We already knew that cats are incredibly cute animals. They also continue to surprise us! In this blog we share 10 fun, interesting and funny facts about cats. How many of these didn’t you know yet?
- Cats have 32 muscles in each ear! This allows them to rotate their ears independently of each other by 180°. This is useful when listening for prey, for example. The hearing of cats is very good, and they can distinguish sounds very well from each other. So when you think your cat is fooling you when he doesn't respond, he probably is!
- Cats also have a "fingerprint". Just like humans have a unique fingerprint, cats have a unique pattern on their nose. Knowing this, your cat's sweet nose becomes even more special.
- The cat flap was invented by Isaac Newton. The discoverer of gravity. Isaac Newton was not only a physicist, but also a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, theologian and alchemist. And thus also discoverer of the super invention, the cat flap. What a genius.
- Cats use their whiskers to determine whether they can go through a certain opening. The whiskers act as an antenna, they are as wide as the widest point of the cat. If the whiskers can't get through, the cat will get stuck if it tries anyway.
- In ancient Egypt, cats were treated like Gods; they were held in higher esteem than any other animal. The sacred quadruped was worshipped by its owner and mummified when it died. Throughout the country there were monuments to cats and images of cat gods that stood for such things as protection, healing and fertility.
- A cat sweats from its paws. The cozy sight of your cat "kneading" with his paws actually means that he is marking his territory. By moving its paws up and down, your cat is secreting a unique scent. This is how they make it clear to other cats that this is his domain.
- The oldest cat in the world lived to be 38. The average domestic cat becomes about 14 years old. So 38 is really exceptionally old! The cat in question Creme Puff was 38 years and 3 days old when he died in 2005. An additional bizarre fact: owner Jake Perry already held the record for oldest cat. His previous cat was 34 years old. So we are very curious how Mr. Perry manages this!
- Cats can reach speeds up to 50 km per hour! Not all cats can reach this speed, but the fastest cat breed, the Egyptian Mau, can. They don't keep up that pace for long, and use it especially when they want to catch prey.
- The richest cat in the world is worth $87 million. And you probably know her; Grumpy Cat. Her real name is Tadar Sauce, and she became famous in 2012 when her picture went around the world. Now she is a household name on the Internet, can be seen on photos and t-shirts and there is even a movie made about her!
- That Maine Coon cats are big was already known, but did you know that the Guinnes Book of Records has measured the cat Omar a Maine Coon from Australia as the longest cat in the world? Omar is 120 cm long and weighs 14 kilo! We would love to see him on one of our scratching posts!