Feline Facts: 20 Things You Might Not Know About Cats

Here’s what you might know about your cat:

· She’s cute and cuddly — and she knows it.

· She’s not going to show you she’s happy your home, like your dog.

· She’s haughty and sometimes infuriating.

Cats are wonderful, aren’t they? Even when they’re known for their detached behavior, you can’t help but adore them. I know I can’t — I have one. A cat, I mean. I’ve been trying to “train” her to be less cool or haughty — if that can even be done — and in my quest to find information about how to transform a cool cat into a warmer pet, I’ve uncovered quite a few interesting, hair-raising, mouth-covering details about cats, in general.

For example, Hitler hated cats.

I thought I’d share these other facts with you:

1. Cats may be cleaner than you or I. They groom themselves 1/3 of the time they are awake.

2. Cats spend 2/3 of their lifetime sleeping. They like taking naps.

3. Cats can’t taste foods that are sweet.

4. They need Taurine, an amino acid, in their diet, otherwise they’ll go blind.

5. Your cat can fit through tight openings because she has no collarbone. She’ll, of course, assess the opening first through her whiskers, gauging whether or not she’ll actually fit.

6. Cats are also unique multi-taskers: they inhale and exhale while purring. (Go ahead, see if you can do it.)

7. A cat can hear ultrasonic sounds, which rats apparently use to communicate. So when your cat suddenly gets too fond of your walls, you may have rodents chatting about where they might get food or making plans to soil your stuff.

8. There are reportedly 500 million domestic cats all over the world, with 40 recognizable breeds.

9. Ever seen cats climb down head-first? Never, right? That’s because cats can only climb up on instinct but they have to learn how to climb down. They can’t do it head-first because their paws point in the same direction so to get down a tree, they have to back down — or be rescued by you.

10. A cat’s brain biologically resembles the human brain, more closely than a dog’s brain. We share identical regions responsible for emotions.

11. When you see a group of cats, it’s called a “clowder.” When your cat gets hairball, it’s called “bezoar.”

12. Pope Innocent VII may have worsened the Black Death. During the Spanish Inquisition, this pope declared all cats were evil, which led to thousands of cute and cuddly cats being burned to death. And what do you know, with all the cats scorched to ashes, the rats started taking over, aggravating the effects of the Black Death.

13. The Spanish Inquisition may have condemned cats but in Egypt, they were revered. When a family cat died, family members would shave their eyebrows, drink wine, and beat their breasts. They also held funerals.

14. Cats can uncover treachery. In a Holland embassy in Moscow, two Siamese cats kept pawing and meowing at the walls, with the owner thinking they had rats. Instead, hidden behind the walls were microphones, installed by Russian spies.

15. Adult cats don’t usually meow at one another but they do meow at humans. They’ll spit, purr, and hiss at their kind. Kittens do it because they want something from their mom. When your adult cat meows at you, it means she may see you as a maternal figure — that, or she wants you to get her something to eat or let her out.

16. Experts in boarding and daycare, global pet relocations, and other animal care services, cautions that cats are very sensitive to toxins and your garden may have lilies that are highly toxic, like Calla (not deadly but bad for your cat), Japanese Show, and Asiatic (both highly toxic).

17. Your cat should not be eating garlic, grapes, raw potatoes, raisins, onions, and chocolates. Milk will also cause them upset tummies and canned tuna meant for humans will cause malnutrition in cats.

18. Cats can detect earthquake tremors 10 to 15 minutes before we do.

19. On its first year, a cat reaches 15 human years; on its second, it reaches 24 human years. On its third year and thereafter, you cat ages about four human years.

20. The lifespan of an average cat is 15 to 20 years.