Cats never fail to fascinate human beings. They can be friendly and affectionate towards humans, but they lead mysterious lives of their own as well. They never become submissive in the way that dogs and horses do, and they seem to have a mysterious intelligence of their own.
Some cats are reputed to have remarkable powers of perception and are able to sense the approach of thunderstorms long before they break. This feline sensitivity to one of the principle forces of nature has been used to explain certain phenomena which otherwise remain inexplicable. For instance, a cat is said to instinctively know which room in a house contains its mistress without ever having entered it. In one instance which has been reported, a cat left his house, crossed several roads, climbed a fence, proceeded along the top of the fence, entered a neighbor's garden, and walked straight into their house to a room where the owner was sleeping, just in time to wake her up when a fire had just broken out. (There were some people who thought that this was all part of an elaborate plot!) There are also stories about cats who supposedly have the power to predict earthquakes. Japanese researchers have been able to make their own cats misbehave just by giving them a tiny electric shock: they have been trying to find out whether cats can really detect earthquakes early or whether it was a false alarm.
Most of us have seen cats rubbing their faces against the legs of the people they live with or curling up in their laps. They do this not only to be affectionate but also to mark out their territory. When cats are communicating with each other, they use a variety of different vocalizations as well as a whole range of body postures and facial expressions. They spit, hiss and growl when they are angry or frightened. They arch their backs and make their fur stand on end when they feel threatened. They purr when they are contented. The language of cats is still only partly understood by humans, but it is obvious that they have a complex system of communication.
Cats also have a very accurate sense of time. They know when it is time to get up, when it is time to go to bed, and when it is time to eat. They are also very good at finding their way home. Even if they are taken to a strange place many miles away, they are able to find their way back to their original home. This homing instinct, as it is called, is still not fully understood by scientists, but it is thought to be related to the cat's highly developed sense of smell and its ability to recognize certain landmarks.
Finally, cats are very good at taking care of themselves. They groom themselves constantly, licking their fur clean and removing any dirt or parasites. They also keep their claws sharp by scratching on suitable surfaces. This self - care is important for their survival, because cats are solitary animals and they have to be able to look after themselves in the wild.