Celebrate Cat Facts This Halloween!
Animal Trivia, Holidays Trivia
Halloween and cats go hand in hand and you may be surprised to know a few facts about cats. Beware when trick or treating; you never know where a cat may be lurking!
1. Ever wonder why a cat sees in pitch-black dark? It’s because their eyes take light in and reflect if back out … like a flashlight!
2. Did you know that a cat’s whiskers could detect even the tiniest of creatures? A cat can detect any kind of movement up to 2000 times smaller than the width of the hair on your head
3. Ever wondered why cats constantly lick themselves clean after eating? A cat has natural instincts derived from the wild and this instinct tells them to wash away food scent to keep predators at bay.
4. Know how to tell when a cat is happy? That’s easy, they just squeeze their eyes closed.
5. Did you know that cats might have lived on earth 12 million years ago? A fossilized record similar to today’s cats suggests they did.
6. Have you ever wondered how many cat breeds there are? There are more than 100!
7. Did you know that the light displayed from your television could make your cat shed fur?
8. Cats purr at the same rate of a diesel engine, 26 cycles per minute.
9. Did you know that dogs have more teeth than cats, a dog has 42 and a cat has only 30?
10. Ever wonder what makes some people allergic to cats? It’s a protein in cats saliva people are allergic to and when a cat licks their fur, it can get in the air and cause lots of aaaaachoo’s!
11. Did you know that a cat breathes in anywhere from 20-40 times a minute depending on their health.
12. A cat’s heart beats twice as fast as a human.
13. Did you know that a cat can jump anywhere from five to seven times it’s own height?
14. Do you know who invented the famous “kitty door”? It was Sir Isaac Newton.
15. American’s spend lots of money on cat food every year; in fact they spend more on cat food than on baby food!
16. Do people talk to cats? 95% of cat owners say they talk to their kitty cat.
17. Just like humans are either right handed or left handed, cats are too.
18. I bet you’ve never saw a cat sweat! They don’t have sweat glands.
19. Did you know that a cat cannot move their jaw from side to side!
20. Do you know what a polecat looks like? It’s a European weasel and not any kind of cat at all!
21. In America a black cat is considered bad luck, did you know that a black cat is good luck in Asia and England?
22. Cats sleep more than any other mammal! The average is about sixteen hours … a day!
23. Did you know that cats like female humans better than male humans? Researchers believe its because women have a higher pitch voice then men.
24. Cats caused the black plague! People believed cats were associated with witchery, they locked all the cats away and rats took over, spreading the disease!
25. Did you know that the famous author Ernest Hemingway was a cat lover? Hemingway had more than thirty cats at his home in Havana.
26. Rags to riches! Morris, the famous “9-Lives” poster kitty was actually discovered at an animal shelter in New England.
27. Did you know that even Nostradamus had a cat? His name was Grimalkin!
28. Do you know how to discourage a cat from scratching up furniture? Rub it down with orange or lemon rinds because cats hate them!
29. Could you be killed for killing a cat? If you killed a cat 4000 years ago in Egypt, yep!
30. Do you know the correct terminology of a cat lover and a cat hater? A cat lover is called an “ailurophile” and a cat hater is called an “ailurophobe”.
Neato. I love cats and always wondered why they did that slow-blink eye-squeezy thing. Guess I’m feeding them right after all! Who says learning has to be dull? I’m going to send some of my students to read your blog. Keep it going!
[…] I don’t know about you, but I have always loved some good old trivia, especially if it means that I can stump people with it. At the Aviva Trivia Blog, they have a variety of trivia questions, fun facts, and little known histories about things in our everyday lives. Since it is October, and Halloween is quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to share some trivia about Halloween, and specifically the cat, which has become so associated with the holiday over the years. All of these facts are courtesy of the Aviva Trivia Blog. […]