5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2

5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 — page 7 — 15 BRAIN FREEZING A man in Italy once balanced 71 SCOOPS of ice cream on a SINGLE CONE You can buy EEL FLAVORED ice cream in Japan A microbiologist invented DIPPIN DOTS in 1988 by using liquid nitrogen to flash freeze ice cream In late 19th century England a HOKEY POKEY was an inexpensive ice cream sold by street vendors The actor who played RON WEASLEY in the HARRY POTTER films bought an ice cream truck with some of his earnings NEW ZEALANDERS eat more ice cream than ANY OTHER PEOPLE IN THE WORLD an average of 7 5 GALLONS 28 4 L PER PERSON PER YEAR It takes about a GALLON AND A HALF 5 7 L of milk to make A GALLON 3 8 L OF ICE CREAM BEN JERRY S sells a special combination lock for its ice cream containers that PREVENTS ANYONE WITHOUT THE CODE FROM SNEAKING A SPOONFUL The ICE CREAM CONE became popular after the 1904 ST LOUIS WORLD S FAIR in Missouri U S A where ice cream was served IN A THIN CONE SHAPED WAFFLE 8 5 000 AWESOME FACTS 2

5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 — page 8 — FACTS ABOUT ICE CREAM In TURKEY ice cream is made with GROUND ORCHID ROOT which makes the dessert STRETCHY The TOP SELLING FLAVOR of ice cream in the United States is VANILLA Since there were NO FREEZERS to make ice people in 16TH CENTURY Italy collected ICE from the MOUNTAINS to make ICE CREAM Astronauts aboard APOLLO 7 ate FREEZE DRIED ICE CREAM The first BANANA SPLIT WAS SOLD IN 1904 in Pennsylvania U S A for A DIME It was made of 3 scoops of ice cream on a split banana and topped with chocolate syrup marshmallow nuts and a cherry 15 SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM became popu lar in the 1930s after an ICE CREAM TRUCK BROKE DOWN and the dessert melted YOU HAVE LEARNED 16 FACTS 5 000 AWESOME FACTS 2 9

5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 — page 9 — All cats domestic and wild belong to the same family Felidae Clouded leopards are called tree tigers in Malaysia because they spend a lot of time in the trees Cats usually have 4 back toes and 5 front ones Cats with 6 or more toes are called polydactyls The Great Sphinx of Giza a famous ancient Egyptian sculpture has the body of a lion and the head of a human Endangered Scottish wildcats weigh about as much as 3 candy bars 4 5 ounces 128 g when they are born but can grow up to weigh as much as 450 candy bars Tommaso a black cat from Italy inherited about 13 million when his owner died 6 Cats were considered good luck to early sailors Some thought cats could predict bad storms Animal shelters use software that allows people to play with cats and other animals in the shel ters from their home computers 3 Abraham Lincoln was the first president to have a pet cat in the White House in Washington D C U S A A clouded leopard can have canine teeth that are 2 inches 5 cm long 6 SPRAYING PEE LEAVING PILES OF POOP AND SCRATCHING ON TREES ARE WAYS TIGERS SAY KEEP OUT THIS IS MY TERRITORY THE FEUD BETWEEN TOM THE CAT AND JERRY THE MOUSE IN THE TOM JERRY CARTOONS IS ONE OF THE LONGEST ONGOING RIVALRIES IN ALL OF AMERICAN ANIMATION Kittens as young as 3 weeks old are able to land on their feet even when falling upside down A cat's keen sense of balance flexible back bone and lack of a collarbone make this possible Cats rub against you to leave their scent and mark their territory Male lions in Tsavo Kenya don't have flowing manes Scientists think it's a hormone thing like men who become bald O Cats have about 30 muscles in their ears and can turn each one in a different direction 180 degrees in the wild lions live an average of 12 years They can live up to twice as long in captivity B A cat spends two thirds of each day sleeping It seems the idea of cat doors has been around for quite a while More than 600 years ago the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about one in The Miller's Tale Cats started living with humans about 12 000 years ago when people began storing grain Cats caught the mice that the grain attracted A cat named Towser was no slouch she caught nearly 29 000 mice at the Glenturret Distillery in Perthshire Scotland STEWIE A MAINE COON CAT HAS A TAIL THAT STRETCHES LONGER THAN THIS BOOK ABOUT 16 INCHES 41 CM Dr Seuss book The Cat in the Hat uses only 236 different words SMOKEY THE CAT HOLDS THE WORLD RECORD FOR THE LOUDEST PURR MADE BY A HOUSE CAT A RECORD ING OF HER PURR IS LOUDER THAN THE SOUND OF A VACUUM CLEANER 20 In Japan a small figurine of a cat with its paw up is called a maneki neko which means beckoning cat It is said to bring good luck Lions are the only cats that live in groups Smarty a pet cat set a record by flying 92 times with its owners as they traveled back and forth between Egypt and Cyprus The song Here Comes Santa Claws where cats meow the words won an award from Billboard Magazine in 1995 The mountain lion and the cheetah share a common ancestor 21 From the ground a mountain lion can jump as high as 18 feet 5 5 m into a tree Although the bobcat is rarely seen it is the most common wildcat in North America The soft part of a cat's nose has a unique pattern just like a human fingerprint Cats do not like prolonged eye contact so don't stare at their eyes They might think you are threaten ing them 9 Cats are intelligent They can be taught to jump through hoops walk on a high wire and even strum a guitar 9 Disaster a black and white cat that had been missing for 2 years was reunited with its owner thanks to a microchip in its ear and an alert zombie who works at a haunted house in New York City U S A 3 Like many other animals cats seem to be able to sense earth quakes before they happen Snow leopards live at elevations as high as 18 000 feet 5 500 m That's almost as high as North America's tallest peak Mount McKinley in Alaska U S A 3 A 4 year old cat that became lost while on a family vacation found its way home after traveling more than 200 miles 320 km from Daytona Beach to West Palm Beach Florida U S A SO Cats have claws for climbing but get stuck in trees because they don't think to back down after they climb up the tree 29 Ocelots clean all the feathers and fur off their food before they eat it Some mountain lions will eat porcupines including the quills The sand cat lives in the Sahara and doesn't need to drink water It lives off of the body liquids from prey that it catches at night 3 A cat's whiskers are the same width as its body to help it deter mine if it can fit through a tight opening In the first Tom and Jerry cartoon Tom's name was Jasper 51 In World War II a tuxedo cat named Simon was awarded a hero's medal for eating rodents and insects that might have dined on soldiers food in the South Pacific 12 A dog may be man's best friend but cats are the world's most popu lar pet More than 600 million live with people around the world 26 In one stride a cheetah can cover up to 26 feet 8 m That's as long as 9 skateboards Is your cat mysteriously putting on weight Maybe it's because some one else is feeding it Tiny cameras attached to the collars of free roam ing pet cats have revealed that some adopt other families that they visit during the day Lewis Carroll author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland may have gotten the idea for his grinning Cheshire cat from cheeses made near his hometown in Cheshire England that were molded into grinning cats 2 A cat's tail contains nearly 10 percent of all the bones in its body 13 Cats were sacred animals to ancient Egyptians A temple to the cat goddess Bastet in Alexandria contained some 600 cat statues 28 Jim Davis the creator of the cartoon cat Garfield modeled Garfield's behavior on the farm cats he grew up with and on some of his grandfather's personality traits Domestic kitten 105 000 AWESOME FACTS 2

5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 — page 10 — Fishing cats have webbed paws that help them swim and hunt in the water Models walk on a narrow stage called a catwalk The longest one in the world is in Belgium It takes 35 minutes to walk the whole thing 75 su-purr The first international cat video festival was held in Minnesota U S A in 2012 Lynx have back legs that are longer than their front legs FACTS Legend has it that the ghost of a black cat lives in the basement of the United States Capitol in Washington D C It appears only before a major disaster S ALL CATS HAVE TONGUES COVERED WITH TINY SPIKES TO HELP THEM COMB THEIR FUR OR IN THE CASE OF BIG CATS TO TEAR MEAT OFF THE BONE You can buy blingy collars argyle sweaters or even hoodies to outfit your kitty in style ABOUT CATS 6 Caracals can knock a bird out of the air by leaping 6 feet 1 8 m straight up In the famous photograph Dali Atomicus it took the photographer 28 tries to capture artist Salvador Dali 3 jumping cats and water tossed from a bucket in a way that makes every thing in the picture appear frozen in midair Passengers can fly on a Hello Kitty airplane owned by Eva Air based in Taiwan China Jaguars kill their prey by using their claws to pierce the animal's skull Other big cats suffocate their victim At the Calico Cat Café in Tokyo Japan you can enjoy a cup of tea as you pet one of the cats that hang out there 69 Cats purr at frequencies that can help heal their bodies and improve their bone density The Burmilla breed of cat came about by accident when a janitor left a door open and a Burmese and a chinchilla Persian cat mated 7 People come up with some clever names for their cats like Ozzy Pawsbourne and Cat Sajak After humans mountain lions have the largest range of any mam mal in the Western Hemisphere When running cheetahs take about 3 strides a second Olympic sprinters take just over 2 strides a second The Japanese island of Tashiro jima has more cats than people 3 Cat shows have been around off cially since 1871 The first one was held at London's Crystal Palace A CAT WALKING ON YOUR COMPUTER CAN DAMAGE FILES AND EVEN CRASH YOUR MACHINE NOW THERE S A PROGRAM THAT CAN SENSE CAT TYPING AND BLOCK THE INPUT 79 In 2010 visitors to Antarctica saw a strange site when an iceberg shaped like a cat floated past Elephant Island About 22 000 Americans come down with cat scratch fever every year but many cases go unreported because they are 50 mild The cause Bacteria that cats can pass to humans 5 Leopards are able to hear 5 times as many sounds as humans can hear YOU HAVE LEARNED 91 FACTS 5 000 AWESOME FACTS 2 11

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