Wikipedia on Cats

Daniel Stutzbach — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:53:42 +0000

Yesterday I stumbled across the Wikipedia entry on cats. I'm convinced that a cat wrote most of the article. Below are some choice excerpts, emphasis mine. I'm going to taunt my cats now by showing off my opposable thumbs.

The cat (Felis catus) … is currently the most popular pet in the world. A skilled predator, the cat is known to hunt over 1,000 species for food.

[The] female is called a "molly" or "queen".

… their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play and relatively high intelligence.

Unlike human arms, cat forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by free-floating clavicle bones, which allows them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their heads.

A cat delivers a lethal neck bite with its two long canine teeth that insert between two of the prey's vertebrae and sever its spinal cord, causing irreversible paralysis and death.

Cats have excellent night vision and can function at only one-sixth the light level required for human vision.

They can hear higher-pitched sounds than either dogs or humans … Cats' hearing is also extremely sensitive and is among the best of any mammal

Cats have an acute sense of smell, which is due … to a large surface of olfactory mucosa … about twice that of humans and only 1.7-fold less than the average dog.

Humans start to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes about 44.5 °C (112 °F), in contrast cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 °C (126 °F) ... Indeed, their kidneys are so efficient that cats … can even rehydrate by drinking seawater.

Anthropologist and animal scientist Desmond Morris … suggests that when cats bring home mice or birds, they are teaching their human to hunt, or helping their human as if feeding "an elderly cat, or an inept kitten".

Daniel Stutzbach » cats

Wikipedia on Cats