Cats have been on our radar since they domesticated us in ancient times, but even after thousands of years they can still surprise us. It turns out there’s much more to them than their snarky love/hate attitude and their addiction to tuna and laser pointers!
Do you know that Persians used cats in battle to defeat the Egyptians? Or that Disneyland and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg have something very cat-like in common?
Well, keep reading because these 50 amazing cat facts will inform, delight, and amuse you! You’ll even find out why a pissed-off flight engineer said “Roy, come and get this goddamn cat” in the very first in-flight radio transmission!
1) The Cats of Disneyland
The Cats of Disneyland keeps a profile on all the strays and their favorite park hangouts on this website here.
2) No more chubby fluffies
@mexicano via Reddit:
“That’s great of Guinness. It’s so sad when you see horrendously obese animals, and even worse that people keep them that way because people think they’re cute. I adopted a 26 lb cat and it’s been an absolute struggle to get him down – he’s down to 22 now, and ‘m really happy I’ll get to enjoy his company longer.”
3) Freddie Mercury’s Ode To His Kitty
“This album is dedicated to my cat Jerry – also Tom, Oscar and Tiffany, and all the cat lovers across the universe – screw everybody else!”
4) A kitty named Kiddo was the topic of the first ever in-flight radio transmission.
It was thought that having a mascot with 9 lives on board was good luck, but much to the chagrin of first engineer Melvin Vaniman, the cat started howling and mewing not long after the airship took off from Atlantic City in October of 1910.
Which probably explains why the very first in-flight radio message said:
“Roy, come and get this goddamn cat!”
5) In 1879 Belgium, they tried to use 37 cats to deliver the mail.
It was such a failure, that someone even wrote an entire book about it called The Mail-Carrier Cats of Liège.
@Wyndmere:
“There’s little wonder why that plan failed. Cats would claim every box as their own.”
@Aunt Messy:
“Mine would probably go through the envelopes for cash.”
6) Some shelters won’t adopt out black cats during Halloween for fear they might be harmed.
Sadly, their fate isn’t much better once all the Halloween crazies have gone underground. Due to pervasive superstitions about black cats being bad luck, they have some of the highest euthanasia rates in the country.
7) The cat who co-authored a physics paper.
When Michigan State University physicist and mathematician Jack H. Hetherington discovered that he’d used “we” instead of “I” throughout his paper, he couldn’t be bothered to go back and change it. So, he just invented a co-author with his cat’s initials to solve that pesky little problem.
@Darth Vader:
“Cat has accomplished more than I have.”
8) “Whenever a cat slowly closes its eyes and opens them again or winks at you, that means they trust you and recognize you as a friend.”
9) Cats brings you birds and rats because they think you’re a lame hunter.
It’s because they know you suck at hunting and they’re concerned that there won’t be anyone to clean up their litter box if you suddenly die on them.
10) A hero kitty named Masha rescued a baby who had been abandoned in the snow.
@CHAINMAILEDKID:
“Rude that they didn’t let the Masha keep the baby.”
@zixr:
“Later that day, the cat swatted the baby’s bottle off the nightstand and yawned.”
11) Owning a cat is good for your health.
12) The cat held by Marlon Brando in The Godfather was a stray Francis Ford Coppola found on the Paramount Studios lot.
The cat wasn’t even part of the original script, but after director Francis Ford Coppola discovered the little mafia boss prowling around the Paramount Studios lot, he made a guest appearance as Vito Corleone’s playful associate!
13) “When asked if her husband had a hobby, Mary Todd Lincoln replied: cats.”
14) “The Two Oldest Cats on record lived to 38 and 34 years old, both were owned by the same owner.”
15) “A prison in Washington pairs up “death row” shelter cats with select inmates as part of a rehabilitation program.”
The inmates must have a recent track record that includes six months of good behavior, and the reason for their incarceration can’t be due to crimes against other people or animals.
16) Meows are only meant for humans.
17) The resident cat at the English Prime Minister’s office has his own fancy title.
18) “Oscar the Cat predicted when people in his nursing home were about to die with such accuracy that staff would call relatives.”
As the resident therapy cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, he has a gift for knowing when someone was about to cross over to the other side.
As soon as he senses that the end is near, he hops onto that person’s bed and comforts them in their final moments.
19) Cats can recognize their owner’s voice when called, but they honestly just don’t care.
According to a study by the University of Tokyo:
“Japanese researchers tested cats’ reactions to their owners, suggesting that because cats “domesticated themselves” they never needed to take notice.”
20) “Koko, the signing gorilla, asked for a pet cat and named the tail-less kitteh All Ball, signed “obnoxious cat” when it bit her, and grieved when it died.”
21) President Lincoln let his cats eat at the dining room table.
22) There’s a rare breed of cat out there that looks like a werewolf.
@CallMeDonk:
“That looks like an paleontologist’s impression of what a cat might look like, based only on fossil records.”
23) “The worlds most wanted hacker was himself hacked and arrested because his password was his cat’s name plus ‘123’.”
@SpindleySpiders:
“That’s why I always use 321. Literally unhackable.”
@The_Red_Menace:
“Seriously… That’s why I use my dogs name.”
24) “Sailors considered black cats good luck and would use them as “ship’s cats” in hopes of a safe voyage.”
25) “Orlando, a ginger cat, competed and won against stock-picking professionals at the stock market.”
@siouxsie_siouxv2:
“How do they know it was random?”
@XPlain:
“This. I’d like to see a background check on this cat. For all we know it has a degree in economics.”
26) “Merlin a cat capable of purring 67.8 db(A) loud – about as loud as a vacuum cleaner.”
“Most domestic cats purr at around 25 decibels but Merlin has hit a mog-nificent 100 – louder than a hair dryer, a hand drill or a lawnmower. The 12-year-old pet is so noisy owner Tracy Westwood struggles to hold telephone conversations or hear the TV.”
27) Cats were used by the Persians to help fight their battles.
“Against the Egyptians in the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC he ordered his men to paint cats on their shields and brought 100’s of cats to his front lines. The Egyptian archers refused to fire on the cats as injuring one was punishable by death.”
28) “A cat’s brain is 90% similar to a human’s – more so than dogs.”
29) “Over 70 cats live in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, helping to catch mice who might want to chew on the artworks.”
30) The RMS Empress of Ireland sank because they left their good luck kitty behind.
The very next morning the Empress collided with the SS Storstad and sank, and of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 souls perished.
Some people believe that Emmy may have sensed the ship’s impending doom. But, there are some other, more plausible theories floating around out there, like this one.
@FookYu315:
“She probably orchestrated it. Don’t f*ck with cats.”
31) “Cats may spend as much as half of their waking hours licking themselves – and those they care about!”
@anonymous:
“TIL cats spend 10mins a day licking stuff. Because they’re only awake for f**king 20mins a day.”
@PM_ME_UR_BUTT_GIRL:
“TIL my cat doesn’t care about me.”
32) “Female cats are typically right-pawed while male cats are typically left-pawed.”
So, why does a cat’s handedness even matter? It might help you understand their needs better.
“…left-limbed animals, which rely more heavily on the right hemisphere of their brains, tend to display stronger fear responses and aggression than right-limbed animals, which are usually left-hemisphere dominant. Ambilateral animals, which do not have a preference for one side or the other, have also been shown to be susceptible to stress.”
33) “The reason cats flex (also called kneading) their claws when sitting on your lap is due to a behavior from when it was a kitten.”
“The kitten has to flex its claws around the mothers nipple in order to get it to start lactating. In adulthood its just re triggered from being nurtured.”
@aoife:
“TIL cats think the world is one giant boob.”
34) “A domestic house cat can run faster than Usain Bolt.”
@Curiosimo:
“That’s about right. He doesn’t have to worry about getting trampled by a cat. Although what if he met up with the Usain Bolt of Elephants? That would not work out too well.”
35) “The frequency of a domestic cat’s purr is the same at which muscles and bones repair themselves.”
“A cat has the power to sometimes heal themselves by purring. A domestic cat’s purr has a frequency of between 25 and 150 Hertz, which happens to be the frequency at which muscles and bones best grow and repair themselves.”
36) “Cats Sleep For 70 Percent of Their Lives.”
37) “Frank and Louie, a cat with two faces, survived for 15 years when he should have died after a day.”
Janus cats, named after Roman god with two faces, usually pass away soon after they’re born.
38) “Aoshima is the name of a Japanese island where cats outnumber humans 6 to 1.”
The cats were initially brought to the mile-long island to control the rodent population, but in the meantime they seemed to have forgotten to keep their own population in check.
39) Some cats have thumbs.
40) Cats leave behind their own version of forensic evidence.
41) “Adult cats do not produce lactase, the enzyme needed to digest lactose, so you should NOT feed an adult cat a saucer of milk.”
@anonymous:
“I guess it’s time to stop breastfeeding my cat :(“
42) Cat’s don’t have a sweet tooth.
43) Nikola Tesla’s cat inspired him to look into electricity.
Why does that even matter? Well, were it not for Macak, there would be no cool Australian rock group named AC/DC!
44) The largest litter of kittens ever produced included a whopping 19 little babies.
45) Cats are addicts, too. Just ask any tuna junkie!
@scoonbug:
“Actually cats get fixated on specific foods in general. Some vets think they’re actually fixated on specific food textures, which could explain why cat food manufacturers all make foods in distinctive textures.”
46) “Declawing a cat is anatomically the equivalent of removing the entire last bone in a human finger at the joint.”
@kennerly:
“Cats who can’t defend themselves with a swipe will bite. A cat’s bite is much worse than a scratch and is much more painful. I’d prefer to just train my cat not to scratch furniture and keep their nails trimmed than declawing. That’s just lazy on the owners part.”
47) The first cat in space was a French chick, and yes she survived the trip.
48) “After inheriting 7 million UK pounds from his deceased owner, Blackie became the wealthiest cat in the world.”
49) “The word “cat” is so old it can be traced all the way to the Late Egyptian čaute.”
@enigmical:
“Which roughly translates to ‘A**hole god-like creature that sleeps.'”
50) “Cats lick themselves to get your scent off.”
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