Jack Goldstein - 101 Amazing Facts About Cats

Title Page

101 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT CATS

Jack Goldstein

Publisher Information

Published in 2013 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The right of Jack Goldstein to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2013 Jack Goldstein

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Disclaimer: All facts presented in this title were gained from common and reputable sources in print and on the internet. If any detail within this title is found to be incorrect, the author will be happy to publish a corrected version.

Introduction

Do you love cats? This book contains over one hundred facts about our favourite feline friends. Find out little known facts about cat behaviour, statistics about cats and information about why cats are so great. Separated into sections covering each area to make fact-finding easy, Ailurophiles will just love this!

General - Part 1

1. A cat cant move its jaws sideways like you can.
2. A group of kittens is called a kindle...
3. ...Whereas a group of adult cats is called a clowder.
4. A cats heart beats twice as fast as a humans.
5. The most popular names given to cats in America are Samantha and Tiger .
6. Cats can determine if someone in a room has an animal hair allergy. No-one knows why, but they will try to sit on that persons lap first.
7. Despite the phrase about grinning (and the character in Alice in Wonderland ) there is no such breed as a Cheshire Cat. It is thought that the saying relates to the shape of the mould for Cheshire cheese, which looked like a smiling cat.
8. In most countries, a black cat crossing your path is considered to be bad luck - however in Scotland they say it is a sign of upcoming good fortune.
9. Weirdly, Medieval people in France and England believed that a black cat crossing your path in moonlight was a sign you would die in a horrible epidemic of disease.
10. The most popular breed of cat is the Persian.

The Most Amazing Facts

1. A cats nose has a unique pattern - like the human fingerprint!
2. Who invented the cat flap? Amazingly, it was the man who discovered the principles of gravity, Isaac Newton!
3. Americans spend more on cat food every year than they do on baby food!
4. In 1879, the Belgian Post Office tried to use 37 cats to deliver the mail. It worked for a while, but the cats werent disciplined enough to keep it up!
5. People often wonder why there is not mouse-flavored cat food. This is because cat food companies have tried to make it, but in tests cats didnt actually like it!
6. Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats. If a cat died, the family who owned the cat would shave off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.
7. If you suffer from high blood pressure, you should get a cat - it has been proven that stroking a cat helps lower it!
8. Studies have shown that cats respond most readily to names that end with an ee sound!
9. A cat called Towser worked at the Glenturret Distillery in Scotland and caught nearly thirty thousand mice in twenty-four years. When she sadly died, she was replaced by a cat called Amber. Amber never caught a single mouse.
10. During the second world war, a cat was awarded the Dickin Medal for Bravery - this is the animal version of the Victoria Cross!

And Finally...

1. In the Dutch embassy in Moscow, staff noticed two cats kept as pets in the building kept clawing at a particular wall. When they investigated further - and thinking they would find mice - there were actually microphones hidden there by Russian spies!

Statistics

1. There are more than 500 million cats in the world.
2. There are around 100 different breeds of domestic cat.
3. 30% of a cats waking hours are spent grooming themselves.
4. Over its life, the average cat purrs for more than ten thousand hours.
5. The heaviest cat ever recorded weighed nearly fifty pounds.
6. On average, cats sleep for around sixteen hours a day.
7. An average cat can run at a speed of 30 miles per hour.
8. A cat can jump around five times its own height.
9. Around seven percent of cats snore.
10. The oldest cat to give birth was 30 years old - she had a small litter of just two kittens.

Unusual Facts

1. Cat urine will glow underneath a black light - this helps find the location if you think your kitten has had an accident in the house!
2. If you talk to your cat more, it will talk back to you more!
3. Most cats dont have any eyelashes.
4. Killing a cat was a crime which carried the death penalty in ancient Egypt.
5. In English, we say that cats go meow, but in Japan they say that they go nyaa.
6. In Ancient Egypt however, they said the noise was Mau - and this is also the word they used for cat!
7. Horrifyingly, when people in England were put to death for witchcraft, their cats were often put to death as well. Awful.
8. Cats cant taste sweets.
9. Napoleon, the Emperor of France, was terrified of cats.
10. Cats dont knock things over by accident - animal behaviouralists think that they are either doing it for fun or to attract your attention... they are smart, arent they!

Biology

1. Most cats have four toes on each back foot, but five toes on their front feet!
2. Some people will tell you cats are colorblind - this is not true! Cats can definitely see reds, blues and greens.
3. The oldest cat on record was called Puss. She lived to be 36 years old.
4. Cats have four rows of whiskers.
5. The largest domestic cat breed is generally considered to be the Maine Coon cat.
6. Sadly, many white cats with blue eyes are deaf when they are born.
7. A cats field of vision is 220 degrees, whereas a humans is just 180.
8. Cats have 24 more bones in their body than humans do.
9. When a cat drinks, it is actually lapping up water from the underside of its tongue, not the top!
10. A cat uses its whiskers to tell whether a gap is large enough for it to fit through.

Wildcats and Big Cats

1. One difference between domesticated and wild cats is that domesticated breeds hold their tails straight up whilst walking; wild cats hold it either between their legs or horizontally.
2. The Scottish wildcat is Britains only remaining large wild predator.
3. The largest wildcat is the Siberian Tiger, which can grow to nearly 4m in length.
4. The smallest however is the Black-footed cat, which is just 50cm long.
5. There are a number of famous beasts across the world that are thought to be big cats that have escaped from captivity. Perhaps the most famous in Europe is the Beast of Bodmin Moor which some think is an escaped puma.
6. The cheetah is the worlds fastest mammal - they can run at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour.
7. No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.
8. You can hear a lions roar over five miles away.
9. Lions are the only cats that like to live in large groups (called prides).
10. Some breeders are mating domestic cats with wildcats to give hybrid breeds. Whilst they may look incredible, they are expensive - and VERY hard to care for!

Kittens

1. During a female cats life, she can have more than 100 kittens.
2. A litter of kittens do not necessarily all come from the same father.