Trawling through the website of the National Geographic I was reminded by my love for cats, specifically the domestic cat. A lover of cats is called an ''Ailurophile'', which frankly sounds even dodgier than cat lover. I have no intentions of ever becoming a scary cat lady and hoarding lots of cats around the place, but I have come to appreciate the unique abilities of these creatures. Just watching how they move so gracefully it is easy to become fascinated by them. They see better than us, jump better than us, can hear ultrasound and have some interesting 'cat'achteristics.
Felis Catus are all members of one species, they are skilled predators, chasing rodents and birds mostly because it is instinctual (feral cats will hunt for food-there are more than 1,000 species of ''cat food')but with domestic cats it looks like they do it for the fun of it. Apparently if those medieval idiots didn't kill so many cats they wouldn't have had such a big plague problem. According to Kittihpidia they may have joined us as early as 8,000 BC in Africa in the Near East. They can fit through any space their head can get into cos they don't have a real collar bone, so they often test the size of the space with their head. Personally I would have a problem putting my head first into unknown territory but it serves a useful purpose in this case.
Cats see great at night cos they have an extra layer-tapetum lucidum, reflecting any light passing through the retina back into the eye. They also have pretty good hearing and can hear higher pitched sounds than dogs or humans (cats 1-dogs 0).
I have one cat ''Tattoo'' she is a moggy Persian breed (the most common breed) very fluffy and black with huge green eyes. Tattoo moved out of the house about a year ago and spends most of her time sleeping in the neighbours where it's more quiet, the main reason for this is I think that cats dislike change and children who pull their tails. She does not like my Father (cats prefer females-perhaps because of our higher pitched voices) and also it could be the beard, my sister was also scared of it as a child. Cats are pretty independent creatures which is another reason why I like them as overall they are easy to look after*.
*some cats can be a pain especially males as they tend to mark their territory by pissing.
Kitteh Facts:
- Can jump 7X higher than its tail
- Can sprint at 30mph
- Never meow at other kittehs, only for hoomans.
- Kitteh's brain is more similar to hoomans than dog
- In relation to body size, kitteh has the largest eyes of any mammal
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