Did you know…
- Ailurophilia is the word to define the “love of cats.”
- Ailurophobia means Fear of cats.
- We have around 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds.
- A cat’s heartbeat is twice as fast as our heartbeat, at 110 to 140 beats per minute.
- The largest cat breed is the Ragdoll. Males weigh twelve to twenty pounds whereas females weigh around ten to fifteen pounds.
- The smallest cat breed is the Singapura. Males weigh about six pounds while females weigh about four pounds. There is one breed of cat called Calico cats who are almost always female.
- Cats usually wag their tails when they are in a stage of conflict.
- An average cat has 1-8 kittens per litter and 2-3 litters per year.
- During her productive life, a female cat can give birth to more than 100 kittens.
- In 1952, a Texas Tabby named Dusty set the world record by giving birth to more than 420 kittens. The largest known litter (surviving) was that of a Persian named Bluebell. Bluebell gave birth to 14 kittens in one litter!
- A single pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years. Cats have 290 bones in their bodies, and 517 muscles.
- A cat does not “meow” at another cat. This sound is reserved for humans.
- The lifespan of an indoor cat is 15 years, while the average age for an outdoor cat is only 3 to 5 years. Puss was the world’s oldest cat. She died in 1939 after celebrating her 36th birthday.
- A cat’s normal body temperature is 101.5 degrees which are slightly more than humans.
- Towser, a tortoise-shell tabby in charge of rodent control in Scotland, killed 28,899 mice in her 21 years career.