1. A group of cats is called a “clowder.”
2. A cat lover is called an Ailurophilia (Greek: cat+lover).
3. 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.
4. A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.
5. There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with approximately 40 recognized breeds.
6. Approximately 24 cat skins can make a coat.
7. 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.
11. Every year, nearly four million cats are eaten in Asia.
12. Approximately 40,000 people are bitten by cats in the U.S. annually.
13. According to Hebrew legend, Noah prayed to God for help protecting all the food he stored on the ark from being eaten by rats. In reply, God made the lion sneeze, and out popped a cat.
14. 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.
15. A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.
16. A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.
17. Unlike dogs, cats do not have a sweet tooth. Scientists believe this is due to a mutation in a key taste receptor.
18. When a cat chases its prey, it keeps its head level. Dogs and humans bob their heads up and down.
19. The technical term for a cat’s hairball is a “bezoar.”
20. 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.
21. Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.
22. Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.
23. A cat rubs against people not only to be affectionate but also to mark out its territory with scent glands around its face. The tail area and paws also carry the cat’s scent.
24. 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.
25. When a family cat died in ancient Egypt, family members would mourn by shaving off their eyebrows. They also held elaborate funerals during which they drank wine and beat their breasts. The cat was embalmed with a sculpted wooden mask and the tiny mummy was placed in the family tomb or in a pet cemetery with tiny mummies of mice.
26. In 1888, more than 300,000 mummified cats were found an Egyptian cemetery. They were stripped of their wrappings and carted off to be used by farmers in England and the U.S. for fertilizer.
27. Most cats give birth to a litter of between one and nine kittens. The largest known litter ever produced was 19 kittens, of which 15 survived.
28. Smuggling a cat out of ancient Egypt was punishable by death. Phoenician traders eventually succeeded in smuggling felines, which they sold to rich people in Athens and other important cities.
29. The earliest ancestor of the modern cat lived about 30 million years ago. Scientists called it the Proailurus, which means “first cat” in Greek. The group of animals that pet cats belong to emerged around 12 million years ago.
30. The biggest wildcat today is the Siberian Tiger. It can be more than 12 feet (3.6 m) long (about the size of a small car) and weigh up to 700 pounds (317 kg).
31. The smallest wildcat today is the Black-footed cat. The females are less than 20 inches (50 cm) long and can weigh as little as 2.5 lbs (1.2 kg).
32. Many Egyptians worshipped the goddess Bast, who had a woman’s body and a cat’s head.
33. Mohammed SAW loved cats and reportedly his favorite cat, Muezza, was a tabby. The Prophet says that tabby cats have an “M” for Mohammed SAW on top of their heads because Mohammad SAW would often rest his hand on the cat’s head.
34. While many parts of Europe and North America consider the black cat a sign of bad luck, in Britain and Australia, black cats are considered lucky.
35. The most popular pedigreed cat is the Persian cat, followed by the Main Coon cat and the Siamese cat.
36. The smallest pedigreed cat is a Singapura, which can weigh just 4 lbs (1.8 kg), or about five large cans of cat food. The largest pedigreed cats are Maine Coon cats, which can weigh 25 lbs (11.3 kg), or nearly twice as much as an average cat weighs.
37. Some Siamese cats appear cross-eyed because the nerves from the left side of the brain go to mostly the right eye and the nerves from the right side of the brain go mostly to the left eye. This causes some double vision, which the cat tries to correct by “crossing” its eyes.
38. Researchers believe the word “tabby” comes from Attabiyah, a neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. Tabbies got their name because their striped coats resembled the famous wavy patterns in the silk produced in this city.
39. Cats hate the water because their fur does not insulate well when it’s wet. The Turkish Van, however, is one cat that likes swimming. Bred in central Asia, its coat has a unique texture that makes it water resistant.
40. The Egyptian Mau is probably the oldest breed of cat. In fact, the breed is so ancient that its name is the Egyptian word for “cat.”
41. The costliest cat ever is named Little Nicky, who cost his owner $50,000. He is a clone of an older cat.
42. Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds.
43. A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.
44. A cat’s eyesight is both better and worse than humans. It is better because cats can see in much dimmer light and they have a wider peripheral view. It’s worse because they don’t see color as well as humans do. Scientists believe grass appears red to cats.
45. Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (humans have only 6). A cat can independently rotate its ears 180 degrees.
46. One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleep.
47. A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.
48. Most cats had short hair until about 100 years ago, when it became fashionable to own cats and experiment with breeding.
49. The oldest cat to give birth was Kitty who, at the age of 30, gave birth to two kittens. During her life, she gave birth to 218 kittens.
50. The richest cat is Blackie who was left £15 million by his owner, Ben Rea.
51. Cats are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Cats are said to detect earthquake tremors 10 or 15 minutes before humans can.
52. 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.
53. Cats spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours cleaning themselves.
54. Grown cats have 30 teeth. Kittens have about 26 temporary teeth, which they lose when they are about 6 months old.
55. DhiyaFaris love cats. lol
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