Your Cat’s Health and Physical Body

Did you know Cat’s have “belly buttons?”

Understanding a few facts about  your cat’s physical “make up” will help you provide special care to keep your beloved pet in good shape.

Here are a few general bits of information to aide you in being an informed cat owner:

• Bad breath in a cat may be due to dental problems but it also may be an indicator of kidney problems, when the body is not exreting properly.
• The average cat has a heart rate of 110 to 130 beats per minute, compared to 75 beats per minute for a human.  A cat’s heart can beat as rapidly as 240 beats per minute when excited.
• Did you know that about 10% of the catsin New England, New brunswick, Canada, and Nova Scotia have an extra toe.  Hm, I wonder if that goes for humans, too? 
• The average lifespan of a cat is fifteen years, but the oldest cat on record was “Puss,” a tabby from Devon, England.  It reached its 36th birthday on Movember 28, 1939, but died the next day.  Coincidentally, another Devon tabby lived to the age of 34, when it was put to sleep on Movember 28, 1939.  I had a cat, Prissy, who lived to be 27.  I miss her so, and my current cat Sassy, reminds me of her a great deal.
• Cats do have “belly buttons,” although they don’t  resemble human navels.  They appear as an elongated scar, covered by hair.
• As all cat lovers know, the cat is a very intelligent animal.  Using one physiological standard of brain weight to spinal cord length, the cat brain has a ratio of four to one, versus 50 to 1 for humans and 18 to 1 for monkeys.  Cats have a memory ability superior to monkeys and orangutans.
• While dogs rely heavily on their sense of smell and touch for daily existence, cats rely mostly on sights and sounds.
• Cat naps add up to the “big sleep.”  Cats  sleep about sixteen hours a day, off and on, twice a human’s requirement and more than any other mammal.  I wonder what they think about while sleeping?  I guess they don’t worry about paying the bills, but they might be thinking of their next nibble or snack!  I have found my cat curled up in the most unexpected places, one of which was a round fruit bowl on a pedestal, centered on the kitchen table. 
• Cats lack water-producing (eccrine) sweat lands except on their footpads.  Their apocrine sweat glands produce a milky substand that is usedin marking territory and leaving scents.   I would almost rather not know that.
• Are you right or left-handed?  Well, cats also have a preference.  Not only can cats be left-handed, (left-pawed) but they are more apt to be left-handed than  humans.  A study by Dr. J. Cole at Oxford University, England, showed that 38% of the cats studied were excludively left-handed and an additional 20% had left-handed tendencies, leaving 42 % of them right-handed.  By contrast, about 10% of humans are left-handed.
• Cats lack a collarbone,l or clavicle.  This enables them to walk through narrow spaces and to take long strides.
• Cats can lose a lot of body weight, 40%, and survive, but they can’t lose more than 14% of water and live.  I am realizing the weight loss fact, as my cat recently lost most of her weight due to a thyroid problem.  She is just now gaining it back, at the age of 17 and I hope will live several more years.  She is bright and alert and very sweet natured.

You have a very unique pet, play with them tonight, and let them know you care.  Cats can sense that with their special ESP…sometimes rejecting people for no apparent reason.  I trust my cat, when it comes to people, but she seems to love most.

-Sassy’s Mom, the cat’s meow