Let’s have some fun with unusual facts and figures about your favorite four-footed family members!
Dog and Cat Fun Facts
- Male dogs can smell a female dog in heat up to three miles away
- Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day
- Approximately 80% of all pets that are hit by cars are un-neutered males
- Cats can jump about seven times their height
- Dogs see fewer colors than we do, but they see seven times better than we do in dim light or in the dark
- A group of kittens is called a kindle, while a group of cats is called a clowder
- A dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times better than ours. If you made an analogy to human vision, what we see at 1/3 of a mile, they can see at more than 3,000 miles away!
- Cats can see about six times better than people in low light
- A dog can detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water (which is the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools)
- Cats’ collar bones do not connect to their other bones so they can squeeze through small spaces
- Dogs can wiggle their nostrils independently
- Cats have 24 whiskers that help them communicate, but also help them determine if they will fit through an opening
- Male dogs and cats are usually left-pawed, while females are usually right-pawed
- Cats can run about three miles per hour faster than Usain Bolt (who has been recorded at about ten miles per hour)
- Each cat’s and dog’s nose pad is unique, like a human fingerprint
- Most cats are lactose intolerant
- Cats have up to one hundred vocalizations, while dogs have only ten
- Cats yawn to end a confrontation with another animal (“Talk to the paw”)
- Dogs and cats dream, just like people do
- The furry tufts inside a cat’s ears are called “ear furnishings”
What fun animal facts can you share? We would love to learn a thing or two! Leave a comment with your favorite furry facts.