Cats

• Statistics show that the cat population in the United States is an estimated 57 million, and dog population is an estimated 53 million.  Many of these cats and dogs are in shelters, waiting for homes.
• The cat gets more sleep than virtually any other animal, averaging about 16 hours of snoozing a day.  Much of that sleeping is in the form of short catnaps, short shallow periods of sleep that are relaxing to the cat, yet allow it to be fully alert at a moment's notice.
• Commonly, cats with white coats and blue eyes may be born deaf.  However, they are thought to make up for lack of hearing with their other senses.
• The cat's eyes do not see color.

Dogs

• Some authorities estimate that some dog's sense of smell is as high as 1 million times greater than ours.
• The common belief that dogs are color blind is false.  Dogs can see color but it is not as vivid a color scheme as we see.  It is much like our vision at twilight.
• All dogs, from the St. Bernard to the tiny Poodle, are direct descendants of wolves. They can all breed together and produce fertile offspring.  Technically they are of the same species.
• The belief that dogs chew grass to aid them in vomiting is probably false; dogs can very easily regurgitate.  In fact, after eating, wolves can travel significant distances back to their dens and regurgitate the food at will to feed their pups!