Cats are a special part of our lives. They can be frustrating at times, but they are always there to make us feel better. Cats have been around for thousands of years and have always been one of the most popular pets in the world.
Cats can teach us many things about ourselves and about life. They can teach us patience, how to be gentle, and how to enjoy the small things in life. They also teach us curiosity, independence, and how to love unconditionally.
We all know that cats can be very finicky creatures and we should never take them for granted because they will eventually leave when they are ready to go on their own adventure.
If you’re looking for some interesting facts about cats to share today, you’ll find 22 of the most fascinating ones in this list.
Facts About Cat
- Kittens have 26 deciduous teeth, while adult cats develop 30 permanent teeth.
- A house cat’s genome is 95.6% tiger, and they share many behaviors with the Tiger. These behaviors include scent marking by scratching, prey play, prey stalking, pouncing, chinning, and urine marking.
- Cats have 18 toes on average, but some can be born with extra ones called polydactylism.
- Cats have 32 muscles in each ear that allow them to finely tune in to the sound of a noise. Oh cool, cats can rotate their ears up to 180 degrees!
- Cats have 230 bones, while humans have 206. However, many are identical to those in the human body.
- Cats are nearsighted, but their peripheral vision and night vision are far superior to humans.
- Cats have whiskers that are not just adorable, they serve a very important function. These whiskers help them navigate where they’re going at night, especially in spaces with less lighting – this makes it easier for them to stay safe and sound.
- Cats may have a dominant paw. Male cats tend to prefer their left paw and female cats might have a dominant right paw.
- Did you know that a cat rubbing its butt on your face is actually a sign of trust and the cat showing that it feels safe around you?
- A female cat can be pregnant as early as 4-6 months old.
- Cats usually sleep around 15 hours per day, which means that a cat spends about 70% of its life sleeping.
- There are over a half billion domestic cats currently living in households.
- Stubbs, an orange tabby cat, served as the mayor of Talkeetna, a small town in Alaska, for 20 years.
- Cats develop at a faster pace than humans do: cat’s first year is similar to the first 15 years of human life.
- The Guinness World Record for longest cat belongs to a Maine Coon called Barivel. Barivel is about 120cm long and lives in Italy.
- The Singapura is the smallest cat breed in the world, being less than half the size of an average cat.
- Cats can hear an average of five times better than humans.
- A cat cannot see directly under its nose.
Learn More: Most Popular Cat Breeds
Facts about World’s Richest Cats
- When Maria Assunta died in 2011, she left her cat, Tomasso, her entire fortune. This included flats and houses worth an estimated €10 million, scattered from Milan in the north to Calabria in the south.
- Guinness World Records reports that the richest cat was Blackie, who inherited a £9 million property when its British owner named Ben Rea, died in 1988.
- A blue-cream tortie Birman cat ‘Choupette’ belonging to Karl Lagerfeld, who reportedly received some of his $195 million fortune after Karl’s death in early 2019.
Learn More: Cat Holidays and Observance
Surprising Cat Facts You Didn’t Know
- Cats can be toilet-trained.
- Cats can jump up to five times their own height, which is an astonishing feat.
- It is estimated that around 50% of all cats in the world have a response to catnip aroma.
- Cats spend up to a third of their waking hours grooming themselves.
- A house cat could beat Usain Bolt in the 200 meter dash. House cat can run to the speed of about 30 mph over short distances.
- Cat breeders are referred to as “catteries.”
- Cats are one of the most popular pets in the world and there is an estimated 500 million of them.
- The oldest feline on record to date was Creme Puff (38 years and 3 days old). The Guinness World Records institution documents that she lived from 3rd August 1967 until 30th August 2005, and the cat is owned by an Austin resident.
- The oldest pet cat was found to date back to 9,500 years ago. In 2004, a French archeologist André-Michel Brézilit found a grave of a cat in Cyprus dating back to 9,500 years ago.
- A cat’s purr vibrates at a frequency of 25 to 150 hertz, which is the same frequency at which muscles and bones regenerate.
- President Abraham Lincoln had a strong affinity with cats – he loved to play with them and became an owner of several of them during his time at the White House.
- Not many people know that cats purr at a frequency of 25 to 150 hertz.
- Although a group of kittens is more commonly called a litter, they can also be known as a “kindle” of kittens.
- In Ancient Egypt, it was customary for the family members to shave their eyebrows in mourning if a pet cat died.
- A cat’s learning style is comparable to that of a 2- to 3-year-old child.
