The Everything Cat Book

Karen Leigh Davis

• Publisher: Everything
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781593375775
• eBook ISBN: 9781440523779

Whether looking for health care tips or where to find the best breed to buy, readers will love this updated and revised edition of The Everything Cat Book, 2nd Edition. This popular classic is as easy-to-read and accessible as ever-and packed full of practical, professional advice!
This all-inclusive handbook includes information on:

• Choosing the right breed
• Nutritional requirements
• Basic training
• Health and behavior

A staple in the pets category, The Everything Cat Book, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive guide for anyone just getting started with a new cat or simply looking to learn more about their favorite pet!

1 Understanding Cats

Wild cats have been around for perhaps millions of years, certainly longer than mankind. The prehistoric saber-toothed tiger was surely capable of taking down a woolly mammoth, just as lions and tigers today can kill large prey. Feline fossils dating back to the Pliocene age, approximately twelve to two and a half million years ago, show many similarities to modern-day cats. Today's domestic cats still stalk, leap, hunt, reproduce, and raise young in much the same way they did at the dawn of human civilization, with an ease and skill never lost through thousands of years of domestication.

The Long Process of Domestication

Domestication created far fewer anatomical and behavioral changes in cats than in animals such as the dog or horse. Perhaps this is because the cat has been domesticated for a far shorter period of time than the dog and other animals. All cats belong to the family Felidae, whose members have whiskers, eyes with slit irises, and retractable or semi-retractable claws, and who hunt prey and eat a meat-based diet.

Cats and humans did not begin their relationship until humans as a society discovered the benefits of practicing agriculture. Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures became so proficient at farming that they were able to amass surpluses of grain to be stored and used during times of emergency, or simply to be traded to others for a profit. For the first time, this grain surplus allowed communities to compile great wealth, and with it power. But with progress came problems. Rodents regularly raided the grain storage areas, depleting the grain and helping to spread a host of dangerous diseases throughout the human population.

At about this time, ancient cultures began relying on cats to help reduce or eliminate these pests. Here, then, was the likely genesis of the so-called “domestication” of the cat, nature's most efficient rodent controller.

Wildcats

The African wildcat was fairly common to the North African area in ancient times; it was this species that in all likelihood the Mesopotamians and Egyptians first called upon for help with the rodent problem. A bit larger than today's house cat, these animals took to domestication fairly well, and served to drastically reduce the vermin population in and around the granaries and living areas. A feline of similar size also existed in Europe. This ancient European wildcat, probably comparable to today's Felis sylvestris, was shyer and more fierce than its African cousin, and did not take to domestication all that well. The Asian or Pallas's cat, Felis manul, may have possibly been domesticated by the ancient Chinese, and probably contributed genetically to the numerous longhaired Asian cat breeds we see today.

When Cats Were Gods

To the Egyptian farmers, the job of guarding the grain was so important that cats rose from being mere ratters to revered creatures, seemingly identified with Bastet (also called Bast), the Egyptian goddess of fertility and maternity who had the head of a cat. The population valued cats so strongly that the spread of cats outside of Egypt was severely restricted for many centuries. And in fact, for a time in history, the penalty for killing a cat was death.

E-ssential

Thousands of unearthed cat mummies found by archeologists suggest that the Egyptians believed cats could enter the afterlife with people. X-rays of the mummies, however, reveal that some are skeletons of young cats with broken necks. So, it is not entirely clear whether the cats were sent to the afterlife with their deceased humans or used in ritual sacrifce. Regardless of the reason, it is evident that the Egyptians considered the cat's presence and role in the afterlife important.

It was not until Roman, Babylonian, and Phoenician sailors began transporting them to other areas of the known world that cats became popular in different regions and India, even making it as far East as Japan, where they still remain a much admired creature.

Once the African wildcat made its way to Europe and Asia, it no doubt interbred with the European wildcat and the Asian wildcat to produce different physical and behavioral qualities. Today's domestic kitty is most likely descended from these animals. Over the ensuing years, the cat has undergone some genetic manipulation, resulting in numerous cat breeds of varying shapes, sizes, weights, and colors. However, selective breeding of cats has not yet yielded the extreme variations in sizes and shapes that dog breeding has produced.

When Cats Were Witches

Toward the end of the Roman era and leading into the Middle Ages, cats slowly began to fall into disfavor, probably due to certain sects of religious zealots who believed there was a connection between felines and witchcraft. As the idea that cats were servants of witches and the devil became an all-too-prevalent European belief, religious leaders and commoners alike encouraged the elimination of cats. Cats were burned, sacrificed, tortured, and hunted by pet dogs, which by this time had become humanity's most favored domestic animal.

This undeserved malice toward cats ultimately proved to be a grave mis-judgment, however, as the Black Death swept across Europe in the fourteenth century in rodent populations that ran unchecked. Spread by fleas riding on the backs of infected rats, the plague was responsible for killing millions of people, and there weren't enough cats around to dispatch the main culprits. Virtually one-third of the European population succumbed to the dreaded illness. Fortunately, misguided religious prejudices against the cat were not strong enough to outweigh the value of an animal that could eliminate a flea-infested rat that otherwise could mean sure death.

Cats as Companions

By the seventeenth century, the cat was fully back in favor, partly because of a growing artistic respect for feline grace and beauty and partly due to a new appreciation of the animal's cleanliness—a condition that became more respected by the population as new discoveries were made about germs and the way disease spreads. Aristocrats and artists enjoyed taking cats as their pampered pets, and began to selectively breed them for certain traits, including coat length, color, and overall size.

Cats were brought to the Americas by Spanish, French, and English sailors and settlers, again primarily as a safeguard against shipboard grain-thieving rodents. Although not as widely persecuted as in medieval Europe, the cat did suffer somewhat in New England during the brief but dramatic witch-trial period. Fortunately, that era faded quickly, and today the cat outnumbers the dog as the most popular companion animal in the United States.

The Cat's Primary Senses

Cats have five primary senses. Understanding how those senses function, and how cats use them, is crucial to understanding how cats perceive their world.

Vision

Of the five senses, perhaps the most extraordinary is the cat's eyesight, superbly equipped for nighttime hunting. One distinctive feature of the cat's eye is a reflective surface behind the retina known as the tapetum lucidum, the real secret to why cats can see so well in near darkness. This mirror-like apparatus reflects back onto the retina any light not absorbed the first time around, causing the cat's eyes to glow eerily in the dark. This single physical trait, which no doubt seemed otherwordly to an illiterate population, probably accounts for why the cat has been viewed with such awe and mystery throughout the ages. The tapetum lucidum allows cats to use much more of the available light than humans can. They cannot see in total darkness, but they can get around just fine in what to human eyes is pitch black. A clock-radio display or even the clock on a microwave oven or VCR provides your cat with enough light to move through your dark house at night.

E-Question

Do cats see in color?

More than thirty years ago, scientists proved through careful experimentation that cats can, in fact, see some colors. However, the scientists also concluded that color response in cats is not a necessary ability and not part of their normal behavior. Cats seem to be able to distinguish reds and blues, but have a harder time with greens, shades of white, and yellows.

Although cats see better at night than humans do, they do not see quite as sharply as people do. Humans have an indented area in the center of our retina called the fovea, which has a higher concentration of cones than the rest of the retinal surface. This allows humans (and other animals active primarily by day) to more accurately gauge the position of a stationary object. Cats do not see individual items as sharply, but they detect even the slightest movement much better than we do. This is why their normal prey—mice and other rodents—evolved the strategy of freezing motionless to avoid detection. Cats have superior peripheral (side) vision as well.

Cats also tend to be farsighted and cannot focus well on objects closer than twenty-five to thirty inches away. This suits a predator that needs to spot its prey from great distances, and not right under its nose. The feline eye sacrifices up-close visual acuity in order to excel at spotting crafty prey on the run.

Protecting the outer surfaces of the cat's eyes are the upper and lower eyelids, and between them (at the inner corner near the bridge of the nose) is the nictitating membrane, sometimes called the “third eyelid.” This lid automatically closes from the lower inside edge of the eye to the upper outside, affording an additional level of protection for the cat's most valuable sense.

Hearing

Cats have evolved excellent hearing, a result of the need to detect the almost ultrasonic sounds of the small rodents that typically become their dinners in the wild. Cats can hear sounds nearly two octaves higher than those humans are capable of perceiving. This is significantly higher than even the dog's hearing abilities.

The cat's external ear, or pinna, can be moved independently through an arc of about 180 degrees. This gives cats the ability to pinpoint the origin of a sound with great accuracy. The appearance of the pinna can vary somewhat according to species and breed. Those originating from warmer climates tend to have larger ears that radiate heat well and detect prey that may be far across an arid desert plain. Those breeds originally from colder climates normally have smaller ears, a feature that helps minimize the loss of body heat.

E-Fact

The cat's ears do more than just gather and interpret sounds. The vestibular apparatus, located in the inner ear, is responsible for the cat's balance and spatial orientation. Combined with the cat's athletic prowess, this structure gives the cat its well-known righting refex, allowing the animal to turn in mid air while falling and, in most cases, land on all four feet. However, cats do not always escape injury from falls. On the contrary, veterinarians treat enough trauma from such mishaps to dub the condition “high-rise syndrome.”

Smell

The feline sense of smell is the first sense newborn kittens use. Blind for the first two weeks of life, kittens can nevertheless unerringly find their mother's nipple through smell alone. Each kitten tends to go to one particular nipple, at least during the early part of the nursing process, suggesting that its sense of smell is discriminating enough to distinguish one nipple from another.

Although cats do have much better scenting ability than humans, they do not rely on smell as a primary method for locating prey, preferring instead to use their superior vision and hearing. The sense of smell in cats seems ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Top Ten Fun and Fascinating Feline Tidbits
• Introduction
• 1. Understanding Cats
• 2. All about Breeds
• 3. Choosing a Cat Companion
• 4. The Right Cat for You
• 5. Preparing for Kitty's Arrival
• 6. A Cat-Safe Home
• 7. Kitty Comes Home
• 8. Feline Feeding Basics
• 9. Dealing with Eating Problems
• 10. Feline Dental Care
• 11. Grooming Cats
• 12. Cat Health Care Basics
• 13. Common Illnesses
• 14. First Aid and Emergency Care
• 15. Parasites of the Cat
• 16. Cat-Training Basics
• 17. Understanding Territorial and Aggressive Behavior
• 18. Feline Reproduction
• 19. Breeding Purebreds
• 20. Showing Cats
• Appendix A: Books and Magazines
• Appendix B: Associations, Organizations, and Breed Registries