The following 7 facts on felines are a combination of ones I learned over the years and some I just picked up as I searched the net for this blog piece. I love cats and find them to be not only entertaining, but extremely fascinating in so many aspects. I hope you enjoy reading this list of facts about cats.
Cats use purring to comfort themselves as well as to signify when they are happy. If a cat becomes severely injured or is very sick, he/she will most likely be purring constantly. One of my cat’s was hit by a vehicle and his leg swelled up, but wasn’t broken. He purred for about a week straight. That fat cat was very lucky to be alive in the first place. When I took him to the veterinarian to get checked out, it was the vet who told me about cats purring when they are in pain too.
Many cats are called a ‘clowder’ and many kittens are called a ‘kindle’. We’d always referred to a lot of cats as a bunch or a herd and tons of kittens were either called a batch or a litter, when they were tiny. I was glad to find out the real names for a group of cats and kittens.
This large number of muscles enables cats to move their ears 180 degrees! Most ear movements require the use of about 12 muscles. As much twitching I’ve seen my cats’ ears do, they must be giving those muscles a great workout.
They don’t see details very well at all, so you are most likely a big hazy being to your cat. They mostly rely on movement to track prey instead of keen eyesight like a hawk or other bird of prey. I think this explains why cats attack anything that moves. They aren’t positive if it’s something they can eat until they inspect if further.
This is probably why a lot of cats are intent on filling their human’s lap whenever it is unoccupied. I know my cats are always looking for a warm lap to nestle into or fighting over who is next in line for the heated pet bed.
I never actually thought about it until I read about this fact, but I don’t recall ever seeing any pictures of a tiger, lion, panther, or any other large cat with their tail hoisted in the air. I had always thought this was probably due to the fact that most of the images of cats I’d seen had them positioned ready to hunt or attack. Now I know that even if they aren’t looking for dinner, they still aren’t able to carry their tails in an upright position.
Have you ever look closely at a cat’s nose and seen that the end of it is textured instead of smooth? I never thought to check each of my cats to see if their noses were all textured differently. Apparently they are, but I’ll just have to trust that this is true, since my cats didn’t really appreciate me sticking my face in theirs to get a closer look at their nose.
Did this list of 7 facts on felines make you want to find out more? Feel free to add any other facts about cats that you know of. I always enjoy finding out new information about all sorts of things!
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