paws and tail appear as the kitten matures. These points are also temperature-sensitive, kittens reared in a very cold environment, become dark all over, those reared in a very hot environment remain pale all over, with no dark points. Abyssinian cats are often call "rabbit cats" because their fur resembles that of a wild rabbit. White cats are really coloured cats, they just have an over large white spot. White cats can be blue-eyed. orange-eyed, or odd- eyed,{having one blue eye and one orange eye} White Cats that have both blue eyes are always born deaf. A White cat that has one blue eye and one orange eye, is usally deaf on the side of the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes usually have no hearing problems. A Female cat is called a Queen. While a male cat is called a Tom. An Italian legend says that the moment Mary gave birth to baby Jesus, a female cat living in the same manger, gave birth to a litter of kittens. Leonardo di Vinci included a cat and kittens in many of this studies of the Madonna and Child. President Clinton`s Black and White cat Socks, was originally a stray. The term "moggy" is believed by some to be a corruption of margay, a small jungle cat of South America. Others attribute the origin of the name to an English music-hall artiste of the 1890`s named Moggie Dowser, who wore a wrap around her neck that looked like cat fur. Experiments have shown that cats like their food at a temperature of 30 degrees centigrade, which happens to be the same temperature as freshly killed prey. The record number of kittens born live in one litter,is 14 to a Persian called "Bluebell" in 1974. "Hellcat" and "Brownie" became the world`s richest cats when their owner died and left them a fortune of $415,000 {then £172,916}. The most valuable cat on record was the champion Persian tom "Coylum Marcus" owned by Miss Elspeth Seller. In 1967 she turned down an offer of $4,200 (£2,100} for this pure white, copper-eyed superstar. Cats, like dogs have been known to return to an old home after their owners have moved - sometimes covering distances of 100 miles {160 kilometres} or more on these "sentimental journeys" "Rusty" a ginger tom, holds the record for the greatest distance covered by a cat. Abandoned in 1949, he followed his neglectful owner from Boston, Massachusetts, USA to his new home in Chicargo, Illinois, 950 miles {1,528 kilometres} away. It took "Rusty" 83 days and nights to get there. Cats are justly famous for their ability to endure great hardships, and to survive apparently fatal accidents. In 1972, a female named "Quincy" used up one of her nine lives, when she slipped from a nineteenth-storey balcony and fell 180 feet {55 metres} into the shrubs below - and lived suffering only a broken leg and bruises. A tom cat named "Pussycat" fell from an eleventh - storey balcony in London, and landed safely on all four paws, 120 feet {36.5 metres} below. He suffered no losses except that of his appetite for several days afterwards. In 1974, a kitten slipped into the wooden shuttering prepared for a new concrete wall. When the concrete had set and the wooden planks removed, 53 hours later, the kitten was discovered. Small cracks in the wood had allowed the kitten to breathe and the perfect impression of it`s body had been made in the new concrete. The endurance record is probably held by a cat, which survived a three - month journey from South Africa to England trapped inside a packing case filled with unassembled automobile parts. The cat lived on grease smeared pieces of paper throughout the voyage, but was so weak from starvation that it died the day after it was discovered, in spite of every effort to save it. "Peter" was luckier. He survived for eight days under water in the cabin of a Dutch ship, which had capsized in the river Rhine in 1964. He managed somehow to hold his head up into an air pocket, while the rest of his body remained in water. He was rescued and made a complete recovery The world record - holder for a fat cat is "Tiger" a long haired Persian who has weighed in at a constant 42 to 43 pounds {19.05 to 19.54 kilograms} for all of his nine years. The British record is held by "Gigi" who in 1970 weighed 42 pounds {19.05 kilograms} and measured 37 inches {99 centimetres} round the middle. America has more cats than any other country - more than 23,000,000! The British Government has more than 100,000 cats on it`s Civil Service payroll. "Princess Truman Tao-Tai" found a more comfortable way to travel when she joined the crew of the British iron-ore carrier "Sagamire" as a kitten in 1959. By 1975 this salty Siamese had become the most travelled cat in the world with a total of 1,500,000 sea miles {2,400,000 kilometres} to her credit. Another cat with a record for long and successful service was "Mickey", the greatest mouser on record. He worked for Shepherd and Sons Ltd. for twenty-three years and killed more than 22,000 mice for his firm. The world`s greatest feline ratter in the world was a female tabby who kept the White City Stadium in London free of 12,480 rats between 1927 and 1933. For reasons best known to herself, "Mincha", a black Argentinian cat ran up a 40 feet {12 metre} tree in Buenos Aires one day - and never came down. Kind local people took it in turns to push food up to her on a pole and the milkman delivered daily. Six years and serveral kittens ater, Mincha, the most eccentric cat on record, was still alive and well and living in her high-rise flat in South America. French Lick Springs, Indiana. Once passed a Law requiring all black cats to wear bells on Friday the 13th. In Great Britain Black Cats are thought to bring good luck. Cats can`t taste sweets. Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box. Madison, Wisconsin, will not allow joint custody of a family pet when a couple divorces - the animal is leggally awarded to whoever happens to have possession of the animal at the time of the initial separation. The molar teeth of cats, known as Carnassials, have become specialised for eating meat. They shear flesh like a pair of scissors as the cat uses the side of it`s mouth.