Cat Trivia

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Cat Trivia

The Cat is one of the oldest mammals on the planet. The ancestor of all domestic cats is the African wild cat and fossils of African wild cats have been found that date back almost forty million years. That original cat evolved from a miacis, which lived over fifty five million years ago. The miacis had a long body and tail, short legs and looked somewhat like a weasel.

They are one of only three species of four-footed animals that walk by moving their front and hind legs on one side in unision and then the other side. The other 2 species are camels and giraffes.

One of the only animals that walks almost exclusively on their toes which are like little fleshy pillows. The soles of their feet rarely touch the ground and these two traits combined allow it to move almost silently.

A cat's paws have more touch receptors the any other part of thier body and scientists believe they can sense tiny vibrations.

Domestic cats have been clocked running at up to twenty-five miles an hour and a frightened cat can run up to 30 mph.

Cats can compress or elongate their spine. This allows them to become smaller to hide from danger or to sleep in tight quarters but allows them to become longer to run or jump.

Protruding eyes give cats a wider angle of vision than humans and tThey have excellent peripheral vision.

Worlds Smallest Cat, Mr Peebles,is a domestic short hair that resides in Pekin, Illinois. He is only 6.1 inches tall and 19.2 inches long and weighs 3-pounds.

The top two rows of a cat's whiskers can move independently of the lower two rows.

A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through but they are also used to express emotion.


Non-pedigree cats generally live longer than pedigree cats.

Cats were domesticated about 3,000 B.C. in Egypt.


A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat as a means of soothing itself.

The cat’s skeleton is relatively close to a human but they lack shoulder blades. A cat has around 290 bones and 517 separate muscles.

Almost 10% of a cat's bones are in its tail.

Cats outnumber dogs by millions. In the US alone there are approx sixty million. There are esstimated to be about five hundred million pet cats in the world

Cat's jaw has only up and down motion. It does not have any lateral, side to side motion, like dogs and humans. This is the reason that various types of dental kibbles do not work for cats.

Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.

Heaviest cat on record weighed 46 lbs.

A kitten will typically weigh about 3 ounces at birth. The typical male housecat will weigh between 7 and 9 pounds with females weighing slightly less.

Cats take between 20-40 breaths per minute.

Normal body temperature for a cat is 102 degrees F.

A cat's normal pulse is 140-240 beats per minute, with an average of 195.

Cats spend about 70 percent of their day sleeping and 15 percent grooming. In the wild, a lion will sleep 20 hours a day. Cats sleep more than just about any other animal, most of it in short naps that allow the cat to quickly become fully alert.

In the Siamese cat, a lower temperature causes more dark coloration in the growing hairs. This is why newborn kittens, warm from their mother's womb, are white all over. As they grow up in normal temperatures, the hottest areas of their body, around the stomach and back, remain pale in color, while their cooler extremities gradually become darker.

The Egyptian sun god Ra was believed to assume the form of a tomcat each night for his battle with the serpent of darkness.

The largest litter of kittens on record was born to a Siamese-Burmese mother, who had 19 kittens.

Almost half of all cats receive Christmas gifts.

The Russian Blue is considered lucky in Russia and a new bride will sometimes be given a picture of one.

Purring, big cats can roar, but they cannot continuously purr. Small cats can purr, but they cannot roar. Cats are known to purr when in pain. It is beleived they are trying to soothe themsele.

During deep sleep, a cat may twitch his whiskers, flex his paws or move his tail. Judging by the amount of electrical activity in the brain, scientists think cats dream. Of course anyone that owns one knows they do.

Breeds that developed in cold climates, like the Siberian Cat, and Norwegian Forest Cat have slightly oily, water-repellent top coats and thick, insulating undercoats.

The taste buds on a cat's tongue are specialized to detect the amino acids in meats, but are less able than ours to detect the carbohydrates in plants and grains.

One female cat and her offspring, left to breed at will, can produce 420,000 kittens in just seven years.

Small Egyptian amulets representing cats may date from as early as 2300 B.C.E. The oldest picture of a cat was found in the tomb of Baket III. It dates from 1950 B.C.E. and shows a cat confronting a rat.

A female cat can mate with more than one male when she is in heat, meaning different kittens in a litter may have different fathers.

Cats have three blood types: A, B and AB. The majority are type A.

Cats have twice as many smell-sensitive cells in their noses as we do, which means they can smell things we are not even aware of.

The cat receives much respect in Islam, because of tales that the Prophet Mohammed was a cat lover. One story says a cat saved Mohammed from being bitten by a deadly snake. In another, when Mohammed’s cat Muezza fell asleep on his sleeve, the Prophet cut off his sleeve rather than disturb his cat.

In Buddhist temples across Asia, cats are kept as mousers. These temple cats have a pointed pattern, and may be ancestors of the Siamese breed.

An ancient Persian legend says that the cat was born from a lion's sneeze.

Cats can make more than 100 different vocal sounds. Dogs can make about 10.

Humans and cats have a similar range of hearing when it comes to low-pitched sounds, but cats have a much greater ability to hear very high notes-better, even, than dogs.

All the big cats, including lions and tigers, react to catnip just the way our little cats do. In fact, some zoos give their big cats catnip as part of a general program of environmental enrichment

Cats like to be a lot warmer than we do. We start to feel uncomfortable when our skin temperature gets higher than about 112(F (44.5(C), but cats don't start to feel uncomfortable until their skins reaches about 126(F (52(C).

In the language of the ancient Egyptians, the word for cat was miou. The name has been somewhat revived in the modern breed the Egyptian Mau.

Cats can judge within three inches the location of a sound being made one yard away.

The Ragdoll and the Maine Coon are the biggest COMMON breeds. Both can weigh 20 pounds or more.

More than 20 muscles in each ear enable a cat to move ITS ears like radar dishes and pinpoint the source of a sound. The two ears can rotate in different directions, as well.

Cats seem to have an instinctive ability to find their way home and tests have shown that they can use the earth magnetic fields to navigate.

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Located in Trenton Ontario Canada
A Breeder of Fine Companion Bengals