📖 Amazing Facts
Une lecture pour le plaisir — pas d'exercice sur cette page !
A cat's nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.
There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world.
A cat's heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats per minute.
A cat's ear can turn up to 180 degrees. Each ear has more than 20 muscles that control this movement.
For a cat, the grass is red! Cats are partially colour blind: red colours appear green, and green colours appear red.
Cats are extremely clean animals, and spend nearly one-third of their waking hours grooming themselves.
Cats spend two-thirds of every day sleeping. A nine-year-old cat has only been awake for three years of its life.
Cats "meow" often at humans, but hardly ever "meow" at other cats.
Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist who discovered the principles of gravity, also invented the cat flap.
A cat cannot see things that are immediately under its nose, because its nose gets in the way.
Relative to its size, the clouded leopard has the biggest canines of all cats — its dagger-like teeth can be as long as 4.5 cm.
The average cat-food meal is equivalent to about two mice.
📖 Identifying Breeds
The selective breeding of cats has taken place for more than a century, and during that time the look of the different breeds has changed considerably. Breed standards describe the ideal appearance of a breed, and give guidance on coloration, pattern, and temperament. New breeds result from spontaneous changes, or from the crossing either of two established breeds, or of a domestic cat with a small wild cat.
🧶 Hair Length
Cats fall into one of three groups, depending on the length of their hair.
Longhaired cats — a thick coat that can make them appear twice their actual size. (ex: the Maine Coon)
Shorthaired cats — fur may be fine or coarse, straight, curly, crinkled or wavy. (ex: the British Blue Shorthair)
Hairless cats — the Sphynx is the only pedigree breed that is "hairless."
🎨 Colors and Patterns
Over the years, selective breeding has established a variety of different patterns and colors within the recognized breeds.
Tabby coats — patterned symmetrically with stripes and spots of a dark color on a lighter background (blue, brown, cream, red, silver).
Solid coats — one color only: black, blue, brown, cream, lilac, red or white.
Particolored coats — two or more clearly defined colors, such as black and white (tortoiseshell, calico).
Shaded coats — the dark color occurs only on the tips of the guard hairs.
Smoke coats — a white undercoat covered by guard hairs of a darker color (usually black, blue or red).