On Being a Cat With a Smile and a Wagging Tail

You may think your cat as a sweet little thing but did you know that this little bundle of joy cannot taste sweetness? Or, that they meow specifically to communicate with humans alone? Of course, when they are kittens, they meow to call to their mother. But otherwise as grownups they do not meow to one another.
Cats gained prominence during the times of the Pharaohs in Egypt and they climbed up the social ladder. They rule many households all over the world (over 94 million households in the US) which raises the question, "How does one classify a cat?" We do this by the color and size of their fur. So, we have hairless Sphinx and Donetsk while the Javanese is color point. The long haired varieties are Persian and Snowshoe.
Due to their obviously playful nature, people do not complain when the cat chases a rat. In fact, they encourage the cats and the critters spend endless hours in the night giving the smaller blighters a miserable time. The wise mouse will escape the cat by moving out of proximity because the cats are near-sighted. Ah, but not many mice use this tactic. If only they knew.

Cats have fur which is why they can adapt to different variations of temperature with such equanimity. They also have a tail that keeps swishing when it takes in a new situation or is tense.

'Bringing home the bacon' is something the cat does sometimes. It may be a rat, a bird that was flying too low or a small animal. Not everyone appreciates this act. They prefer to move on to the next scene, where the 'bacon' is restored to its proper surroundings, that are outside the house.

As for their movement, they resemble the giraffe and camel because they move both limbs on one side first and then they move those on the other side. This means the left legs front and then back move first and then the right side legs front and back carry the cat forward. They have 18 fingers on their legs five each in the front legs and four each in their hind legs.

Most people remain enamored by the way cats and water never mix. So, why are the Cats so clean? Their tongues have adapted over the ages to act as 'swabs'that wipe the cat and the kitten clean. In fact, the cat spends a lot of time (one-third of its waking hours) in grooming. It shares 96.5% of its genome with the tiger which accounts for the similarity in behavior between the two. They both indulge in territory marking with scent and urine, prey stalking, and pouncing while hunting.

One of the best scenes that one could come across in the cat world happens when the kitten has had its feed starts to play around with its mother. The favorite object of the kitten's attention is its mother's tail. The kitten keeps on jumping on the tail while the mother keeps swishing the tail about.

Cats have regular partners, though this is because they are territory-bound animals. They rarely wander out of their territory and they mate with partners present inside the territory. Their crepuscular nature makes them active at sunset or sunrise.

The Cat has remarkable eyesight. This is because their pupils dilate in dim light and become large allowing more light to fall on the retina. The other remarkable feature of the Cat is the retractable claw. It is able to push its claws out when it wants to grip something or it is tearing the flesh of its prey. Other times, the claws are retracted and the padded feet are soft to touch.

The cats clean even the underside of their feet through which they perspire. And have exquisite toilet manners. They answer natures call out in the open inside a hole or depression and then cover up the fecal matter with mud. This is to make sure that no other animal can even sniff their fecal matter. Then, they move on to the next stage of wiping themselves clean. Their rough tongues can remove the meat to the bone with a few licks.

It only seems natural that people chose the cat over other household pets. In ancient Egypt, cats went on to represent motherhood and fertility. We see the magnificent creature represented in the form of the Sphinx built alongside the pyramids. It has a human face and the body of a cat.

Cats are adored not only because they have superb reflexes but they have a natural ability to blend in with the background. They do not make any noise when they are stalking their prey. Their bigger cousins the lion and tiger also demonstrate astute sense of timing when they go for the kill.

They do not kill for fun, but they are relentless when they set their sights on something. It is perhaps one of the best sights of nature. In those moments when there is nothing to do, they show what they are really good at -- sleeping.