OMG!  —  O Mi Gatos!

by Malcolm Riordan, DVM

While the mysteries of felinity remain ephemeral and just out of reach, even everyday facts about cats can feed a sense of wonder.

Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run. They place each hind paw (almost) directly in the paw print of the corresponding forepaw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. The only other animals to do this are the giraffe and the camel. The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. 

The world's best mouser was a tortoiseshell, "Towser." From April 21st, 1963 to 20th March 1987 she caught 28,899 mice, plus numerous other unfortunate creatures such as rats and rabbits. Towser worked for the Glenturret Distillery. A statue has been erected in the distillery grounds to honor Towser.

Cats lose almost as much fluid via saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.

A tabby named "Dusty" gave birth to a documented 420 kittens in her lifetime.

A cat is pregnant for nine weeks (as are dogs.)   An average cat litter is four kittens and that usually occurs twice a year.  A cat may have a litter of three to seven kittens and this can happen every four months/three times a year. Just one pair of cats and their kittens, kittens' kittens, etc, can produce 420,000 offspring in a mere seven years. This is some serious, biblical multiplying.

The oldest reliably documented house cat died at 36 years of age.

A five year old cat from Ontario, Canada is in the Guinness Book of Records for having a total of 27 toes.

Female cats may mate with more than one male when in heat, thus it is possible to have  kittens in a litter with different fathers.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear and can rotate their ears independently 180 degrees. Cats' hearing is much more sensitive than that of a dog.  Cats are able to turn and precisely locate a sound 10 times faster than your trusty watchdog. Watch some time – make a brief and unusual noise and a cat will immediately look directly at you; while a dog may require a second or third brief noise to successively narrow it down to looking directly at the source of the noise. 

The tiniest cat on record, Tinker Toy from Illinois, was a male Himalayan-Persian. He weighed one pound, eight ounces fully grown and was 7.25" long and 2.75” tall!  This is the average weight of a six-week old kitten!

Cats lack the genes to taste anything sweet.

Although cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day, they remain alert to incoming stimuli which are filtered for significance by their brain's limbic system.

Cats have been domesticated for only half as long as dogs have been. In 1987, cats finally overtook dogs as the number one pet in America: there are 73 million cats compared to 63 million dogs – over 30% of households North America own a cat.

During World War I, cats lived with soldiers in the trenches – killing mice.

People who are allergic to cats are actually allergic specifically to their cat's dried saliva on the fur from grooming, or to their cat's dander. Someone who is allergic to one cat may not be allergic to another cat.  If the resident cat is bathed and brushed regularly, the allergic person in the household may often be able to then tolerate the cat, or at least have lessened symptoms.

There are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and about 120,000 hairs per square inch on its underside. Compare the maximum density for human hair at approximately 1,250 hairs per square inch. Dogs have a very wide range of hair density,  but they average 60,000 hairs per square inch. (Marine mammals have the densest fur of the animal kingdom: 300,000 per square inch up to otters at 1,000,000 hairs per square inch.)

A domestic cat can run at 31 miles per hour over a short distance.

In relation to their body size, cats have the largest eyes of any mammal. A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because (among a few other features) cats have a layer of reflective cells located immediately underneath the retina. This reflects incoming light back through the retina one extra time, amplifying the light  —  especially in low light situations. So, cats' eyes don't glow in the dark  —  they actually are reflecting light back (as seen in headlights or in flash photos) Dog are similarly equipped, but to a much lesser degree.

A long-term steady diet of dog food may cause blindness as well as a progressively lethal heart muscle disease in your cat.  All manufactured cat diets now contain the amino acid taurine – and since dogs do not require taurine, dog food lacks taurine.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. The more cats are spoken to, the more they will speak to you. If you do not respond when your cat talks to you, it will soon lose the urge to communicate with you.

Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity, also discovered the natural law that cats hate being on either side of a shut door. Newton is credited with inventing the cat door.

A falling cat will always right itself in a precise order. First the head will rotate, then the spine will twist and the rear legs will align, then the cat will arch its back to lessen the impact of the landing. This is called the "righting reflex."

The first cat in space (she returned safely) was a cat in France named Felicette. In 1963 France rocketed Felicette into orbit.

Woods Rafter Cat Image on Banner by Malcolm Riordan.