Did you know?

• The heaviest cat on record was an Australian cat named Himmy who weighed 45 lbs, 10 oz's. Himmy held the title of "Official World Heavyweight Champion in the Guinness' Book of World Records in 1986.

• Perhaps the oldest known female cat was Ma, from Devon, who was 34 when she died in 1957.

• If your cat is 5 years old, he or she is 36 years old in human years.

• A cat's hearing capability is five times greater than that of a human. However, at about 5 years of age, this capability lessens somewhat. A cat can rotate its ears 180 degrees and can locate the source of a sound ten times faster than the most capable watchdog.

• A cat can not see directly under its nose. This is why it sometimes can not quickly find treats thrown on the floor.

• A cat can sprint at 30 miles per hour and jump 7 times as high as its tail. When cats jump their footpads absorb the shock of landing.

• A cat can be either right-pawed or left-pawed.

• A cat will almost never meow at another cat. Cats use this sound for humans.

• Cats have about 100 different vocalization sounds. In comparison, dogs have about 10.

• Declawing a cat is the equivalent of cutting a human's fingers off at the knuckle. DON'T DO IT!

• A cat will spend nearly 30% of its life grooming itself.

• Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.

• The first signs of predatory behaviour occurs when kittens are around 4 weeks old.

• A cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than that of a dog.

• Cats are known to sleep from 16-18 hours a day. While cats are sleeping they remain alert to the slightest stimuli.

• After being handled, cats lick themselves to smooth their fur and get rid of the "human" smell. Licking is also thought to produce a calming effect.

• A female cat can begin mating when she is between 5 and 9 months old.

• A male cat can begin mating when he is between 7 and 10 months old. Please spay and neuter to save lives.

• The length of a cat's pregnancy is from 58-65 days.

• A cat's heart beats at 110 to 140 beats per minute, twice as fast as a human heart.

• A cat's tail held high means happiness. A twitching tail is a warning sign, and a tail tucked in close to the body is a sure sign of insecurity.

• In relation to their body size, cats have the largest eyes of any mammal.

• If your cat is in the habit of rolling over and exposing his stomach, you can be sure he feels perfectly safe with you. It's also a way of demonstrating his pleasure in your company.

• A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye.

• A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.

• All cats are born with blue eyes.

• Calico cats are nearly always female.

• Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.

• Cats have more bones than humans. Humans have 206 bones whereas the cat has 230. About 10% of a cats bones are in its tail. The tail is used to maintain balance.

• The cat does not have a true collarbone and can therefore squeeze its body through most spaces that its head fits through. Whiskers act as radar and help the cat gauge the space it is contemplating to walk through.

• Ailurophobia is the fear of cats. Julius Caesar, Henry II, Charles XI, and Napoleon all suffered from this and would nearly faint in the presence of a cat.

• Tests done by the Behavioral Department of the Musuem of Natural History conclude that while a dog's memory lasts about 5 minutes, a cat's recall can last as long as 16 hours.

• According to tests performed by Donald Adams, D.V.M., the cat possesses a surprisingly high level of intelligence and can remember problem solving strategies and use insight to "think" their way out of situations. Their curiosity stems from their intelligence and they will work endlessly and desperately to obtain the results they want.