Dog and cat trivia

This week I thought it would be fun to list some interesting and/or odd facts about cats and dogs and cats. Let’s start with our canine companions.

Dogs have sweat glands in-between their paws.

Dog trainers in ancient China were held in high esteem. A great deal of dog domestication also took place in China, especially dwarfing and miniaturization.

It costs approximately $10,000 to train a federally certified search-and-rescue dog.

There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world.

America has the highest dog population in the world. France has the second highest.

Dog nose prints are as unique as human fingerprints and can be used to identify them.

It is much easier for dogs to learn spoken commands if they are given in conjunction with hand signals or gestures.

Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years. Cats have lived with people for only 7,000 years.

Most experts believe humans domesticated dogs before donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, cattle or chickens.

A person standing still 300 yards away is almost invisible to a dog, but a dog can easily identify his owner standing a mile away if the owner is waving her arms.

Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150 to 200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words.

The average dog can run about 19 mph. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on Earth and can run at speeds of 45 mph.

Here are some tidbits about our feline friends.

Groups of kittens are “kindles”; groups of adult cats are “clowders.”

Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat door.

Researchers have made mouse-flavored cat food. The cats who were introduced to it refused to eat it.

Our cats don’t think of themselves as small humans but think of us as large cats.

On average, cats spend two-thirds of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of her life.

Female cats tend to be right pawed, whereas male cats are more often left pawed.

Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.

A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.

A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.

A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr and hiss at other cats.

A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so he can fit through any opening the size of his head.

In contrast to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during their domestication process.

As final notes to this week’s article, we are still seeking items for our garage sale on Sept. 1 –20. CAPS volunteers will again be at Taylor Place Storage (at 1105 Taylor Place, the street next to Walmart), unit 82A, from 9 to 11 a.m. tomorrow (and on Sept. 6 and 13) to receive your donations.

Can’t make it on those dates, are housebound or have items too big to handle? All you need to do is call Rita Hand, and she will schedule a pickup for you (home: 775-423-6346; cell: 775-427-3376). Should Rita not immediately take your call, please leave a message, and she will return your call as soon as she can.

Also, time is running out to buy raffle tickets for a 15-gallon stunning sycamore tree valued at $89.99! This shade-giving tree is Flower Tree Nursery’s latest contribution to CAPS, for which we are always grateful. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5, and all proceeds directly benefit our shelter guests. The drawing will be held on Labor Day at Flower Tree, and you don’t have to be present to win.

This week’s article was contributed by Betty Duncan, a CAPS volunteer.