bangles

(walk like an egyptian)

A collection of little titbits. Some curious,

some amazing, some informative.

How much the Egyptians loved their cats is captured in a story telling us of a battle between Egypt and Persia which took place in 525 BC. Knowing of their love for cats, the Persian commander shall have stationed many cats in his front line. Legend says that the Egyptians refused to attack in fear of hurting the animals - and lost the battle.

Cheese used to be sold in Chesire, England, moulded into the shape of a grinning cat as a joke to ward of hungry mice - hence the origin of the Cheshire Cat!

"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose."

Garrison Keillor

Cats are able to 'almost' always land on their feet because they have a very flexible spine, enabling them to orient their bodies aided by a balancing organ in their inner ears.

"I am not a dog, I am a cat! I won't run and fetch your stick. If you want that stupid stick so bad, why did you throw it away in the first place???"

Cat, Red Dwarf

How Pussywillows got their name

Many springs ago, according to an old Polish legend, tiny kittens had been chasing butterflies at the river's edge and fell in. The mother cat, helpless to save them, started crying. The willows at the river's edge were touched by her plea and swept their long graceful branches into the water. The kittens gripped on tighly and were rescued.

Each springtime since, goes the legend, willow branches sprout tiny fur-like buds in memory where the kittens once clung.

The whiskers of a cat are devices for indirectly feeling the immediate environment. When something touches a whisker it is sensed by special cells surrounding its roots and the information is send to the brain.

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"With the qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I wonder, would be capable of being cats?"

Fernand Mery

Purring is most obviously used to express pleasure, but cats are also known to purr when they are ill or injured, suggesting that it comforts them during times of stress.

Small cats, including domestics, have a natural wariness of water because there are genuine dangers in the wild from drowning and attack from predators.

Not all cats fear water though.
The big cats and the Fishing Cat (felis viverrina) all readily enter water from time to time to either hunt, bathe or travel across swamps, rivers and streams.
((The Turkish Van, a pedigree breed originating in Turkey, is also known to enjoy water)

If you want the best seat in the house, you have to move the cat!

Due to the cat's reluctance to be trained in any way, the Romans used the image of a cat as a symbol for freedom at the feet of the goddess of liberty.

The reason why cats rub their faces and tails against objects -including their humans -is the fact that they are leaving traces of their own sent as territorial markers behind.

The Egyptian cat god Aelurus was so feared by worshipers that anyone who killed a cat was punished by death.

(When do we get a law like that..?!)

Behaviour such as growling, hissing, hair raising, back arching, teeth baring, ear flattening and side leaning, are all designed to win arguments without having to result to physical violence, which could lead to injury.

Cats are now officially the most popular pet, by numbers, in the world. It is indicative of the modern city lifestyle that people find cats easier to keep than dogs.

Cats have large pupils to let as much light in as possible at night. A pet cat's eyes are only slightly smaller than ours, yet it can see six times better than a human.

Keeping cool can be a real problem for cats. They can only sweat from their paws because of their dense fur, so they will lie in the shade and pant to avoid overheating.

The reason why Siamese Cats have a dark mask and darker tips to their feet and tails is because of a gene, which causes a reaction making colder regions of the body grow darker hair.

"The ideal of calm excists in a sitting cat."

Jules Raynard

The belling of the cat

All the mice met in council to discuss the best way to secure against attacks of the cat. After several suggestions were debated, a mouse of experience and standing got up and said: "I think I have hit upon a plan which will ensure our future safety. We will fasten a bell around the neck of our enemy, the cat, which by its tinkling will warn us of her approach."

As the proposal was being applauded, a mouse of even greater wisdom stood up on its feet and said: "It is easy to propose impossible solutions. I agree that it is an admirable plan, but - who is going to bell the cat?"

(aesop fable)

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!"

Theophile Gautier

Cats were not only worshiped in Ancient Egypt, but very much loved, too, in fact so much that when a family's cat died, the head of the house would shave off his or her eyebrows as a sign of the deepest mourning.

Legend tells that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, had a beloved cat called Muezza. On one occasion he is said to have cut off the sleeve of his robe, just so that he would not disturb Muezza's sleep.

"When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her?"

Montaigne (French philosopher)

The idiom 'curiosity kills the cat' is derived from the domestic cat's inquisitiveness, which often gets it into some dangerous situations unexpectedly

Ernest Hemingway was a great cat lover. At some point he shared his home in Key West, Florida, with upwards of 50 cats!

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