Cats: Facts about our feline friends

The feline grimace scale's five criteria—ear position, orbital tightening, muzzle tension, whisker change, and head position—indicated the presence of acute pain in cats. Domestic cats observed in rescue facilities have 276 morphologically distinct facial expressions based on 26 facial movements; each facial expression corresponds to different social functions that are probably influenced by domestication. Adult cats live in a type of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny. However, house cats' behavior is also influenced by human activity, and they may adapt to their owners' sleeping patterns to some extent. Domestic cats spend the majority of their time in the vicinity of their homes, but they can range a radius of many hundreds of meters. Many cats also respond strongly to plants that contain nepetalactone, especially catnip, which they can detect at less than one part per billion.

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A male cat is called a tom, tommy or tomcat (or a gib, if neutered). The etymology is unknown, but it may be an onomatopoeia from using a sound to attract a cat. The English puss, extended as pussy and pussycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt.

Highlander Shorthair

To add cat to a word list please sign up or log in. Click on a collocation to see more examples of it. These are words often used in combination with cat. Never give your cat medication that has not been prescribed by a veterinarian.

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Cats whose nasal passages become clogged because of illness may lose their appetites. Their sense of smell is crucial to sensing prey and evaluating food. The taste receptors are located on the front, sides, and back of the tongue. They can detect frequencies both above and below the range humans can detect. In addition, bristling creates air pockets that protect the cat against cold.

Hunting and feeding

• Here’s what to look out for and how to keep your cat happy.
• In Norse mythology, Freyja, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is depicted as riding a chariot drawn by cats.
• If a male attempts to breed with her at this point, the female will attack him.
• Cats have scent glands in their face, and bunting allows them to mark their territory, bond with other cats, or show affection.

Cats have no flat-crowned crushing teeth and therefore cannot chew their food; instead, they cut it up. Recent genetic studies have helped determine the origins of some of the oldest recognized breeds. For example, such breeds as the Siberian and Norwegian Forest Cat developed long dense coats to protect themselves from the harsh winters in Russia and Norway.

Before the development of refrigeration and canned cat food in the 20th century, feeding indoor cats who could not supplement their diets by hunting would have been impossible for most Americans, who could not afford extra fresh meat or fish.8 Unlike dogs, who have undergone many physical changes since domestication and evolved to survive on an omnivorous diet, cats haven’t changed much, and still require a high-protein diet. In fact, for more than 10,000 years, cats have lived outdoor lives, sharing the environment with birds and wildlife.

However, regardless of the color or pattern on the outside, all domestic cats are genetically tabbies like their wildcat ancestors. Herodotus expressed astonishment at the domestic cats in Egypt, because he had only ever seen wildcats. Pet humanization is a form of anthropomorphism in which cats are kept for companionship and treated more like human family members than traditional pets. He is reported to have photographed 90,000 cats during his career and maintained an archive of 225,000 images that he drew from for publications during his lifetime. General estimates for the global cat population of domestic cats range widely from anywhere between 200 million to 600 million. As of 2024,update the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 73.8 million cats owned and around 42.2 million households owning at least one cat.