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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 quicker 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 idle 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.
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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 reach
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 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 ever 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 cats stand
and lift their paws up and 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 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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Other useful articles:
Why
the cats scratch
How
to make your cat to scratch her scratching post
13
ways to save your furniture from cat scratching.
How
to play with your cat
Why cats
climb
What
every cat owner should know about the cat litter box
About
some Cat Disease
The
Cats and the Cold Weather
Heartworm
disease in cats
Plants
that will poison your cats
Cat
Neutering
How
to Avoid Cat Urine Spraying
How
to remove cat urine
Cat’s
Nutrition
What
you should know about Cat’s Shedding
Care
of Older Cats
Siamese
Cats
Cares
for newly born kittens
Putting
Your Cat out to Pasture
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