Fun Feline Facts for Friday
While we’re all running around rescuing and fostering and feeding and spaying and neutering the overflow of cats and kittens, it’s fun to take a minute and remember a few things about them that make them unique. Just for fun on Friday, here are ten interesting cat facts… and there are so many more…
1. Your cat’s nose print is as unique as one of your fingerprints.
Read a little more: Why Is My Cat’s Nose Dry?
2. A cat can jump 5 to 7 times the height of its tail.
Read a little more: How Fast Can a Cat Run, How High Can a Cat Jump & More!
3. A group of cats is called a “clowder”, a group of kittens is called a “kindle” (but can we read on them?).
Read a little more: What is the difference between clowder and kindle?
4. A cat’s eyes are nearly always blue at birth and may not change to their final color for months.
Read a little more: Understanding Cat Eye Color Changes
5. An adult cat has four rows of whiskers on each side and 30 teeth.
Read a little more: 5 Fascinating Facts about a Cat’s Whiskers and 9 Interesting Facts About Cat Teeth
6. Cats cannot taste sweets because of an incomplete gene.
Read a little more: Strange but True: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets
7. People who would read this blog are probably ailurophiles, or lovers of cats, but those who are afraid of cats are called ailurophobes and likely will not.
8. Cats can sprint at about 30 miles per hour, but aren’t meant for long-distance running.
Read a little more: How Fast Can a Cat Run, How High Can a Cat Jump & More!
9. Cats are capable of vocalizing about 100 different sounds, dogs about 10.
Read a little more below*.
10. Coat patterns in big and small cats seem to be derived from an evolutionary response to habitat.
Read a little more: Cat Colors and Coat Patterns
Information on the information
I first researched and compiled this information for a long-ago article I wrote for one of the shelter newsletters I submitted to in the late 90s and early 2000s, then I updated it to include in my feline care and information section in Great Rescues Calendar. At that time I used books as references as well as nationally-published newsletters from Tufts University and the University of California at Davis. *Despite an increased amount of feline study since then they are still pretty accurate and the information still distributed, but I tend to question the information in number 9, “Cats are capable of vocalizing about 100 different sounds, dogs about 10.” It’s a little too specific and unclear.
Both cats and dogs actually have the potential to make many noises, but on a day to day basis domesticated animals don’t need many of them and never use them. Dogs tend to use a set of about 10 that provide them with the clearest communication with their human. Cats hold onto much of their original biology as both predator and prey than dogs do, and cats therefore use a wider variety of sounds with the mixture of domesticated and non-domesticated vocalizations. I think these two articles from decades ago might explain where this generalization came from: It’s the cat’s meow: Not language, strictly speaking, but close enough to skillfully manage humans, communication study shows and Human emotional processing of human and dog vocalizations – 19564007.
But it’s still interesting information to know about our feline companions!
Read more articles about Health and Safety and Veterinary Medicine.
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Great Rescues Day Book:
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Each month features one of my commissioned portraits of a feline or felines and their rescue story along with a kitty quote on the left page, and on the right page the month name with enough lines for all possible dates, with standard holidays and animal-themed observances and events. Great Rescues also includes a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings including information on finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.
Each book includes also 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.
The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.
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All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
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