List Of Cat Breeds

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. The domestic cat has slit pupils, which allow it to focus bright light without chromatic aberration. At low light, a cat's pupils expand to cover most of the exposed surface of its eyes. The domestic cat has rather poor color vision and only two types of cone cells, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; its ability to distinguish between red and green is limited.

Trusted Cat Sitters

Some petblogishs also like catnip from time to time, although some are not affected by it.Catnipand freshly grown cat grass help aid a cat's digestion. Nourishing food High-quality ingredients for pets of all ages & sizes. Like people, cats are vulnerable to allergies, sinus irritation, and upper respiratory infections. Sneezing in cats is most often caused by a viral infection picked up from being around other infected cats. Other causes of sneezing may include inhaled allergens, blades of grass, or even tumors.

Neutering will decrease or eliminate this behavior in many cases, suggesting that the behavior is linked to sex hormones. The cat is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of the family. A cat can either be a house cat, a farm cat, or a feral cat; the latter ranges freely and avoids human contact. Domestic cats are valued by humans for companionship and their ability to kill rodents. About 60 cat breeds are recognized by various cat registries.

Asian breeds, particularly Siamese cats, are prone to vocalizing. As long as your cat doesn't seem anxious or in pain, being a chatterbox is no cause for alarm. However, a quiet cat that suddenly begins vocalizing should be examined. The change in behavior could signal a medical condition, such as hyperthyroidism.

Associations With Human Culture

These territories are marked by urine spraying, by rubbing objects at head height with secretions from facial glands, and by defecation. Between these territories are neutral areas where cats watch and greet one another without territorial conflicts. Outside these neutral areas, territory holders usually chase away stranger cats, at first by staring, hissing, and growling and, if that does not work, by short but noisy and violent attacks. Despite this colonial organization, cats do not have a social survival strategy or a pack mentality, and always hunt alone. Protecting & improving cats' lives is what Alley Cat Allies is about. We are a champion for the humane treatment of all pet, stray, and feral cats & kittens.

One of the most unusual-looking cats is the Sphynx, a mostly hairless cat known for being robust and intelligent. Although the origin of the domesticated cat is hidden in antiquity, studies involving mitochondrial DNA suggest that there have been two lineages of Felis catus. One lineage (F. silvestris silvestris) appeared in Asia Minor possibly as early as 6,400 years ago and dispersed northward and westward into Europe. The other lineage appeared in Egypt sometime between 6,400 and 1,000 years ago before spreading throughout the Mediterranean along paths that paralleled the region’s trade routes. Cats of both lineages continued to breed with the African wildcat (F. silvestris lybica) during their respective dispersals.

Learn more about each topic, see who's involved, and find the latest news, reports, events and more. Becky Robinson is President and Founder of Alley Cat Allies, the nation's leading cat advocacy organization. She stands at the forefront of the global movement to protect and improve the lives of all cats. Disaster Response Alley Cat Allies has expertise to help cat caregivers prepare for natural disasters and their aftermath. We help connect cat owners and community cat caregivers get the information, resources, and support they need in the event of an emergency.

Like humans, cats display a preference for a particular paw, with males more often favoring their left paw and females their right. One litter of kittens can have multiple fathers, a phenomenon more likely in city cats due to crowding and lower aggression among males. Siamese cats may well be distinct from that of other domestic breeds, representing a domestication of an Asian wild cat. In fact, nothing is known of the ancestry of the Siamese types, and there is no living species of Asian cat that could have served as ancestor. An example would be the belief that encountering a black cat ("crossing one's path") leads to bad luck, or that cats are witches' familiars used to augment a witch's powers and skills. The killing of cats in Medieval Ypres, Belgium, is commemorated in the innocuous present-day Kattenstoet .

Many species are toxic to felines, such as aloe and philodendron, and Easter lilies, which are deadly. You can easily find whether a plant is toxic to your cat by checking online. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the leading United Nations entity in the field of human rights, with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people. The Committee against Torture works to hold States accountable for human rights violations, systematically investigating reports of torture in order to stop and prevent this crime.