138 Fun Facts About Cat

What is the primary function of a cat's whiskers, also known as vibrissae?

Sensing and navigation: a cat's whiskers are touch sensors rooted in nerve-rich follicles, and when prey is too close to see the whiskers swing forward to locate it by touch.

Besides contentment, in which of these situations have cats been recorded purring?

Purring may have begun as a reassurance signal between mothers and nursing kittens, and some chronically ill cats purr continuously; a soothing, possibly healing role has been proposed but the mechanism is still uncertain.

The earliest known evidence of a tamed cat, from about 7500 BCE, was found on which island?

Cyprus: at Shillourokambos a cat was buried beside a human about 7500 BCE, thousands of years before Egypt's cat cult. Cats are not native to the island, so settlers must have brought them by boat.

When a cat rubs its face or body against an object or person, what is it primarily doing?

Depositing scent from facial glands: cheek rubbing leaves a pheromone on the object, and rubbing on people is thought to be a form of social bonding; cats also carry scent glands on the paws and flanks.

Approximately how long does a cat's gestation period last?

Gestation averages 65 days, within a 64-to-67-day window. Kittens are weaned at six to seven weeks and reach puberty at nine or ten months.

Which of these breeds is widely cited as provoking a milder reaction in people with cat allergies?

No cat is truly hypoallergenic, but Russian Blues, Balinese, and several rex breeds are often reported to bother sufferers less, apparently because they shed less of the main allergen protein.

Which of these cat breeds almost always has blue eyes?

Siamese cats get their blue eyes from the same gene that paints their points dark; many other blue-eyed breeds descend from them.

Which cat breed was developed by crossing Siamese and Burmese cats?

The Tonkinese was developed by crossing Siamese and Burmese cats; its 'mink' coat blends Siamese points with Burmese sepia, and aqua eyes are a hallmark of the breed.

How many major blood groups are generally recognized in domestic cats?

Cats are typed A, B, or AB. Type A and B cats carry natural antibodies against the other type, and a B cat given A blood reacts severely, so a typing test is recommended before any transfusion or breeding.

What genetic factor is primarily responsible for tortoiseshell and calico coats in female cats?

The orange locus sits on the X chromosome, so a female with one orange and one non-orange allele shows patches of both. Only about 1 in 3,000 tortoiseshells is male, and most of those carry an extra X.

Cats see well in dim light, but which aspect of their eyesight is far weaker than a human's?

Sharpness of detail: a cat's acuity is roughly 20/100 to 20/200, so it must be about six metres from an object to see what a person sees from 20 to 30 metres; its low-light adaptations cost it resolution.

On average, roughly how many hours a day does an adult cat sleep?

Adult cats average 13 to 14 hours of sleep a day, and some manage as much as 20; their brief muscle twitches during REM sleep suggest they dream.

Adult cats direct which vocalization almost entirely at humans rather than at other cats?

The meow is for us: adult cats rarely meow at each other, so it is thought to extend the mewing kittens aim at their mothers, and pets meow far more than ferals.

How many toes do most domestic cats have on each of their front paws?

Most cats have five toes on each front paw and four on each rear paw, 18 in total; the extra front digit is a dewclaw set higher up the leg that does not touch the ground.

What does a cat signal when it approaches with its tail held straight up?

A raised tail is a friendly greeting, and tail-raising also tracks rank: dominant cats raise their tails less often than subordinate ones. Flattened ears, by contrast, signal hostility.

What type of dietary classification describes cats, meaning they must eat meat to survive?

Cats are obligate carnivores: they depend on nutrients found only in animal tissue, such as arachidonic acid and preformed vitamin A, which they cannot make from the plant precursors that sustain omnivores.

What is it called when a cat rhythmically pushes its paws into a soft surface, often while purring?

This behavior is known as 'kneading' or 'making biscuits.' It's a remnant of kittenhood when they kneaded their mother to stimulate milk flow and is often a sign of contentment and relaxation in adult cats.

Which protein in cat saliva and skin is the primary allergen behind most human cat allergies?

Fel d 1 comes mainly from saliva and the sebaceous glands of the skin and triggers about 90 percent of cat allergies. Females and neutered males make less of it, but still enough to set off sensitive people.

What is the scientific name for the domestic cat?

Linnaeus named the domestic cat Felis catus in 1758 in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae; of the distractors, Panthera pardus is the leopard and Canis familiaris the dog.

What is the innate reflex called that lets a falling cat twist in mid-air to land on its feet?

The righting reflex lets a falling cat rotate to land on its feet given enough time to complete the turn; it appears at three to four weeks of age.

Which of these cat breeds is known for its distinctive 'smushed' or 'flat' face?

The Persian's flat 'peke-face' arose from a spontaneous mutation in 1950s red tabby Persians and was exaggerated by selective breeding; it causes breathing trouble, and the older doll-face type is bred as the Traditional Persian.

A cat's normal body temperature runs from about 100.9 to what upper figure in Fahrenheit?

Normal is 38.3 to 39.0 C, or 100.9 to 102.2 F; a cat is considered feverish at 39.5 C (103.1 F) or above and hypothermic below 37.5 C (99.5 F).

Roughly how many taste buds does a cat have, compared with more than 9,000 on a human tongue?

Cats have only about 470 taste buds, against more than 9,000 on a human tongue, so smell guides their appetite far more than taste; umami receptors tuned to meat may explain the tuna obsession.

What common household plant is highly toxic to cats and can cause kidney failure?

Even licking lily pollen off its coat can put a cat in danger, and vets treat any suspected exposure as an emergency. Tulips and philodendrons are also on the toxic list.

What is the collective term for a group of adult cats?

A clowder; glaring and colony are also accepted terms for a group of cats, while a pride is a group of lions. An unspayed female is a queen and an intact male a tom.

Which of the five basic tastes can no cat, wild or domestic, detect at all?

Sweet is lost on cats: a shared mutation in a taste-receptor gene stops the receptor binding sugar, so they detect acids, bitterness and umami but never sugar.

What distinctive physical trait is characteristic of the Manx cat breed?

On the Isle of Man the stub-tailed cats are called stubbin and the tailless ones rumpy. The dominant mutation spread on the island through the founder effect of a small, isolated population.

Which internet-famous cat's real name was Tardar Sauce?

Grumpy Cat, whose real name was Tardar Sauce, became a worldwide internet sensation due to her distinctive underbite and feline dwarfism that gave her a permanently 'grumpy' facial expression.

What was unusual about Prune, the 1966 Toronto kitten who founded the Sphynx breed?

Prune was a hairless male born to an ordinary black-and-white shorthair. Sphynx skin feels like chamois leather and may carry fine down; the breed can have full, short, or no whiskers.

What is the term for a cat with a coat pattern featuring distinct stripes, spots, or swirls?

A tabby cat is characterized by its distinctive coat patterns, which can include stripes (mackerel), spots (spotted), or swirls (classic/blotched). These patterns are very common in domestic cats.

How many permanent teeth does an adult domestic cat have?

An adult cat has 30 permanent teeth: 12 incisors, 4 canines, 10 premolars and 4 molars. Kittens cut 26 deciduous teeth, which are replaced between about four and six months of age.

From about 7 years in the early 1980s, what was the average pet-cat lifespan by 2023?

Average pet-cat lifespan was about 7 years in the early 1980s, 9.4 years in 1995, and about 13 years by 2023; neutered cats tend to outlive intact ones.

The famous literary cat 'Cheshire Cat' is a character in which classic novel?

The Cheshire Cat appears in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), where it vanishes bit by bit until only its grin remains; the phrase 'grinning like a Cheshire cat' predates the book.

Compared with a human, roughly how much light does a cat need to see?

A reflective layer behind the retina bounces light back through it, and slit pupils open wide in the dark, so cats manage on about one-sixth of the light people need. The trade-off is poorer acuity in bright light.

Which cat breed is known for ears that bend backward toward the skull?

Every American Curl descends from Shulamith, a black stray who turned up on a doorstep in Lakewood, California in June 1981 and had kittens with the same backswept ears.

A cat that leaves its droppings uncovered instead of burying them is most likely doing what?

Territory holders mark with urine spray, cheek rubbing at head height, and deliberate defecation. Cats otherwise bury their waste, one reason they are far tidier housemates than most domestic animals.

Which of these is NOT considered one of the 'big cats' (genus Panthera)?

The cheetah is the only living member of Acinonyx, a name built from Greek words for 'motionless' and 'nail' because its claws stay partly extended. Leopards, by contrast, are Panthera pardus.

In a study of 2,300 free-ranging queens, what was the average number of kittens per litter?

Litters ran from one to six with an average of three, and the queens averaged 1.4 litters a year. Cats are superfecund, so kittens in one litter can have different fathers.

The Abyssinian cat breed is known for its 'ticked' coat pattern. What does 'ticked' refer to?

Each Abyssinian hair has a light base and three or four bands that darken toward the tip, a variant of the tabby pattern produced by the tabby and ticked genes together. The spine, tail, and hind legs stay noticeably darker.

What is a cat opening when it wrinkles its muzzle and lets its tongue hang after sniffing?

The vomeronasal, or Jacobson's, organ sits in the roof of the mouth and lets the cat 'taste' scents; the grimace is the feline version of the flehmen response horses and big cats make.

The Ragdoll breed takes its name from what habit?

Every Ragdoll descends from a cat named Josephine whose kittens shared the placid, floppy temperament. Some British breeders have tried to breed the limpness out, worried extreme docility is not good for the cat.

What is the reflective layer behind a cat's retina that makes its eyes 'glow' called?

The tapetum lucidum bounces light back through the retina for a second pass, producing the eyeshine in photos and sharpening night vision in dim light.

Which Egyptian deity with a cat or lioness head represented protection, fertility and joy?

Bastet began as a fierce lioness sun goddess worshipped at Bubastis and only took cat form around 1070-712 BCE; the Greeks simply called her Ailuros, 'cat'.

A shortage of which nutrient, found in meat, causes dilated cardiomyopathy in cats?

Cats cannot make enough taurine and must eat it; commercial cat food was routinely deficient until a 1987 study tied the heart disease to the missing amino acid.

The Selkirk Rex's founding cat was named after a curly-haired character from which 1980s TV series?

Breeder Jeri Newman named the kitten Miss DiPesto after Allyce Beasley's receptionist on Moonlighting. Selkirk whiskers curl too, and are so fragile they tend to snap off.

Which of these behaviors is a common sign that a cat is feeling threatened or aggressive?

An aggressive cat tries to look bigger by raising its fur, arching its back, turning sideways, and hissing or spitting. Ears often go down and back to protect them and to listen behind.

What is the genetic mutation giving cats extra toes, seen in the 'Hemingway cats', called?

Polydactyly gives cats extra toes on one or more paws; Ernest Hemingway was given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain, and its descendants form the famous colony at his Key West home.

What gives a cat's tongue its sandpaper feel?

Backward-facing keratin spines called filiform papillae cover the tongue; they rasp meat from bone and comb the coat, and their hollow tips wick saliva down to the skin during grooming.

What affectionate nickname is commonly given to the large, sociable Maine Coon?

The breed is often described as having dog-like characteristics.

A Maine Coon named Stewie held which Guinness World Record from 2010?

Longest cat went to Stewie in 2010 at 123 cm from nose to tail-tip; he died in Reno, Nevada, in 2013 at age 8.

The Maine Coon ranked first in FIFe's 2024 registrations with what share of kittens?

That share translated to 23,775 registered cats.

The Bengal breed was created by crossing domestic cats with which wild species?

The Bengal descends from crosses of the Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) with domestic cats; the breed takes its name from the leopard cat's scientific name.

Which Californian breeder is credited with creating the modern Bengal cat?

Jean Mill of California crossed an Asian leopard cat with a black domestic tomcat in 1963 and revived the project in the 1980s, laying the foundation of the modern Bengal breed.

The CFA accepted the Bengal in 2016 only if how many generations removed from wild ancestors?

Six: the CFA admitted the Bengal in 2016 on condition that a cat be at least six generations removed from any Asian leopard cat or non-Bengal domestic ancestor.

Where was Susie, the white barn cat who founded the Scottish Fold breed, found in 1961?

Near Coupar Angus in Tayside: Susie, a white barn cat with owl-like folded ears, was found on a farm there in 1961, and her kittens founded the Scottish Fold breed.

Why did the UK's GCCF stop registering Scottish Folds in the early 1970s?

Health concerns like ear infections and deafness: the GCCF withdrew Scottish Fold registrations in 1971, citing ear infections, mites and deafness plus crippling limb and tail deformities, now known as osteochondrodysplasia.

The Siamese cat's colourpoint coat is caused by a temperature-sensitive form of what?

Albinism: the Siamese carries a temperature-sensitive tyrosinase mutation, a form of partial albinism, so pigment forms only on cooler extremities such as the ears, face, paws and tail while the warm body stays pale.

Which separate breed was created for the rounder 'old-style' Siamese from the 1980s onward?

Thai: registries such as TICA recognise the rounder, moderate old-style Siamese as a separate breed called the Thai, while the slender modern type favoured since the 1950s keeps the Siamese name.

Who may have brought the Norwegian Forest Cat's ancestors to Norway around AD 1000?

The Vikings may have carried the Norwegian Forest Cat's ancestors north around AD 1000; Norse legend tells of a mountain fairy cat that could climb sheer rock faces.

The Savannah breed comes from crossing a domestic cat with which African wild cat?

Serval: the Savannah is a domestic cat crossed with the serval, a tall, spotted African wild cat; the first kitten, born in 1986 to a Siamese mother, was herself named Savannah.

In which year did TICA accept the Savannah as a new registered breed?

2001: TICA accepted the Savannah as a new registered breed that year, and championship status for F4 and later generations followed in May 2012.

The short-legged Munchkin breed descends from a pregnant stray found in 1983 in which US state?

Louisiana: music teacher Sandra Hochenedel found the pregnant stray in Rayville, Louisiana, in 1983 and named her Blackberry; half of Blackberry's kittens were born short-legged.

Which registry recognized the Munchkin amid controversy over mobility issues?

The breed had debuted publicly at a televised TICA show in 1991.

Which breed inspired John Tenniel's Cheshire Cat illustration for Alice in Wonderland?

British Shorthair: a tabby British Shorthair is held to be the model for Tenniel's grinning Cheshire Cat; the breed's best-known variant is the solid grey-blue 'British Blue' with copper eyes.

Chartreux cats are said to appear to be doing what, thanks to their head shape and tapered muzzle?

Smiling: the Chartreux's rounded head and tapered muzzle give it a permanent smile; the breed also has a water-resistant blue double coat and copper to orange eyes.

The Devon Rex began with a curly-coated kitten named Kirlee found in 1960 by whom?

Breeding Kirlee to Cornish Rexes produced only straight coats, proving a different mutation.

Of the three types in a normal cat's coat, the Cornish Rex has only which one?

Down hair only: a normal coat has guard, awn and down hairs, but the Cornish Rex lacks the outer two, leaving an extremely fine, naturally curly undercoat.

What was the first Cornish Rex, a cream male born in Cornwall in 1950, named?

Kallibunker, born in 1950 on a farm at Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, was bred back to his mother to fix the curly coat, which comes from a mutation in the LPAR6 gene.

In the 'Van pattern' named after the Turkish Van, colour is restricted to which body parts?

Head and tail: in the Van pattern colour is confined to the head and tail, and the rest of the cat is white because of the white spotting gene.

The Turkish Van's foundation cats were brought to England in 1955 by two British women in what job?

Photographers: Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday were photographing Turkey for its Ministry of Tourism in 1955 when they were given the cats they brought back to England.

The 'Sacred Cat of Burma' is known for what distinctive white markings?

Gloves on each paw: the breed's colourpoint coat ends in pure white feet, with symmetrical 'gloves' on the front paws and longer 'laces' running up the back of the hind legs.

Which female cat, brought to the US in 1930, founded the modern Burmese breed?

Wong Mau: Joseph Cheesman Thompson brought the walnut-brown female to San Francisco in 1930 and bred her to a Siamese; most modern Burmese descend from her.

Which breed is described as the fastest domestic cat, clocked at over 48 km/h?

Egyptian Mau: it has been clocked at more than 48 km/h, helped by longer hind legs and a flap of skin from flank to knee that lets them stretch farther.

What eye feature did Ankara Zoo's Turkish Angora breeding programme particularly prize?

Odd-coloured eyes: the zoo at the Atatürk Forest Farm in Ankara bred pure white Angoras to preserve the breed and especially prized cats with one blue and one amber eye.

Which French novelist built the 1933 novel La Chatte around a Chartreux named Saha?

Colette's 1933 novel La Chatte centres on Saha, a blue-grey Chartreux whose bond with her owner Alain wrecks his marriage; Colette kept Chartreux cats herself.

What is the tricoloured coat of the Japanese Bobtail, considered its luckiest, called?

Mi-ke, 'three fur', is the white, black and red tricolour of the Japanese Bobtail and its luckiest colouring; most maneki-neko beckoning figurines wear it. Tora means tabby and sabi tortoiseshell.

Which breed is usually cited as the smallest recognised domestic cat?

Singapura: adults weigh only about 2 to 4 kg, making it the smallest recognised breed; the name is the Malay word for Singapore, where it is promoted as the Kucinta, the 'love cat'.

Papers found in 1987 showed the Kucinta breed's three 'drain cat' founders really came from where?

United States: 1987 import records showed the Meadows had shipped the three founding cats from the US to Singapore in 1974; the CFA investigated and let the breed keep its natural-breed status.

Félicette, the first cat launched into space in 1963, flew for which country's programme?

France: Félicette flew on a Véronique sounding rocket launched from Algeria on 18 October 1963 for the French space programme, with electrodes in her skull monitoring brain activity.

How many female cats were trained for spaceflight alongside Félicette?

14: Félicette was chosen from a group of 14 female cats trained for the flight; a bronze statue of her was unveiled at the International Space University in Strasbourg in 2019.

'Unsinkable Sam' reputedly survived the 1941 sinkings of HMS Ark Royal and which German ship?

His German name was Oscar; historians doubt the Bismarck and Cossack links.

Stubbs the cat served two decades as honorary mayor of Talkeetna, in which US state?

Alaska: Stubbs was honorary mayor of Talkeetna, a small town north of Anchorage, from 1997 until his death in 2017 at age 20, and drew 30 to 40 tourists a day.

Larry, Chief Mouser at 10 Downing Street from 2011, came from which animal charity?

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home: Larry was a four-year-old stray adopted from Battersea in February 2011, originally meant as a pet for David Cameron's children.

Creme Puff, the oldest cat ever recorded, reached what age in Austin, Texas?

38 years: Creme Puff (1967-2005) lived to 38 years and 3 days; owner Jake Perry claimed coffee with cream and red wine were part of her diet.

Tama the calico became station master of Kishi Station in which Japanese prefecture?

Wakayama: Tama was appointed station master of Kishi Station on the Kishigawa Line in 2007 and is credited with saving the struggling line from closure.

Which terpene in catnip drives the reaction seen in roughly two-thirds of cats?

Nepetalactone, a terpene in the leaves of the mint-family plant, triggers the rolling and rubbing response in roughly two-thirds of cats; the sensitivity is inherited and kittens do not react.

The world's first cat café, Cat Flower Garden, opened in 1998 in which city?

Taipei: the Cat Flower Garden opened there in 1998 and became a draw for Japanese tourists; Tokyo's first cat café, Neko no Mise, followed in 2005.

The Kattenstoet cat parade in Ypres, Belgium recalls a medieval custom of doing what?

Today a jester tosses plush toy cats from the Cloth Hall belfry to the crowd.

A maneki-neko with its left paw raised is traditionally meant to attract what?

More customers: a raised left paw is said to beckon customers, while the right paw invites money or good fortune; a black figure wards off evil.

What does a traditional maneki-neko hold besides raising a paw?

A koban coin: the figure traditionally clutches a gold koban, an Edo-period oval coin often inscribed 'ten million ryo', and is usually modelled as a calico Japanese Bobtail.

In what year did the Royal Navy ban cats from its ships on hygiene grounds?

1975: the Royal Navy banned cats and other pets from its ships on hygiene grounds that year, ending centuries of ship's cats kept aboard as mousers.

Simon of HMS Amethyst is the only cat ever to win which award?

Dickin Medal: Simon, wounded when HMS Amethyst was shelled in the 1949 Yangtze Incident, received the PDSA Dickin Medal, the animals' Victoria Cross, and was buried with full naval honours.

Trim, Matthew Flinders's ship's cat, was named after a character from which novel?

Tristram Shandy: Flinders named him after Corporal Trim, Uncle Toby's faithful servant in Laurence Sterne's novel; the cat was born aboard HMS Reliance in 1799 and once swam back after falling overboard.

What became of Mrs Chippy, the ship's cat on Shackleton's Endurance, in 1915?

Shot after the ship was lost: when Endurance was crushed by pack ice in October 1915 Shackleton ordered Mrs Chippy and the weakest sled dogs shot; a bronze of the cat now sits on carpenter Harry McNish's grave in Wellington.

The musical Cats is based on a 1939 poetry collection by which writer?

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats was written for Eliot's godchildren.

How many performances did the Broadway run of Cats give across its 18 years?

7,485: Cats ran on Broadway from October 1982 to September 2000, 7,485 performances, at the time a Broadway record; the London production ran even longer, 21 years and 8,949 performances.

Garfield was 'born' in the kitchen of which fictional Italian restaurant?

Mamma Leoni's: Garfield was born in the kitchen of that Italian restaurant, which explains his love of lasagna; his birthday, June 19, 1978, is the date the first strip was published.

Jim Davis named Garfield after whom?

His grandfather: Jim Davis named the cat after his grandfather James Garfield Davis, whom he described as a big, cantankerous man, and gave the tabby that temperament.

Felix the Cat, created in 1919, was the first fully realized recurring animal character in what?

American film animation: Felix, from the studio of Australian cartoonist Pat Sullivan and animator Otto Messmer, was the first fully realized animal character in American film animation, debuting in Feline Follies in 1919.

What was the first Hello Kitty product, released in 1975?

A vinyl coin purse: Sanrio's first Hello Kitty item, released in Japan in March 1975, was a small vinyl coin purse that sold for 240 yen.

Tom of Tom and Jerry was originally called what in his 1940 debut, Puss Gets the Boot?

Jasper: in Puss Gets the Boot (1940) the cat was called Jasper; the duo were renamed Tom and Jerry after an in-studio contest won by animator John Carr, and William Hanna voiced Tom's scream himself.

How many Sylvester cartoons won Academy Awards, the most for any starring Looney Tunes character?

They were Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales and Birds Anonymous.

Schrödinger devised his cat thought experiment in 1935 during a discussion with whom?

Albert Einstein: Schrödinger framed the cat paradox in 1935 in correspondence with Einstein following the EPR paper, to highlight what he saw as the absurdity of applying the Copenhagen view to everyday objects.

The link between black cats and witchcraft likely stems from Vox in Rama, issued by which pope?

Gregory IX issued Vox in Rama in 1233, describing heretics venerating a black cat, which is often cited as the root of the cat's link to witchcraft; in Britain and Ireland a black cat crossing your path is good luck.

Which was the first known cat-headed deity of ancient Egypt, predating Bastet?

Mafdet represented justice; Sekhmet represented power.

Cats mummified in ancient Egypt were most commonly which species?

African wildcat: most mummified cats examined were Felis lybica, the domestic cat's wild ancestor, while the jungle cat, Felis chaus, came a distant second in the Giza finds.

A cat's purr has a fundamental frequency of roughly how many hertz?

25 Hz: the purr's fundamental frequency averages about 25 Hz, within a 20 to 30 Hz range; cats purr continuously on both inhalation and exhalation, which sets the sound apart from most other vocalizations.

Which big cat has an incompletely ossified hyoid like a lion, yet purrs rather than roars?

Snow leopard: its hyoid is incompletely ossified like the roaring Panthera cats, yet it cannot roar and instead purrs and chuffs, which is why it was long placed in its own genus, Uncia.

Roughly how many neurons does a cat's cerebral cortex contain?

250 million: a cat's cerebral cortex holds roughly 250 million neurons, against about 16 billion in a human's, and cats show fully developed object permanence in controlled experiments.

According to a popular story, Muhammad cut off his sleeve rather than wake a cat named what?

Muezza: the story has Muhammad cutting off the sleeve his cat Muezza slept on rather than wake her for prayer, but no verified hadith mentions her, so many Muslims consider it untrue.

Socks the cat was adopted in 1991 after jumping into whose arms outside a piano teacher's house?

Chelsea Clinton: Socks leapt into her arms outside her piano teacher's house in Little Rock in 1991; he later lived with secretary Betty Currie because he never got along with Buddy the dog.

The first cat show was held in 1871 at which London venue?

Crystal Palace: Harrison Weir organised the first cat show there in July 1871; the first US show followed at Madison Square Garden in 1895.

The Lykoi, or 'werewolf cat', was developed in the early 2010s in which US state?

Tennessee: veterinarian Johnny Gobble and Patti Thomas established the Lykoi in Vonore, Tennessee, from 2011, and its patchy roan coat is unique among cats.

Karl Lagerfeld's famous cat Choupette belongs to which breed?

Birman: Choupette, a blue-eyed Birman born in 2011, was Lagerfeld's constant companion; he said she earned about 3 million euros in 2014 from two advertising projects.

The Nyan Cat meme shows a cat with what for a torso?

Christopher Torres of Dallas drew it in 2011 after two chat viewers suggested 'Pop Tart' and 'cat'.

What was the name of the cat in the original 1984 Keyboard Cat video?

Fatso: owner Charlie Schmidt filmed his cat Fatso in 1984, working the paws off-camera; the clip went viral in 2009 as the 'Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat' meme.

Maru, the YouTube star famous for squeezing into boxes, was what kind of cat?

Scottish Straight: Maru, born in 2007, is a straight-eared cat of Scottish Fold stock, the type registered as a Scottish Straight; his box-diving videos earned a 2016 Guinness World Record for the most YouTube views of an individual animal.

Whose chariot in Norse myth is drawn by two cats?

Freyja: the Prose Edda describes the goddess riding a chariot drawn by two cats, while Thor's chariot is pulled by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.

What is a neutered male cat traditionally called?

A gib: a neutered male cat is traditionally a gib, an intact male a tom, and a female a queen or molly.

How many lumbar vertebrae does a cat have, compared with five in humans?

Cats also have 13 thoracic vertebrae to our 12; the extra joints in the back are a big part of why a cat folds in half so easily.

What feature of a cat's shoulder lets it squeeze through any gap its head fits through?

The collarbones are not attached to the rest of the skeleton the way human clavicles are.

An average cat with limbs extended reaches a terminal velocity of roughly what?

60 mph: with limbs spread an average cat reaches about 60 mph (97 km/h), roughly half the terminal velocity of an average-sized man, which is why falls from great height are often survivable.

Newborn kittens usually open their eyes after how many days?

Seven to ten days: kittens are born blind and open their eyes after about a week to ten days; at first every kitten has blue eyes, which shift to adult colour over the following weeks.

The cat family are the only known definitive hosts of which parasite?

Toxoplasma gondii: cats are the only animals in which the parasite reproduces sexually and sheds oocysts; infected rodents lose their aversion to cat urine, which may help the parasite complete its cycle.

Catwoman first appeared, as a jewel thief called 'the Cat', in which 1940 comic?

Batman #1 in spring 1940 introduced her as 'the Cat'; Bill Finger and Bob Kane created her, and the same issue debuted the Joker.

In Perrault's Puss in Boots, what noble title does the cat invent for his master?

Marquis of Carabas: the cat passes off his miller's-son master as the Marquis of Carabas to win the king's favour; the oldest written version of the tale is Straparola's Costantino Fortunato from around 1550.

In Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, which character objects repeatedly to the Cat's tricks?

The family fish is the voice of conscience, protesting every trick while the mother is out; two publishers split the 1957 book, Houghton Mifflin for schools, Random House for shops.

The Ragdoll breed began in the 1960s with a white longhaired cat named Josephine in which city?

Riverside, California: Ann Baker developed the Ragdoll in Riverside in the 1960s from the litters of Josephine, a white longhaired stray, and trademarked the breed name.

The Bombay cat was bred to resemble a miniature version of which animal?

The name refers to Bombay (Mumbai), the habitat of the Indian black leopard.

The Korat, Thailand's 'good luck cat', is known for a head of what shape?

Heart-shaped: the Korat's head forms a heart when viewed from the front, set off by a silver-blue coat and green eyes; in Thailand it is called Si sawat, the colour of the sawat seed.

The Somali cat is essentially a long-haired version of which breed?

The first long-haired Abyssinian, Raby Chuffa of Selene, appeared in North America in 1953.

Dewey Readmore Books, the famous library cat, was found abandoned in a book drop box in which state?

Iowa: staff found the kitten in the book drop of the Spencer Public Library in Iowa in January 1988 and named him Dewey Readmore Books; his 2006 obituary ran in more than 270 newspapers.

Oscar, the nursing-home therapy cat, drew fame in 2007 for seemingly predicting what?

Geriatrician David Dosa described in the New England Journal of Medicine how Oscar napped beside terminally ill patients hours before they died.

Room 8 the cat became a celebrity by haunting what kind of Echo Park place for 16 years?

He wandered into Elysian Heights Elementary in 1952, vanished each summer and returned every fall when students came back.

On Japan's Tashirojima, nicknamed 'Cat Island', which pets are not allowed?

Dogs: to protect the cats, dogs are banned from Tashirojima; locals believe feeding the cats brings wealth and good fortune, and the cats far outnumber the island's small, ageing human population.

In Japanese folklore, what distinguishes the nekomata from the bakeneko?

It has two tails: the nekomata is a cat that has lived long enough for its tail to fork in two and gain magical powers; both it and the bakeneko are kaibyō, supernatural cats of Japanese folklore.

Tombili, the reclining street cat immortalised with a statue, lived in which city?

Istanbul's Kadıköy district put up the statue after a photo of Tombili, Turkish for 'chubby', lounging on a sidewalk went viral; he died in 2016.

Which Disney film features the scheming Siamese cats Si and Am?

Lady and the Tramp (1955): the mischievous Siamese pair Si and Am perform 'The Siamese Cat Song', voiced by Peggy Lee, who co-wrote the film's songs with Sonny Burke.