Don't give kitty raw egg white. Raw egg whites 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 as 12 million years old.

Cats' moms teach them to hunt and kill. If a kitten isn't taught by its natural mother, chances are it won't know what to do with prey once it catches it.

There are about 100 breeds of cats.

A quick fix for run of the mill diarrhea is 1cc of Immodium AD, three times a day, for 48 hours. If symptoms continue longer, or the diarrhea is bloody or accompanied by vomiting, take the cat to the vet!! Don't take chances with kitty's life.

Did you know that fish isn't a "natural" food for cats? Cats origins are in the desert where you don't find too many fish, but more rodents and birds and insects. One supposition of why cats have become such happy fish eaters is that during World War II, meat was expensive, hard to get and carefully rationed. Leave it to the cat food manufacturers to find a cheap source of protein. They started to use fish in cat food. In the wild, cats still won't hunt for fish. (Except for one cat breed in India).

Some common causes of stress in cats are:
• The introduction of a new cat, dog or person to the household.
• The loss of a companion cat, dog or person.
• A move to a new home.
• Construction activity in or near the home.
• A stay in a cattery while an owner is away (or even a cat's return home after a stay in a cattery).
• A change in the owner's routine (for example, an owner returns to a school-year job after being home for the summer).
• A change in diet. Many cats would rather eat the same food each day than be "treated" to new tastes and textures in their diet.

Cats respond better to women than men. One reason this might be is that women have higher pitched voices than men.

There is a species of cat smaller than the average housecat. It is native to Africa and it is the Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes). Its top weight is 5.5 pounds.

Onions and its derivatives are bad for your cat. One component of onions, n-propyldisulphide can injure the hemoglobin in feline red blood cells. Blood cells with damaged hemoglobin may develop abnormal structures called Heinz-bodies and be destroyed-potentially leading to a red-blood-cell shortage (anemia). This shouldn't be a problem for most cats, but some of us feed our kitties baby food when they are ill. Check the ingredients on the jar before feeding it to your cat.

Never give your cat aspirin, unless advised to do so by your vet. Aspirin can cause hemorrhaging in the gastorintestinal tract. It can also depress bone marrow activity, which makes red blood cells and may also damage the kidneys.

The average outdoor only cat has a lifespan of about three years. Indoor only cats can live sixteen years and longer.

A tortoiseshell is black with red or orange markings and a calico is white with patches of red, orange and black.

Whiskers are very sensitive, even to small changes in air currents. A cat has four rows on each side of its face. The upper two rows can move independently of the bottom two rows.

A cat has approximately 60 to 80 million olfactory cells while a human has about 5 to 20 million.

Does your cat seem to sulk after you have scolded him? Well, he isn't actually sulking. What has happened is that when you "scolded" kitty, you made direct eye contact and stared. This is perceived as an act of aggression and the cat, by breaking eye contact and walking away, has surrended to you, a normal cat reaction to feeling threatened.

The Ancient Egyptian word for cat was mau, which means "to see".

A group of cats is called a clowder, a group of kittens is called a kendle.

Back in the late 1940s in Buenos Aires, a black female cat climbed a 40 foot tree where she resided for six years. Her name was Mincha and she wasn't lonely for companionship. She had three litters while living in the tree. The local Argentinians fed her by putting her food on poles.

Dogs have 42 teeth, cats about 30. contributed by JLR

Electric light or light from your TV set will make your cat shed her fur. contributed by JLR

Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.contributed by JLR

Experiments show that softly talking to kittens as soon as they are born results in their growing up to be more confident and independent adults.

Florence Nightingale owned more than sixty cats in her lifetime and often complained of mysterious "stains" on her paperwork.

Cats roll on their backs to show affection. They expose their bellies like this only when they feel totally secure.

Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.

Neutering dramatically reduces a cat's territorial demand because the sex hormone (testosterone) is one of the factors that drives the cat to create and defend territory.

Cats with long, lean bodies are more likely to be outgoing personalities than their stockier cousins. They are also more protective of their home and more vocal and demonstrative.

When a cat rubs against your legs, it is showing a affection and also putting its personal scent on you.

Did you know that cats have a third eyelid? Its called a haw and you will probably only see it when kitty isn't feeling well.

Cats that live together sometimes rub each others heads to show that they have no intention of fighting. Young cats do this more often, especially when they are excited.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." Albert Schweitzer

Non-pedigree cats have an higher incidence of tabby markings than pedigree cats. Non-pedigree cats are also more often more robust than highly bred cats.

In Japan, there is a myth that cats have the power to turn into super spirits when they die. Possibly because according to the Buddhist religion, the body of the cat is the resting place (temporary) of the soul of very spiritual people.

A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.

Do the pictures you take of your cat always have "redeye"? Try aiming the flash towards the ceiling. If you have a stationary flash, try taping tissue paper over it. And if at all possible, don't use the flash at all.

Does your cat snore? That means that your kitty is totally relaxed and a sign that your cat trusts you enough to let her guard down.

In 1987 cats overtook dogs as the number one pet in America.

"An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five-year-old boy." Carl Van Vechten

The trouble with fish. There is a condition known as steatitus or "yellow fat disease" that occurs when cats are fed a diet of only fish. Not the cat food fish with all of the additives. But canned catfood of the fish flavor has another problem. When fish decomposes, it releases histamines. And histamines are the culprits it alot of allergies. (That's why we take antihistamines for allergies and colds.) Well, this fish isn't fit for human consumption, so guess who gets it? That's right. Our kitties. And when you think about the origins of the cat, they didn't evolve with fish as food. They lived on birds and rodents. (thanks, cat doc)

Has your cat started to urinate in inappropriate places? This could be the sign of medical problems. This is one way to get our attention and to let us know something is wrong. It could be a bladder infection, FUS, cystitus or a number of other things. Best thing to do is to rule out medical problems first. Once health issues are ruled out as a cause, here are some other possibilities. The litter--some cats don't like certain textures or fragrances and they won't go there. Are you keeping the litter box clean? I know how I feel about a toilet that hasn't been flushed. Some cats don't like covered boxes. And is the litter box in a "private" area? or in a traffic lane? Cats are usually shy about their toilet habits. Since cats don't like to "go" where they eat, place a small bowl of food by the place they have chosen to use. Clean soiled areas with an enzyme cleaner, available at pet stores or through catalogs. You could probably also find it where you can rent rug shampooers.

The Spanish word for cat door is gatera. In old Spanish homes, there was a gatera cut into the doors to give the kitties an easy way in and out of the house. It also provided a way for romance among the young to take place, when balconies were too high. The couple would lay on the floor, he on the outside, she on the inside and carry on conversations and flirt through the opening.

Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.

Ever notice how rough your kitty's tongue is? The cat's tongue is covered with backward facing hooks (papillae) that are used to groom its fur and to scrape meat off bones.

Adult cats with no health problems are in deep sleep 15 percent of their lives. They are in light sleep 50 percent of the time. That leaves just 35 percent awake time. (Remember this when you are trying to sleep and the kitties are wound up!!)

The cat's brain needs so much energy to function that over twenty percent of blood that the heart pumps goes immediately to it.

The Maine Coon breed is four to five times larger than the smallest breed of cat, the Singapura.

Personal favorite If I am fortunate enough, in this lifetime, to get another red male cat, I am going to name him "Opie".

Our favorite home medical book for kitty is the Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook by Delbert G. Carlson, D.V.M. and James M. Giffin, M.D. published by Howell Book House. Our second favorite is The Cornell Book of Cats by the Faculty and Staff, Cornell Feline Health Center. This one is published by Villard Books.

J'embrasse mon chat sur la bouche is French for "I kiss my cat on the lips".

To keep your cat away from your houseplants, grow him his own wheat or oat grass. Plant in a four inch pot and place in a sunny area. Keep this away from kitty until the plants are about four inches high. To keep kitty out of the dirt of your houseplants, try placing aluminum foil over the dirt. Cats don't like the feel of it.

Folklore has it that the tabby cat got the M on the forehead as a gesture of thanks from Mary, the mother of Jesus. She gave this to the kitties to show her appreciation for the kitties purring the baby to sleep.

Spaying a female before her first or second heat will greatly reduce the threat of mammary cancer. It also lowers the possiblity of pyometra (pus filled uterus), metritus (inflammation of the uterus), and endometritus (inflammations of the uterine lining). And it isn't true that cats need to have at least one litter to be healthy.

The stuff (allergens) that people are allergic to in cats is a protein in cat saliva. When the cat grooms and the saliva dries it can become airborn. This protein is 1/3 the weight of ordinary housedust, so it can travel farther. You can find this allergen where cats have never been.

To find a local vet that participates in low cost spay and neuter programs call SPAY USA at 1-800-248-SPAY.

Flea larvae (those little black squiggly things that hatch from those teeny white eggs) live on the undigested blood in "flea dirt" and dead skin.

In case of emergency it is good to have these phone numbers handy~~
• Your vet
• The closest 24 hour emergency veterinary service.
• National Animal Poison Control Center (1-800-548-2423)
• Local cab service

Cats are the only animal that walk on their claws, not the pads of their feet.

Female fleas consume fifteen times their weight daily.

More problems with fish as food. Catfood with fish as an ingredient isn't recommended for cats with FUS (feline urinary symptoms). There is a higher amount of magnesium and ash in these (which helps the development of crystals--not good).

Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run. The only other animals to do this are the giraffe and the camel.

On Halloween, when we know that the door will be open alot, we place a child's gate across the bottom of the door, to keep sneaky kitties from sneaking out.

Ever see a cat jump straight into the air when startled? They can jump up to five feet this way. As a comparison, a human would have to jump twenty-nine feet to match this standing high jump.

The first tamed cats were used for pest control, probably around 3,000 BC in ancient Egypt.

Not all cats like catnip. The behavior of those who do like catnip is likened to a tom around a queen in heat. Catnip contains a chemical called trans-neptalactone, which is closely related to a substance excreted by the queen, usually in urine. The herb valerian can also produce this effect.

Maine Coons grow quickly 'til about eight months of age, then slow down. They usually don't reach full maturity until three to five years of age.

After being petted, sometimes you will see a cat cleaning himself. He is trying to get the "person" smell off.

Have you ever seen a cat smell something and then make a funny face, with the top lip curled back and the nose wrinkled? This is known as "flehming" or "flehman" depending on who you are talking to. A cat has two small air passages (the nasopalatine ducts) located on the roof of his mouth, behind the incisors. These ducts let air taken in through the mouth pass into the nose.

Cats take between 20-40 breaths per minute.

When a cat runs, its legs are extended fully in the air, then brought down and back. The cat's extremely flexible spine allows its rear end to move, even while the forelimbs are on the ground. The cat moves faster by stretching its trunk fully, making the stride longer. The faster the kitty goes, the overlap between the left and right feet gets smaller. This makes the distance covered greater. At full speed, a domestic cat can be going as fast as 31 miles per hour!!!

Declawing a cat is the same as cutting a human's fingers off at the knuckle.

The first true cats were found 12 million years ago, at the start of the Pliocene Period.

The cat has 500 skeletal muscles. Compare that to a much larger human, who has 650.

The Maine Coon cat is America's only natural breed of domestic feline.

In ancient Egypt, entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.

Julius Caeser, Henri II, Charles XI and Napoleon all had ailurophobia, a fear of cats.

Want to know your cat's age in human years? At one year of age, kitty is the equivalent of a fifteen year old human. At two years of age, kitty is equal to a twenty-four year old human. For every year after that, add four. So, an eight year old kitty is equal to a forty-eight year old human!!

A cats normal pulse is 140-240 beats per minute. (Average is 195).

With 18 cats, litter cleaning is a real chore. We use clumping litter and we were lucky if our plastic scooper lasted more than a month. The last time we went to replace the plastic scoop, our local pet supermarket had a metal EKCO kitchen utensil alongside the plastic scoopers. We bought one and it has lasted for years. A lot cheaper than replacing the plastic one every month.

lisaviolet's favorite cat charities are our local spay and neuter association and our local feral cat coalition. They help with low cost spaying and neutering (free in some cases) and education. They always can use volunteers to help with the phones and referrals. Check for one in your area. And they don't spend your money on mailings!! It goes for the cats.

Kittens lose their baby teeth!! At three to four months the incisors erupt. Then at four to six months, they lose their canines, premolars and molars. By the time they are seven months old, their adult teeth are fully developed. This is one of the ways a vet (or you) can tell the age of a kitten.

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