Today August 8 marks a special day for one of the most popular pets: Cats. International Cat Day was created by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and was first celebrated in 2002.

The day was created to encourage people to adopt more cats, as only 37 percent of the 3.4 million cats in the U.S. that enter shelters every year find homes. An interesting fact to note is that there are more cats can dogs in the U.S., with 86 million owned cats compared to 78 million owned dogs. However there is a quirk here, since 39% of all American households own a dog compared to 33% of American households with cats

Many people are allergic to cats but some cats are also allergic to human beings! It is believed that one out of 200 cats suffers from asthma. Cigarette smoke, human dandruff and dust can worse their condition.

Here are a few fun “Cat Tidbits” ….

• The first major cat show in the world was held in 1871. Hundreds of cats and more than 200,000 guests attended the function.
• Cats spend 50 percent of their lives sleeping. They sleep for 13 to 16 hours a day.
• Cats are not able to taste sweet things.
• The heartbeat of cats is two to three times faster than that of humans.
• The whiskers of cats act as a sensor for them and help them understand if they can fit in a space or walk through it.
• American households have more fish than dogs or cats.
• A study found that 12% of married females said they like their cat more than their spouse!
• Cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears.
• Cats can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have poor color vision but a better sense of smell than humans
• Cats were commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt.

Make sure you give your kitty a special treat today or spend some time with him or her … after all it is International Cat Day!!

Some of the information for this article was found at: The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Psychology Today, Wikipedia, Petfinder, National Cat Day.com.