CAT TRIVIA, by Latifa the Cat

Piper doesn't like some of this trivia because she thinks some silly Cat Person made it up.  But I assure you it is not made up; it is entirely true.  And in my opinion, these facts simply prove what should be obvious to anybody -- namely, that cats are superior to dogs.  Anyway, Piper refused to write this blog entry, but she said I could write it if I included the disclaimer that not everything you read on the internet is true.  Anyway, that's all I need to say by way of introduction, let's get on with the trivia!


• Cats sleep between 16 and 18 hours a day.

• Cats have two vocal chords, and they use them to produce over 100 different sounds.


• A male cat is called a tom, or if he's been neutered, he's called a gib.  A female is called a molly or queen.  A group of cats is a clowder.


• Tom cats are mature enough to mate by the age of 7 to 10 months.

• A queen can start mating at anywhere from 5 to 9 months of age.  She can produce a litter of 3 to 7 kittens every 4 months.


• A cat's brain is more like a human's brain than like a dog's brain.



• The collarbone in a cat is not connected to other bones, but instead is buried in the muscles of the shoulder region.  Because of this, a cat can fit through any opening that is the width of its head.

• Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear, which means they can quickly swivel their ears to pick up sounds from many directions.  Dogs only have 30, and humans have 6.


• A cat's hearing is much more sensitive than that of a human or a dog.


• Studies done recently show that cats can see blue and green.  Researchers are still debating whether cats can see red.


• Cats cannot see directly under their noses.  But neither can dogs.

• A cat may spend five or more hours a day grooming itself.  A cat loses almost as much fluid in its saliva while grooming as it does through urination.


• A cat's diet must contain fat because a cat's body cannot produce fat.


• Almost 10% of cats' bones are in their tails.


• The cat's nose has between 60 and 80 million olfactory cells, as compared with the 5 to 20 million in a human's nose.  Dogs have about 150 to 220 million olfactory cells, so I guess they win in this category.


• Cats dislike citrus scents.

• A cat can sprint at about 31 miles per hour and jump 7 times its own height.  

There are many other fascinating things I could tell you about fabulous felines such as myself, but I will leave them for another time.  That way I will have a good excuse to write in Piper's blog again!