 Maru in a box! INTERNET cat sensation Maru knows a thing or two about boxes. The Scottish Fold kitty from Japan has been photographed and filmed countless of times doing what he loves and knows best: squeezing himself in all kinds of boxes or containers to hide all or just a part of him. But it's not just Maru who experiences an irresistible attraction towards cardboxes. All cats do, even tigers and lions! Why cardboard box? Well, science finally has the explanation for this endearing, bordering to crazy cat behavior. Wired.com first reported how researchers at the Utrecht University have established that cats find comfort and security from the four corners of a box. They came up with this conclusion after separating 19 new cats from a Dutch animal shelter into two groups. One group was given empty boxes to use, while the other cats have none. They wanted to find out which of the two groups would experience less stress and therefore adjust better by being in a new environment. After three or four days, the researchers noticed a significant decrease in the stress levels of cats with boxes compared to those without. At the end of the 14-day experiment, both groups have reached the same stress scores, but the cats in the “boxed” category reached that point 10 days earlier.  Cats' community box. (Photo by Midor Inakayama/Pinterest) The researchers, who published their findings in the Applied Animal Behaviour Science, believe that being able to hide, spy, rest, sleep and even play inside a box provides a cat some sense of security and protection, especially when it finds itself in a new place. As a cat tries to adjust to and know its new environment, the box gives it privacy and peace. The box also lessens the chance of the cat being bothered by other animals or humans, allowing the sensitive animal to calm down and relax.
Researchers also believe cats find cardboard boxes to be very comfortable. The material is a good insulator to keep kitty warm and it can be easily scratched by restless claws. In addition, cats know that the cardboard box is sturdy enough to be a fortress, but one that they can easily destroy if they want to, and without the human being too upset about it. Cats also seem to love the versatility of those four flaps that open and close the box. Those flaps present endless possibilities for hiding and stalking! A cardboard box is a cat's bestfriend. If you have one lying around – a shoe box, pizza box, grocery box, any box – let your cat have it and watch happiness unfold inside that box.
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MYSTERIOUS is a word used to describe cats. Even after hundreds of years of domestication, the cat continues to surprise us with new information about them, which either confirms or shatters our long-held beliefs about cats. From head to toes, all the way to the tail, a cat's body is a study of anatomical wonders. EARS * Cats have 32 muscles that control its outer ear. * Cats' ears can rotate independently 180 degrees, and turn in the direction of sound 10 times faster than the best watchdog. * Cats' hearing is much more sensitive than humans and dogs. * Cats' hearing stops at 65 khz (kilohertz); humans' hearing stops at 20 khz. * Cats can judge the precise location of a sound being made one yard away.  EYES * Cats apparently can see blue and green. Red, maybe not, based on studies. * Cats can see six times better in the dark than a human. * Cats have reflecting cells in their eyes. * Cats' field of vision is about 200 degrees. * Cats need not blink their eyes frequently to keep them lubricated. * Cats that are purely white and with blue eyes are usually deaf.   NOSE * The print on a cat's nose is like that of a fingerprint of a human, each is unique. * Cats have 200 million scent receptors in their nasal cavity. * Cats don't like the scent of mint, lavander, eucalyptus, citrus, and tea tree. * The bare skin around a cat's nostrils is called “nose leather”. * Some cats have freckles on their noses. * Cats eat with their nose. It’s the smell, not the flavor, that initially attracts cats to food. * Cats have a special scent organ in the roof of their mouth called the Jacobson's organ that helps them analyze smells. A cat half opens its mouth to use this organ and smell (called flehming) something strong like urine of other cats.  MOUTH * Cats have fewer taste buds than humans and cannot taste sweets. * The tongue of a cat has tiny, backward-facing barbs (papillae) on it. * A cat has two vocal chords, and can make over 100 sounds. * Cats lap liquid from the underside of their tongue, not from the top. * Washing and grooming themselves can cause a cat to lose as much water as they do through urination. * Cats prefer to take its food at a preferred temperature of around 30C (86F) that is why they usually decline to eat food straight out of the refrigerator.. * Cats may reject certain food when they don't like its texture, size and shape. * Cats have 30 teeth (12 incisors, 10 premolars, 4 canines, and 4 molars). Kittens get this permanent set of teeth when they turn 7 months old. * Cats' jaws move only up and down, unlike that of dogs and humans that can move from side to side.  BODY * A cat has 24 whiskers, 4 rows of whiskers on each side. The upper two rows can move independently of the bottom two rows. * A cat's brain is more similar to a man's brain than that of a dog. * A cat's collarbone is not connected with other bones. This allows the cat to squeeze into any tight opening as long as it's the size of its head.  PAWS * Male cats are left pawed, female cats favor their right paw. * A cat's front paw has five toes, the back paws have four. Some have extra back toes called polydactl. * Cats walk on their toes. * A domestic cat can sprint at about 31 miles per hour.  TAIL * A cat uses its tail to balance. * About 10 percent of a cat's bones are in its tail. * Cats sometime express themselves by moving their tails. * The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking.  Do you know that a group of cats is called a clowder? There are other jaw-dropping facts about cats, and here are a couple more: * A group of cats is called a clowder. * Cats get no nutritional gain from milk unless it's from their mother. * Cat urine glows under the blacklight primarily because it contains the element phosphorus which glows yellowish green in the presence of oxygen, with or without black light. The light imparts additional energy that makes the phosphorus in cat urine easier to see. * A calico cat is almost always female. * An orange tabby is highly likely always male. Orange tabby cats are about 80/20 male to female. * The maine coon cat is the state cat of Maine. This is the only breed that originated from America. * The calico cat is the state cat of Maryland. * The tabby cat is the official cat of the commonwealth (Massachusetts). * Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine, about 26 cycles per second. * Domestic cats purr both when inhaling and when exhaling. Cats take between 20-40 breaths per minute.  |
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