Cats' eyes shine in the dark because of the tapetum, a reflective layer in the eye, which acts like a mirror.
Cats can jump up to 7 times their tail length.
A cat only has the ability to move their jaw up and down, not side to side like a human can.
The tiniest cat on record is Mr. Pebbles, a 2-year-old cat that weighed 3 lbs (1.3 k) and was 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) high.
While it is commonly thought that the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, the oldest known pet cat was recently found in a 9,500-year-old grave on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This grave predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.
A healthy cat has a temperature between 38 and 39 degrees Celcius.
Most cats had short hair until about 100 years ago, when it became fashionable to own cats and experiment with breeding.
Cats have individual preferences for scratching surfaces and angles. Some are horizontal scratchers while others exercise their claws vertically.
It is estimated that cats can make over 60 different sounds.
Cats are the world's most popular pets, outnumbering dogs by as many as three to one
Spanish-Jewish folklore recounts that Adam’s first wife, Lilith, became a black vampire cat, sucking the blood from sleeping babies. This may be the root of the superstition that a cat will smother a sleeping baby or suck out the child’s breath.
Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run.
Florence Nightingale owned more than 60 cats in her lifetime.
A cat can sprint at about thirty-one miles per hour.
Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.
The oldest cat to give birth was Kitty who, at the age of 30, gave birth to two kittens. During her life, she gave birth to 218 kittens.
Milk can give some cats diarrhea.
There is a species of cat smaller than the average housecat. It is native to Africa and it is the Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes). Its top weight is 5.5 pounds.
Some notable people who disliked cats: Napoleon Bonaparte, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hitler.
The term “puss” is the root of the principal word for “cat” in the Romanian term pisica and the root of secondary words in Lithuanian (puz) and Low German puus. Some scholars suggest that “puss” could be imitative of the hissing sound used to get a cat’s attention. As a slang word for the female pudenda, it could be associated with the connotation of a cat being soft, warm, and fuzzy.
The life expectancy of cats has nearly doubled since 1930 - from 8 to 16 years.
There are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and about 120,000 per square inch on its underside.
A female cat is called a queen or a molly.
The first true cats came into existence about 12 million years ago and were the Proailurus.
Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech , and seems to enjoy human companionship.