A Cat's Life

Today was actually quite boring so I decided to give the cat lovers a few cat facts from my cat encyclopedia. (did I say cat enough?) Enjoy.

*The original ‘black panther’ is the black form of the leopard. Melanism is most common in leopards, so they were once thought of as a separate species – the panther.

*Contrary to popular belief, cats cannot see in total darkness, but in dim light their vision is about half as good as that of a clear sighted human.

*Another distinct feature of the cat’s eye is the haw, a third eyelid arranged to flick diagonally across the cornea. This flicks continually when the eyes are open, but if a cat is seriously ill it will show ‘haws up’, that is with the haws immobile across the corneas.

*The cat’s brain weighs less than 1 oz, but the proportion of brain weight to body weight is larger than in most mammals other than apes and humans.

*Scratching objects serves to sharpen claws because cats’ claws are able to shed layers leaving them with new needle-pointed tips.

*Due to the cat’s reluctance to be trained in any way, the Romans used the image of a cat as a symbol for freedom at the feet of the goddess of liberty.

*The Egyptian cat god Aelurus was so feared by worshippers that anyone who killed a cat was punished by death.

*Cheese used to be sold in Cheshire (England) molded into the shape of a grinning cat as a joke to ward off hungry mice, hence the origin of 'The Cheshire Cat'.