Animals.html

Animals

Cats
Cats are never mentioned in the Bible.

Cat's urine glows under a black light.

Cats purr at 26 cycles per second, the same as an idling diesel engine.

The maximum running speed of a cat is 31 mph.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

Most cats are left-handed.

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

Toto was illustrated in the L. Frank Baum's first book as a Cairn terrier, though in the rest of the books he's described as a Boston terrier

The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

READERS DISAGREE!
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorfloge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + floge, fly; see fly2. WORD HISTORY: Is a butterfly named for the color of its excrement or because it was thought to steal butter? It is hard to imagine that anyone ever noticed the color of butterfly excrement or believed the insect capable of such theft. The first suggestion rests on the fact that an early Dutch name for the butterfly was boterschijte. The second is based on an old belief that the butterfly was really a larcenous witch in disguise.

My TURN
Butterfly or Flutterby? The debate continues. As it stands the insect falls into an entymologcal niche. That being words whose origin are obscure. Butterfly stands as the officially recognized word. Flutterby seems to be Old English Slang or even English Rhyming Slang. If this odd fact really gets your goat I challenge you to dig up the facts and join the discussion.

Revolving doors were invented to keep horses out of stores.

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

Dolphins kill more humans every year than sharks and the flu combined.

Humans and ant eaters are the only animals who can snap their fingers.

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

Starfish have no brains.

Polar bears are left-handed.

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (Maddog's note: The "Swimming with Dolphins" attraction in Florida had been closed because male dolphins were successfully having sex with female visitors!)

Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. A group of ferrets is called a Business.

"Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

All porcupines float in water.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

When opossums are playing 'possum', they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

Camel's milk does not curdle.

>A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.

Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

An ostrich has never been observed with its head stuck in the sand. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.