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Home > Cat Newsletters > Cat Newsletter 9
Cat Newsletter 9 About Cat’s Skills Cats can judge within three inches the location of a sound being made one yard away. This is an essential skill for a predator that needs to catch a mouse hiding in tall grass. Cats rank high up on the intelligence scale, and one of their greatest assets is memory. Studies at the University of Michigan and the American Museum of Natural History show that cats can remember problem-solving strategies for as long as 16 hours. The phenomenon of cats finding their owners in a place where they have never been before is scientifically known as Psi-trailing. Many well-documented stories tell of cats that have walked hundreds, even thousands of miles to find their owners. Cats seem to have an instinctive ability to find their way home; tests have shown that they use the earth’s magnetic fields to navigate. A domestic cat can sprint at about 31 miles per hour. When a cat falls a short distance, it often twists itself around to right itself and land on its feet. However, falls from heights can cause severe injury or death. The hearing of the average cat is at least five times keener than that of a human adult. Cats can rotate their ears 180 degrees. Humans and cats have a similar range of hearing when it comes to low-pitched sounds, but cats have a much greater ability to hear very high notes-better, even, than dogs. If cats could read, they would need reading glasses. That's because their close-up vision directly in front of them is fuzzy. Instead, they have super peripheral vision, and can detect the slightest movement in prey that’s yards away. Cats can make more than 100 different vocal sounds. Dogs can make about 10. Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, which is the same frequency as an idling diesel engine. Big cats can roar, but they cannot continuously purr. Small cats can purr, but they cannot roar. One female cat and her offspring, left to breed at will, can produce 420,000 kittens in just seven years.
Some Cat Behavior Tips Cats like to be a lot warmer than we do. We start to feel uncomfortable when our skin temperature gets higher than about 112 F (44.5 degree Celsius), but cats don't start to feel uncomfortable until their skins reaches about 126 F (52 degree Celsius). Cats spend about 70 percent of their day sleeping and 15 percent grooming. This is not only true for domestic cats. In the wild, a lion will sleep 20 hours a day. During deep sleep, a cat may twitch his whiskers, flex his paws or move his tail. Judging by the amount of electrical activity in the brain, scientists also think cats dream. Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech, and seems to enjoy human companionship. Cats do not think that they are little people. They think that we are big cats. This influences their behavior in many ways. All the big cats, including lions and tigers, react to catnip just the way our little cats do. In fact, some zoos give their big cats catnip as part of a general program of environmental enrichment. Cats also hate the smell of vinegar. If you have a "stray" cat that is marking its territory on your house, try pouring distilled vinegar over the place where it has been sprayed and then rinse with the hose. Cats are attracted to automobile antifreeze because of its sweet taste (so keep it well out of reach). Unlike humans and dogs, cats do not suffer a lot from loneliness. It is a mistake to project our social feelings onto our cats. Cats are social to a degree, but they are far more concerned with territorial issues than we can even imagine. Although a kitten is blind at birth, the touch receptors in the nose are already developed, and touching noses helps a kitten make contact with his mother. This practice of nose touching remains a friendly greeting for other cats (and humans) throughout a cat's life. When you find your cat glued to the window intently watching a bird, making a strange chattering noise and clicking his or her jaws oddly, your cat is merely acting on instinct. What your cat is doing is directly related to the killing bite that all cats (both domestic and wild cats) use to dispatch their prey. Do you know why the cats stand and lift it paws up in down in one place on your body, almost like marching in place? This behavior in cats is left over from kitten hood, when they kneaded their mother's belly to help the milk flow. Some cats will actually knead and drool when they are petted. The kneading or marching means that the cat is happy. Cats will keep their claws in immaculate condition by scratching and thus sharpening their claws. They will use a surface which is suitable for the task and they will not give it a second thought if they actually are destroying things, which may be dear and important to you. Cats are very stoic animals, and they often don't show they're sick until things have really gotten bad. That's why any sudden illness, change in eating habits, or change in behavior needs immediate veterinary attention. This is especially true for older cats. Is your geriatric cat vocalizing much more frequently? She could be trying to tell you something. Increased vocalization, increased appetite, and increased activity (especially at night), can be signs of a treatable condition called hyperthyroidism. See your veterinarian for a geriatric blood panel for your senior family member. Cats have a mind of their own and, unlike dogs, they are very hard if not impossible to "train". Very few felines will perform "tricks"! They will not "roll over" and they will not sit at your command. You may think you own your cat, but the cat really owns you! A cat is curious by nature and is not "designed" to just lay around and look pretty. She/he wants to be entertained and demands your attention, if you are ready or not. Putting a bell on a cat does not protect neighborhood birds, and can drive a cat crazy. Studies show that belled cats simply learn how to hunt more quietly and efficiently. But meanwhile, the tinkling sound of the bell is annoying and disorienting to the cat, which relies heavily on her sense of hearing to get around. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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