44 Purrtastic Facts About Cats That’ll Make Your Morning

Nancy Cowen was forced to leave behind her cat Cleo, whom she had adopted as a stray when she moved into a nursing home. About two weeks later, however, Cleo managed to find the nursing home where she is now reunited with her owner as care staff intends on keeping them together.

2. Toxoplasmosis Gondii is a brain parasite spread through cat feces, which slows rats, and causes attraction to cats. This parasite is transmissible to humans and can cause humans to excessively care for cats. Also, infected female humans (and rats) are more likely to find infected males attractive.

3. The world's most wanted hacker named Jeremy Hammond was himself hacked and arrested because his password was his cat's name plus '123'.

4. Cats are thought to be primarily responsible for the extinction of 33 species of birds.

5. A homeless heroin addict, James Bowen, got clean with the help of a stray cat, Bob, whom he found injured in 2007. James wrote a best-selling book, and in 2016 a movie was released starring Bob as himself.

Cat bites can be incredibly dangerous. Due to the fact that a cat's teeth are sharp and narrow, the resulting wound can heal over easily - resulting in bacteria trapped beneath the skin.

7. A cat named Masha saved a baby's life. The long-haired red tabby found an abandoned baby in a box in the snow and climbed in to keep the baby warm and meowed to get the attention of a passerby. The abandoned baby was rescued unharmed.

8. Cat's kidneys are so efficient it can survive on a diet consisting only of meat, with no additional water, and can even hydrate by drinking seawater.

9. Unlike many other big cats, snow leopards are not aggressive towards humans. There has never been a verified snow leopard attack on a human being.

10. There is a cat who visits the University of Augsburg in Germany every day to offer cuddles to stressed out students. The cat's owner lives nearby and doesn't mind her daily excursions, and the students call her Sammy, the Campus Cat.

Sailors considered black cats good luck and would use them as "ship's cats" in hopes of a safe voyage. Wives of fishermen would also keep a black cat at home as it was believed that the cat would allow their husbands to return safely.

12. A man named Errand Frazier cuts his truck open after hearing a purring noise come from his parking car and found a stray kitten had lodged itself in the frame. He carefully drove to a Humane Society, where the cat was safely rescued. The Society set up a fund to repair his car, with extra money to help other animals

13. A homeless cat sneaked into a lynx's enclosure in a Leningrad zoo, then the two became best friends

14. The site where Julius Caesar was assassinated by the Roman senate in 44 BC is now a no-kill shelter for homeless cats

15. A Nova Scotia man broke into a ranch home, then fed the cats, did laundry, put out hay for the horses, took a shower, used the residents' toothbrush and shaver, and wrote in their diary.

Declawing a cat amputates a joint and is illegal in most countries

17. Cheetahs were almost wiped out by the last ice-age, and all modern cheetahs are descended from a small portion of the surviving cats that interbred to maintain their species. Because of this, cheetahs are practically genetic clones of one another.

18. Orlando, a ginger cat, competed and won against stock-picking professionals at the stock market. The cat picked at random, while the professionals used traditional stock-picking methods. At the end of the year, the cat had £542.60 profit, compared to the professionals' £176.60 profit.

19. Whenever a cat slowly closes its eyes and opens them again or winks at you, that means they trust you and recognize you as a friend.

20. Cats can become addicted to tuna and refuse to eat anything else. Veterinarians refer to these cats as 'tuna junkies.'

A cat named Simon served on a Royal Navy ship in 1949 and received a medal for raising morale, killing off a rat infestation and surviving cannon shells during his service. Hundreds attended his funeral when he died from infected wounds.

22. A cat named Toldo brought gifts of affection to his late owner's grave every day for months

23. A software developer outsourced his work to China paying someone else less than one-fifth of his six-figure salary to do his job. He used the free time mostly to surf the web and watch cat videos.

24. The US government commissioned teams of artists and scientists to devise ways to warn humans 10,000 in the future of buried radioactive waste. One suggestion was to breed cats whose fur changed color when exposed to radiation, then immortalize the cats in song and legend.

25. In 2008 the only female in a managerial position for the Japanese railway was a Cat. Station Officer "Tama the Cat" increased ridership by 17% and it is estimated that her publicity generated ¥1.1 billion to the local economy.