I've mentioned before that cats are well-loved throughout the world, but did you know that the cats that live in Mexico's National Palace have been declared "living fixed assets"? According to the Associated Press, this means that the treasury is obligated to feed and care for them for the rest of their lives, even when the current president leaves office in October. The article reports that staff members remember cats living in the gardens as far back as 50 years ago, and that these Mexican cats have become a symbol of the National Palace. It is unclear when they first got in or even how they got into the building, but there are 19 cats that live in the building...
Cats have often been used as a means of pest control and one place where it used to be common to see a working cat is at the post office. According to ThePostalMuseum.org, cats were first officially employed in September of 1868 (although there were likely cats in post offices prior to that, they weren't on the payroll!) The Secretary of the Post Office agreed to a 6 month probationary period for 3 cats at the rate of 1 shilling per week to help with a mouse problem at the Money Order office in London. The cats must have done a good job, because cats continued to work in post offices until 1984! The job of mail cat was often...
This week I was thinking about my cat's cute little nose and wondering, do cats have a good sense of smell? And, who has a better sense of smell, cats or dogs? So, I did some research on the senses of a cat and according to firstvet.com, cats have around 200 million scent receptors, compared to only 6 million that people have! Rover.com says that a cat's sense of smell is roughly 14 times stronger than that of us humans, so compared to humans, cats are super sniffers! Firstvet.com also says that most dogs have fewer scent receptors than cats, although there are a few breeds of dog that have more, like bloodhounds, who are famous for their strong sense of...
If you've ever seen a cat about to pounce on something, you're likely to have seen that cute little cat butt shake thing before it pounced! So, why do cats wiggle before pouncing? There doesn't seem to have been a lot of research done in the field of cat wiggle, but there are some theories as to why your frisky feline will do the cat butt shake before launching onto its favorite toy. Catster.com offers a list of 4 benefits that a hearty butt wiggle might offer your cat before a pounce. The first is that a cat pouncing tests the ground underneath them to make sure it's sturdy enough to support their weight as they jump toward their prey (or...
If you've ever seen cartoons or children's books featuring cats, you're likely to have seen cats drinking milk from a saucer. But, can cats drink cow milk? Is regular milk bad for cats? What's the story with cats & milk? Cats can be drawn to milk because it's creamy and tasty, but can a cat drink milk? According to Catster.com most cats (like some people) are lactose intolerant, which causes digestive problems when they drink milk. If a cat is lactose intolerant, that means they can't digest the lactose in milk, so it will stay undigested as it travels through their digestive system. This brings water with it into the intestines, which causes diarrhea. The undigested milk sugar can also start...
