We're all familiar with the saying "letting the cat out of the bag," which means disclosing a secret. But what is the origin of this saying? Apparently, in days gone by, unscrupulous pig sellers would try to con prospective buyers by popping a cat into a bag containing piglets. The animated activity inside the bag was meant to convince the gullible buyer that the piglets were "alive and kicking." But if the prospective buyer insisted on inspecting the piglets, the wily seller had no choice but "to let the cat out of the bag"!

A cat once caught a sparrow and was about to eat it when the sparrow said; 'No gentleman eats until he has washed his face.' The cat was impressed and set down the sparrow so that he could wash, but the sparrow flew away. This annoyed the cat so much that he vowed, as long as he lived, he would eat first and wash afterwards

An 'ailurophile' is someone who loves cats. Famous ailurophiles include Albert Schweitzer, Mohammed and writers T.S.Eliot and Colette. An 'ailurophobe' is someone who fears or hates cats. Julius Caesar and Napoleon were ailurophobes. Think about what happened to them. Need we say more?

Christian folktale has it that while the baby Jesus lay restless in the manger and his mother fretted, a tabby kitten crawled up next to the baby and purred him to sleep. From that day on, tabbies have had the distinctive "M" on their foreheads as a reminder of the help they gave to Mary.

Cats don't really have nine lives, but they certainly do have a knack for survival. According to the Guinness Book of Pet Records, a 1-year old cat named Patricia survived a 205-foot drop into the Willamette River in Portland,Oregon, in 1981. Fortunately, her unintended high dive caught the attention of some concerned fishermen, who rescued her from the water. On dry land, the high fall record holder is Gros Minou, a 2-year old ginger-and-white tom from Quebec. This feline daredevil plummeted 200 feet from his owner's balcony and landed in a flower bed--suffering only a fractured pelvis. He was back on his feet within a week.

When chilled, cats usually seek out an external source of heat such as a fireplace. They may also curl up, tuck their paws, and cover their nose and mouth to reduce their exposed surface area, cutting down on body-heat loss.