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-
Cats can't taste
sweets.
- A
cat's tongue consists of small hooks which come in handy when
tearing up food.
- Americans
spend more annually on cat food than on baby food. In 1987 cats
overtook dogs as the number one pet in
America
.
- Black
cat superstitions are as American as apple pie. In
Asia
and
England
, black cats are considered lucky.
- Cats
have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back
paw.
- In
cats, the calico and tortoise shell coats are sex-linked traits. All
cats displaying these coats are female... or occasionally sterile
males.
- A
cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- Neutering
a cat extends it's life span by two or three years.
- Newborn
kittens have closed ear canals that don't begin to open for nine
days. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change
color over a period of months to the final eye color.
- A
cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot
seem to find tidbits on the floor.
- Tylenol
and chocolate are both poisonous to cats
- People
who are allergic to cats are actually allergic to cat saliva or to
cat dander. If the resident cat is bathed regularly the allergic
people tolerate it better.
- Today
there are about 100 distinct breeds of the domestic cat.
- A
cat has four rows of whiskers on each side.
- The
catnip plant contains an oil called nepetalactone which does for
cats what marijuana does to some people. Not all cats react to it;
those that do appear to enter a trancelike state. A positive
reaction takes the form of the cat sniffing the catnip, then
licking, biting, chewing, rubbing and rolling on it repeatedly,
purring, meowing and even leaping in the air.
- Cats
have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
- A
cat can jump even seven times as high as it is tall.
- If
left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven
kittens every four months. This is why population control using
neutering and spaying is so important.
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