Need to Know Thread About Cats

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NEED TO KNOW THREAD ABOUT CATS
Written by Arrow of Feral Ambitions
- Source, Wikipedia - detailed sources listed at bottom of page

To roleplay any animal successfully, one needs to have a decent background knowledge on the species they are roleplaying; how the function, operate, live, reproduce, feed, socialize, etc. Cats are interesting and complex animals whose emotions aren't always as easily identified and understandable as some others animals such as horses or dogs. In this article, I will give you information and plenty of tips to help you learn about the lovely and remarkable cat.

TIPS FOR ROLEPLAY

• A male cat is called a tom, a neutered male cat is called a gib.
  
  
• A female cat is called a molly, or a queen.
  
  
• Most cats range in size from eight pounds to eleven pounds, although larger species like the Maine Coon can exceed weights of twenty-five pounds.
  
  
• Cats average nine to ten inches in height, and eighteen inches in length. Tails average around eleven inches. Females are generally smaller than their male counterparts.
  
  
• Cats use hunting techniques similar to those of a tiger or leopard.
  
  
• Cats munch on things such as grass, leaves, or shrubs to cause them to regurgitate something upsetting their stomach.
  

The following information is listed as a guide just in case you have a question about anything related to cats. Please note, you do not need to read all of it as that would consume a lot of time and be relatively boring. :)

THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN STRAIGHT FROM WIKIPEDIA. NO CREDIT IS DUE TO ME. (C) TO THE SITE AND THE ARTICLES IT RETRIEVED ITS INFORMATION FROM. DO NOT STEAL AND CREDIT AS YOUR OWN WORK.

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SENSES

Cats have excellent night vision and can see at only one-sixth the light level required for human vision. This is partly the result of cat eyes having a tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye, thereby increasing the eye's sensitivity to dim light. Another adaptation to dim light is the large pupils of cats' eyes. Unlike some big cats, such as tigers, domestic cats have slit pupils. These slit pupils can focus bright light without chromatic aberration, and are needed since the domestic cat's pupils are much larger, relative to their eyes, than the pupils of the big cats. Indeed, at low light levels a cat's pupils will expand to cover most of the exposed surface of its eyes. However, domestic cats have rather poor color vision and (like most non-primate mammals) have only two types of cones, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; they have limited ability to distinguish between red and green, although they can achieve this in some conditions. Cats' whiskers are highly sensitive to touch.

Cats have excellent hearing and can detect an extremely broad range of frequencies. They can hear higher-pitched sounds than either dogs or humans, detecting frequencies from 55 Hz up to 79 kHz, a range of 10.5 octaves; while humans can only hear from 31 Hz up to 18 kHz, and dogs hear from 67 Hz to 44 kHz, which are both ranges of about 9 octaves. Cats do not use this ability to hear ultrasound for communication, but it is probably important in hunting, since many species of rodents make ultrasonic calls. Cats' hearing is also extremely sensitive and is among the best of any mammal, being most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz. This sensitivity is further enhanced by the cat's large movable outer ears (their pinnae), which both amplify sounds and help a cat sense the direction from which a noise is coming.

Cats have an acute sense of smell, which is due in part to their well-developed olfactory bulb and also to a large surface of olfactory mucosa; in cats this mucosa is about 5.8 cm2 in area, which is about twice that of humans and only 1.7-fold less than the average dog. Cats are very sensitive to pheromones such as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, which they use to communicate through urine spraying and marking with scent glands. Cats also respond strongly to plants such as catnip which contains nepetalactone, as they can detect this substance at less than one part per billion.This response is also produced by other plants, such as Silver Vine and valerian, and may be caused by the smell of these plants mimicking a pheromone and stimulating cats' social or sexual behaviors.

Cats have relatively few taste buds compared to humans. Owing to a mutation in an early cat ancestor, one of two genes necessary to taste sweetness may have been lost by the cat family. Their taste buds instead respond to amino acids, bitter tastes and acids.To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable vibrissae (whiskers) over their body, especially their face. These provide information on the width of gaps and on the location of objects in the dark, both by touching objects directly and by sensing air currents; they also trigger protective blink reflexes to protect the eyes from damage.

HEALTH

In captivity, an average life expectancy for male indoor cats at birth is 12 to 14 years, with females usually living a year or two longer. However, there have been records of cats reaching into their 20s and 30s, with the oldest known cat, Creme Puff, dying at a verified age of 38. Having a cat neutered or spayed confers some health benefits, since castrated males cannot develop testicular cancer, spayed females cannot develop uterine or ovarian cancer, and both have a reduced risk of mammary cancer. The lifespan of feral cats is hard to determine accurately, although one study reported a median age of 4.7 years, with a range between 0 to 8.3 years.

Diseases
Cats can suffer from a wide range of health problems, including infectious diseases, parasites, injuries and chronic disease. Vaccinations are available for many of these diseases, and domestic cats are regularly given treatments to eliminate parasites such as worms and fleas.

Poisoning
In addition to obvious dangers such as rodenticides, insecticides and weed killers, cats may be poisoned by many chemicals that are usually considered safe. This is because their livers are less effective at some forms of detoxification than those of other animals, including humans and dogs. Some of the most common causes of poisoning in cats are antifreeze and rodent baits. It has also been suggested that cats may be particularly sensitive to environmental pollutants.[ When a cat has a sudden or prolonged serious illness without any obvious cause, it is therefore possible that it has been exposed to a toxin.

Human medicines should never be given to cats. For example, the painkiller paracetamol (also called acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol and Panadol) is extremely toxic to cats: even very small doses need immediate treatment and can be fatal. Even aspirin, which is sometimes used to treat arthritis in cats, is much more toxic to them than to humans and must be administered cautiously. Similarly, application of minoxidil (Rogaine) to the skin of cats, either accidentally or by well-meaning owners attempting to counter loss of fur, has sometimes been fatal. Essential oils can be toxic to cats and there have been reported cases of serious illnesses caused by tea tree oil, and tea tree oil-based flea treatments and shampoos.

Other common household substances that should be used with caution around cats include mothballs and other naphthalene products. Phenol-based products (Pine-Sol, Dettol (Lysol) or hexachlorophene) are often used for cleaning and disinfecting near cats' feeding areas or litter boxes but these can sometimes be fatal. Ethylene glycol, often used as an automotive antifreeze, is particularly appealing to cats, and as little as a teaspoonful can be fatal. Some human foods are toxic to cats; for example theobromine in chocolate can cause theobromine poisoning, although few cats will eat chocolate. Large amounts of onions or garlic are also poisonous to cats. Many houseplants are also dangerous, such as Philodendron species and the leaves of the Easter Lily, which can cause permanent and life-threatening kidney damage.

BEHAVIOR

All the information you could possibly need on cat behavior can be found here!

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