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1. 45% of New Zealanders own a cat, compared to 30% dogs!
2. Cats are the MOST popular pet in the world.
3. Cats sleep for 13-15 hours a day, to conserve energy!
4. Cats sleep one third of their life! meaning a 9-year old cat would have slept for 3 years!
5. Cats will ALWAYS land on their feet.

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The cat (Felis catus), commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a house pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. It is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. Because of its retractable claws it is adapted to killing small prey like mice and rats. It has a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It also secretes and perceives pheromones.

Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn in temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens. Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Animal population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of bird, mammal and reptile species.

As of 2017, the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households owning at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020. As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world.

Etymology and naming

However, it is "equally likely that the forms might derive from an ancient Germanic word, imported into Latin and thence to Greek and to Syriac and Arabic". The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from * Uralic, cf. Northern Sámi gáđfi, 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy, 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic käďwä, 'female (of a furred animal)'.

The English , extended as pussy and pussycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have arisen from a sound used to attract a cat.

A male cat is called a tom or tomcat (or a gib, if neutered). A female is called a queen (or a molly,[user-generated source? ] if spayed), especially in a cat-breeding context. A juvenile cat is referred to as a . In Early Modern English, the word kitten was interchangeable with the now-obsolete word catling. A group of cats can be referred to as a clowder or a glaring.

The scientific name Felis catus was proposed by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for a domestic cat. Felis catus domesticus was proposed by Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777. Felis daemon proposed by Konstantin Satunin in 1904 was a black cat from the Transcaucasus, later identified as a domestic cat.

In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled that the domestic cat is a distinct species, namely Felis catus. In 2007, it was considered a subspecies, F. silvestris catus, of the European wildcat ( F. silvestris) following results of phylogenetic research. In 2017, the IUCN Cat Classification Taskforce followed the recommendation of the ICZN in regarding the domestic cat as a distinct species, Felis catus.

The domestic cat is a member of the Felidae, a family that had a common ancestor about 10 to 15 million years ago. The evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia during the Miocene around 8.38 to 14.45 million years ago. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at 6.46 to 16.76 million years ago. The genus Felis genetically diverged from other Felidae around 6 to 7 million years ago. Results of phylogenetic research shows that the wild members of this genus evolved through sympatric or parapatric speciation, whereas the domestic cat evolved through artificial selection. The domestic cat and its closest wild ancestor are diploid and both possess 38 chromosomes and roughly 20,000 genes.

Domestication

A cat eating a fish under a chair, a mural in an Egyptian tomb dating to the 15th century BC

It was long thought that the domestication of the cat began in ancient Egypt, where cats were venerated from around 3100 BC, However, the earliest known indication for the taming of an African wildcat was excavated close by a human Neolithic grave in Shillourokambos, southern Cyprus, dating to about 7500-7200 BC. Since there is no evidence of native mammalian fauna on Cyprus, the inhabitants of this Neolithic village most likely brought the cat and other wild mammals to the island from the Middle Eastern mainland. Scientists therefore assume that African wildcats were attracted to early human settlements in the Fertile Crescent by rodents, in particular the house mouse ( Mus musculus), and were tamed by Neolithic farmers. This mutual relationship between early farmers and tamed cats lasted thousands of years. As agricultural practices spread, so did tame and domesticated cats. Wildcats of Egypt contributed to the maternal gene pool of the domestic cat at a later time.

The earliest known evidence for the occurrence of the domestic cat in Greece dates to around 1200 BC. Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Etruscan traders introduced domestic cats to southern Europe. During the Roman Empire they were introduced to Corsica and Sardinia before the beginning of the 1st millennium. By the 5th century BC, they were familiar animals around settlements in Magna Graecia and Etruria. By the end of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Egyptian domestic cat lineage had arrived in a Baltic Sea port in northern Germany.

The leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis) was tamed independently in China around 5500 BC. This line of partially domesticated cats leaves no trace in the domestic cat populations of today.

During domestication, cats have undergone only minor changes in anatomy and behavior, and they are still capable of surviving in the wild. Several natural behaviors and characteristics of wildcats may have pre-adapted them for domestication as pets. These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play, and high intelligence. Captive cats may also display affectionate behavior toward humans but were not domesticated. House cats often mate with feral cats. Hybridisation between domestic and other Felinae species is also possible, producing hybrids such as the Kellas cat in Scotland.

Development of cat breeds started in the mid 19th century. An analysis of the domestic cat genome revealed that the ancestral wildcat genome was significantly altered in the process of domestication, as specific mutations were selected to develop cat breeds. Most breeds are founded on random-bred domestic cats. Genetic diversity of these breeds varies between regions, and is lowest in purebred populations, which show more than 20 deleterious genetic disorders.

Characteristics

Diagram of the general anatomy of a male domestic cat

The domestic cat has a smaller skull and shorter bones than the European wildcat. It averages about 46 cm (18 in) in head-to-body length and 23-25 cm (9.1-9.8 in) in height, with about 30 cm (12 in) long tails. Males are larger than females. Adult domestic cats typically weigh 4-5 kg (8.8-11.0 lb).

Cats have seven cervical vertebrae (as do most mammals); 13 thoracic vertebrae (humans have 12); seven lumbar vertebrae (humans have five); three sacral vertebrae (as do most mammals, but humans have five); and a variable number of caudal vertebrae in the tail (humans have only three to five vestigial caudal vertebrae, fused into an internal coccyx). The extra lumbar and thoracic vertebrae account for the cat's spinal mobility and flexibility. Attached to the spine are 13 ribs, the shoulder, and the pelvis. Unlike human arms, cat forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by free-floating clavicle bones which allow them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their head.

The cat skull is unusual among mammals in having very large eye sockets and a powerful specialized jaw. Within the jaw, cats have teeth adapted for killing prey and tearing meat. When it overpowers its prey, a cat delivers a lethal neck bite with its two long canine teeth, inserting them between two of the prey's vertebrae and severing its spinal cord, causing irreversible paralysis and death. Compared to other felines, domestic cats have narrowly spaced canine teeth relative to the size of their jaw, which is an adaptation to their preferred prey of small rodents, which have small vertebrae.

The premolar and first molar together compose the carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently shears meat into small pieces, like a pair of scissors. These are vital in feeding, since cats' small molars cannot chew food effectively, and cats are largely incapable of mastication. Cats tend to have better teeth than most humans, with decay generally less likely because of a thicker protective layer of enamel, a less damaging saliva, less retention of food particles between teeth, and a diet mostly devoid of sugar. Nonetheless, they are subject to occasional tooth loss and infection.

Cats have protractible and retractable claws. In their normal, relaxed position, the claws are sheathed with the skin and fur around the paw's toe pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear from contact with the ground and allows for the silent stalking of prey. The claws on the forefeet are typically sharper than those on the hindfeet. Cats can voluntarily extend their claws on one or more paws. They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, kneading, or for extra traction on soft surfaces. Cats shed the outside layer of their claw sheaths when scratching rough surfaces.

Most cats have five claws on their front paws and four on their rear paws. The dewclaw is proximal to the other claws. More proximally is a protrusion which appears to be a sixth "finger". This special feature of the front paws on the inside of the wrists has no function in normal walking but is thought to be an antiskidding device used while jumping. Some cat breeds are prone to having extra digits (" polydactyly"). Polydactylous cats occur along North America's northeast coast and in Great Britain.

Ambulation

The cat is digitigrade. It walks on the toes, with the bones of the feet making up the lower part of the visible leg. Unlike most mammals, it uses a "pacing" gait and moves both legs on one side of the body before the legs on the other side. It registers directly by placing each hind paw close to the track of the corresponding fore paw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. This also provides sure footing for hind paws when navigating rough terrain. As it speeds up from walking to trotting, its gait changes to a "diagonal" gait: The diagonally opposite hind and fore legs move simultaneously.

Comparison of cat righting reflexes in gravity and zero gravity

Cats are generally fond of sitting in high places or perching. A higher place may serve as a concealed site from which to hunt; domestic cats strike prey by pouncing from a perch such as a tree branch. Another possible explanation is that height gives the cat a better observation point, allowing it to survey its territory. A cat falling from heights of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) can right itself and land on its paws.

The cat family (Felidae) can pass down many colors and patterns to their offspring. The domestic cat genes MC1R and ASIP allow for the variety of color in coats. The feline ASIP gene consists of three coding exons. Three novel microsatellite markers linked to ASIP were isolated from a domestic cat BAC clone containing this gene and were used to perform linkage analysis in a pedigree of 89 domestic cats that segregated for melanism.[citation needed ]

Reflection of camera flash from the tapetum lucidum

Cats have excellent night vision and can see at only one-sixth the light level required for human vision. This is partly the result of cat eyes having a tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye, thereby increasing the eye's sensitivity to dim light. Large pupils are an adaptation to dim light. The domestic cat has slit pupils, which allow it to focus bright light without chromatic aberration. At low light, a cat's pupils expand to cover most of the exposed surface of its eyes. The domestic cat has rather poor color vision and only two types of cone cells, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; its ability to distinguish between red and green is limited. A response to middle wavelengths from a system other than the rod cells might be due to a third type of cone. This appears to be an adaptation to low light levels rather than representing true trichromatic vision. Cats also have a nictitating membrane, allowing them to blink without hindering their vision.

The domestic cat's hearing is most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz. It can detect an extremely broad range of frequencies ranging from 55 Hz to 79 kHz, whereas humans can only detect frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. It can hear a range of 10.5 octaves, while humans and dogs can hear ranges of about 9 octaves. Its hearing sensitivity is enhanced by its large movable outer ears, the pinnae, which amplify sounds and help detect the location of a noise. It can detect ultrasound, which enables it to detect ultrasonic calls made by rodent prey. Recent research has shown that cats have socio-spatial cognitive abilities to create mental maps of owners' locations based on hearing owners' voices.

Cats have an acute sense of smell, due in part to their well-developed olfactory bulb and a large surface of olfactory mucosa, about 5.8 cm ² (0.90 in ²) in area, which is about twice that of humans. Cats and many other animals have a Jacobson's organ in their mouths that is used in the behavioral process of flehmening. It allows them to sense certain aromas in a way that humans cannot. Cats are sensitive to pheromones such as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, which they use to communicate through urine spraying and marking with scent glands. Many cats also respond strongly to plants that contain nepetalactone, especially catnip, as they can detect that substance at less than one part per billion. About 70-80% of cats are affected by nepetalactone. This response is also produced by other plants, such as silver vine (Actinidia polygama) and the herb valerian; it may be caused by the smell of these plants mimicking a pheromone and stimulating cats' social or sexual behaviors.

Cats have relatively few taste buds compared to humans (470 or so versus more than 9,000 on the human tongue). Domestic and wild cats share a taste receptor gene mutation that keeps their sweet taste buds from binding to sugary molecules, leaving them with no ability to taste sweetness. They, however, possess taste bud receptors specialized for acids, amino acids like protein, and bitter tastes. Their taste buds possess the receptors needed to detect umami. However, these receptors contain molecular changes that make the cat taste of umami different from that of humans. In humans, they detect the amino acids of glutamic acid and aspartic acid, but in cats they instead detect nucleotides, in this case inosine monophosphate and l-Histidine. These nucleotides are particularly enriched in tuna. This has been argued is why cats find tuna so palatable: as put by researchers into cat taste, "the specific combination of the high IMP and free l-Histidine contents of tuna" .. "produces a strong umami taste synergy that is highly preferred by cats". One of the researchers involved in this research has further claimed, "I think umami is as important for cats as sweet is for humans".

Cats also have a distinct temperature preference for their food, preferring food with a temperature around 38 °C (100 °F) which is similar to that of a fresh kill and routinely rejecting food presented cold or refrigerated (which would signal to the cat that the "prey" item is long dead and therefore possibly toxic or decomposing).

To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable whiskers (vibrissae) over their body, especially their faces. These provide information on the width of gaps and on the location of objects in the dark, both by touching objects directly and by sensing air currents; they also trigger protective blink reflexes to protect the eyes from damage.

Outdoor cats are active both day and night, although they tend to be slightly more active at night. Domestic cats spend the majority of their time in the vicinity of their homes but can range many hundreds of meters from this central point. They establish territories that vary considerably in size, in one study ranging 7-28 ha (17-69 acres). The timing of cats' activity is quite flexible and varied but being low-light predators, they are generally crepuscular, which means they tend to be more active in the morning and evening. However, house cats' behaviour is also influenced by human activity and they may adapt to their owners' sleeping patterns to some extent.

Cats conserve energy by sleeping more than most animals, especially as they grow older. The daily duration of sleep varies, usually between 12 and 16 hours, with 13 and 14 being the average. Some cats can sleep as much as 20 hours. The term "cat nap" for a short rest refers to the cat's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period. While asleep, cats experience short periods of rapid eye movement sleep often accompanied by muscle twitches, which suggests they are dreaming.

Sociability

The social behavior of the domestic cat ranges from widely dispersed individuals to feral cat colonies that gather around a food source, based on groups of co-operating females. Within such groups, one cat is usually dominant over the others. Each cat in a colony holds a distinct territory, with sexually active males having the largest territories, which are about 10 times larger than those of female cats and may overlap with several females' territories. These territories are marked by urine spraying, by rubbing objects at head height with secretions from facial glands, and by defecation. Between these territories are neutral areas where cats watch and greet one another without territorial conflicts. Outside these neutral areas, territory holders usually chase away stranger cats, at first by staring, hissing, and growling and, if that does not work, by short but noisy and violent attacks. Despite this colonial organization, cats do not have a social survival strategy or a pack mentality, and always hunt alone.

Life in proximity to humans and other domestic animals has led to a symbiotic social adaptation in cats, and cats may express great affection toward humans or other animals. Ethologically, a cat's human keeper functions as if a mother surrogate. Adult cats live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny. Their high-pitched sounds may mimic the cries of a hungry human infant, making them particularly difficult for humans to ignore. Some pet cats are poorly socialized. In particular, older cats show aggressiveness toward newly arrived kittens, which include biting and scratching; this type of behavior is known as feline asocial aggression.

Redirected aggression is a common form of aggression which can occur in multiple cat households. In redirected aggression there is usually something that agitates the cat: this could be a sight, sound, or another source of stimuli which causes a heightened level of anxiety or arousal. If the cat cannot attack the stimuli, it may direct anger elsewhere by attacking or directing aggression to the nearest cat, dog, human or other being.

Domestic cats' scent rubbing behavior toward humans or other cats is thought to be a feline means for social bonding.

Communication

Domestic cats use many vocalizations for communication, including purring, trilling, hissing, growling/snarling, grunting, and several different forms of meowing. Their body language, including position of ears and tail, relaxation of the whole body, and kneading of the paws, are all indicators of mood. The tail and ears are particularly important social signal mechanisms in cats. A raised tail indicates a friendly greeting, and flattened ears indicate hostility. Tail-raising also indicates the cat's position in the group's social hierarchy, with dominant individuals raising their tails less often than subordinate ones. Feral cats are generally silent. Nose-to-nose touching is also a common greeting and may be followed by social grooming, which is solicited by one of the cats raising and tilting its head.

Purring may have developed as an evolutionary advantage as a signaling mechanism of reassurance between mother cats and nursing kittens, who are thought to use it as a care-soliciting signal. Post-nursing cats also often purr as a sign of contentment: when being petted, becoming relaxed, or eating. Even though purring is popularly interpreted as indicative of pleasure, it has been recorded in a wide variety of circumstances, most of which involve physical contact between the cat and another, presumably trusted individual. Some cats have been observed to purr continuously when chronically ill or in apparent pain.

The exact mechanism by which cats purr has long been elusive, but it has been proposed that purring is generated via a series of sudden build-ups and releases of pressure as the glottis is opened and closed, which causes the vocal folds to separate forcefully. The laryngeal muscles in control of the glottis are thought to be driven by a neural oscillator which generates a cycle of contraction and release every 30-40 milliseconds (giving a frequency of 33 to 25 Hz).

Domestic cats observed in a rescue facility have total of 276 distinct facial expressions based on 26 different facial movements; each facial expression corresponds to different social functions that are likely influenced by domestication.

The hooked papillae on a cat's tongue act like a hairbrush to help clean and detangle fur

Cats are known for spending considerable amounts of time licking their coats to keep them clean. The cat's tongue has backward-facing spines about 500 μm long, which are called papillae. These contain keratin which makes them rigid so the papillae act like a hairbrush. Some cats, particularly longhaired cats, occasionally regurgitate hairballs of fur that have collected in their stomachs from grooming. These clumps of fur are usually sausage-shaped and about 2-3 cm (0.79-1.18 in) long. Hairballs can be prevented with remedies that ease elimination of the hair through the gut, as well as regular grooming of the coat with a comb or stiff brush.

A domestic cat's arched back, raised fur, and open-mouthed hiss are signs of aggression.

Among domestic cats, males are more likely to fight than females. Among feral cats, the most common reason for cat fighting is competition between two males to mate with a female. In such cases, most fights are won by the heavier male. Another common reason for fighting in domestic cats is the difficulty of establishing territories within a small home. Female cats also fight over territory or to defend their kittens. Neutering will decrease or eliminate this behavior in many cases, suggesting that the behavior is linked to sex hormones.

When cats become aggressive, they try to make themselves appear larger and more threatening by raising their fur, arching their backs, turning sideways and hissing or spitting. Often, the ears are pointed down and back to avoid damage to the inner ear and potentially listen for any changes behind them while focused forward. Cats may also vocalize loudly and bare their teeth in an effort to further intimidate their opponents. Fights usually consist of grappling and delivering powerful slaps to the face and body with the forepaws as well as bites. Cats also throw themselves to the ground in a defensive posture to rake their opponent's belly with their powerful hind legs.

Hunting and feeding

A domestic cat with its prey, a deermouse

The shape and structure of cats' cheeks is insufficient to allow them to take in liquids using suction. Therefore, when drinking they lap with the tongue to draw liquid upward into their mouths. Lapping at a rate of four times a second, the cat touches the smooth tip of its tongue to the surface of the water, and quickly retracts it like a corkscrew, drawing water upward.

Feral cats and free-fed house cats consume several small meals in a day. The frequency and size of meals varies between individuals. They select food based on its temperature, smell and texture; they dislike chilled foods and respond most strongly to moist foods rich in amino acids, which are similar to meat. Cats reject novel flavors (a response termed neophobia) and learn quickly to avoid foods that have tasted unpleasant in the past. It is also a common misconception that cats like milk/cream, as they tend to avoid sweet food and milk. Most adult cats are lactose intolerant; the sugar in milk is not easily digested and may cause soft stools or diarrhea. Some also develop odd eating habits and like to eat or chew on things like wool, plastic, cables, paper, string, aluminum foil, or even coal. This condition, pica, can threaten their health, depending on the amount and toxicity of the items eaten.

Cats hunt small prey, primarily birds and rodents, and are often used as a form of pest control. Other common small creatures such as lizards and snakes may also become prey. Cats use two hunting strategies, either stalking prey actively, or waiting in ambush until an animal comes close enough to be captured. The strategy used depends on the prey species in the area, with cats waiting in ambush outside burrows, but tending to actively stalk birds. Domestic cats are a major predator of wildlife in the United States, killing an estimated 1.3 to 4.0 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals annually.

Certain species appear more susceptible than others; in one English village, for example, 30% of house sparrow mortality was linked to the domestic cat. In the recovery of ringed robins (Erithacus rubecula) and dunnocks (Prunella modularis) in Britain, 31% of deaths were a result of cat predation. In parts of North America, the presence of larger carnivores such as coyotes which prey on cats and other small predators reduces the effect of predation by cats and other small predators such as opossums and raccoons on bird numbers and variety.

Perhaps the best-known element of cats' hunting behavior, which is commonly misunderstood and often appalls cat owners because it looks like torture, is that cats often appear to "play" with prey by releasing and recapturing it. This cat and mouse behavior is due to an instinctive imperative to ensure that the prey is weak enough to be killed without endangering the cat.

Another poorly understood element of cat hunting behavior is the presentation of prey to human guardians. One explanation is that cats adopt humans into their social group and share excess kill with others in the group according to the dominance hierarchy, in which humans are reacted to as if they are at or near the top. Another explanation is that they attempt to teach their guardians to hunt or to help their human as if feeding "an elderly cat, or an inept kitten". This hypothesis is inconsistent with the fact that male cats also bring home prey, despite males having negligible involvement in raising kittens.

Play fight between kittens aged 14 weeks

Domestic cats, especially young kittens, are known for their love of play. This behavior mimics hunting and is important in helping kittens learn to stalk, capture, and kill prey. Cats also engage in play fighting, with each other and with humans. This behavior may be a way for cats to practice the skills needed for real combat, and might also reduce any fear they associate with launching attacks on other animals.

Cats also tend to play with toys more when they are hungry. Owing to the close similarity between play and hunting, cats prefer to play with objects that resemble prey, such as small furry toys that move rapidly, but rapidly lose interest. They become habituated to a toy they have played with before. String is often used as a toy, but if it is eaten, it can become caught at the base of the cat's tongue and then move into the intestines, a medical emergency which can cause serious illness, even death. Owing to the risks posed by cats eating string, it is sometimes replaced with a laser pointer's dot, which cats may chase.

Reproduction

When cats mate, the tomcat (male) bites the scruff of the female's neck as she assumes a position conducive to mating known as lordosis behavior.

The cat secretes and perceives pheromones. Female cats, called queens, are polyestrous with several estrus cycles during a year, lasting usually 21 days. They are usually ready to mate between early February and August in northern temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions.

Several males, called tomcats, are attracted to a female in heat. They fight over her, and the victor wins the right to mate. At first, the female rejects the male, but eventually, the female allows the male to mate. The female utters a loud yowl as the male pulls out of her because a male cat's penis has a band of about 120-150 backward-pointing penile spines, which are about 1 mm (0.039 in) long; upon withdrawal of the penis, the spines may provide the female with increased sexual stimulation, which acts to induce ovulation.

The morula forms 124 hours after conception. At 148 hours, early blastocysts form. At 10-12 days, implantation occurs. The gestation of queens lasts between 64 and 67 days, with an average of 65 days.

Cats are ready to go to new homes at about 12 weeks of age, when they are ready to leave their mother. They can be surgically sterilized (spayed or castrated) as early as seven weeks to limit unwanted reproduction. This surgery also prevents undesirable sex-related behavior, such as aggression, territory marking (spraying urine) in males and yowling (calling) in females. Traditionally, this surgery was performed at around six to nine months of age, but it is increasingly being performed before puberty, at about three to six months. In the United States, about 80% of household cats are neutered.

Lifespan and health

The average lifespan of pet cats has risen in recent decades. In the early 1980s, it was about seven years, rising to 9.4 years in 1995 and about 15 years in 2021.[citation needed ] Some cats have been reported as surviving into their 30s, with the oldest known cat, Creme Puff, dying at a verified age of 38.

Neutering increases life expectancy: one study found castrated male cats live twice as long as intact males, while spayed female cats live 62% longer than intact females. Having a cat neutered confers health benefits, because castrated males cannot develop testicular cancer, spayed females cannot develop uterine or ovarian cancer, and both have a reduced risk of mammary cancer.

About 250 heritable genetic disorders have been identified in cats, many similar to human inborn errors of metabolism. The high level of similarity among the metabolism of mammals allows many of these feline diseases to be diagnosed using genetic tests that were originally developed for use in humans, as well as the use of cats as animal models in the study of the human diseases. Diseases affecting domestic cats include acute infections, parasitic infestations, injuries, and chronic diseases such as kidney disease, thyroid disease, and arthritis. Vaccinations are available for many infectious diseases, as are treatments to eliminate parasites such as worms, ticks, and fleas.

The domestic cat is a cosmopolitan species and occurs across much of the world. It is adaptable and now present on all continents except Antarctica, and on 118 of the 131 main groups of islands, even on the isolated Kerguelen Islands. Due to its ability to thrive in almost any terrestrial habitat, it is among the world's most invasive species. It lives on small islands with no human inhabitants. Feral cats can live in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, agricultural land, scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands.

The unwantedness that leads to the domestic cat being treated as an invasive species is twofold. On one hand, as it is little altered from the wildcat, it can readily interbreed with the wildcat. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of some wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary, possibly also the Iberian Peninsula, and where protected natural areas are close to human-dominated landscapes, such as Kruger National Park in South Africa. On the other hand, and perhaps more obviously, its introduction to places where no native felines are present contributes to the decline of native species.

Feral farm cat

Feral cats are domestic cats that were born in or have reverted to a wild state. They are unfamiliar with and wary of humans and roam freely in urban and rural areas. The numbers of feral cats is not known, but estimates of the United States feral population range from 25 to 60 million. Feral cats may live alone, but most are found in large colonies, which occupy a specific territory and are usually associated with a source of food. Famous feral cat colonies are found in Rome around the Colosseum and Forum Romanum, with cats at some of these sites being fed and given medical attention by volunteers.

Public attitudes toward feral cats vary widely, from seeing them as free-ranging pets to regarding them as vermin.

Some feral cats can be successfully socialized and 're-tamed' for adoption; young cats, especially kittens and cats that have had prior experience and contact with humans are the most receptive to these efforts.

Impact on wildlife

On islands, birds can contribute as much as 60% of a cat's diet. In nearly all cases, the cat cannot be identified as the sole cause for reducing the numbers of island birds, and in some instances, eradication of cats has caused a " mesopredator release" effect; where the suppression of top carnivores creates an abundance of smaller predators that cause a severe decline in their shared prey. Domestic cats are a contributing factor to the decline of many species, a factor that has ultimately led, in some cases, to extinction. The South Island piopio, Chatham rail, and the New Zealand merganser are a few from a long list, with the most extreme case being the flightless Lyall's wren, which was driven to extinction only a few years after its discovery. One feral cat in New Zealand killed 102 New Zealand lesser short-tailed bats in seven days. In the US, feral and free-ranging domestic cats kill an estimated 6.3 - 22.3 billion mammals annually.

In Australia, the impact of cats on mammal populations is even greater than the impact of habitat loss. More than one million reptiles are killed by feral cats each day, representing 258 species. Cats have contributed to the extinction of the Navassa curly-tailed lizard and Chioninia coctei.

Interaction with humans

Cats are common pets throughout the world, and their worldwide population as of 2007 exceeded 500 million. As of 2017, the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households owning at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020. As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world.

Cats have been used for millennia to control rodents, notably around grain stores and aboard ships, and both uses extend to the present day.

As well as being kept as pets, cats are also used in the international fur trade and leather industries for making coats, hats, blankets, stuffed toys, shoes, gloves, and musical instruments. About 24 cats are needed to make a cat-fur coat. This use has been outlawed in the United States since 2000 and in the European Union (as well as the United Kingdom) since 2007.

Cat pelts have been used for superstitious purposes as part of the practice of witchcraft, and are still made into blankets in Switzerland as traditional medicine thought to cure rheumatism.

A few attempts to build a cat census have been made over the years, both through associations or national and international organizations (such as that of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies) and over the Internet, but such a task does not seem simple to achieve. General estimates for the global population of domestic cats range widely from anywhere between 200 million to 600 million. Walter Chandoha made his career photographing cats after his 1949 images of Loco, an especially charming stray taken in, were published around the world. He is reported to have photographed 90,000 cats during his career and maintained an archive of 225,000 images that he drew from for publications during his lifetime.

A cat show is a judged event in which the owners of cats compete to win titles in various cat-registering organizations by entering their cats to be judged after a breed standard. It is often required that a cat must be healthy and vaccinated in order to participate in a cat show. Both pedigreed and non- purebred companion ("moggy") cats are admissible, although the rules differ depending on the organization. Competing cats are compared to the applicable breed standard, and assessed for temperament.

Cats can be infected or infested with viruses, bacteria, fungus, protozoans, arthropods or worms that can transmit diseases to humans. In some cases, the cat exhibits no symptoms of the disease. The same disease can then become evident in a human. The likelihood that a person will become diseased depends on the age and immune status of the person. Humans who have cats living in their home or in close association are more likely to become infected. Others might also acquire infections from cat feces and parasites exiting the cat's body. Some of the infections of most concern include salmonella, cat-scratch disease and toxoplasmosis.

History and mythology

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped, and the goddess Bastet often depicted in cat form, sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness. The Greek historian Herodotus reported that killing a cat was forbidden, and when a household cat died, the entire family mourned and shaved their eyebrows. Families took their dead cats to the sacred city of Bubastis, where they were embalmed and buried in sacred repositories. Herodotus expressed astonishment at the domestic cats in Egypt, because he had only ever seen wildcats.

Ancient Greeks and Romans kept weasels as pets, which were seen as the ideal rodent-killers. The earliest unmistakable evidence of the Greeks having domestic cats comes from two coins from Magna Graecia dating to the mid-fifth century BC showing Iokastos and Phalanthos, the legendary founders of Rhegion and Taras respectively, playing with their pet cats. The usual ancient Greek word for 'cat' was ailouros, meaning 'thing with the waving tail'. Cats are rarely mentioned in ancient Greek literature. Aristotle remarked in his History of Animals that "female cats are naturally lecherous." The Greeks later syncretized their own goddess Artemis with the Egyptian goddess Bastet, adopting Bastet's associations with cats and ascribing them to Artemis. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, when the deities flee to Egypt and take animal forms, the goddess Diana turns into a cat.

Cats eventually displaced weasels as the pest control of choice because they were more pleasant to have around the house and were more enthusiastic hunters of mice. During the Middle Ages, many of Artemis's associations with cats were grafted onto the Virgin Mary. Cats are often shown in icons of Annunciation and of the Holy Family and, according to Italian folklore, on the same night that Mary gave birth to Jesus, a cat in Bethlehem gave birth to a kitten. Domestic cats were spread throughout much of the rest of the world during the Age of Discovery, as ships' cats were carried on sailing ships to control shipboard rodents and as good-luck charms.

Several ancient religions believed cats are exalted souls, companions or guides for humans, that are all-knowing but mute so they cannot influence decisions made by humans. In Japan, the maneki neko cat is a symbol of good fortune. In Norse mythology, Freyja, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is depicted as riding a chariot drawn by cats. In Jewish legend, the first cat was living in the house of the first man Adam as a pet that got rid of mice. The cat was once partnering with the first dog before the latter broke an oath they had made which resulted in enmity between the descendants of these two animals. It is also written that neither cats nor foxes are represented in the water, while every other animal has an incarnation species in the water. Although no species are sacred in Islam, cats are revered by Muslims. Some Western writers have stated Muhammad had a favorite cat, . He is reported to have loved cats so much, "he would do without his cloak rather than disturb one that was sleeping on it". The story has no origin in early Muslim writers, and seems to confuse a story of a later Sufi saint, Ahmed ar-Rifa'i, centuries after Muhammad. One of the companions of Muhammad was known as Abu Hurayrah ("father of the kitten"), in reference to his documented affection to cats.

The ancient Egyptians mummified dead cats out of respect in the same way that they mummified people[232]

A 19th-century drawing of a tabby cat

Some cultures are superstitious about black cats, ascribing either good or bad luck to them.

Superstitions and rituals

Many cultures have negative superstitions about cats. An example would be the belief that encountering a black cat ("crossing one's path") leads to bad luck, or that cats are witches' familiars used to augment a witch's powers and skills. The killing of cats in Medieval Ypres, Belgium, is commemorated in the innocuous present-day Kattenstoet (cat parade). In mid-16th century France, cats would be burnt alive as a form of entertainment, particularly during midsummer festivals. According to Norman Davies, the assembled people "shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized". The remaining ashes were sometimes taken back home by the people for good luck.

According to a myth in many cultures, cats have multiple lives. In many countries, they are believed to have nine lives, but in Italy, Germany, Greece, Brazil and some Spanish-speaking regions, they are said to have seven lives, while in Arabic traditions, the number of lives is six. An early mention of the myth can be found in John Heywood's The Proverbs of John Heywood (1546):

Husband, ( quoth she), ye studie, be merrie now,
And even as ye thinke now, so come to yow.
Nay not so, (quoth he), for my thought to tell right,
I thinke how you lay groning, wife, all last night.
Husband, a groning horse and a groning wife
Never faile their master, (quoth she), for my life.
No wife, a woman hath nine lives like a cat.

The myth is attributed to the natural suppleness and swiftness cats exhibit to escape life-threatening situations. Also lending credence to this myth is the fact that falling cats often land on their feet, using an instinctive righting reflex to twist their bodies around. Nonetheless, cats can still be injured or killed by a high fall.

References

External links

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The cat (Felis catus ), commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC.

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Ground-breaking new research out of the University of Guelph shows that cats, like humans, continue to put on weight as they age, and their average weight is on the rise.

Dr. Adam Campigotto says that cats are heavier now than they were in the 1990s.

"Cats in general seem to gain weight until around 8-years-old before losing weight soon afterwards."

The research looked at 19 million cats in north America, but Campigotto assumes similar trends will be present in countries like New Zealand.

He says while he doesn't know the reason for the weight gain, keeping cats indoors, which seems to be a current trend, may limit their activity.

We also may be feeding them tastier treats, and taking care of them better, he says.

"Regardless of what's the ideal weight, which we don't have [information on] yet, we want to make sure that we're constantly aware of changes in our cat's weight."

After maturity, cats shouldn't be gaining too much weight, says Campigotto.

Male cats tend to reach higher weights than female cats and spayed cats tend to be heavier than those not spayed, he says.

"Males of most species are going to be usually the larger of the two and often the neutered or spayed individuals are a little less active and their metabolisms a little different, so we do often see obesity issues in those altered individuals."

Of all cats in the study, 52 percent had only one body weight measurement on file - they'd only been weighed once.

Campigotto says it's one of the bigger concerns researchers had.

"Cat owners are definitely more hesitant to bring their animals in, cats are excellent at hiding any problems, cats are also usually a little bit nervous going to the veterinarian, so people don't seem to take them as often."

If cats aren't feeling well they'll often hide or keep quiet, meaning by the time we notice there's often something physiological going on, he says.

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Ground-breaking new research out of the University of Guelph shows that cats, like humans, continue to put on weight as they age, and their average weight is on the rise. Dr. Adam Campigotto says that cats are heavier now than they were in the 1990s.

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Last week, a four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York tested positive for coronavirus. The tiger, named Nadia, is thought to have contracted the virus from a zookeeper who was showing no symptoms of the illness.

Nadia, her sister Azul, as well as two Amur tigers and three African lions showed symptoms, including a dry cough, after exposure to the employee.

More:

The zoo, which is now closed to the public, is monitoring the big cats' progress and says they are all doing well and are expected to make a full recovery. They hope, in time, to share their findings with other zoos and scientists.

The news comes as a domestic cat tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in Belgium. The cat showed symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting and coughing.

The owner, who had recently returned from a trip to northern Italy, started showing symptoms of the illness five days after their cat. It is thought the owner infected the cat in the first documented case of human-to-cat transmission of the COVID-19 virus. The cat made a full recovery nine days later.

According to studies by veterinary scientists on the subject, there have been no cases of cats transmitting the virus to humans - it has only happened the other way around.

However, this news highlights the ever-changing information about the COVID-19 virus, as it was previously thought that animals and pets could not carry the virus.

The coronavirus (called Sars-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19) is thought to have originated in wildlife and been passed to humans via a live animal market in Wuhan. Since then, its main method of transmission has been human-to-human not via animals.

A Chinese study found that the virus replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks, but more efficiently in ferrets and cats. It found that the virus transmits in cats via respiratory droplets. So, what is it about cats in particular that makes them so susceptible to the virus and not other animals?

The answer lies in the receptors the virus needs to bind to in order to get inside cells and start replicating.

It is thought that when the coronavirus enters the human body, it attaches to proteins on cell receptors called ACE2 proteins. These allow the virus to enter the cell and reprogramme it to make more viruses.

Felines are known to have similar ACE2 proteins on the cells that line their respiratory tract. The virus can bind to them and gain access to their airways, thereby infecting them. The same is true for ferrets.

The study also showed that dogs were not susceptible to the virus, despite there being reported cases in Hong Kong of dogs having tested positive for it.

Previous studies looking at another type of coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), showed it to be infectious for cats as well, so it may be no surprise that the same is true of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

As cats do not transmit the virus to humans, there is no need to change the way you handle your cat. However, if the cat is in a household where somebody has symptoms, it is a good idea to keep it indoors to stop it from infecting other cats and making them unwell.

If the cat is from a household where there are no symptoms, it should be free to roam as normal.

I think it is fair to say, in the ever-changing world of COVID-19, we humans are more of a danger to cats than they are to us.

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Last week, a four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York tested positive for coronavirus. The tiger, named Nadia, is thought to have contracted the virus from a zookeeper who was showing no symptoms of the illness.

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We Kiwis are a bunch of animal lovers. Our households are second in the world for pet ownership, behind the United States, and statistics show 58 per cent of homes here include at least one pet.

Cats are the clear favourites, with 45 per cent of us having at least one, compared with 31 per cent for dogs.

So how did cats come to train us so well to look after them? Well, it turns out they domesticated themselves.

From the archaeological records it is difficult to tell when cats became domesticated because there is very little difference between the skeletal structure of the domestic cat and a wild cat.

However, the familiar dappled appearance of many domestic cat coats is new, only appearing over time after the cats came inside.

A genetic study sampling the remains of more than 200 cats from sites dating over the past 9000 years shows the majority of domestic cats descend from the Middle Eastern wildcat Felis silvestris ("cat of the woods"), with a second genetic strain coming from Africa.

The common domestic cat today is known as the Felis catus.

A 1983 archaeological dig on Cyprus revealed a cat's jaw that dated to be around 8000 years old.

A dig in 2000 revealed a cat deliberately buried with a human and dated 1500 years earlier.

It is believed these cats must have been domesticated to be brought on the boat to the island, rather than people attempting to bring a hissing and spitting wild cat on a sea voyage.

It is thought that cats began the domestication process around 12,000 years ago, when civilisation flourished in the fertile crescent of the Middle East.

Dogs were domesticated about 3000 years earlier, being very useful to a hunter-gather society on the move.

These dogs were willing to follow humans as they moved around and to be trained by them to assist with hunting, in exchange for a share of the meat and a warm spot by the fire.

In this mobile lifestyle, cats were not of any use, but as people became more settled and agriculture developed, cats proved themselves to be just as useful as the faithful dog.

The change from opportunistic gathering to agriculture meant storing crops but this invited mice and rats, so cats moved in and a mutually beneficial relationship bloomed - the cats were happy to have a source of easy prey, and the humans were happy to have a pest-control system that looked after itself.

Eventually the cats moved from the storage sheds to our laps, and most still take their pest control duties seriously.

It hasn't always been easy.

The Ancient Egyptians revered cats, even introducing the death penalty for someone who killed one, and cats have since been appreciated by many societies.

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Sorry dog lovers, but cats clear favourites for Kiwis

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We Kiwis are a bunch of animal lovers. Our households are second in the world for pet ownership, behind the United States, and statistics show 58 per cent of homes here include at least one pet. Cats are the clear favourites, with 45 per cent of us having at least one, compared with 31 per cent for dogs.

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All Blacks vs Wallabies, curtains vs blinds, Eagle vs Shark - these are some of the greatest face offs in human history.

But they pale in comparison to the greatest, most polarising battle of them all, one that rages even today in front of roaring fires, on cosy cushions and at the feet of beds all over this fine nation of ours: Dog vs Cat.

Let battle commence:

KYLIE: Look, I like cats as much as the next man... as long as the next man isn't Gareth Morgan, but this whole thing has gotten way out of hand. There's really no comparison or competition. It's dogs all the way.

READ MORE:
* Don't agree to be a pet-sitter until you've read this
* Dora explores her new life as a diabetic terrier
* Furry Friday: When snouts are out
* Too much of a good thing, even water, is cause for concern for your pet

A home just isn't one without a dog.

For a start, it always feels lived in. There's always a sound somewhere in the house - granted it might be the sound of the rubbish bin being knocked over, or your $300 velvet cushion being torn to pieces, but it stands that you never come home to a house that feels empty.

My cousin has a cat - at least she says she has one - I've seen it twice. I once house sat for it for two weeks and the most I saw was its tail disappearing under the nearest bed. Useless.

With dogs, there's no escaping them, they're either on you, under you, beside you... or they're investigating something you should have tidied away ages ago, like the chicken you're defrosting or last night's left overs. See? Helpful!

The click-clack of tiny paws scrabbling over the kitchen tiles to come and greet you, the delighted swish-wish of the tail attached to the one living being that will never, ever critique your taste in $300 velvet cushions, even when you're picking bits of them out of its teeth, is the sound of company.

Dogs mean safety, too, not just metaphorically, literally.

When a US TV station surveyed a group of convicted burglars about how they chose homes to rip off, all of them said dogs were a deterrent.

One of them even described loud dogs "a deal breaker".

Dogs will protect your home as fiercely, if not more so, than even you, often to the point of standing guard against Aunty Marge, the postie, or that stray leaf that just drifted against the window.

"How dare it put its' ghastly leafy fingers near my precious owner?" Our furry champions will bark. "I must chase it madly for 20 minutes."

That's dedication to security.

And in 40-odd years of owning dogs, I have never had one drop anything that used to be alive at my feet expecting praise for it, which automatically puts them leagues ahead of those vicious, pīwakawaka killers, cats.

Sure, I picked up a poo the size of a grapefruit this morning, but that was my choice. My dog didn't ask me to.

In fact, she is incredibly helpful in the garden, like when she turned the lawn into a polka dot patchwork of wee spots. Lawns are deeply passe and it looks better as a wild flower meadow and herb collection anyway. Better for the bees, which incidentally she does like chasing, though not catching. Ouch.

Finally, how many cats do you know that will let you wriggle your freezing toes under their living-space-heater bodies to warm up at night? Exactly.

Game, set and match, cats. I'd say the ball's in your court, but my dog would just bring it back to me, like the Good Girl she is.

MIKAELA: A dog may be man's best friend, but the internet would be a joyless place without cat videos. And so would our lives.

Any person who has owned a feline will tell you, they are superior to dogs in every conceivable way. Cats are quieter, softer, and smell infinitely better. They don't drop hair on everything in sight, necessitating the need for a Roomba vacuum - which they would much prefer to ride, like the champions they are.

As early as 3000 BC, people used to revere cats as gods. So I say it's fair enough that your little pal gets petty, when a lowly human such as yourself, deigns to swap out the luxury biscuits for home-brand.

Although, cats actually prefer the love of a human to anything else. A 2017 study in Behavioural Processes found theyprefer human interaction to all other stimuli, including food, toys, and catnip.

Can you say the same about your dog? I doubt it.

Get a stranger to pick up any stick or ball and your dog will show them just as much love as they show you. But when a creature as staunchly independent as the domestic cat chooses you as its favourite, you feel special and unique - like you've earned it.

Both of our cats, Lily and Scarlett (adopted - we didn't pick the names) spread their tractor purrs around the flat, and are just the right size to spoon in bed.

They also make the ideal WFH office companions. A cat will faithfully contribute to emails by stomping its way across the keyboard to wave a fluffy tail under your nose, or use the computer itself as a heat source.

Cats were also early adopters of the eco-movement, with a love for a reusable cardboard box that is entirely unparalleled. If no boxes are available, a paper shopping bag or some Chistmas wrapping will do.

Aside from the odd mouse that expert hunter Scarlett does bring in, with her one eye, the pair of them are no maintenance at all. They walk themselves, wash themselves, and in two years have never needed a vet trip because they ate, or did something dumb. Which makes them cheap, nay, priceless pets.

They also don't slobber, on us, our guests, or the floors. Fun fact: the ammonia in a dog's saliva is actually the biggest threat to your hardwood.

Scarlett and Lily receive a special mention for their endless tolerance of drum and bass music and drunk millennials in the wee hours, but that may be because we've conditioned them with to expect Temptations treats at such times.

In addition to all that, they still like to play tag, perform zoomies around their tunnel, pro-wrestle each other, and wait at the top of the drive to escort us home from each work day with excited mrrrps.

They are, undoubtedly, the most delightful idiots anyone could hope to live with.

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Dogs vs Cats: Which pet makes the better housemate?

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All Blacks vs Wallabies, curtains vs blinds, Eagle vs Shark - these are some of the greatest face offs in human history. But they pale in comparison to the greatest, most polarising battle of them all, one that rages even today in front of roaring fires, on cosy cushions and at the feet of beds all over this fine nation of ours: Dog vs Cat.

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Fun Cat Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Cats & Kittens

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Cats are one of, if not the most, popular pet in the world.

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https://vimeo.com/386398188

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Facts about Cats for Kids | Animal Learning Video