Aug 24 Newsletter

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

Celebrating Our Cats
Krista Albers-Smith, LVT

August 8 of every year is International Cat Day. The day was created to bring cat lovers together across the world and raise awareness for health issues. To celebrate, we are sharing interesting facts about our feline companions and ways that you can get involved.

1. Cats have one of the broadest hearing ranges of all mammals! They can hear both low frequency and ultrasonic sounds, which is why household sounds we cannot detect, like the hum of electrical appliances, can be irritating to cats.
2. Cats’ sense of smell is up to 10,000 better than humans. They also have a special organ call a Jacob’s organ in the roof of their mouths that can help them detect and decode chemical messages in the environment.
3. Cats are known for landing on their feet; this is because of their “righting reflex” and very flexible spine. The righting reflex can be seen in kittens as young as 3 weeks old and is fully developed by 7 weeks of age.
4. There are multiple words to describe a group of cats. A glaring of cats is a group that is unfamiliar with each other and may be hostile. A group of cats that are familiar with each other is called a clowder. A group of kittens is either called a litter or a kindle.
5. Cats can purr at different frequencies between 25 and 150 hertz and is believed to have therapeutic benefits and help them heal faster.
6. Only 20% of orange cats are female. There are estimates that only 2-5% of all cats are orange, making orange females a rarity!
7. Cats only have 473 taste buds and cannot taste sweets! In comparison, humans have 9,000 and dogs have 1,700.
8. Cats spend about 70% of their time sleeping! When they are not getting their beauty rest they spend between 15 and 50% of their waking hours grooming.
9. While kittens meow to communicate with their mother, they eventually outgrow it as a means of communication with other felines. Adult cats only meow when they want to communicate with humans! Studies even suggest that cats can change the tone of their meow to mimic the frequency of a crying infant to pull on our heartstrings to give them attention to extra treats.
10. Most cats have 18 toes, five on each front paw and four on each back paw. The record for the most toes on a cat is 32! This uneven toe distribution is a genetic mutation called polydactyly, which in Greek translates to “many digits.”

We love our feline patients! According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, less than 50% of cat owners take their feline friends in for veterinary care annually, while almost 80% of dogs go at least once a year. While a trip to the vet can be scary, we hope to make their routine visits as quick and painless as possible, and we love to offer tasty treats as incentive for them to be comfortable and even, if we’re lucky, purr! Cats need checkups too, because a lot can change in your cat’s health in those 365 days.

Help us celebrate this unique and interesting species by raising awareness for our feline companions! Cat lovers know that cats make life more fun.
Post your favorite cat on #InternationalCatDay and #CelebrateCats. Be sure to tag Parks Veterinary so we can see our favorite cats too!