mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
The Fact Solicitor General has lots of exciting news today. First, we have a winner for last week’s Amazing Fact Contest. It’s good to be the King dazzled us all when he said “According to the National Real Estate Investor, the average size of a cubicle in 2005 was 190 Sq Ft (implying dimensions of nearly 14′ x 14′). This is down from 250 sq/ft in 2000. Not only that, but office planners think they can reduce it by another 21% without affecting productivity. For fun comparison, the average prison cell size is at least 70 sq/ft.”
Second, the glorious halls of Fact Solicitor General Manor will soon be home to Annyong, a cat I’m adopting. In honor of Annyong, this week’s topic will be cats. Leave a comment on this post, along with your name and location, about domestic cats, wild cats (I’ve got a soft spot for ocelots) or famous felines. All facts deemed amazing enough will be entered into the Amazing Fact Generator and credited to you, and the most amazing fact will win the supplier a book. This week we’re giving away a copy of Sam Stall’s 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization History’s Most Influential Felines.
As always, you’re limited to 5 submissions per person, and if you cheat by lifting a fact word for word from a competing trivia site, I’ll send Annyong to your house to get hair all over your favorite sweater.
Comments (49)
Comment
FACT: my kitties are the best kitties in the world
that’s a valid fact, right?
:)
posted by Clotho on 4-8-2008 at 1:44 pm
Most big cats can purr just like house cats but not the Cheetah. They also have not retractable claws.
posted by Lisa H on 4-8-2008 at 2:00 pm
Dammit! I reversed that. They can purr most other big cats can’t. But they can’t roar. That’s what I was thinking of! D’oh, always fact check first.
posted by Lisa H on 4-8-2008 at 2:06 pm
Most people aren’t necessarily allergic to their fur or dander but their saliva.
Just a little side note about my baby kitty (Miss. Lana Lang - think superman for pronunciation) She hold conversations with me about what she did during the day and loves to kneed and drool all over me. I wish I could post a photo she looks like a cow with black spots.
posted by Jennifer on 4-8-2008 at 2:32 pm
Did everyone know that calico and tortiseshell cats are almost always female? Some genetic anomoly. Also tortiseshell cats are known for being notoriously grumpy. Yeah, I have a VERY grumpy, cranky tortiseshell. She’ll bite anyone if you pet her for a second longer than she wants you to.
posted by TW on 4-8-2008 at 2:36 pm
Cats have more vertebrae (52 or 53 including the tail) than humans (about 32 with the coccyx) which is why they spend half their day licking their butts. You’d do it too if you could!
posted by Jamie on 4-8-2008 at 2:54 pm
A cat’s nose is unique to it’s owner, meaning there are no two noses with the same “print”. Just like human fingerprints, they are all different and unique to their owner.
posted by Joan on 4-8-2008 at 3:00 pm
Oh, thought of another…
Cats don’t “meow” to other cats. They only meow to humans.
posted by Jamie on 4-8-2008 at 3:01 pm
Cats whiskers are each controlled by their own muscular follicle. the whiskers are used, among other things, as a way for the cat to determine whether she should squeeze through a small space or not.
meow.
posted by the creature on 4-8-2008 at 3:04 pm
Catnip was originally an herb the ancient Egyptians used in salads and other foods. Because they loved their cats so much, they started feeding it to them and discovered how if affected most cats.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 3:06 pm
Cat’s have scent glands between their toes. When you think a cat is sharpening it’s claws, they are actually spreading their scent.
posted by Joan on 4-8-2008 at 3:07 pm
Nearly all blue-eyed white cats are deaf. Except my kitty MACE (Most Annoying Cat Ever) cause he’s special like that.
posted by Suzanne on 4-8-2008 at 3:08 pm
The genes that control for the orange color of a cat’s fur are on the X chromosome, so cats which express both this gene and its opposite, i.e. have both orange and non-orange fur, are almost exclusively female. Male cats with this coloring are most likely chimeras.
posted by Amanda on 4-8-2008 at 3:39 pm
Male kitties’ “special purpos” is barbed like there tongues!
ME-OUCH!
posted by elizabutt on 4-8-2008 at 3:40 pm
It is almost impossible to find a pure black cat today, with no white fur anywhere, because so many were burned as witches or familiars of the devil in the Dark Ages.
posted by Amanda on 4-8-2008 at 3:41 pm
Argh! I hate misspelling words! “special purpose”
posted by elizabutt on 4-8-2008 at 3:43 pm
The reason most calico cats are female has to do with Barr bodies. Barr bodies are inactivated X chromosomes; since most genes are duplicates, only one chromosome is strictly needed and so one remains active and the other is turned off. The calico patterns happen when the two X chromosomes each code for a different color. So all cells with X one activated have that color fur and all the cells with X two activated have that color.
posted by sporkk on 4-8-2008 at 3:44 pm
According to Animal Planet’s “Most Extreme Killer Cats”: “[The House Cat] is the only cat which hunts for fun and they hunt over 1000 species, which includes mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, fish, birds, rats, lizards, small snakes and beetles.”
The house cat beat out leopards, jaguars, and cougars for first place.
posted by Rich L on 4-8-2008 at 3:55 pm
Cats are the only four-legged animal, excluding camels and giraffes, that walk by moving their front and hind legs first on one side and then the other.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 4:07 pm
Only four cats really roar: lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 4:08 pm
Pound for pound, leopards are seven times stronger than humans.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 4:09 pm
In the 1800’s cats were used to deliver mail. In 1879, in Belgium 37 cats were used to deliver mail to villages, however they found that the cats were not disciplined enough to do this.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 4:10 pm
A cat’s jaws cannot move sideways.
posted by Lauren on 4-8-2008 at 4:11 pm
A Bobcat is known to emit a sound that sounds uncommonly like the cry of a human baby.
… I learned this only after spending a panic filling morning running through the woods near my former home in search of what I thought to be an abandoned child.
posted by brick_city_man on 4-8-2008 at 4:24 pm
Only 1 cat has ever won the Dickin Medal (the animal version of the Victoria Cross). The cat, named “Simon”, bravely and gallantly prevented the food stores of HMS Amethyst being overrun by rats despite being wounded by shrapnel during a siege on the Yangtse in 1949.
Apparently the award has been given 63 times since 1943 - 32 pigeons, 26 dogs, 3 horses and Simon have received it.
posted by Will on 4-8-2008 at 4:41 pm
Campho-Phenique is deadly to cats, never put it in their ears for mites!
posted by Sara on 4-8-2008 at 5:14 pm
I don’t know if this is true of all kitties, but my two cats were able to tell when our *cars* pulled into the driveway (ducking under a table, chair or couch when any other vehicle drove in).
They even came toward the door to greet us, BEFORE we were in their direct site!
posted by Amy on 4-8-2008 at 5:16 pm
Male cats will spray if there is another male cat in the area or a female cat with her girl parts.
posted by Sara on 4-8-2008 at 5:16 pm
I love cats…….their delicious!!!!!!!
posted by mike on 4-8-2008 at 5:16 pm
A liger is real and the super, hugest cat (in the universe!). They are the offspring of a male lion and female tiger, and they get so big because it is the female lions and male tigers that carry the genes that would limit growth.
posted by Mari on 4-8-2008 at 6:24 pm
Cats are true carnivores- they must eat meat since they cannot manufacture their own arachidonic acid (an amino acid) from linoleic acid (found in other foods). They’re missing a vital enzyme (delta-6-desaturase) that would enable them to make their own.
posted by ann on 4-8-2008 at 6:34 pm
Ligers are pretty much my favorite animal. They’re bred for their skills in magic.
posted by adrienne on 4-8-2008 at 7:36 pm
cats dont really have nine lives. they usually only have one.
posted by pineapplesauce on 4-9-2008 at 12:01 am
cats always land on their feet just like toast always lands butter side down
posted by woopditydoo on 4-9-2008 at 12:04 am
1. Albert Einstein kept a cat that tended to get depressed whenever it rained. Mathematician Ernst Straus recalls Einstein saying “I know what’s wrong, dear fellow, but I don’t know how to turn it off” to the cat.
2. Although ALL cats can purr (even though “purring” can technically include low growling or rumbling), big cats can only purr during exhalation. Small cats cannot roar because the bones in their throats are ossified and close together. Also, small cats have a strip of leathery skin across the top of their noses, which is located directly above the wet tip. On big cats this strip is covered with fur.
3. Smallest small cat= domestic cat
Largest small cat= puma
Smallest big cat= clouded leopard
Largest big cat= Amur tiger (liger not included)
4. Midnight was a cat belonging to Bernice and Roy Rodgers. He saved the life of their daughter, Stacey, by crying into her baby monitor when she had a viral infection in her lungs, and was thus unable to cry in pain.
5. Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn deceased cats.
posted by Alec on 4-9-2008 at 12:21 am
In December 2004, Trinity Southern University of Plano, Texas gave a cat, Colby, an online MBA degree. Although Colby was just part of sting by police, I believe he is the first cat to ever get a college degree.
posted by Chas on 4-9-2008 at 4:32 pm
In the olden days in England, cats were valued for their ability to protect grain from rats. The punishment for killing a cat was quite complicated. The dead cat would be hung upside down and covered in grain. This grain would then be given to the owner of the late cat.
posted by Chas on 4-9-2008 at 6:16 pm
Cat owners tend to think of their prized pets as their children. 7 of the 10 Most Popular Girls names of 2006 also appear on the 100 Most Popular Cat’s name list. (Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha) Apparently, cat owners don’t have the same bond with male cats. Only 2 of the 10 Most Popular Boy’s names appear on bost lists. (Will and Jacob/Jack)
posted by Chas on 4-9-2008 at 6:56 pm
Cats lack the receptors to taste salt. It’s thought that because their normal diet contains plenty of sodium, there was no evolutionary need to be able to detect it in food.
posted by Megan on 4-9-2008 at 8:51 pm
In 2003 a London cat, Tinker, inherited $700,000 from his former owner, inlcuding a house. The richest cat in the world, Tinker dines on fish and milk everyday. He is cared for by his late owners neighbors. That’s one lucky kitty.
posted by Chas on 4-10-2008 at 9:56 am
Orangey, the ginger tabby who played the role of Cat in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (among other roles) was roundly disliked by everyone, including his trainer. A studio executive dubbed him “The World’s Meanest Cat.”
Similarly, the gorgeous white Persian who appears in Fancy Feast ads, is referred to in actual commercial scripts as “Sh*thead.”
posted by Lori L. on 4-10-2008 at 12:10 pm
Cats often carry a protozoan in their feces called toxoplasmosis. This is why expecting mothers are sometimes told to stay away from cats. The cool thing about how it works is that it infects mice, overpowering their ability to stay away from danger. This causes them to be more brazen and, you guessed it, run where cats can catch them. The cat eats the mouse and gets infected with toxoplasmosis. It doesn’t really affect the cat, but wreaks havoc on little unborn babies. And mice. Feel free to edit this however you like. I’m not much of a written story teller.
posted by Tommy on 4-10-2008 at 3:15 pm
And I didn’t google that fact. i researched it about 2 years ago when my wife was expecting our son. We had a cat and I was trying to think of every excuse in the world to get rid of it. check out toxoplasmosis on wiki. it’s crazy stuff. sometimes it even causes the mouse to be unexplainably attracted to the smell of cat urine.
posted by tommy on 4-10-2008 at 3:23 pm
The ocelot, a cousin of the leopard, got its name from an Aztec word meaning “field tiger.”
(I really like ocelots, too. :) )
posted by Mindy on 4-10-2008 at 5:51 pm
Cats that have two different color eyes will almost always be deaf on the same side as the blue one.
posted by Mindy on 4-10-2008 at 5:55 pm
Cats have quite a large vocabulary…in fact, they are second only to dolphins in terms of language use.
posted by Lori L. on 4-12-2008 at 10:35 am
Cats are known to hunt snakes and cats have learned quite a lot from their dangerous prey. Cats hiss like a snake to tell other animals to back off. Cats also flatten their ears onto their heads, making a distinctly triangular, snakelike head. Also, when most cats, especially tabbys, lie down they do so in a circle. Their shape and markings make them appear like a venomous snake.
posted by Chas on 4-12-2008 at 1:42 pm
Are you ever going to post the winners? Or have you already?
posted by Captain Crunch on 4-21-2008 at 4:36 pm
Sorry to ask again, I’m sure you’ve forgotten about this contest, but are you ever going to post the winners? Maybe you could just send me the book.
posted by Captain Crunch on 6-3-2008 at 4:12 pm