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March 20, 2017

40 Interesting Facts about Cats

Did you know… Cats are America’s most popular pets. With 88 million cats compared to 74 million dogs, cats are taking over the world one meme at a time. Learn more interesting cat facts from our list below.

1. Every year, nearly four million cats are eaten in China as a delicacy.

Cats eaten in China
Source : Media Source

2. Approximately 24 cat skins can make a coat.

3. A group of cats is called a “clowder.

4. Cats sleep for 70% of their lives.

Cat Sleeping
Source : Media Source

5. Cats can spend up to a third of their waking hours grooming.

6. Cats dislike citrus scents.

7. The longest cat ever measured 48.5 inches (1.23 m) when fully stretched out.

World's Longest Cat
Source : Media Source

8. Cats have 230 bones, while humans only have 206.

9. Cats use their long tails to balance themselves when they are jumping or walking along narrow ledges.

10. Owning a cat can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by more than a third, researchers found.

Cute Cat
Source : Media Source

11. Cats have a unique “vocabulary” with their owner — each cat has a different set of vocalizations, purrs and behaviors.

12. Cat breeders are called catteries.

13. The CIA spent US$20 million in the 60s training cats to spy on the Soviets. The first spy cat was hit by a taxi.

Cat Spies from CIA
Source : Media Source

14. There are more than 70 cat breeds.

15. Cats have three eyelids.

16. In Korea and Japan, there is a Cat Cafe where you can go to drink coffee and hang out with cats for hours.

Cat Cafe in Korea and Japan
Source : Media Source

17. A fingerprint is to a human as a nose is to a cat.

18. The world’s smallest cat is called “Tinker Toy” and he’s just 2.75 inches (7 cm) tall.

19. The most popular pedigreed cat is the Persian cat, followed by the Main Coon cat and the Siamese cat.

Persian Cat
Reference: Bidner, Jenni. Is My Cat a Tiger? New York, NY: Lark Books, 2006.

20. Cats can’t see directly below their noses.

21. More than 86,000 people are injured by tripping over their cats and dogs every year in the U.S.

22. Cats cannot taste anything sweet.

Cats taste nothing sweet
Source : Media Source – Photo by anton petukhov/Flickr

23. Cats sweat through their paws.

24. Cats can dream. They produce the same brain wave patterns that we do when we dream.

25. Cats have sandpaper-like tongues that they use to clean groom themselves.

Cat cleaning himself
Source : Media Source

26. The first cloned cat was called “CC”, short for “Carbon Copy.”

27. Cats can get sick or die from eating chocolate.

28. The oldest breed of cat is the Egyptian Mau.

Egyptian Mau Oldest Breed
Source : Media Source

29. In Ancient Egypt, killing a cat, even accidentally, incurred the death penalty.

30. Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.

31. A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.

Cat Jumping
Source : Media Source

32. Many Egyptians worshiped the goddess Bast, who had a woman’s body and a cat’s head.

33. A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways, so a cat can’t chew large chunks of food.

34. Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds.

Cat Mind Reading
Reference: Fogle, Bruce. Cats. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2006.

35. Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (humans have only 6). A cat can independently rotate its ears 180 degrees.

36. Cats spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours cleaning themselves.

37. The largest cat breed is the Ragdoll. Male Ragdolls weigh between 12 and 20 lbs (5.4-9.0 k). Females weigh between 10 and 15 lbs (4.5-6.8 k).

Ragdoll Cat Breed
Reference: Cat World. Accessed: July 20, 2010.

38. A female cat is called a queen or a molly.

39. The richest cat is Blackie who was left £15 million by his owner, Ben Rea.

40. A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.

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