Cats have a better sense of smell than humans

Cats live in a sensory world completely apart from ours. The cat’s sense of smell is its primary source for identifying the individuals and objects in its environment. They have 200 million odour-sensitive cells in their nose compared to only five million in humans. Thus a cat’s sense of smell plays a very significant role in their relationships with humans and their responses to the environment.

Cats have incredibly acute hearing

At lower-pitched sounds, there is little difference between humans and cats (and dogs). At the higher sounds, humans can hear up to approximately 20,000 cycles per second. Dogs can hear sounds of frequencies of up to 35,000 to 45,000 cycles. Cats can hear sounds of an amazingly high pitch sounds up to 100,000 cycles per second! Interestingly, the highest pitched squeak that a mouse can make is approximately the same frequency — 100,000 cycles per second.

That is no coincidence. Cats’ hearing evolved to enable them to be better hunters. Cats hunt by lurking in ambush and listening very closely for the slightest squeak or rustle of their prey.

Chocolate can be toxic to cats

Chocolate contains an ingredient called theobromine that is very toxic to cats, which can affect four areas of the cat’s body. It can increase the cat’s heart rate, it can act as a diuretic causing the cat to lose body fluids. It can affect the gastrointestinal system causing vomiting and diarrhoea and could also cause stomach ulcers. And, it can act on the nervous system causing convulsions, seizures and sometimes even death.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 22nd, 2018