If you’re anything like me, you’re beyond tired of the campaigning, the political crap being flung all around, and the constant dire news. So today, the day before the election here in the U.S., I thought it would be fun to have a Cat Day on my blog again. You who read the blog regularly know how much I love cats, and I’ve done a few posts in the past with interesting facts about those beloved felines.
Starting off with a few things about tuxedo cats that I found on the Litter Robot blog. First of all, it’s not a breed. Like tabby or calico, the name refers to coloring, not lineage, and a tuxedo cat can come in a litter that includes many other colors.
One color constant? White whiskers! Almost all tuxedo cats will have white whiskers, in contrast to their typically black fur. Furthermore, tuxedo cats tend to have green or yellow eyes.
Check out the Litter Robot blog for more fun facts about Tuxedo cats, those in cartoons and movies, and some in real-life pop culture. And a tuxedo cat was once one of the richest cats in the world.
One of the cats we had, Orca, was born with a brother who was a ginger tabby, another brother who had coloring and personality like a Ragdoll cat, and two calico sisters.
We kept that Ragdoll throwback, and called him John. We didn’t know about the Ragdoll genes until much later when our son and his wife got a Ragdoll cat that looks like John did. Same face markings with just a little lighter coat.
We referred to Orca as our miracle cat, and I wrote about his misadventures on the blog back in 2009. Sadly, after coming through two major accidents, he simply disappeared one weekend, only a few days after John went missing.
We’d always tried to keep the cats inside, especially at night, because of the coyotes we could hear singing every night, but John and Orca would often stay out all day and not come home for refuge after dark.
I played around online and found some other interesting facts about cats in general:
Cats have flexible bodies and teeth adapted for hunting small animals such as mice and rats. A group of cats is called a clowder, a male cat is called a tom, a female cat is called a molly or queen while young cats are called kittens.
I didn’t know that the female is called a molly, nor did I know about what the group is called. Kittens, well, we all know about kittens. 🙂
Cats are believed to be the only mammals who don’t taste sweetness. Cats are nearsighted, but their peripheral vision and night vision are much better than that of humans. Most cats have 18 toes – five on each front paw and four on each back paw. Cats can jump up to six times their length.
The prowess for jumping I know firsthand. Sammy taught me that when playing with a feather on a string. He jumped as high as my shoulder.
Now some jokes about cats that I stole, er borrowed, from The Laugh Factory.
Q: What do cats eat for breakfast?
A: Mice Krispies.
Q: What’s the difference between a cat and a complex sentence?
A: A cat has claws at the end of its paws and a complex sentence has a pause at the end of its clause.
A woman answered the doorbell to see a man standing on her porch. The man said, “I’m terribly sorry. I just ran over your cat and I would like to replace it for you.” The woman replied, “Well that’s alright with me, but how are you at catching mice?”
What is the difference between a cat and a dog? Dogs think, “Humans are benevolent, they feed me and take care of me, so they must be Gods. Cats think, “Humans are benevolent, they feed me and take care of me, so I must be God.”
Before I go, I want to let folks know that Homilies From the Heart, the book that is a collection of sermons my husband preached while serving as an ordained Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church, is a free read for Kindle. Yesterday was his birthday, and I decided to make the book free to mark the occasion.
That’s all for today from me. I do hope we get through the election tomorrow with no violence. News is kinda scary on that front, so I hope whoever is going to the polls on Tuesday is able to vote safely.