Cat trivia

TRIVIA ABOUT CATS:

• The penalty for killing a cat, 4,000 years ago in Egypt, was death.
• 95% of cat guardians admit they talk to their cats.
• A cat can be either right-pawed or left-pawed.
• A cat can jump as much as seven times its height.
• A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor.
• A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human only has 206 bones.
• A cat has four rows of whiskers.
• A cat in a hurry can sprint at about thirty-one miles per hour.
• A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
• A cat uses its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as feelers or antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage.
• A cat will almost never meow at another cat. Cats use this sound for humans.
• A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is believed to be an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
• A cat will never break a sweat because it has no sweat glands.
• A cat will spend nearly 30% of its life grooming itself.
• A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae.
• A cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than that of a dog.
• A cat's ear pivots 180 degrees.
• A cat's hearing rates as one of the top in the animal kingdom. Cats can hear sounds as high-pitched as 65 kHz; a human's hearing stops at just 20 kHz.
• A cat's heart beats at 110 to 140 beats per minute, twice as fast as a human heart.
• A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
• A cat's normal body temperature is 101.5 degrees F (38.6 C).
• A cat's sense of taste is keener than a dog's sense of taste.
• A cat's tail held high means happiness. A twitching tail is a warning sign, and a tail tucked in close to the body is a sure sign of insecurity.
• A cat's tail plays a vital part in the cat's balance and in the "righting reflex" that allows it to land on its feet after falling from a height.
• A cat's tongue is scratchy because it's lined with papillae-tiny elevated backwards hooks that help to hold prey in place.
• A cat's whiskers, called vibrissae, grow on the cat's face and on the back of its forelegs. The whiskers are thought to be a kind of sensor to help a cat gauge the space it wants to go through.
• A female cat can begin mating when she is between 5 and 9 months old.
• A fifteen year old cat has probably spent ten years of its life sleeping.
• A frightened cat can run at speeds of up to 31 mph, slightly faster than a human sprinter.
• A group of adult cats is called a clowder.
• A group of kittens is called a kindle.
• 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.
• A male cat can begin mating when he is between 7 and 10 months old.
• A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.
• A quarter of cat guardians blow dry their cats after bathing them.
•  Abraham Lincoln loved cats. He had four of them while he lived in the White House. Abraham Lincoln's cat, Tabby, was the first of several White House cats.
• According to one legend, the "M" marking on the forehead of the Tabby Cat was created by the prophet Mohammed as he rested his hand lightly on the brow of his favorite cat, a Tabby.
• Adult cats with no health problems are in deep sleep 15 percent of their lives. They are in light sleep 50 percent of the time.
• After being handled, cats lick themselves to smooth their fur and get rid of the "human" smell. Licking is also thought to produce a calming effect.