The real truth

IT’S been one of the great debates through the decades – whether dogs or cats are smarter.

Although dogs may have felt they’ve had the upper paw, the latest study suggests moggies can purr with the satisfaction of being the equal of their canine counterparts.

The Japanese University team’s experiment looked to see whether 50 cats could remember which bowls contained food under laboratory conditions. It’s a rare trait in animals and dogs have been among the few species to demonstrate what’s called episodic memory.

Now cats have passed the test.

We love our domestic buddies with a vengeance.

But what’s the REAL truth about cats and dogs?

There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with about 40 recognised breeds.

Cats make more than 100 different sounds whereas dogs make around 10.

A cat’s brain is 90% more similar to a human’s than to a dog’s. Cats and humans have nearly identical sections of the brain that control emotion.

A cat’s cerebral cortex (the part of the brain in charge of cognitive information processing) has 300 million neurons. That’s almost double a dog’s.

Cats have a longer-term memory than dogs, especially when they learn by actually doing rather than simply seeing.

Cats’ brains have 1,000 times more data storage than an iPad. A cat can jump up to six times its length. House cats can run at a speed of 30 miles per hour.

Cats sleep 70% of their lives. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life. Cats have free-floating bones that attach their shoulders to their TAYLOR SWIFT often posts social media pics with her two cats Dr Meredith Grey and Detective Olivia Benson.

Ed Sheeran is constantly kissing and cuddling pet cat Graham, who has his own Twitter account. Ricky Gervais has a beloved Siamese/Burmese named Ollie who often appears on his social media posts with funny captions.

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria adores cats, saying: “Cats are forelimbs, allowing them to squeeze through very small spaces.

Domesticated cats have been around since 3600 B.C., 2000 years before Egypt’s pharaohs.

The ability of a cat to find its way home is called “psi-travelling.” Experts think cats either use the angle of the sunlight to find their way or that cats have magnetised cells in their brains that act as compasses.

Cats use their whiskers to detect if they can fit through a space.

One study indicated that hungry cats ‘meow’ in the same frequency as a crying baby making it hard for humans to ignore.

Hearing is the strongest of cat’s senses: They can hear sounds as high as 64 kHz – compared with humans, who can hear only as high as 20 kHz.

Most female cats prefer using their right paw, while males are more likely to be “left-pawed”.

According to statistics, cat owners are healthier than those without cats. The risk of heart attack is cut by a third among people who have a pet cat. feminine, independent and playful, much like a woman.”

Katy Perry has a cat called Kitty Purry, one perfume called Meow! and another called Purr!.