BooksChatter: ✉ Ten cool things you might not have known about CATS!

Today returning author Cy Wyss takes over our blog to tell us about 'Ten cool things you might not have known about CATS!' - a topic very close to our heart as we have 17 cats (18 up to 23 June, when we lost our little Greek girl, Fix, to FIP).

Cy's latest novel is Road to Nowhere: Murder Most Meow (1 September 2019, Nighttime Dog Press, LLC, 222 pages), a Cosy Mystery, book two in the Eyeshine series.

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Ten cool things you might not have known about CATS!

by Cy Wyss

Cats are descended from the desert sand cats of Northern Africa. A cat’s kidneys process so efficiently, that a cat can rehydrate with saltwater alone.

Hemingway loved cats with thumbs so much (polydactyl cats) that he bred them in Key West after one was given to him by a ship’s captain. Now, his former home in Key West is a museum and home to over 40 mostly polydactyl cats and kittens.
The highest number of toes on a cat is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as 28. Usually, cats have 18 toes (5 on each front paw and 4 on each hind paw).
Cats smile by closing their eyes, which is a sign they are comfortable enough to let down their almost ever-present guard with their human companions.
Terminology: a group of cats is called a clowder. Nowadays, a juvenile cat is called a kitten, but once upon a time, it was known as a catling.
Cats require only one-sixth the light that humans do to see well, making them excellent night hunters. To us, it almost appears cats can “see in the dark.”
Cats can hear higher-pitched sounds than dogs or humans, detecting frequencies in a range of over 10 octaves (humans and dogs have ranges of about 9 octaves). Cats can hear ultrasound and have the best hearing of any mammal.
Cats have a sixth sense, called a Jacobson’s organ. It is in their mouth and allows them to sense scents that humans and other animals cannot. Their Jacobson’s organ is so sensitive, they can detect catnip at less than one part per billion.
Cats have 20 times fewer taste buds than humans and cannot taste sweetness. They are the original no-carbs-diet animals!
Cats thrive everywhere on earth and are, in fact, considered the world’s most invasive species.

What would you do if you turned into a cat every night at sundown?

Find out one woman’s answer in my Eyeshine series. Books 1 and 2 now available on Amazon!

Source: Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com), Hemmingway Home Museum (www.hemmingwayhome.com).