These are just some interesting factoids about domestic cats.  I tend to remember lots of little pieces of information like this (not always a good thing, mind you), so I thought it would be interesting to share a few tidbits that you might not have heard before.

·  Scientific studies have compared and examined both a cat's brain and a dog's brain.  The results established that the cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than a dog's brain.

·  Almost 10 percent of a cat's bones is in its tail.  The cat's body contains 245 bones, but as they age some of the bones fuse together and the number of bones decreases.

·  Cats have only thirty teeth.  Kittens have baby teeth which are replaced by permanent fangs at around seven months of age.

·  A cat's hearing is incredibly sharp.  Cats can recognize their owner's footsteps from hundreds of feet away.

·  The roughness of a cat's tongue has a very useful purpose.  It gives the cat an extremely effective grooming tool with which to clean their fur and paws.

·  The cat is one of nature's cleanest animals.  Cats spend around 30 percent of their time grooming themselves.

·  Because cats have an amazing sense of balance they rarely become ill when traveling by car.

·  Though cats have an incredible sense of hearing, it takes a kitten about two weeks to begin to hear well.

·  Kitten's eyes usually open between 7 to 10 days after birth, but occasionally they open within 2 or 3 days.

·  The average life expectancy of a cat is between 15 to 18 years although the oldest cat on record lived to be 36 years old.

·  Cats should not be fed raw egg whites because they contain an enzyme that breaks down the vitamin biotin, which is essential to cat health.

·  The oldest known fossilized record that has a similarity to today's cats has been aged at 12 million years old.

·  Fish isn't a "natural" food for cats.  Cat origins are in the desert where rodents, birds, and insects are found, not fish.  One theory that explains why cats today eat fish is that during World War II, meat was scarce, expensive, carefully rationed.  Cat food manufacturers had to find a cheap source of protein, so they started to use fish and fish by-products in cat food.  Except for one cat breed in India, in the wild, cats won't hunt for fish.

·  The smallest species of cat is native to Africa: the Black-Footed Cat (Felis Nigripes).  Its top weight is 5.5 pounds which is considerably smaller than the average house cat.