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Howdy Folks, Thought that all the fellow cat lovers on the list might enjoy this bit of feline trivia. Kelly in Calgary 40\39\36 If you are a cat lover...you are an ailurophile, while if you have a fear of cats you have ailurophobia. In 1987, cats overtook dogs as the No. 1 pet in the United States, and Americans now spend more money annually on cat food than on baby food. According to "Guinness", the world's oldest cat died at 36 years of age, and a geriatric feline successfully mothered two kittens at age 32. The heaviest cat on record tipped the scales at just over 46lbs. Cats have four rows of whiskers, and they use them to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. They have 32 muscles in each ear, and purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine. Cats can see about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum, a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light. Cats have more than 100 different vocalizations in their vocabulary, while dogs have around 10. When walking or running, cats step with both left legs, then both right legs. The only other animals that do this are the giraffe and the camel. Cat urine has phosphorous in it and will glow under a blacklight. Catgut, which is used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments, does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses. A litter of kittens is called a kindle, a group of mature cats is called a clowder. Domesticated cats are never mentioned in the Bible, while dogs are mentioned 14 times and lions 55 times. The idea that cats have nine lives originated from the ancient Hindu priest Pilpay. In 1888, an estimated 300,000 mummified cats were found at Beni Hassan, Egypt. They were sold to England to be ground up and used for fertilizer. In ancient Egypt entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died. The superstition that black cats are bad luck originated in America. In Asia and England, black cats are considered lucky!