Fun & Fascinating Facts About Cats, Our Feline Friends

Cats are wonderful creatures and if the truth be known, nobody actually owns a cat because it's much truer to say that our feline friends own us. When it comes to ruling the roost, cats have got it off to a tee, and they've sussed it out very well indeed, wrapping their owners right around their little furry paws. People passionate about cats are known as 'ailurophiles' which means they are always eager to make sure their feline friends have everything they would ever need to be happy, content, healthy and pampered.

There are lots of reasons why cats are so popular and not just in the UK but in many other countries of the world too. They are loveable and extraordinary creatures and getting to know a cat's individual personality is a fun experience. This is especially true if you adopt an older cat because they are already set in their ways and there's not a lot you can do about changing a cat's preferred routine. In fact, this is one thing that cats are never that fond of doing, and it's usually the new owners who end up changing their routines to suit their new furry friend – and quite rightly so! Below are a few interesting and fun facts about our lovely, feline friends.

• A group of cats is known as a “clowder”
• A group of kittens is known as a “kindle”
• A female cat can have kittens fathered by more than one male cat in one single litter
• The normal weight for a cat is on average 12 lbs – the heaviest cat ever recorded weighed in at around 47 lbs whereas the lightest cat only weighed 8 oz
• A cat's heart beats around twice as fast as a human heart – beating at 140 times every minute
• Cats have four toes on their back feet, but five on the front!
• Quite a few breeds don't have any eyelashes
• Cats are not totally colour blind – they an see blues, reds and greens

Cats are incredibly agile and graceful creatures and they enjoy the finer things in life. The beauty of these adorable creatures is they are wonderfully independent yet they also love the companionship of their owners. They are also very clean animals, burying and hiding their faeces in the dirt to cover up their tracks. Males on the other hand mark their territory which can be a little bit of an aroma problem – although, they do this less if they've been neutered. Here are some more fascinating facts about cats:

• Cats will spend around a third of their day grooming themselves
• They spend around 16 hours sleeping during a 24 hour period
• A Persian cat called Bluebell gave birth to fourteen kittens and every one of them survived – making it the largest litter ever recorded
• The older cat recorded lived for 36 years – the cat was called Puss and lived in England
• It's thought Isaac Newton was the first man to invent the cat flap – although no real evidence of this really exists
• When a cat died in Ancient Egypt, owners shaved their eyebrows in mourning for their loss
• In Ancient Egypt, if someone killed a cat, they could have been put to death themselves

Although some breeds are extremely talkative to their owners and other people many cats rarely meow to each other. When cats fight they are very vocal but they do not meow to each other even when all the commotion is going on. More fascinating facts about cats:

• Kittens start dreaming at around a week old
• All kittens have blue eyes when they are first born – they change colour as kittens get older
• Some cats have been taught to use the toilet and are even trained to flush it when they have done their business!
• Cats do not like mouse flavoured cat food!
• Cats never think they are small humans but they do see owners as large cats!

Beautiful & Clever Creatures

Cats are beautiful and very clever little creatures, and they know how to get what they want. It's always a pleasure to watch a cat perform and play around with any toys we offer them. However, when they play with toys, they are really practising their hunting skills! More fun facts about cats:

• Cats do not have a sweet tooth
• Female cats tend to be “right pawed” whereas males are “left pawed”!
• Cats cannot climb head down a tree because their claws are in the wrong position for them to do this
• The first cat ever to go up into space was called Felicette, a French moggy who was blasted into space in 1963 – she survived the trip and lived to tell the “tale” - pun intended!
• According to a lovely Hebrew legend, God made a lion sneeze and out came a cat. This all happened after Noah prayed to God for the food in his ark to be protected and not eaten by rats!
• Cats cat run as fast as 31mph but only over a short distance
• Cats have an amazing ability to survive falls from high buildings because of their superb reflexes and a balance organ in their inner ears – this helps them fall on their feet!

Cats love to be stroked and petted although a few characters are never that keen on too much of this kind of attention. However, when a cat rubs its face on their owners, this is not just a sign of affection because your cat is also marking the person as belonging to them and they do this through scent glands cats have around their face! More fun facts to muse over:

• In Egypt, over 300,000 mummified cats were found in an Ancient Egyptian cemetery – unfortunately they were found back in 1888 and the mummified cats were stripped of their wrappings and then shipped off to England and the US where farmers used them as fertiliser!
• In Europe and North America, a black cat is thought to be a sign of bad luck whereas in Britain and Australia seeing a black cat is a sign of good luck
• The smallest pedigree cat is called the Singapura – the breed only weighs 4 lbs (1.8kg)
• The largest pedigree cat is called the Maine Coon cat – weighing in at 25 lbs (11.3kg)
• Cats don't like going in water because their fur does not insulate them the way other animal's fur does!

Cats have kept humans amused for centuries because they are such gorgeous creatures. If well looked after a cat can live a very long time which means they really do become part of a family. If you are thinking about getting a cat, why not think about adopting one from a local rescue centre via our cat adoption pages and give a lovely creature a second chance?