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Cat

Explorer · ages 7 and underAdapted from Wikipedia
A ten-month-old female domestic cat walking in the snow, looking back over her shoulder.

What is a cat?

The cat is a small, domesticated mammal. It belongs to the Felidae family, which is a group of mammals that are also called cats. Cats are strong, quick, and very flexible.

Cats have sharp teeth and claws that can be pulled back in. They have very good night vision and a strong sense of smell. Cats can even hear sounds that are too high for people to hear.

Where cats live

Cats are one of the most popular pets in the world. Today, domestic cats live all around the world. Many of them live in Asia, and many more live in homes in the United States and the United Kingdom.

People love cats for their company. Cats also help keep mice and rats away from homes and ships.

Cats long ago

Scientists think that cats first began to live near people in the Near East. This was a very long time ago. Cats have changed very little since then.

In ancient Egypt, cats were honored. The goddess Bastet was often shown as a cat. In Japan, the maneki neko is a cat that is a symbol of good luck.

How cats talk and play

Cats talk to each other and to people in many ways. They use meowing and purring. They also use their ears, tails, and body language to show how they feel.

Cats love to play. Playing helps young cats learn how to catch things. Cats can be very loving friends to the people who care for them.

Quiz time!

3 questions about Cat

Question 1 of 3

What can cats hear that people cannot?

Pictures

A British Shorthair cat with orange eyes, photographed against a dark background.
Gustav, a chocolate-colored Abyssinian cat, sitting up and looking upward on a cat tree.
An orange and white tabby cat sitting on a pile of fallen autumn leaves.
An old printed illustration of the jungle cat (Felis chaus), a wild cat found in parts of Asia, drawn from the Iconographia Zoologica collection.
An 1845 scientific drawing of a wildcat, colored in to show how its body is built.
A cat eats a fish under a table, as painted in the ancient Egyptian tomb of Nakht.
The skull of a domestic cat, showing the bones of its head, including its sharp teeth and jaw.
A close-up view of a cat's claw, showing its sharp, curved shape.
A black and white domestic cat balancing on a branch high in a tree.
A mother cat nursing her four kittens, which drink milk from her body to grow strong.
A tabby cat with its third eyelid partly visible. Cats have this thin, see-through eyelid that helps keep their eyes clean and moist.
Skulls of a wildcat (top left), a housecat (top right), and a hybrid of the two (bottom centre), showing how the skull shapes of these related cats can be compared.
The Love Potion is a 1903 painting by Evelyn De Morgan depicting a witch with a black cat.
Diagram of the general anatomy of a male domestic cat
Two kittens lying side by side, an instinctive behavior that offers both comfort and protection
Cat tongue
A deermouse is the prey of this domestic cat.
A colourpoint domestic shorthair cat living among the yurts of shepherds in the Altai Mountains, Russia
Feral farm cat
A cat lying on a man's lap

Keep exploring

Domestication
Mammal
Felidae
Night vision
Pet
Near East

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Cat, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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