6 fun facts about pets that you might not have known

Learning about pet-related anatomy, behavior and language is fascinating. COURTESY PHOTO

People love to collect, and it seems everyone has something they just can’t get enough of. For me, pet-related trivia holds endless fascination. Here are some quirky tidbits I’ve found over the years.

¦ Cat got your tongue: If you look at a cat’s tongue with a magnifying glass, you’ll see it’s covered with row after row of barbs. These little structures that line the surface of a cat’s tongue are called filiform papillae. They’re hooked, and they are directed toward the throat.

These barbs help to hold prey while eating, and they also help a cat keep her fur in perfect (or should we say “purrfect”?) condition, pulling out dead and dying hairs, along with any debris picked up in the day’s travels. Cats can actually feel when a few hairs are out of place, so that tongue is also a convenient built-in hairbrush.

¦ Grass-eaters: Don’t assume a tummy ache when your dog grazes. They may simply enjoy a daily salad and are seeking out the best of the available vegetation.

Dogs are predators, which means that their ancestors survived by eating meat. In the wild, however, it’s not all cuts of juicy sirloin, but the entire animal — including the vegetation found in the stomachs of herbivores.

Many dogs show a distinct preference for tender shoots, especially those shining with morning dew or damp from a cooling shower. Just be sure they don’t nibble on grass that’s been treated with herbicides or pesticides.

¦ The colder the day, the rounder the cat: Cats typically sleep in one of two basic positions — straight out or curled up tight in a circle. How curled a cat is will depend on the ambient temperature: The more tightly curled a cat is, the colder the air temperature. Curling into a tight ball helps to conserve body heat. When cats stretch out, they expose their bellies, allowing heat to escape and helping to cool them.

¦ Dog tags for pets and people: Dogs have been taxed for centuries, but the idea of using a tag to signify that a dog was “street legal” seems to date to the late 19th century, when Cincinnati, Ohio, started issuing tags on an annual basis, and other cities and states soon followed suit.

Although wooden tags for soldiers were used in the U.S. Civil War to help identify the injured and the dead, it wasn’t until World War I that American soldiers got metal tags as standard issue. The resemblance between the tags of soldiers and of dogs — along with a good dollop of droll military humor — soon had the new tags called “dog tags,” a term that sticks to this day.

¦ Keeping the weapons covered: A cat’s claws can slow them down, which is why claws come out only when they’re needed.

It’s a mistake to refer to claws as retractable, by the way. The normal, relaxed position of a cat’s claw is retracted, or sheathed. To bring out those daggers, a cat must voluntarily contract the muscles and rubber band-like ligaments underneath their toes. If it were the other way around, cats would have to keep their muscles tensed all day long to keep claws sheathed.

¦ From poverty to pampering, and back again: You may have thought that the phrase “to lead a dog’s life” referred to comfort and ease, but that’s a modern day interpretation. The original meaning, which dates to the 16th century, was to live miserably, always harassed and never left in peace. Later, it came to mean a job or position that was boring or unpleasant. Fortunately, many dogs these days lead lives of pampered ease. On the other hand, saying that someone has “gone to the dogs” means that their lifestyle has gone from prosperity to poverty. ¦

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