Cats have many distinctive traits, but did you know they also possess supernatural abilities like predicting death and using their voices to manipulate humans? Here are 13 amazing qualities of cats that will definitely give you goosebumps.
1. The Amazing Ear Control of Cats
Cats have an extraordinary ability to control their ears. Their ears can rotate up to 180 degrees, allowing them to pinpoint the exact direction of sounds with remarkable accuracy.
Additionally, each ear is equipped with its own set of independent muscles, enabling them to move separately from one another. This unique anatomical feature helps cats stay alert and responsive to their environment.
2. The Third Eyelid in Animals
Many animals, including cats, have a third eyelid. This special eyelid is also known as the nictitating membrane. Unlike the upper and lower eyelids, the third eyelid is a translucent or transparent membrane that can move across the eye, usually from the inner corner toward the outer edge.
The third eyelid generally remains hidden but may unexpectedly appear when the animal's eye feels uncomfortable or when the animal is sleeping with its eyes partially open. This membrane serves important functions: it protects the eye from injury and helps keep the eye moist by spreading tears across the surface.
Structurally, the third eyelid includes a thin protective membrane, a supporting cartilage often shaped like the letter T, and a gland that produces a significant portion of the tear film, contributing to eye health. This membrane is especially useful in protecting the eye from debris and environmental hazards, while allowing animals to maintain vision when it is deployed.
3. Can Cats Drink Seawater?
Many animals, including humans, experience worsened dehydration if they drink seawater. The high salt content in seawater makes it difficult for their bodies to retain water, leading to more severe dehydration. However, cats are different. Their kidneys are uniquely adapted to filter out the salt from seawater, allowing them to replenish their hydration effectively.
4. The Remarkable Hearing Ability of Cats
Cats possess incredibly sharp hearing and are capable of detecting ultrasonic sounds. This means they can hear the ultrasonic communications between mice. Additionally, their acute hearing allows them to perceive sounds made by dolphins and whales.
5. Do Cats Dream?
Sleeping involves dreaming: cats, like us, also dream. Scientific research has shown that cats experience REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the sleep phase during which dreaming occurs. This suggests that cats do not only rest but also engage in vivid dream states.
What Do Cats Dream About?
While we cannot know precisely what cats dream, researchers speculate that the content of their dreams is connected to events and experiences from their daily lives—much like humans. For example, cats likely dream about activities such as stalking prey, playing, or interacting with their environment and companions.
Scientific Evidence
In the 1960s, neuroscientist Michel Jouvet studied cats during REM sleep and found that when certain brain areas were altered, cats displayed movements resembling hunting behaviors during their dreams. Additionally, brain activity patterns during sleep resemble those during wakeful activities, reinforcing the idea that cats mentally "replay" their daily experiences in dreams.
Why Do Cats Dream?
Dreaming may serve multiple functions, including memory consolidation, learning reinforcement, and emotional processing. Observing a cat twitching, moving paws, or making small noises during sleep is likely a glimpse into their dream world, revealing that their brain is actively processing recent events.
In summary, cats do dream, and these dreams appear to be closely tied to their waking experiences, underscoring how much they share with humans in this mysterious and fascinating aspect of sleep.
6. Understanding Cats' Vision Blind Spots
Cats have excellent eyesight, allowing them to see well in various lighting conditions and detect even subtle movements. However, despite their impressive vision, cats have a unique blind spot located directly beneath their noses. This means that objects positioned straight ahead but low and close to their face fall into an area they cannot see.
This blind spot occurs because the structure of their eyes and the placement of their nose create a small gap in their visual field. As a result, cats may sometimes miss items or movements that are directly below their line of sight, right in front of their noses.
Understanding this aspect of feline vision can help cat owners better interpret their pet's behavior and ensure a safer environment that accommodates their natural visual limitations.
7. Knowing the Way Home: The Cat's Homing Instinct
Cats possess a remarkable homing instinct that enables them to find their way back home. This innate ability helps them navigate unfamiliar areas and return safely to familiar territory. One leading theory suggests that this skill originates from a unique set of magnetized cells in their brains, allowing cats to use the angle of sunlight as a natural compass to orient themselves.
This homing ability is thought to be connected to their sensitivity to Earth's geomagnetic fields. Such magnetic perception may function as an internal cosmic guide, similar to a compass, assisting cats in determining direction over long distances. The magnetized cells could work in tandem with environmental cues, such as the sun's position, enabling cats to maintain directional awareness.
Additionally, cats supplement this magnetic navigation with other sensory information — including their exceptional sense of smell and memory of familiar sights and sounds around their home. Their territorial nature also reinforces their mental map of the home environment and surrounding area.
While the exact biological mechanisms are not yet fully understood, research and anecdotal evidence strongly support the idea that cats have an ingrained ability to "know the way home". This combination of magnetic sensing and environmental awareness illustrates the cat's sophisticated navigation skills and underlines why they can often return home even after being displaced or lost.
8. Learning to Communicate with Humans
Compared to other domesticated animals, cats have undergone relatively fewer genetic changes since they began living alongside humans. Despite this limited genetic evolution, cats have developed a unique ability to use a variety of vocalizations to effectively "manipulate" humans, conveying emotions such as hunger, fear, and anger.
Unlike many other species that rely heavily on evolutionary changes to adapt to new environments, cats have instead refined their communication skills, especially in how they interact with human beings. They have learned to tailor their sounds—including different types of meows—to capture human attention and influence human behavior, such as eliciting food or comfort.
This behavioral adaptation demonstrates a remarkable socio-cognitive skill that allows cats to bridge the interspecies communication gap. While their genetic makeup remains close to their wild ancestors, cats' ability to modulate vocal signals to "manage" human responses highlights their sophisticated interaction with humans, adapted to their role as companion animals.
9. Toilet Training for Pets
Just like dogs, cats can also be toilet trained. However, some cats may require more time and patience to learn the process. With consistent effort and gentle guidance, both cats and dogs can adapt to specific bathroom routines, making life easier for pet owners and their furry friends.
10. How Tesla's Cat Inspired the Father of Alternating Current
Nikola Tesla, famously known as the "Father of Alternating Current (AC)", drew crucial inspiration for his groundbreaking work in electricity from a simple, yet remarkable experience involving his childhood cat. One evening, as Tesla stroked his cat named Macak, he was suddenly surprised by a spark of static electricity, which deeply fascinated him and sparked a lifelong curiosity about the nature of electricity.
Tesla later recounted that Macak's back appeared to glow with light, and as he touched it, a shower of crackling sparks erupted, loud enough to be heard throughout the house. This mesmerizing sight left Tesla speechless and profoundly inspired him to start pondering fundamental questions about what electricity really is.
This early moment of wonder played a pivotal role in shaping Tesla's ambitions and led him to devote his life to studying electrical phenomena. The experience signified the beginning of his journey into developing the alternating-current electrical system, which remains the foundation of modern electrical power distribution worldwide.
Tesla's reflection on this event reveals his imaginative view of nature: he pondered if nature itself was like a gigantic cat that, when stroked, produces the spark of electricity. The combination of his childhood curiosity, this inspiring encounter with Macak, and his scientific brilliance culminated in innovations that changed the world forever.
11. Can Cats Eat Humans?
Although your cat might love you very much, if you were to die in front of them and they had no other food available, it is possible that the cat might attempt to eat your body out of hunger.
This behavior, while unsettling to think about, stems from a survival instinct rather than any form of malice. Cats, like many animals, may resort to extreme measures in conditions of starvation.
Therefore, it is important to ensure the well-being of both your pet and yourself, including having contingency plans in place.
12. The Mysterious Purring Sound
Cats can produce over 100 different sounds. Among them, the purring sound is extremely rare among animals. To this day, humans have yet to fully understand the mechanism behind how this sound is produced. It is believed that it may be related to the muscles in the throat or the diaphragm.
13. The Cat That Predicted Death
There is a remarkable story from a nursing home in Rhode Island about a cat believed to predict human death. This cat, named Oscar, gained fame for his ability to anticipate when residents were about to pass away. According to reports, Oscar has accurately predicted the deaths of over 25 patients by curling up beside them shortly before their final hours.
Oscar lived at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Staff observed that he would make rounds on the ward and choose certain patients, curling up next to those who would die within a few hours. Medical staff and families came to trust Oscar's presence as an indicator of impending death, often informing relatives so they could say their goodbyes.
Experts speculate that Oscar's ability to predict death may come from his keen sense of smell, detecting chemical changes or odors released by the human body as death approaches. This extraordinary sensitivity allowed him to provide comfort and companionship to dying patients, often those with dementia or other terminal illnesses who might otherwise pass away alone.
The story of Oscar was notably documented by Dr. David Dosa in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the cat's accurate predictions and calming presence were praised by medical professionals. Oscar's gift has comforted many families, serving as a unique bridge between the living and the dying in their final moments.
Oscar's story remains one of the most touching examples of how animals can connect deeply with human life and death through senses and empathy often beyond human understanding.
