Making Some Sense Out of a Cat’s Five (and then some!) Extraordinary Senses!

  Posted on October 22, 2013  by Joy of Living  No comments

Party Marty again! It’s Tuesday and I stumbled upon some fun facts about cats that I just had to share! After all, this gives credence to the presumption that cats are well, amazing! Just like humans, we have five senses, but our five senses are beyond amazing, and they ultimately serve us well in every day life.

Take our sense of hearing. We hear everything…every thing beyond what humans can hear. In fact, we can hear sounds better than dogs! With a hearing range of 48HZ to 85kHz, we have one of the broadest hearing ranges among mammals. (See? We are not deaf when you call us; we are just ignoring you!)

A sense of smell? We’ve got it covered! We have about 200 millions odor-sensitive cells in our nose. You humans only have about five million. Sure, we use these cells when we eat but we also use them to communicate with each other. Our sense of smell is knowledge to us.

Feelings….nothing more than feelings….our whiskers and paws do the dirty work for us. They investigate and explore. In addition to whiskers on our faces, we also have them on the backs of our front legs. We use these to feel out objects around us and assess if we can squeeze through that narrow opening that looks so inviting. Further, we use whiskers to help us stalk our prey in the dark! Yeah, it’s how we stay in touch!

Do you see what I see?  Doubt it! Cats have extraordinary vision, especially from a peripheral standpoint. Our eyes can also dilate wider to capture a panoramic view of what we are seeing. We can also detect movement. However, and this is pure genetics, not stupidity….we do have a blind spot under our chins. So, yes, we can sometimes overlook something right under our noses! (But I bet our whiskers would feel it out!)

Think we are finicky when it comes to food? Well, we only have about 470 taste buds. You humans have more than 9,000 of those puppies. Plus, ours are not as sensitive as yours. As such, we rely on that keen sense of smell when it comes to choosing from the menu.

I would like to add that this cat in particular has been blessed with a few more senses…a sense of purpose, a sense of adventure and a sense of humor. See?  I am far from senseless! Oh?  A sense of direction?  Don’t need it! I have keen eyes, those amazing whiskers and a great sniffer! I’m good, thank you!

Jessie, the dignified dog, screams from behind:  Ask him about some common sense! Yeah…doubt he has any of that!

Marty takes a swipe at Jessie, who runs off laughing, “I thought you had a sense of humor, Marty!

Thanks to hillspet.com for helping us to make sense out of all of this!