It’s National Cat Day on Sunday 29th October – the purr-fect opportunity to celebrate our fluffy friends.

Ready to read some fur-bulous feline facts? Check out our blog below…

Biology

• Cats move both of their right feet first, then move both of their left feet. The only other animals known to walk this way are camels and giraffes!
• House cats share 95.6% of their genetic makeup with tigers, if you can believe it! They also share some of the same behavioural tendencies, such as scent and urine marking, prey stalking, and pouncing. Meowing, on the other hand, is a sound that cats only make to communicate with humans.
• Like other animal noses, the nose of a cat contains a unique print – just like a human fingerprint.
• Cats can rotate their ears to 180 degrees – and have a staggering 32 muscles in each ear, making them highly skilled at pinpointing the exact source of a noise.
• Ever wondered why your cat is so flexible? It’s down to the spine. Humans have 34 vertebrae, while cats have 53 loosely fitting vertebrae.
• Cats have the largest eyes relative to their head size of any mammal.
• Cats spend approximately a third of their lives cleaning themselves, and another third of their lives sleeping!

 History

• In 2004, a French archaeologist discovered the grave of a cat in Cyprus dating back to 9,500 years ago. In other words, they’ve been our beloved pets for a very long time…
• Ancient Egyptians not only appreciated that cats were excellent rat killers, but also saw them as an icon for Bast, the Goddess of Protection. In fact, they made it illegal to kill cats – the punishment of which could go as far as a death penalty. When a family cat died in Ancient Egypt, family members would shave off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning!
• Europeans introduced cats into the Americas as a form of pest control in the 1750s.

More Fun Facts

• A housecat can run to the speed of about 30 mph over short distances. That’s faster than Usain Bolt!
• A cat’s learning style is about the same as a 2- to 3-year-old child.
• The oldest cat to ever have lived went by the name of Creme Puff, and passed away in 2005 in Texas, aged 38.
• Think you’re good at jumping? You’ve got nothing on your housecat – they can jump up to five times their own height.
• A green cat was born in Denmark in 1995. Some believe that high levels of copper in the water pipes nearby may have given his fur a Verdigris effect – which is what happens when copper becomes weathered over time. No one knows for sure though!

All done reading all about our furry feline friends? Come on in and celebrate National Cat Day at Mecca Bingo – or take a spin on one of our animal-themed online slots!