The word cat refers to a family of meat-eating animals that include tigers, lions, leopards, and panthers.

Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw.

Cats have true fur, in that they have both an undercoat and an outer coat.

Newborn kittens have closed ear canals that don't begin to open for nine days. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change colour over a period of months to the final eye colour.

Most cats have no eyelashes.

It is a common belief that cats are colour blind. However, recent studies have shown that cats can see blue, green and red.

A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye.

Cats with white fur and skin on their ears are prone to sunburn.

A cat can jump seven times as high as it is tall.

A female cat can have three to seven kittens every four months.

The average life span of a domestic cat is 14 years. Neutering a cat extends its life span by two or three years.

Many cats cannot properly digest cow's milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhoea.

The colour of the points in Siamese cats is heat related. Cool areas are darker.

Cats bury their faeces to cover their trails from predators.

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

Besides smelling with their nose, cats can smell with an additional organ called the Jacobson's organ, located in the upper surface of the mouth.

Cats have an average of 24 whiskers, arranged in four horizontal rows on each side.

Retractable claws are a physical phenomenon that sets cats apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. In the cat family, only cheetahs cannot retract their claws.

A cat can spend five or more hours a day grooming itself.

In relation to their body size, cats have the largest eyes of any mammal.

Declawing a cat is the same as cutting a human's fingers off at the knuckle.

It has been scientifically proven that stroking a cat can lower one's blood pressure.

If your cat snores, or rolls over on his back to expose his belly, it means he trusts you.

Tomcats can mate at anytime, while queens can only mate during a period of time called heat or estrus. Heat occurs several times a year and can last anywhere from three to 15 days.