Need more knowledge for your mental library? Didn’t get enough crazy cat knowledge yet? Here are some more amazing cat facts you may not know!
Julius Caesar and Emperor Napoleon were known ailurophobes — they had a fear of cats. King Henry II and Queen Elizabeth I also feared felines. Some famous felinophiles (cat lovers) are poets Edgar Allen Poe and William Wordsworth, Renaissance poet Christina Rossetti, and writer Mark Twain. Lest you think it is only the literary types who love cats, remember cat loving American Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Cats are not mentioned in the translated Bible. However they did play a role in the religion of ancient Egypt. Mummified cats have been found in Egyptian art and mummified in temples. The Egyptian pantheon of gods includes Bast, a cat-like goddess with associations to women, fertility, and relationships. Cats were valued in Egyptian sun worship under the belief that a cat’s eyes could capture the sun’s light. This belief rose from an actual physical feature — a retina adaptation called the tapetum that allows a cat’s eyes to reflect light.
While most cats dislike and avoid water, one breed is known for its swimming abilities: the Turkish Van. In general, this thick-furred feline is happy to dive into the water.
As far as lifespan goes, the old rule of thumb about one year in a cat’s life equaling seven years of human life is a very rough generalization. By one year of age, a cat has reached the equivalent of sixteen human years. By age seven, a cat is in middle age, around forty human years. A twenty-year-old cat is an achievement akin to a human reaching one hundred.
The average lifespan of a domestic cat is between twelve and fifteen years.
Wild cats are nocturnal mainly thanks to search for prey. Small mammals like mice and rats are more active at night, making it a good time to hunt. Birds and larger land mammals often sleep at night, making them more vulnerable to predators.
The term “feral cat” refers to a domesticated cat that has partially regressed back to a wild state.