If you have a cat, then chances are, you have learned a great deal of things about their world. You have likely adapted to doing things that makes them happy – be it the type of food you buy, the type of food they enjoy, and an assortment of other aspects that make both you and your cat happy. Of course, you have likely learned all kinds of medical facts and feline care tips, to help you keep your feline friend happy and healthy.
But, there are many things to learn about cat care – not everything we may have heard is correct. So, to keep things interesting, here are 9 things about the world of cats – how many do you think you know?
1. 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.
2. Cats are North America’s most popular pets: there are 73 million cats compared to 63 million dogs. Over 30% of households in North America own a cat.
3. A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.
4. Researchers are unsure exactly how a cat purrs. Most veterinarians believe that a cat purrs by vibrating vocal folds deep in the throat. To do this, a muscle in the larynx opens and closes the air passage about 25 times per second.
5. The smallest pedigreed cat is a Singapura, which can weigh just 4 lbs. or about five large cans of cat food. The largest pedigreed cats are Maine Coon cats, which can weigh 25 lbs. which is nearly twice as much as an average cat weighs.
6. On average, cats spend 2/3 of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life.
7. Most cats had short hair until about 100 years ago, when it became fashionable to own cats and experiment with breeding. They 130,000 hairs per square inch (20,155 hairs per square centimeter). To put in perspective, the surface area of a single cat, if you include all of its hair, is roughly the same as the surface area of a ping-pong table.
8. Camera flashes do not harm cats’ eyes. But they will frequently produce a spooky glow caused by the tapetum lucidum, a layer of ultra-reflective cells in feline eyes which helps them see in low light.
9. A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head. Also interesting, cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (humans have only 6). A cat can independently rotate its ears 180 degrees.
Oh yeah, about those 9 lives that cats supposedly have. Ever wonder where that comment came from? If so, then here it is: There are several stories to go with this statement, many of which are dated back to medieval times when cates were not well treated. It seemed that no matter what was done to them (throwing them out of towers, burnt like witches, and other such actions, that the cats always seem to survive. Another thought comes from an ancient pro verb which states, “A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays and for the last three he stays.” As cat lovers, this statement may make the most sense – even if there isn’t any real science to back it up!
These fun feline facts are always fun to have on hand. Some of them may be great conversation starters, others ail in caring for your cat(s), and others may just satisfy a quest for feline knowledge. But regardless of their use, we had fun learning them and sharing them with you. Have some more fun feline facts? Please share them with us! We would love to hear from you!
