Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.
Charles A. Lindbergh left his kitten, Patsy, at home in 1927 when he made his famous transatlantic flight because it was “too dangerous a journey” to risk her life. But a kitten named Jazz crossed the Atlantic on the first dirigible flight from England to America.
Bouhaki, the earliest cat name on record, dates back to Egyptian writings of 2000 B.C. In the hieroglyphs of that period, bou signifed “house” and “hak” was the symbol for “divine ruler.”
In ancient Egypt, entire families were forced by law to shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.
There are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and about 120,000 per square inch on its underside.
The largest litter ever documented was produced by a Burmese/Siamese mother. There were 19 kittens in the litter.
Besides smelling with their noses, cats can smell with an additional organ called the vomeronasal organ (or Jacobson’s organ), located in the upper surface of the mouth
Sir Isaac Newton is credited with the invention of the cat flap-door.
Cat’s ears can be rotated because they are connected to thirty (30) muscles. There are only six (6) muscles connecting human ears – we can’t rotate ours. [More info on the cat's ears]
The first modern cat show, featuring two dozen show classes, was held in London in 1871.
At top speed, a domestic cat can run over 30 mph.
A cat named Towser eliminated 28,899 mice while she was employed by the Glenturret Distillery near Crieff, Tayside, Scotland.
Every cat’s nose pad, or nose leather, has unique characteristics. Just as no two humans have the same fingerprints, it’s a fact that no two feline noseprints are ever alike.
Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.
Back in the late 1940s in Buenos Aires, a black female cat climbed a 40 foot tree where she resided for six years. Her name was Mincha and she wasn’t lonely for companionship. She had three litters while living in the tree. The local Argentinians fed her by putting her food on poles.
I ran across these photos at AcidCow.com which appeared without text explanation. This is sort of Malibu Barbie Dream House for cats. It’s not as artful as Bob Walker and Frances Mooney’s iconic cat house, but I don’t think these cats mind — the shelves get a lot of play.
If you have several cats in your home, you might consider adding a few shelves to your walls. When we toured the animal research facility at Iams/Eukanuba where the cats are housed in a cage-free environment (with LOTS of cat shelves and hammocks), the behaviorist explained that the high shelves give the cats who are the lowest in the social hierarchy somewhere to get away from the alpha cats. The alpha cats stay low, and the cats who are lowest in the pecking order climb onto the highest shelves. Everyone’s happy. If you have problems with cats getting along in a multi-cat household, shelves might offer some relief.
If these don’t quite fit in with your design sensibilities, moderncat is a great resource for artful, aesthetically pleasing cat shelf designs. Check ‘em out. The Walker/Mooney book, The Cat’s House, is also an inspiration.
Hard to believe, but your cat’s ears contain over two dozen muscles, enabling them to do an Exorcist-like 180-degree swivel forward, backward, up and down. Although they pan around like radar dishes scanning for sounds, they’re not just for hearing.
Like the telltale tail, the ears are a vital part of the cat’s body language, and proper interpretation can help you better understand Fluffy’s moods and in some cases, keep you safe from injury.
The Relaxed Cat
Normally, a relaxed cat’s ears will point slightly to the side and slightly forward as shown in Figure 1 above. This indicates contentment and sense of well-being. She’s neither fearful nor aggressive.
The Alert and Interested Cat
When your cat is alert and something has captured her interest, her ears will assume a straight-up orientation, and a forward posture as in Figure 2. She’ll usually greet you with ears erect, offering a friendly greeting.
The Nervous Cat
If your cat’s ears are twitching, she’s agitated and nervous, as shown in Figure 3. This might be a cue to offer her reassurance and a safe embrace. Persistent twitching could be a sign of a medical problem.
Signs of Aggression
A cat’s ears moving from a forward posture to a backward posture indicates increased aggression. A cat’s ears moving from an upright position to a full horizontal position indicates increased fear, annoyance, or submissiveness — a warning for you to leave her alone. If you notice that your cat’s ear are maintaining a horizontal orientation on a regular basis, she could have an ear infection or ear mites, and a trip to the vet is warranted.
Attack Mode
When the ears flatten against the head in a defensive position as in Figure 4, your cat is frightened and may attack. She instinctively keeps her ears flat against her head in attack mode to protect her ears from claws and teeth during a fight.
Ears that are pointing backward somewhere between the “alert” and “defensive” positions indicate an aggressive cat who may attack.
Understanding when a cat might attack can save you from injury. When the ears are back (the telltale sign of aggression), you should never try to touch or pick up a cat because you’re at high risk of being bitten or scratched — injuries that could require hospitalization.
The Ambivalent Cat
The cat’s ears are also able to move independently of one another. When they’re in different positions, the cat is ambivalent and unsure of how to respond. She’s likely to withdraw to assess the situation. As she does so, her ears may shift as they interpret stimuli and consider how to react.
When you understand both a cat’s “tail language” and “ear language,” you’re well-equipped to interpret what even the least vocal feline is trying to say.
Feline body language is universal and cats around the globe use it to express their every mood. Your cat’s tail is like a big old apostrophe at the end of her body that puts a fine point on affection, aggression, fear and happiness.
One of the most primal tail movements is the violent back-and-forth swish, sometimes called a Sword Tail. Whether it’s a wild cat stalking a zebra, or a housecat stalking a gopher, she’ll swish her tail to prompt the prey to move, which allows the cat to zero in for the attack. In the house, either leave her be until she relaxes, or toss her a toy to attack. It’s usually not a good idea to pick her up when she’s in “swish mode”, because the object of her attack will likely be you.
You also don’t want to mess with your cat when her tail is in a position of defensive aggression. In this orientation, the tail is lowered, but the tip is curved upward. This indicates that something has attracted her attention, and she is very nervous, defensive, and unsure of her surroundings. If you try to pick her up, she may attack.
A happy cat holds her tail high, and if she greets you at the door with her tail quivering, she’s happy to see you. That’s the time you want to shower her with affection.
If you’re introducing a new cat into your home, reading your cats’ “tail language” can be helpful in breaking up fights before they start. You don’t want to pick up the aggressor at this point, but a few squirts with a squirt gun can persuade him to beat a retreat.
A tail is a perfect extension of feline expression. There’s poetry in the way a contented cat will artfully wrap her tail around her, or in the way a Balinese will proudly strut her tail like a flame behind her.
Cats even use their tails when asleep. The flicking tail on your snoozing Snowshoe? She’s dreaming of her life as a mighty lion on the Serengeti, stalking a wildebeest.
Don’t forget! You can leave a comment on this post for an entry in The Cat’s Meow’s giveaway of a custom oil painting of your cat by Linden Alley.
This month, Skeezix was one of the winners of Martha Stewart Pets’ Patriotic Pets Photo Contest, and I got a barrage of questions like, “Isn’t it all just Photoshop?” and “How do you get him to pose like that?”
No, it isn’t all Photoshop. We get him to pose by picking a time to photograph him when he is still a bit sleepy from his afternoon nap, and hubby does the wrangling while I shoot. Plenty of treats and toys make it a fun activity for him.
It takes about six minutes to get a usable shot, which is about the length of Skeezy’s attention span. When he mews, “I’m outta here,” we pack up and call it a day.
Lest you think, “I could never get my cat to do that,” or “I don’t have the professional equipment to take good photos,” I’m going to share my top five tips for photographing your cat, all of which are within reach of the average camera-toting cat lover.
Before you start to shoot, engage the services of a cat wrangler to position the cat while you man the camera. (I use my hubby, who happily complies because I let him move five he-man explosion movies to the top of the Netflix queue every time he renders his services. Your bribes may vary.) Employing a cat wrangler will decrease the complexity of the shoot by about a million percent.
Once you have engaged a cat wrangler, you’re ready to shoot. Here five tips to ensure success in photographing your cat:
1) Shoot in natural light; don’t use flash.
Shooting indoors using a flash does not usually produce good photos. You’ll have to deal with red-eye and color correction, and the flash will cast unwanted shadows. In addition, once cats learn that the box you’re holding is going to flash a bright light in their face, they squint whenever you point the camera in their direction. The solution is to shoot in natural light (daylight) without a flash.
If you have large windows with indirect light, you might be able to shoot indoors. Otherwise consider shooting outside (with a “cat wrangler” to keep hold of the cat at all times) in an enclosed area from which the cat cannot escape if she gets loose.
We set up on a table on our back deck, in an area that is out of direct sunlight. Early morning, late afternoon and early evening are the optimal times to get the best light.
If you absolutely have to use flash, consider using a diffuser to soften the light. For cameras with built-in flash, just tape a bit of tissue or a white coffee filter over the flash bulb. Stand at least six feet away from your subject to avoid an overexposed nuclear glow and harsh shadows (preview each shot to determine the optimal distance). Shooting from an oblique angle will decrease the red eye problem.
2) Use a fast shutter speed.
There’s nothing worse than capturing the purrfect pose, only to discover that it’s blurry.
Even most point-and-shoot cameras now give you the option of shooting at a fast shutter speed. If you have “modes” on your camera, this is usually the “sports” mode. It will eliminate the inevitable blur from your cat’s movements to ensure a nice crisp shot.
If you have a drive mode on your camera which allows you to fire off 5 or more shots at a time, use that as well. It will allow you to shoot several photos in rapid succession increasing the odds of getting one good shot.
3) Shoot against an uncluttered background.
A pile of dirty laundry on the floor behind the cat will take attention away from the subject. For best results, use a backdrop.
Although I have a professional backdrop, I never use it for the cat photos. My favorite setup is very inexpensive, portable, and only requires a trip to a good office supply store.
Take two 24″X36″ pieces of foam core. One forms the base (on which the cats sits), the other forms the backdrop. Then staple a piece of posterboard that has a sky pattern on it to the piece of foam core that forms the backdrop. And you’re done!
Position your cat a foot or so away from the backdrop so as not to cast any shadows.
4) Hit the floor.
Get down to the cat’s level. My knees are shot, so it’s easier for me to set the subject on a table. Otherwise, get down on the floor at cat-eye-level to take your shot. It can be the difference between a good photo and a phenomenal photo.
Gordy won the World’s Coolest Cat Contest with the photo on the right. It’s a brilliant concept, purrfectly executed. Can you imagine how much less impact it would have had if it had been shot from a standing position instead of at Gordy’s level? So get down, people!
5) Be generous with treats ‘n’ toys.
Skeezix’s favorite tinsel wand toy is indispensible in getting him to look directly into the camera. We reward him with treats to ensure that he views each photo session as a pawsitive, fun experience… for all of us.
His brother, Mao, loves having his photo taken so much that the minute I start setting up he jumps up, assumes a position in the center of the scene, and puts out a paw for some treats.
Here’s How it All Comes Together
Here is an example of the setup with the “backdrop,” set up on a table on our back deck. As you can see, it’s low tech, nothing fancy. And you’ve got plenty of time to practice before you take your Christmas card or World’s Coolest Cat photos!
Whether you’re doing the hokey pokey, or just trying to get some tuna out of a jar, you’ll use your left paw if you’re a male cat, or your right if you’re a female, according to research just completed at Queen’s University in Belfast.
Psychologists Sarah Millsopp and Deborah Wells tested 42 housecats — split evenly between males and females — to determine whether, like humans, cats are right-handed or left-handed. They published their results recently in the Animal Behavior journal.
The cats were subjected to three tests. In the first test, researchers dropped tuna into narrow-mouth jar. For the second, they dangled mouse toys above the cats’ heads. In the final test, they dragged a mouse toy across the floor in front of the cats. Each cat was put through each test 100 times.
The results were somewhat astonishing. When playing with the mice, both male and female cats demonstrated ambidextrous use of both paws. But in the tuna-in-the-jar test, all but one of the male cats used their left paws to scoop out the tuna, while all but one female cat used their right paws to complete the same task.
The findings show that cats use their paws much like humans use their hands. For example, most humans are ambidextrous when it comes to simple tasks like opening a door, but use their favored hand for tasks requiring precision, like writing.
The cats in the study mimicked human hand usage in another way: although the vast majority of humans are right-handed, men are statistically much more likely than women to be left-handed. One theory suggests that left-handed people were exposed to higher levels of testosterone than right-handed people while in the womb.
Just a werd of warning to all you beech bunnies hoo use the pool as yer litterbox during the summer swim seezin: acrost the country, kittehs are being forst to kleen the pool after they pee in it, as described in this artikle by Sharyn Thoma in the Kitty City Gazette:
Seattle, WA
Two Edmonds teencats are busy this afternoon, scrubbing down the now-dry walls of the Edmonds Public pool after they were caught peeing in it just yesterday afternoon.
Peeing in the pool is more common than you might think, about one in two cats admit to doing it and some admit they actually really like it.
Public pools across the country are super busy for the summer season, but the events at the Edmonds pool could make you think twice about jumping in.
Peeing in pools is a fun and thrilling hobby
Scatterby, a 6-year-old, neutered, Domestic Short Hair, and Cesar Augusto Rimbaldo, a 5-year-old, neutered, Domestic Short Hair, were both enjoying the sweltering summer day until one of them decided to let loose in the pool.
“I decided to swim away from everyone else first,“ said Scatterby, who works as a bouncer at Giggles nightclub in Seattle, “Then I started to swim back as soon as I started peeing, to avoid making a warm pocket of it for someone else to swim into.”
Scatterby’s plan didn’t work as well as he intended. A bunch of kittens started squealing about finding a “warm spot” to their momcat, who started to suspect foul play.
Cesar believes the look on his face while peeing gave him away
When Cesar saw what Scatterby was up to, he joined the fun. “I decided to walk over into the shallow end so (the pee) would spread out and not stay in one spot.”
According to a recent poll, almost half of all cats admit to one or more behaviors that contribute to an unsanitary pool. After all, peeing in pools is a fun and thrilling hobby.
And you’ve probably suspected as much, since the poll also showed 95 percent of us believe our fellow swimmers participate in pool peeing.
The momcat who witnessed the boy’s peeing notified lifeguards, who told Police. The pool was shut down and the cats were told they would be spending the next day scrubbing out the entire pool by hand.
Cesar admitted he is a nine-time offender at the Edmonds pool
“Peeing in the pool isn’t cool,” said the momcat, who wished to remain anonymous.
One in two respondents admitted to peeing in the pool, and liking it, while almost nine in ten are convinced that their fellow swimmers are guilty of this act.
About a third of all cats admitted that they jump in without showering first. Despite all this nastiness, cats said that they usually tried to put it out of their minds and just try to enjoy the swim.
Whether or not you pee in pools, you should know that unclean water can actually lead to recreational water illnesses like diarrhea, reduced sexual potency, as well as ear and skin infections.
Photos: Random
Sum sugjestions fur not gitting cawt peeing in the pool:
Drag it, so yoo don’t leeve big warm spots.
Even tho it’s a big reeleef win yoo do pee in the pool, try not to let it show on yer face, or let out a big purr of reeleef. Be cool.
Don’t pee in the pool neer kittins. Kittins are notorius tattletales.
Yoo can sumtimes git away with peeing in the pool, but yoo cannot have the sqwerts in the pool and git away with it. So win yer tummy begins to tumble, hop out and hed fur the litter box.
Are you as addicted to Housecat Housecall as we are? Did you just start watching this season and wish you had watched Season 1? If you are, you’re gonna be rockin’ this week’s giveaway on The Cat’s Meow: You can win a Season 1 DVD of Housecat Housecall, and it couldn’t be easier to enter.
How to Enter
Just leave a comment in the comments field of this post, describing one feline behavioral problem you’d ask Dr Katrina about if you had the chance. If your cats are purrfect, tell me what makes them that way.
Deadline
All comments entered before midnight PT, Sunday July 26 will be eligible for the drawing.
Drawing
The names of those who have submitted a comment, and who entered a valid email address will be entered in the drawing. The winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries.
Restrictions
Only one entry per household, please.
What’s Housecat Housecall?
Housecat Housecall is the reality-based TV show for cat lovers.
Presented by Purina® Cat Chow®, the show is about real people, real cats, and real answers.
Each week, Dr. Katrina visits cat loving families and, with the help of the Housecat Housecall® mentors, Dr. Karen Sueda and Dr. Rich Goldstein, she’ll try to make some sense out of a wide range of feline puzzlers. Whether it’s just a quirky behavior or something more complex, Dr. Katrina and her team work out real solutions that help bring peace, harmony, and well-being back to the homes of cats and owners.
When’s it on?
Housecat Housecall airs Saturday at 10:30 am E/P and Sunday at 8:00 am E/P on Animal Planet.
I hope tax dollars weren’t spent on this “well, duh!” research project! Here’s the scoop:
If you’ve ever wondered who’s in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It’s your cat.
Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.
This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.
“The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response,” said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. “Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom.”
They know us
Previous research has shown similarities between cat cries and human infant cries.
McComb suggests that the purr-cry may subtly take advantage of humans’ sensitivity to cries they associate with nurturing offspring. Also, including the cry within the purr could make the sound “less harmonic and thus more difficult to habituate to,” she said.
McComb got the idea for the study from her experience with her own cat, who would consistently wake her up in the mornings with a very insistent purr. After speaking with other cat owners, she learned that some of their cats also made the same type of call. As a scientist who studies vocal communication in mammals, she decided to investigate the manipulative meow.
Tough to test
Setting up the experiments wasn’t easy. While the felines used purr-cries around their familiar owners, they were not eager to make the same cries in front of strangers. So McComb and her team trained cat owners to record their pets’ cries — capturing the sounds made by cats when they were seeking food and when they were not. In all, the team collected recordings from 10 different cats.
The researchers then played the cries back for 50 human participants, not all of whom owned cats. They found that humans, even if they had never had a cat themselves, judged the purrs recorded while cats were actively seeking food — the purrs with an embedded, high-pitched cry — as more urgent and less pleasant than those made in other contexts.
When the team re-synthesised the recorded purrs to remove the embedded cry, leaving all else unchanged, the human subjects’ urgency ratings for those calls decreased significantly.
McComb said she thinks this cry occurs at a low level in cats’ normal purring, “but we think that cats learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans.” In fact, not all cats use this form of purring at all, she said, noting that it seems to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners rather than those living in large households, where their purrs might be overlooked.
The results were published in the July 14 issue of the journal Current Biology.
Kittens are only kittens for a year, but this short time is the most significant stage of a cat’s development. It’s important for kitten owners to recognize how impressionable kittens are and arm themselves with tools and expert advice to ensure they give their kittens the best start in life.
As part of its continuous commitment to sharing professional and practical knowledge with cat owners, Purina Kitten Chow is launching a video series featuring Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist, Dr. Karen Sueda that will be posted on kittenchow.com. The series, titled The Kitten Connection, is designed to quickly and easily show new – and even experienced – kitten owners tips, tricks, and advice that allow them to make the most out of the lives they share with their kittens.
“Kitten ownership can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, so it’s worth it to prepare ahead of time for every aspect of kitten care,” said Dr. Sueda. “The Kitten Connection recognizes the importance of helping kitten owners raise a well-adjusted kitten because it eventually leads to a healthy, happy and well-mannered adult cat.”
The thirteen webisodes of “The Kitten Connection™” cover the following common kitten care topics:
Litter box training
Kitten-proofing the home
First days at home
Introductions to resident pets
Children and kittens
Managing a multiple cat household.
Shopping for Kitten Necessities
First Vet Visit
Kitten Nutrition
Kitten Health Check
Establishing Behavior Expectations
Proper Socialization with People
Making The Transition From Kitten to Adult
Each video is full of easy steps to help owners enrich their relationships with their kittens and create foundations of well-being for many years to come.
These videos are designed to provide kitten owners tips, tricks, and advice that allow them to make the most out of the lives they share with their kittens. Certified Veterinary Behaviorist Dr. Karen Sueda guides owners through easy steps to help enrich their relationships with their kittens and create foundations for many years to come.
dirigible flight from England to America.
with affection. 
This month, Skeezix was one of the winners of Martha Stewart Pets’ Patriotic Pets Photo Contest, and I got a barrage of questions like, “Isn’t it all just Photoshop?” and “How do you get him to pose like that?” 
Get down to the cat’s level. My knees are shot, so it’s easier for me to set the subject on a table. Otherwise, get down on the floor at cat-eye-level to take your shot. It can be the difference between a good photo and a phenomenal photo.
Whether you’re doing the hokey pokey, or just trying to get some tuna out of a jar, you’ll use your left paw if you’re a male cat, or your right if you’re a female, according to research just completed at Queen’s University in Belfast. 
Yo, kittehs! Skeezix heer.
Housecat Housecall is the reality-based TV show for cat lovers.
Kittens are only kittens for a year, but this short time is the most significant stage of a cat’s development. It’s important for kitten owners to recognize how impressionable kittens are and arm themselves with tools and expert advice to ensure they give their kittens the best start in life. 
that will be posted on kittenchow.com. The series, titled 
