Hey there! I’m John Green, and welcome to Mental Floss on YouTube! This is my cat friend, Lyla. We have a lot in common: we’re both pals with Meredith, we both live in Indiana, and neither of us likes mice. The big difference? Lyla grooms herself, while I need Mark’s help for makeup!
Did you know that Mary Todd Lincoln once said her husband, Abe Lincoln, had a hobby? It was cats! Charles Dickens, the famous writer, also loved cats. He once said, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” And John Lennon, from The Beatles, had many cats with names like Salt, Pepper, and even Elvis!
Some cats are called Hemingway cats because the writer Ernest Hemingway had a six-toed cat named Snowball. Today, around 40 to 50 of Snowball’s six-toed descendants still roam around his house in Key West. Cats are clever about sharing spaces; they somehow know how to avoid each other even if they like the same spots.
In 1894, Thomas Edison made one of the first cat videos, showing two cats boxing! And did you know the cat who played Crookshanks in Harry Potter had bits of fur clipped back onto him to look scruffier?
Mr. Bigglesworth, the hairless cat from the Austin Powers movies, is quite famous. But some cats became famous without being in movies. Humphrey, a black and white cat, was the Chief Government Mouser in the UK, working for three Prime Ministers!
In Alaska, a cat named Stubbs became the mayor of Talkeetna, attracting many tourists to the small town. And in 1963, France sent the first cat into space, following several rats that had gone before.
Scientists used to think cats were first domesticated in Egypt about 4,000 years ago. But new research shows that wild cats lived near farmers in China over 5,300 years ago! In the 1870s, a Belgian village tried using cats to deliver mail, but it didn’t work out. However, some cats have jobs, like Tama, the station master cat in Japan, who helped boost the local economy.
In 1997, a cat named Ketzel walked on a piano and created a song that won a music prize! And did you know some cats are allergic to humans? About one in 200 cats has cat asthma, which can get worse around people.
Cats’ brains are about 90% similar to ours, and they have more neurons than dogs. They can even get their own form of Alzheimer’s disease. Interestingly, cats can’t taste sweet things, yet 55% of American cats are overweight or obese!
Cats purr when they’re happy, but also when they’re stressed or sick. They can be emotionally complex! Some cats prefer licking their paws to drink water if they don’t like the bowl’s shape. They also spend a lot of time grooming themselves, making them quite clean.
Hairballs aren’t just a cat thing; cows and rabbits can get them too. Cats that fall from great heights often survive better than those falling from lower heights because they have more time to prepare for landing. But don’t try this at home!
Thanks for joining us on this cat adventure! If you have any mind-blowing questions, leave them in the comments, and we’ll try to answer them. And remember, don’t forget to be awesome!
Choose your favorite fun fact about cats from the article and design a colorful poster. Include illustrations or pictures to make it visually appealing. Share your poster with the class and explain why you chose that particular fact.
Pick one of the famous cat lovers mentioned in the article, such as Abraham Lincoln or Charles Dickens. Research more about their life and their love for cats. Present your findings in a short presentation to the class.
Inspired by Thomas Edison’s early cat video, create your own short and fun cat video. If you have a pet cat, you can film them, or use toys and props to create a cat-themed story. Share your video with the class and discuss what makes cat videos so popular.
Using the information from the article, create a timeline that highlights important moments in cat history, such as the domestication of cats or famous cats in history. Use drawings or digital tools to make your timeline engaging.
Conduct a simple experiment to understand more about cats’ preferences. For example, test different types of water bowls to see which one a cat prefers. If you don’t have access to a cat, research online experiments and present your findings to the class.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to Mental Floss on YouTube! This is Lyla. You know, Lyla, we have a lot in common: we’re both friends with Meredith, we both live in Indiana, and we both dislike mice. The major difference is that you do your own grooming, whereas I rely on Mark for my makeup.
Anyway, did you know that Mary Todd Lincoln was once asked if Abe Lincoln had any hobbies? Her reply was “cats.” That’s the first of many cat facts I will be sharing with you today in this video presented by our friends at Geico.
Hold on a moment; I have to go find Lyla since I’m talking about historical figures who loved cats. Charles Dickens once said, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” You have to remember he lived before the Xbox One. John Lennon was also a big fan of cats. Over the years, he had cats named Salt, Pepper, Major, Minor, Tim, Sam, Mimi, Bernard, Sally, Elvis, and Jesus.
Felines are sometimes called Hemingway cats because Ernest Hemingway once had a six-toed cat named Snowball. He let it run wild outside his Key West home, and now there are some 40 to 50 six-toed descendants of Snowball still allowed to roam around his house. Speaking of which, outdoor cats somehow manage to time-share areas to prevent fights. Even if multiple cats like going to the same place, they seem to have a way of knowing how to avoid each other.
In 1894, Thomas Edison reportedly made the very first viral cat video when he filmed two cats boxing in a tiny ring, with a bit of help from a human hand, of course. It’s a great video, but I’m going to stick with Keyboard Cat. The cat who played Crookshanks in Harry Potter endured a great indignity in service to his work; his trainers would gather bits of his shed fur, roll it into balls, and clip them back onto him to enhance his rough appearance.
Another famous cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, the hairless Sphinx from the Austin Powers movies, is named after a character from the film. Some cats who had nothing to do with the film industry still managed to get famous. For example, Humphrey was the first feline to be named Chief Government Mouser in the United Kingdom. The black and white cat wandered into Number 10 Downing Street in 1989 and was quickly employed by the cabinet office. He remained in that esteemed position for three successive Prime Ministers, proving that while it’s hard out there for a cat, it’s harder out there for a Prime Minister.
Nowadays, the British government employs over 100,000 cats to keep mice away—that’s almost double the population of Greenland! Bill Clinton’s cat, Socks, didn’t love the family’s Labrador Retriever, Buddy, which is ironic because his name was literally Buddy. A cat named Tibbles, along with several other cats, caused the extinction of the Stephen Island Wren due to overhunting, which leads to the question: who would name their cat Tibbles? No wonder he acted out in anger!
The mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, is a cat named Stubbs. He is now responsible for the town’s steady stream of 30 to 40 tourists daily, which is pretty good for a town of just 900 people. Some of us know Talkeetna because of the Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival, which is famous because that’s where I got dumped one time.
In 1963, France sent the first cat into space, but in the two years prior, they had sent several rats into space. No word on whether the cat was able to track down the rats. Probably not, though! In the early 1800s, Trim the cat, along with his owner Captain Matthew Flinders, completed the first-ever circumnavigation of Australia.
Scientists once believed that cats were domesticated in ancient Egypt approximately 4,000 years ago, but new research published in 2013 shows that a breed of once-wild cats lived in close proximity to farmers in China some 5,300 years ago. Hairballs were once thought to cure epilepsy, the plague, and poisoning. During the Middle Ages, hairballs were even set in gold!
In the 1870s, a Belgian village trained 37 male cats to deliver letters, conceived by the esteemed Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat. The plan failed, but some cats have jobs that they’re actually pretty successful at, like Tama the cat, who is a station master at the Wakayama Electric Rail Station in Japan. Tama has two assistants who are also cats. A study done in 2008 found that Tama helped bring in annually 1.1 billion yen, or $1.44 million, to the local economy thanks to tourism.
In 2003, police in Stavropol, Russia, hired a cat named Rusik to sniff out sturgeon smugglers. Speaking of Russia, in the 1960s, America deployed the first cat ever used to spy on the Russians. It cost $20 million and was immediately hit by a taxi after leaving the CIA van. This cat had recording devices surgically implanted into it and made it like one minute into Russia.
In 1997, Ketzel the cat jumped on a piano and created a song. The cat’s owner transcribed that tune and submitted the piece to a Parisian music competition, where it won a prize. That’s awesome! Even cats are less tone-deaf than I am.
Then, of course, we have fictional cats like Hello Kitty, who was actually partially named after Alice’s cat, Kitty, from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” The creator added “Hello” later. Speaking of name origins, Tom from the Tom and Jerry cartoons was originally named Jasper.
Nyan Cat was created by 25-year-old Christopher Torres while he was participating in a donation drive for the Red Cross. One person suggested he draw a Pop-Tart, and another suggested that he draw a cat. He ended up creating the first hybrid Pop-Tart cat.
Some cats are actually allergic to humans; about one in every 200 cats is diagnosed with cat asthma, which is worse when they come into contact with humans. Some people are allergic to cats, of course, but I find that one in 200 people lie and say they have a cat allergy when in fact they just don’t like cats.
According to Psychology Today, “The brains of cats have an amazing surface folding and a structure that is about 90% similar to ours.” The cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that’s responsible for cognitive information processing, is actually more complex in cats than it is in dogs. Cats have some 300 million neurons, whereas dogs only have about 160 million.
Speaking of cat brains, felines also have their own form of Alzheimer’s disease. Like us, they can get fat; in fact, 55% of American cats are either overweight or obese. Cats also can’t taste sweet food, which makes me wonder how they are getting obese! Cats purr when they’re content, but they also purr when they’re giving birth, sick, nursing, or in a stressful situation. Oh, cats, can’t you be straightforward about any of your feelings? They’re astonishingly emotionally complex, or maybe they just dislike me—I can’t tell.
Actually, speaking of how complicated a creature the cat is, some cats prefer licking their paws to drinking out of a water bowl if they don’t like the shape of the bowl. Some also experience what’s called whisker stress; they may not like the pressure of their whiskers while they eat or drink. Cats spend between 30 and 50% of their days cleaning themselves, which means that even though your cat poops in the house, it’s still cleaner than most hipsters!
Hairballs, by the way, aren’t just for cats; cows and rabbits are especially prone to hairballs, but their bodies aren’t designed to vomit them up. Fascinatingly, it seems that cats who tumble from great heights have a much better chance of survival than those who fall from five stories or fewer. Obviously, don’t try this at home, but it may be because terminal velocity for a cat isn’t that high, and if it comes from really high up, it has more time to prepare for the fall.
Don’t try it at home! Finally, I return to my salon to tell you and also Lyla that the record for a cat surviving a fall is 43 stories. I think that’s taller than the tallest building in Indianapolis, so you should be fine!
Thanks to Geico for making this video possible, and thanks to you for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people. Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. This week’s question comes from Amanda Stewart, who asks, “Where is the hole in the ozone in relation to Earth’s land masses? Does it stay in the same place or does it move?” Well, Amanda, that’s a fascinating question that I feel unqualified to answer; after all, I am not a scientist, but we have one here in the studio today!
If you have a mind-blowing question, please leave it in the comments. We’ll endeavor to answer as many as we can. Thanks again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Cats – Small, domesticated carnivorous mammals that have been kept by humans as pets for thousands of years. – Ancient Egyptians revered cats and often depicted them in their art and mythology.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Learning about the history of ancient civilizations helps us understand how modern societies developed.
Science – The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. – Science has led to many important discoveries, such as the laws of motion and the structure of DNA.
Egypt – A country in northeastern Africa known for its ancient civilization and monumental architecture, such as the pyramids. – The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Space – The vast, seemingly infinite expanse that exists beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, where stars, planets, and other celestial bodies are found. – The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed scientists to explore distant galaxies.
Neurons – Specialized cells in the nervous system that transmit information through electrical and chemical signals. – Neurons in the brain communicate with each other to process information and control body functions.
Asthma – A chronic respiratory condition characterized by difficulty breathing due to inflamed airways. – Scientists are researching new treatments to help people with asthma manage their symptoms more effectively.
Domesticated – Animals that have been tamed and bred by humans for specific purposes, such as companionship or work. – Dogs were among the first animals to be domesticated by humans thousands of years ago.
Economy – The system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a society. – The economy of ancient Rome was based on agriculture, trade, and slave labor.
Tourism – The commercial organization and operation of vacations and visits to places of interest. – Tourism in Egypt is driven by its rich history and iconic landmarks like the Sphinx and the Nile River.
