National Cat Day is observed each year on October 29th.
National Cat Day was founded to help the public recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued. The day also encourages cat lovers to celebrate the cats in their lives for the unconditional love and companionship that they bestow upon them.
- The technical term for a cat’s hairball is a “bezoar.”
- A group of cats is called a “clowder.”
- A cat can’t climb head first down a tree because every claw on a cat’s paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down.
- While it is commonly thought that the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, the oldest known pet cat was recently found in a 9,500-year-old grave on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This grave predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.
- The first cat in space was a French cat named Felicette (a.k.a. “Astrocat”) In 1963, France blasted the cat into outer space. Electrodes implanted in her brains sent neurological signals back to Earth. She survived the trip.
- The term “puss” is the root of the principal word for “cat” in the Romanian term pisica and the root of secondary words in Lithuanian (puz) and Low German puus. Some scholars suggest that “puss” could be imitative of the hissing sound used to get a cat’s attention. As a slang word for the female pudenda, it could be associated with the connotation of a cat being soft, warm, and fuzzy.
- According to Hebrew legend, Noah prayed to God for help protecting all the food he stored on the ark from being eaten by rats. In reply, God made the lion sneeze, and out popped a cat.
- A cat rubs against people not only to be affectionate but also to mark out its territory with scent glands around its face. The tail area and paws also carry the cat’s scent.
- The most popular pedigreed cat is the Persian cat, followed by the Main Coon cat and the Siamese cat.
- A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.
- On average, cats spend 2/3 of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life.
- Cats spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours cleaning themselves.[
- The world’s rarest coffee, Kopi Luwak, comes from Indonesia where a wildcat known as the luwak lives. The cat eats coffee berries and the coffee beans inside pass through the stomach. The beans are harvested from the cat’s dung heaps and then cleaned and roasted. Kopi Luwak sells for about $500 for a 450 g (1 lb) bag.
- A cat lover is called an Ailurophilia (Greek: cat+lover).
- In just seven years, a single pair of cats and their offspring could produce a staggering total of 420,000 kittens.
- Cats have been domesticated for around 4,000 years. While they were once valued for their hunting abilities, they are now valued for their companionship and loving behaviour.
- Cats can be trained. Teach your cat to share a “high five” with you by rewarding her with a special treat every time she lifts her paw.
- Psychological studies have shown that cat owners are more logical and practical than dog owners. They tend to be more introverted than dog owners. Cat owners, however, tell more stories about their cats than dog owners.
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