Interesting Facts about Cats II

Saber toothed cat

    In my early post we talked about some common facts that are shared by the whole cat family. Now let’s talk about domestic cats. These Cats have a long history; their prehistoric member was SABRE TOOTHED CAT which is very much similar to the tiger and about the same size. This Saber toothed cat developed six inch long canine tooth extending from its upper jaw. scientists believed  this development of over sized tooth led to extinction of these unusual cats where as they could not open their mouth wide enough to bite well.

Kaffir cat

     While Saber toothed cat is the prehistoric member of the cat family KAFFHYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_cat"IR CAT an African wild cat was probably an ancestor of the domestic cat.  They still live in North Africa and look very much like Tabbies (domestic cat breed). Egyptians were the first to tame and domesticate these small wild cats and it is thought that Phoenician ships calling at Egyptian ports traded  them and carried cats to Greece and Italy. And Roman armies marching in to Spain and Northern Europe took cats with them as pets. Probably some of these cats may have mated with European wild cats, which still exist in wild in Scotland and in wooded Northern Europe. These domesticated cats became the most sacred of the Egyptians and this may be the reason for the Egyptian moon goddess to have a cat’s face. In Egypt some cats were mummified and buried with their owners when they died. And it was a crime to kill or steal a cat. And they were the inspiration for statues, jewelry and many other forms of decorative arts. Not only in Egypt, in China  cats have been valued for many years. Their job was to protect the cocoons of silkworms from being destroyed by rats.

Interesting Facts about Cats I

     Cats! every girl and boy like cats. So what makes them so interesting and so lovable?  Why do people love them so much?  So it is better to know some facts about cats.

     Cat family includes more than 50 species which greatly differ in size, from small domestic cat to the magnificent Siberian tiger which may be 10 feet long and weigh over 200kgs. They live in various habitats that vary from tropical jungles to the Arctic. So one or more of these wild species are found in every country of the world. And these cats share many characteristic features, so their behaviors are somewhat alike to what we find in our domestic cats.

     All cats, wild or domestic are mammals, which give birth to the young and feed them with milk from their own bodies for some time.  And cats belong to the group of carnivore/ flesh eating. But our domestic cats might eat anything and we all know that they prefer flesh. Cats’ eyes are specially suited for seeing in dim light so that they can hunt effectively at nights or at dusk and dawn by adopting their eyes to very little light by enlarging the pupil (opening). By doing so they can gather much more light than we humans do and thus they can see

Salt and Heart diseases

           In modern society most people tend to have low salt diets. When we questioned about it they use to tell that one of their family members is suffering from a cardiac disease. So what is the relationship between salt and heart diseases? First I was confused by it because people started to use salt in their foods thousands of years ago. And salt contains Na⁺ (sodium) which is an important element in human body.

        Salt or Sodium chloride (NaCl) is used as a preservative as well as a seasoning in the ancient time. And by now we know that Sodium is an essential element in human body where as having Sodium in the fluid outside cell as the major cation, is important to a correct functioning of the nerve system since action potential occurs due to the Na⁺ (Sodium) K⁺ (Potassium) ion distribution across the cell membrane. And Sodium helps to maintain electrochemical balance in the body. This important element of Sodium (Na⁺) gets in to the body mainly through salt.

Wonders of the world (Firefly bug)

      Few years back when I was in grade one, me and my friends used to collect Tortoise beetles as our hobby. Whenever we caught a new Tortoise beetle which differed from others we brought them to school and showed them to others by saying that we got a new Tortoise beetles that you guys don’t have. And we explained how we caught them, from where we caught them, things they eat and that kind of funny stuff. Those are wonderful memories and i'm sure you also have those kinds of sweet memories with you. Back to story, but one day I caught a bug little bit different from Tortoise beetles. Usually, Tortoise beetles are hemispherical in shape and have bright colors. But the one that I caught was little bit elongated and thin. So I thought I caught a new Tortoise beetle that none of my friends have caught early. Since my friends don’t have such a Tortoise beetle with them, I was so happy. So that I can show my new Tortoise beetle and tell them about it.

I put my new friend with my other Tortoise beetles. So that I can take it to school on the next day. But at night I suddenly got waken up by a strange light emitted from my Tortoise beetle container. I was afraid and I called my mother to tell about this. She told me that she will explain it in the morning and asked me to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep all that night.