The funny thing about cats……

Cats have been ruling our lives since time immemorial. It was originally thought that the ancient Egyptians were the first people to domesticate cats but in 2004 French archaeologists discovered  9,500 year old cat graves in Cyprus. This makes them the oldest known pet cats, predating Egyptian feline art by over 4,000 years!

They have used that time well to establish their superiority over us mere humans. They have even developed their own language especially for us. That’s right, when a cat meows it is talking directly to us and only to us as the meow is a sound that it uses exclusively when communicating with humans. It does this because it knows that we will never be clever enough to understand proper cat language because it is one of the most complex in the animal world. A cat is capable  of articulating over one hundred different sounds, each one of which has its own very specific meaning. Compare that to a dog who is capable of a mere ten different sounds!

Despite their obvious intellectual and physical superiority (domestic cats share 95.6% of their genetic make up with tigers) cats rains are very similar to humans, sharing identical emotional regions which is why they find it so easy to keep us under control and get their own way all the time!

Here are just a few amazing things that cats have achieved over the years…

• An orange tabby cat called Stubbs was the mayor of Talkeetna, a small town in Alaska for 20 years! He had several uncontested elections and although he didn’t hold any legislative power, he was loved by locals and tourists alike.
• In 1963 a cat went to space. On October 18th 1963 Felicette, also known as ‘Astrocat’ was the first and only cat to orbit the Earth as part of the French Space Programme. She returned safely and lived out her days in the Presidential Palace in Paris where a statue was erected in her honour.
• A millionaire cat. The richest cat in the world according to Guinness World Records is Blackie. When his millionaire owner passed away he refused to recognise his family in his will and instead gave his 7-million-pound fortune to Blackie!
• The oldest cat to have ever lived was 38 years and 3 days old when he passed away. Creme Puff, born on 3rd August 1967 lived until 6th August 2005, and his owner Jake Perry also owned the previous oldest cat record holder, Grandpa Rex Allen, who passed away at the grand age of 34!
• Most house cats can hit speeds of around 30mph which is so fast that they could beat Usain Bolt in a 200-metre dash!
• Merlin, a black and white cat from Torquay, currently holds the record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat. His purr is 67.8db(A) and for context, this is nearly the same volume as a shower! Most cats purr at around 25db.
• The world’s longest cat was a Maine Coon called Stewie, and was measured at 48.5 inches. Whereas, the record for the tallest cat belonged to Arcturus at a whopping 19.05 inches tall!

And finally, the one cat fact that we all know all too well……

• Cats actually spend 70% of their lives sleeping, which works out to around 13-16 hours a day. It’s a cat’s life!