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56 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2024 Tails & Trails - All Pets You may love your cat, but are you fully aware of just how cool an overall species they are? For example, did you know that cats have an extra organ that allows them to taste scents? Or that they developed meowing as a way to communicate exclusively with humans? Clearly there's more to your feline friend than meets the eye. Domestic cats share many behaviors with their jungle ancestors. These behaviors include scent marking by scratching, prey play, prey stalking, pouncing, chinning, and urine marking. Cats were first brought to the Americas in colonial times to get rid of rodents. Cats are supposed to have 18 toes (five toes on each front paw; four on each back paw). Each cat's nose print is unique, much like human fingerprints. Cats make very little noise when they walk around. The thick, soft pads on their paws allow them to sneak up on their prey. Cats use their long tails to balance themselves when they're jumping or walking along narrow ledges. Cats use their whiskers to "feel" the world around them, in an effort to determine which small spaces they can fit into. A cat's whiskers are about the same width as its body (this is why you should never, ever cut their whiskers). Cats live longer when they stay indoors. Kittens in the same litter can have different fathers, because female cats release multiple eggs over the course of a few days when in heat. Kittens can be spayed or neutered when they are only eight weeks old. If possible, these procedures should be performed in the first five months of your cat's life. A cat with a question-mark-shaped tail is asking, "want to play?" Cats have up to 100 different vocalizations, dogs only have 10. Two-hundred feral cats prowl the park at Disneyland, doing their part to control rodents (the ones who don't wear funny outfits and speak in squeaky voices). A green cat was born in Denmark in 1995. Some people believe that elevated levels of copper in the water pipes nearby may have given his fur a greenish tint. It turns out that Abraham Lincoln was a cat loving president! He had four cats that lived in the White House with him. Maria Assunta left her cat, Tomasso, her entire $13 million fortune when she died in 2011. ~ Vivian Walker, vivr@sbcglobal.net