'Today I Learned': 15 Pawsome Fun Facts And Stories About Cats

As cat people, sometimes we get fooled into believing that we truly understand cats. Cats are eeeasy, right? All they need is a bit of food and water, someone to clean their litter box, and, every once in a while, if they deem us worthy, also some attention and pets. But nope, cats are a mystery, and there is so much left for us to still learn about them. Every once in a while, we learn things about them like that some cats love to eat cucumbers, or that cats can train themselves to use human toilets or some other weird random stuff.

There are so many cool and pawsome cat facts out there, and today, we're gonna share with your some of our favorite ones. Brought to you all the way from the hissterical land of r/TodayILearned on Reddit, here are some cat facts that you will definitely want to show your friends.

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Posted by Marielru

1

"TIL that when Winston Churchill Sold Chartwell, the family home, to the National Trust, he required that there always be a marmalade cat named Jock in "comfortable residence." The Trust honored that request. The current occupant is Jock VII, a six month old rescue kitten."

Via u/redaoife, ICHC
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2

"TIL The average life span of a pet cat has risen from seven years in the early 1980s to fifteen years as of 2021."

Via u/haddock420, ICHC
3

"TIL Cats domesticated themselves. They existed unchanged until the Middle Ages; and even now are genetically extremely close to their ancestors."

Via u/Velinarae, ICHC
4

"TIL cats were a common wedding gift among Vikings due to their association with the goddess of luck, Freyja. Men favored women who loved cats, believing that it increased the likelihood of a happy marriage."

Via u/PianoCharged, ICHC
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5

"TIL that Lincoln loved cats so much that he once fed them from the table during a formal White House dinner. When his wife told him that it was 'shameful in front of their guests,' he replied 'If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.'"

Via u/suzukigun4life, ICHC
6

"TIL A cat in New Zealand tricked two different women into owning him. Neither knew they had the same cat until after he went to the vet for stitches. The cat got to keep both names as well as both owners through a shared custody agreement."

Via u/redmambo_no6, ICHC
7

"TIL of Dodger, a ginger cat who was discovered by his owner to have been riding the public buses near his home in England, at least once taking a 10 mile round trip. The drivers give him food, he sits on passengers' laps, and drivers know which stop to let him off at."

Via u/Miskatonica, Peter Willows/BNPS
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8

"TIL in 2012, a U.S. programmer was caught hiring a Chinese programmer to do all his work for 1/5th of his high-paying salary. His workplace later discovered he was spending all day mostly just watching cat videos."

Via u/brooklynmoon, ICHC
9

"TIL In 1911 The Rigby family included their cat Tom in their census form. 'Tom Cat' was listed as being an 8-year old, married Mouse-Catcher, Soloist and Thief with 16 children. His birthplace was listed as Cheshire and he was described as being 'speechless' in the infirmity section of the form."

Via u/Szabo84, ICHC
10

"TIL Marc-Antoine Fardin published a paper in which he cited photographs of cats in jars, baskets and salad bowls and concluded that cats have the properties of both solid and liquid objects. For this work, Fardon was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017."

Via u/volossaveroniki, ICHC
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11

"TIL in 2018 a mom put out an ad to borrow an orange cat so her kids could have "a lasagna dinner with Garfield" and succeeded"

Via u/SAT0725, ICHC
12

"TIL: A stray cat Scarlett risked her life 5 times returning to the burning garage to save her kittens. She touched each of them with her nose to ensure they were all alive as the blisters on her eyes kept her from being able to see them. She collapsed unconscious after assuring they were all safe."

Via u/vpetrychuk, ICHC
13

"TIL Cats were kept on ships by Ancient Egyptians for pest control and it become a seafaring tradition. It is believed Domestic cats spread throughout much of the world with sailing ships during Age of Discovery(15th through 18th centuries)."

Via u/Viraviraco, Flickr
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14

"TIL A Physicist Made His Cat The Co-Author Of a Paper Because He'd Accidentally Written "We" Instead of "I" Throughout the Paper and Couldn't be Bothered Changing It."

Via reddit, ICHC
15

"TIL Animal rescue organisations in the US are placing "unadoptable" cats with businesses as natural pest control. In many cases, this positive socialization leads to the cats becoming affectionate permanent employees of the companies."

Via u/RiffRaffMama, ICHC