Photo Credit: Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain)
ASTROCAT: A female street cat from France named Félicette is the only cat ever to have gone into space. Her 1963 space mission lasted 15 minutes, reaching a height of 97 miles. Félicette returned to earth safely after her capsule parachuted to Earth. [1]
RHYMES WITH CHOWDER: A group of cats is called a clowder. [2]
POPULARITY CONTEST: John Bradshaw, author of Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, writes: "The domestic cat is the most popular pet in the world today. Across the globe, domestic cats outnumber 'man’s best friend,' the dog, by as many as three to one." [3]
THE NOSE KNOWS: A cat’s sense of smell is 14 times stronger than a human’s. [4]
WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM—EXCEPT CATS: Cats cannot taste sweets because they lack a sweet taste receptor. If your cat likes ice cream or other sweet desserts, it is because they are attracted to some other appealing content like: the fat content, salts, amino acids, the smell, etc. [5]
References
[1] "Félicette." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Jan. 2016.
[2] "Clowder." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 02 Jan. 2016.
[3] Bradshaw, John. Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet. New York, NY: Basic, 2013. Print.
[4] "Cats' Superior Sense of Smell." About.com Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Jan. 2016.
[5] Biello, David. "Strange but True: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets." Scientific American. Scientific American, 16 Aug. 2007. Web. 02 Jan. 2016.