6 Amusing Cat Facts You Probably Never Knew
There are many households in the world that have cats. Yet, most of them are unaware of several things about a cat. Some of the mysterious ways of cats continue to puzzle humans even today. Probably, it’s because of these mysteries and their adorable features that they’re so popular as pets. According to researchers, the Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats some 4,000 years back.
One of the reasons was the abundance of rodents in those human settlements. Since they prey on rodents, they were useful even for the ancient Egyptians. So, now you can imagine how old the human relationship with cats is. Here are a few more amusing facts about cats you probably never knew:
1. Cats sleep most of their lives
You’ll find it hard to believe this, but it’s a fact. Studies done over the years show that they spend nearly 70% of their lives sleeping! If we were to do the math, it would be between 13 to 16 hours a day. If you love sleeping, you’d certainly love to be a cat in your next life.
2. Blackie must be the richest cat in history
Blackie, a British black cat, inherited a fortune of £7 million from its master, Ben Rea. He was a British millionaire antiques dealer and Blackie was his last surviving cat. Today, no one knows where the cat is. Ben split the remaining part of his wealth between three charities for cats.
He had also instructed them to look after Blackie. It’s surprising that he didn’t leave anything for his family members. You can find the details about this in the Guinness Book of World Records.
3. Felicette was the first cat to go to space
Felicette shot to fame as ‘Astrocat’ when it became the first and only cat to travel to space. This historic event took place on the 18th of October, 1963. You must’ve heard about dogs and monkeys being taken to space before. Now, you know that a cat was also taken to the great unknown.
4. The world’s oldest cat lived up to 38 years
The oldest cat this world ever knew was Creme Puff. Born on the 3rd of August in 1967, it lived up to the age of 38. Its owner, Jake Perry, also owned the previous oldest cat. Named Grandpa Rex Allen, it had died at the age of 34.
5. A cat that was a mayor
A cat by the name of ‘Stubbs’ was the mayor of a small town called Talkeetna in Alaska. Its election as mayor was the result of the voters’ opposition to human candidates in a write-in campaign. Stubbs was the honorary mayor of Talkeetna from 1997 to 2017. Now that’s a pretty long tenure for a cat!
Stubbs was also a major tourist attraction and many gave it cards and letters. About 30 to 40 tourists came to meet the cat every day en route to other destinations in Alaska.
6. Isaac Newton came up with a cat door
This world-famous scientist is well-known for some major inventions. Very few know about his invention of the ‘cat door’. While Newton was working at the University of Cambridge on some experiments, his cats were constant interruptions. They would scratch the door, causing a lot of disturbance to the scientist.
To stop this, he had to call a Cambridge carpenter to make two holes on the door. One was for the mother cat and the other was for her kittens. These holes exist on that door even today.
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