Save Our Strays, Inc.

An all-volunteer, nonprofit, no-kill organization dedicated to rehoming abandoned cats and kittens

Cool Cat Facts & Stuff

Cats have retractable claws. When not in use, the claw is pulling and and held under the skin by ligaments. Retracting the claws helps the cat keep them sharp. One reason that cats scratch stationary objects is to maintain and sharpen their claws.

The skeleton of a cat consists of about 250 bones. Feline bones are lightweight and somewhat flexible, which makes a cat agile and sturdy and allows it to squeeze through small spots.

A cat's muscles are long, thin and flexible, which helps it to run at speeds up to 30 miles an hour. Cats have a unique way of walking: they move the front and rear legs of one side of the body at the same time. This allows them to walk along narrow spaces like tree limbs and fences.

All of a cat's senses are developed for hunting. Their highly developed sense of smell is not as powerful as a dog's but is much better than a human's. Cats can hear over long distances and at a much higher frequency than humans. Cats don't see as well as people, but their eyesight is attuned to catching movement and adapting to dim light. A cat's whiskers serve as a sort of antenna. Whiskers help a cat sense changes in the environment such as air currents and temperatures. They also give the cat superior perception which allows it to navigate small areas.

Purring: It seems that we still know more about how the universe was born than why cats purr. We do know that kittens begin to purr when they're about one week old. This helps their mother know where they are all the time without having to watch them. By purring to her kittens, the mother cat, in turn, is communicating more by a soft vibration that they can feel than by a real sound. Purring may have originated as a way of keeping in touch without alerting nearby predators with squeaks and meows. Purring has developed other uses but they all seem to be connected to the mother-kitten bond. Cats purr when they're contented, but also when they are frightened - perhaps as a way of calming themselves, like when people hum to themselves. Feral and wild cats also purr as a sign of submission to let other cats know that they're not a threat (from Best Friends Magazine Nov/Dec 1999)

Cats spend 30% of their waking hours bathing themselves.

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours a day.